On This Day

1941 > WW2

April 8, 1941

HMAS PARRAMATTA, (sloop), towed the damaged cruiser HMS CAPETOWN to the port of Massawa. The cruiser had been attacked and torpedoed by Italian destroyers in the Red Sea.

April 6, 1941

The Seagull amphibian from HMAS AUSTRALIA, (cruiser), crashed and sank when taking off in Cook Strait. HMAS HOBART, (cruiser), was in company with AUSTRALIA, and landed its Seagull aircraft on the water and was able to rescue the observer and air-gunner, but the pilot went down with the aircraft.

HMAS COOMBAR was commissioned as an auxiliary minesweeper.

Boats from HMAS PERTH, (cruiser), were involved in the rescue of survivors of ships sunk in Piraeus Harbour, (Greece), by a devastating German air attack. The port facilities were destroyed during the raid. Over 200 of PERTH’s crew were ashore at the time of the raid, but she suffered no casualties.

HMAS VENDETTA, (destroyer), survived a submarine attack while on passage from Sollum to Tobruk. The torpedo passed VENDETTA’S bows, ‘with several metres to spare’.

April 5, 1941

The trading schooner GERARD was commissioned into the RAN as an auxiliary patrol vessel.

April 3, 1941

HMAS PARRAMATTA, (sloop), passed a flotilla of Italian destroyers at night while escorting a convoy off Port Sudan. No sighting report was made by either side.

April 2, 1941

HMAS VOYAGER, (destroyer), sank the heavily damaged cargo ships HOMEFIELD, and COLOUROUS XENOX, after savage German air attacks in the central Mediterranean.

April 1, 1941

Three sailors from HMAS HOBART, (cruiser), who were captured after volunteering to man a shore-based gun in August 1940, were released from prisoner-of-war camp in Eritria, East Africa. They were PO H. Jones, AB H. C. Sweeney, and AB W. J. Hurren.

March 31, 1941

The Italian submarine DAGABUR sank the cruiser HMS BONAVENTURE which was escorting convoy GA 8. 310 survivors were picked up by HMAS Stuart and HMS Hereward. HMAS Stuart heavily depth charged the Italian submarine but she managed to escape

March 30, 1941

The Mediterranean Fleet returned to a vociferous welcome from ships at Alexandria after the Battle of Matapan. HMA Ships PERTH, STUART, and VENDETTA were detached after the battle to escort convoys to Greece.

March 29, 1941

The destroyer HMAS STUART, (CAPT H.M.L. Waller, RAN), fired her last shots, in the Battle of Matapan, at the Italian destroyer VITTORIO ALFERI. The Italian Navy lost three cruisers and two destroyers in this battle.

HMAS SOUTHERN CROSS, (yacht), was commissioned as an auxiliary patrol vessel.

March 28, 1941

The Battle of Matapan commenced. HMA Ships PERTH, STUART, and VENDETTA participated in the battle which destroyed Italian naval supremacy in the Mediterranean. VENDETTA was the first Australian ship to come under fire in the battle.

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.

February 23, 1941

HMAS CANBERRA, (cruiser), passed within 100 miles of the German pocket battleship ADMIRAL SCHEER, while on patrol in the Indian Ocean.

February 22, 1941

HMA Ships STUART and VAMPIRE, (destroyers), joined the 1st Battle Squadron screen for an operational sweep towards Rhodes.

February 19, 1941

HMAS STUART was damaged by the near miss of a German bomb off Benghazi

February 16, 1941

The German raider supply ship, OLE JACOB, was sighted by an Australian Sunderland flying boat in the Coral Sea. The sighting report was intercepted by the raider ORION, whose captain believed the aircraft was calling in HMAS STUART. Both enemy vessels escaped into the Indian Ocean.

February 14, 1941

HMS SHROPSHIRE, (cruiser), later HMAS SHROPSHIRE, carried out a point-blank bombardment of enemy troop positions at Kismayu, Italian Somaliland.