HMAS Australia (D84), launched in 1927,
was a
County class heavy
cruiser built for the
Royal
Australian Navy (RAN). The ship is believed to have been the
first ship damaged by a
kamikaze attack,
and to be tied with the
USS Laffey for
the ship hit the most times by kamikazes.
Construction
Australia was laid down by John Brown and
Company
of Clydebank
Scotland
on 26 August
1925. She was launched on 17 March 1927 and commissioned on
24 April 1928, two months before sister ship
HMAS Canberra.
Operational history
World War II
After
World War II began, "The Aussie" (as the ship was affectionately
known within the RAN), first fired her main armament of eight guns
in anger off the coast of Dakar
, in late
1940, when she took part in Operation
Menace. Australia damaged the
Vichy French destroyer
L'Audacieux, which as
a result was beached on 23–24 September.
Australia
received hits from shore batteries and her
Supermarine Seagull V
reconnaissance plane, detached from
No. 9
Squadron Royal Australian
Air Force, was shot down by Vichy French
Curtiss Hawks.
During 1941,
Australia escorted convoys and patrolled the
Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Following the onset of the
Pacific War,
Australia was re-deployed
to the
South West Pacific
Area as first part of the
ANZAC
Squadron then
Task Force 44. In
May 1942, during the
Battle of
the Coral Sea, the ship survived a brief but intense attack
from Japanese torpedo bombers.
From 26 August 1942 until mid-1944,
Australia joined Task Force
61, providing supporting fire and surface protection for Allied
land forces at land battles including the invasion of
Guadalcanal
and the New Guinea
campaign, including the Allied landings in New
Britain.
On 21
October 1944, in the lead-up to the Battle of Leyte Gulf
, Australia was hit by a Japanese plane
carrying a bomb, in the first-ever kamikaze
attack. The plane struck the superstructure, above the
bridge, spewing burning fuel and debris over a large area. However,
the bomb failed to explode; if it had, the ship might have been
effectively destroyed. At least 30 crew members died as a result of
the attack, including the commanding officer, Captain
Emile Dechaineux; among the wounded was
Commodore
John Collins, the
Australian force commander.
On 25
October, Australia was hit again and was forced to retire
to the New
Hebrides
for
repairs. The ship returned to combat in January 1945; by the
end of the war, she had survived being hit by kamikazes on six
separate occasions, which had resulted in the loss of 86 lives.
This was
Australia's last action, as she was still
undergoing repairs when the war ended.
1945-1956
Following the end of the war,
Australia served as a
training ship. She was paid off for disposal on 31 August 1954 and
sold for scrap to the British Iron and Steel Corporation (Salvage)
on 25 January 1955, left Sydney under tow on 26 March 1955, and was
broken up at the Thomas W.
Ward Shipbreaking Yard at Barrow-in-Furness
in 1956.
Gallery
Image:HMAS Australia h50121.jpg|HMAS
Australia, circa
1932–33
Image:HMAS Australia 8 inch.JPG|A barrel from
one of HMAS Australia's eight-inch guns, preserved in the
grounds of the Australian War Memorial
Image:HMAS Australia
g12107.jpg|
Australia, 1942
References
- Royal Australian Navy, "HMAS CANBERRA (I)" (official
history)
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