On This Day
1941 > WW2
On This Day - 1941
- February 4, 1941
Australian troop convoy US.9 departed Sydney with troopships AQUITANIA (44,786grt), MAURETANIA (35,739grt), NIEUW AMSTERDAM (36,287grt), QUEEN MARY (81,235grt) escorted by HMAS Hobart until 6/2/41
- February 3, 1941
The N class destroyer HMAS NESTOR, (CMDR G.S. Stewart, RAN), was commissioned at Fairfield Shipbuilding on the Clyde, Scotland. She was laid down in Fairfield’s in 1939, and launched on 9 July 1940.
HMAS NAPIER, (destroyer), escorted HMS KING GEORGE V, (battleship), from the Faroe Islands to Greenock, Scotland. The British Prime Minister, Mr Winston Churchill, was returning from a diplomatic visit to the USA in the battleship.
- January 31, 1941
The auxiliary minesweeper HMAS TERKA was commissioned. TERKA (ex- SIR DUDLEY DE CHAIR), was laid down in the State Dockyard, Newcastle, NSW, in 1925, for Dorman Long & Co, and renamed TERKA in 1928 under the Adelaide Steamship Co ownership. She was requisitioned in December 1940 by the RAN.
- January 24, 1941
The Bathurst class minesweeper, (corvette), HMAS LISMORE, (LCDR S. H. Crawford, RANR(S)), was commissioned. LISMORE, was paid off in 1946, and transferred to the Netherlands Navy. She was renamed BATAAN.
- January 23, 1941
HMAS NIZAM, (destroyer), sustained underwater damage in a collision with the wreck of HMS ROYAL OAK in Scapa Flow.
- January 21, 1941
HMA Ships STUART, VAMPIRE, and VOYAGER, (destroyers), took part in the assault on Tobruk, breaking through the outer defences at dawn.
The Australian Forces Club opened in Alexandria, Egypt. A sailor from HMAS STUART later wrote: “Within a few minutes of reaching the city we were sampling a glass of Australian beer. It was our first Australian liquor for 15 months, and it was thoroughly appreciated.”
- January 19, 1941
ADML A. B. Cunningham, RN, (C in C, Mediterranean), reported to the Admiralty that the Inshore Squadron had ferried 35000 Italian POWs to Alexandria in 10 days, as well as supplying 5 tons of stores daily to the advancing Army in Libya. The Inshore Squadron was commanded by CAPT H. M. L. Waller, RAN, and had the “Scrap-Iron Flotilla”, HMA Ships, STUART, VAMPIRE, VENDETTA, VOYAGER, and WATERHEN, (destroyers), operating with it.
- January 18, 1941
The Australian armed merchant cruiser, ARAWA sighted searchlight beams and gun flashes from the German raider KORMORAN in the South Atlantic. The raider escaped before ARAWA could close her.
- January 16, 1941
HMAS PERTH, (cruiser), suffered damage during an air raid while berthed at Malta. An enemy bomb landed between her and the merchant ship ESSEX, causing underwater and internal damage to PERTH. ESSEX was hit by other bombs and set on fire. Personnel from PERTH were involved in the efforts to extinguish the fire onboard ESSEX.
- January 15, 1941
The British Prime Minister, Mr Winston Churchill, Mrs Churchill, Lord and Lady Halifax, and American Special Envoy Harry Hopkins, embarked in HMAS NAPIER for passage from Thurso to Scapa Flow.