On This Day
1941 > WW2
On This Day - 1941
- March 26, 1941
The Australian trawler MILLIMUMU sank after striking a German mine on the south coast of NSW.
HMAS TOOWOOMBA, (minesweeper), was launched at Walker’s Yard, QLD. The vessel was transferred in 1946 to the Netherlands Navy, and renamed BOEROE.
- March 21, 1941
LEUT C. G. Hill, RANR, of HMAS WARERHEN, boarded the bombed and burning Danish tanker MARIE MAERSK, after the vessel had been abandoned by her crew north of Crete. Hill directed a party of sailors from the destroyer in extinguishing the fires and steamed the tanker to Suda Bay, despite the presence of enemy aircraft. LEUT Hill was awarded the OBE for outstanding courage and leadership.
- March 19, 1941
HMAS PARRAMATTA, (sloop), blockaded the Perim area to intercept enemy shipping attempting to escape from the ports of Massawa and Assab.
- March 7, 1941
HM Ships ORION and AJAX and HMAS PERTH, comprising convoy AG.3, departed Alexandria with 1900 troops for Piraeus arriving on 8/3/41
- March 6, 1941
HMAS STUART, (destroyer), was attacked seven times by German bombers while on passage to Piraeus. In the last attack she was near-missed by a large bomb. CAPT H. Waller wrote: “The last aircraft seemed to be out for my blood and nursed his second bomb until I remained on a steady course. The bombs being so large, however, they could be followed all the way down and the requisite alteration could be made”.
- March 4, 1941
HMAS CANBERRA intercepted the German raider supply ship COBURG and a captured tanker, KETTY BROVIG east of Italian Somaliland. These two ships were support vessels for three German raiders then active in the Indian Ocean. CANBERRA opened fire on COBURG, and her crew then scuttled the ship, then she launched her Seagull aircraft which intercepted the KETTY BROVIG and dropped bombs close by her to make her stop, but the ships crew began to scuttle the ship. The Seagull aircraft landed close to the KETTY BROVIG, and her observer, (LEUT C.V.S. Malleson, RN), swam across to the ship to try and prevent the ship’s crew from scuttling her, but he was too late. He retrieved some of the ships papers before being taken off the ship. Despite attempts to salvage the vessels, they were both at the point of sinking, and were dispatched by gunfire from CANBERRA.
- March 1, 1941
HMAS BENDIGO, (minesweeper), was launched at Cockatoo Island, Sydney.
- February 28, 1941
The Bathurst class minesweeper, (corvette) HMAS GOULBURN, (LCDR B. Paul, RANR), was commissioned. GOULBURN was laid down in Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney, on 10 July 1940, and launched on 19 November 1940. Mrs. Crace, (Wife of RADM J. G. Crace, RN ), performed the launching ceremony.
- February 26, 1941
HMAS Platypus (previously HMAS Penguin) recommissioned to resume seagoing service as a training ship.
The depot ship and accommodation vessel HMAS KUTTABUL, was commissioned. KUTTABUL was laid down in Walsh Island Yard, Newcastle, NSW, in 1922, as a passenger ferry. She was requisitioned for the RAN on 7 November 1940.- February 24, 1941
The Admiralty informed the Australian Government that “in the event of war in the Far East in the near future no major redistribution of forces is intended other than to send one battle-cruiser, one aircraft carrier, and one cruiser, from Gibraltar to the Indian Ocean, and return those Dominion cruisers now serving with Imperial forces to their Dominions”.
HMAS PERTH, and HMS BONAVENTURE, (cruisers), landed a force of commandos on Castellorizo Island in the Dodacanese. The landing coincided with the landing of a stronger enemy force. HMS JAGUAR, (destroyer), staged a covering diversion with a torpedo attack on enemy shipping in the island’s harbour.