On This Day

On This Day - 13 July

1888

The South Australian Government came under bitter criticism for not despatching their gunboat PROTECTOR to sea, to search for survivors of the sailing ship STAR OD GREECE. PROTECTOR stood by in Port Adelaide with steam up, but the order to sail was not received.

1915

HMS MALLOW, (sloop), later HMAS MALLOW, was launched at Barclay Curie, England.

1940

HMAS AUSTRALIA, (cruiser), joined the 1st Cruiser Squadron at Scappa Flow, Scotland.

1942

HMAS PENGUIN, was commissioned as a naval depot at Balmoral, Sydney.

1943

HMAS AUSTRALIA, (cruiser), was the only Australian ship engaged in the second battle of Kolombangara, Solomon Islands. HMA Ships GERALDTON, CAIRNS, CESSNOCK, and WOLLONGONG, (minesweepers), patrolled off the beaches of Sicily, as the invasion forces fought ashore during Operation Husky. HMAS NIZAM, (destroyer), picked up a lifeboat containing 13 survivors from the torpedoed American merchant ship SEBASTIAN CERMENO, 300 miles from the position where the ship sank off Madagascar.

1944

Task Force, (TF), 74, including HMA Ships AUSTRALIA and SHROPSHIRE, (cruisers), ARUNTA and WARRAMUNGA, (destroyers), and US Ships AMMEN and BACHE, were ordered to furnish gun support to troops at Aitape, New Guinea. Lt. D. R. Wilson, RANVR was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for skill, courage and devotion to duty in a successful patrol in HM submarine UNTIRING.

1970

LEUT R. K. Marum, RAN, directed an attack by helicopter gunships on a Viet Cong unit near Tra Vinh, Vietnam. The gunships were led by SBLT J. R. J. Cooper, RAN, who was forced to make an emergency landing under fire during the attack. Cooper and his crew were picked up by another gunship.

2002

HMAS Manoora II arrived in the Port Phillip Bay after return from Persian Gulf

2004

HMAS BRISBANE, (former guided missile destroyer), was handed over to the Queensland Government in a ceremony at Fleet Base East, Garden Island, Sydney. The ship left Sydney Harbour, under tow, for the last time three days later. The Queensland Government plan was to sink the ship off the Sunshine Coast, (near Mudjimba Island), where she would become a dive wreck.