On This Day

On This Day - 3 September

1870

CDRE Frederick H. Stirling was appointed Commodore Commanding the Australia Station. His flagship was HMS CLIO.

1917

HMS VENDETTA, (destroyer), was launched at Fairfield's Yard, UK.

1933

The RAN naval depot in Brisbane, was commissioned as HMAS PENGUIN IV. It was re-commissioned as HMAS BRISBANE in 1940, before becoming HMAS MORETON in 1942. The base was decommissioned in 1994

1939

The 'Declaration of war on Germany' was issued. The Imperial war telegram was received in Canberra at 2150. It read; 'Total Germany, repeat, total Germany'. At 2115 in a radio broadcast, Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced; 'It is my melancholy duty to inform you officially, that in consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her and that as a result, Australia is also at war'. LCDR E.A. Feldt, RAN, was appointed Staff Officer, (Intelligence), at Port Moresby. Feldt directed the Coastwatcher organisation in Papua and New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, until relieved because of ill health in 1943. The strength of the RAN at the commencement of hostilities in WWII was: 2 heavy cruisers, HMA Ships AUSTRALIA and CANBERRA; 4 light cruisers, HMA Ships SYDNEY, HOBART, PERTH, and ADELAIDE; 5 destroyers, HMA Ships STUART, VAMPIRE, VOYAGER, VENDETTA, and WATERHEN; 2 sloops, HMA Ships SWAN and YARRA; 1 survey vessel, HMAS MORESBY; 2 armed merchant cruisers HMA Ships MANOORA and WESTRALIA. Three liners, MORETON BAY, ARAWA, and KANIMBLA, were converted into armed merchant cruisers and manned by Australians, but as units of the RN. Eight smaller vessels were requisitioned and equipped as minesweepers. The permanent naval forces totalled 5440 and the reserve naval forces totalled 4819 personnel.

1941

The auxiliary minesweeper HMAS MARRAWA, was commissioned. MARRAWA was laid down in Holland in 1910. She was requisitioned for the RAN, from her owners, Australian Steamships Pty Ltd, Melbourne, in 1941

1943

HMAS SHEPPARTON and ML 817, were straddled in a heavy attack by Japanese bombers at Morobe, New Guinea. Neither ship suffered casualties, but 50 holes were counted above the waterline on the port side of ML 817.

1944

The sloop HMAS SWAN, (LCDR R. J. R. Pennock), bombarded Japanese positions at Cape Sarme, New Guinea.

1968

HMAS ATTACK, (patrol boat), completed a two-month operation shadowing the Russian trawling vessel VAN GOGH, in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

1970

The following awards to personnel of HMAS VENDETTA, (Daring class destroyer), for service in Vietnam, were announced:- OBE CMDR E. E. Johnston, RAN; MID LCDR V. W. Jones, RAN; MID CPO Coxswain T. Collins.

1976

HMAS HOBART, (guided missile destroyer), arrived in Sydney, after completing the first circumnavigation of the world, (since a similar voyage in 1952), by a ship of the RAN. HOBART showed the Australian flag in 19 ports and 12 countries.

1989

VADM Sir John Collins, KBE, CB, RAN, (Retired), died in Sydney. His naval career stretched from 1913 to 1955, and he was the first RANC graduate to reach the position of Chief of Navy. He also served as the Australian High Commissioner to New Zealand, from 1956 to 1963. In 1988 he had been named in the Bicentennial List of 200 Great Australians.