On This Day

1942 > WW2

January 10, 1942

HMAS Canberra departed Sydney with convoy MS.2 (troopship AQUITANIA) for Ratai Bay in the Sunda Straits, arriving on the 20th

January 8, 1942

The Bathurst class minesweeper, (corvette), HMAS WHYALLA, was commissioned at Whyalla, SA. Lady Barclay-Harvey, (wife of the Governor of South Australia, Sir Malcolm Barclay-Harvey), performed the launching ceremony. WHYALLA was laid down on 27 July 1940 in the Broken Hill Pty shipyard at Whyalla, and launched on 12 May 1941. She was to be called Glenelg, but that was changed to WHYALLA before completion.

The following gallantry awards were announced for HMAS PARRAMATTA, (sloop);
DSC Surgeon LEUT C.F. Harrington, RANR: DSC Commissioned Gunner A.J. Brown: DSM CPO Stoker W.O. Earl: DSM CPO Writer E. Purtell: DSM Yeoman of Signals W.J. Allsop: DSM Acting LS H.F. Bates: MID LEUT G.W. Langford: MID PO Steward J. Lewis: MID Leading Steward R.J. Brampton: MID Leading Writer S.E. Whear: MID AB C. Goldie: MID Stoker 2nd class H.C. Fox.

Unfortunately in the bitter irony of war only CPO Earl and Leading Writer Whear lived to be presented with their awards as the rest of the men were killed when HMAS PARRAMATTA was sunk off Tobruk in November 1941.

January 7, 1942

HMAS HOBART, (cruiser), joined the ABDA Fleet at Batavia. The cruiser was returning to Australia after service in the Mediterranean when she was diverted to the Far East.

January 6, 1942

The Bathurst class minesweeper, (corvette), HMAS COLAC, (LCDR D. C. Northern, RANR(S)), was commissioned at Sydney. Miss M. Heady Sr, (staff of Morts Dock), performed the launching ceremony. COLAC was laid down on 18 April 1941 in Morts’s Dock, Sydney, and launched on 30 August 1941.

January 5, 1942

CMDR S. H. K. Spurgeon, DSO, RAN, assumed command of HMAS STUART, (destroyer), at Williamstown, VIC. He commanded HMS ECHO in 1940, and took part in the Norwegian Campaign, He was the first RAN officer to receive a gallantry award in WWII, being admitted to the DSO in December 1939.

January 4, 1942

Coastwatcher SBLT C. L. Page, RANVR, reported 22 Japanese heavy bombers passing over Tabar Island bound for Rabaul.

January 3, 1942

HMAS HOBART, (cruiser), arrived in Singapore with a convoy under escort, and was subjected to Japanese air attack at the naval base.

A signal from the Dutch destroyer HMNS ISAAC SWEERS to HMA Ships NAPIER, NESTOR, and NIZAM, (destroyers), on their departure from the Mediterranean: “Goodbye and a dinkum bonzer time with good hunting”.

January 2, 1942

HMA Ships AUSTRALIA, CANBERRA, and PERTH, (cruisers), with HMS ACHILLES escorted the first large troop reinforcement convoy to Port Moresby.