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RAN in Pacific |
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Apart from the action in the Coral Sea and general sea control through escort duties, the main action involving RAN ships in the Pacific came at Guadalcanal or Savo Island on 9 August 1942 and at Leyte Gulf in 1944. The action at Savo Island came about after the Americans had successfully landed at Guadalcanal and a Japanese naval fleet of seven cruisers and a destroyer were sent from Rabaul in response after a foiled air raid on 7 August. An Australian coastwatcher, Lt. Paul Mason, had spotted the planes flying over Bougainville and radioed a warning to Guadalcanal. Allied ships including HMAS Australia and Canberra came under intense attack over a 36 hour period until the Japanese ships that were subsequently sent arrived opposite the Allied ships guarding the invasion force at 1.45am on 9 August. In a matter of 38 minutes they inflicted America's worst naval defeat. Three American cruisers were sunk and the Chicago badly damaged. HMAS Canberra was silhouetted by flares and made an easy target along with the Chicago. Both ships came under a heavy fire and were operating at markedly reduced levels of readiness as the Japanese ships had sneaked through the perimeter of Allied picket ships undetected. The Canberra, in fact, did not fire a shot. The Canberra's commander was mortally wounded and his ship was disabled and had to be sunk the next day making it the third Australian cruiser lost in the war. Eighty-four of its crew were killed or died of wounds. Bruce Loxton, a survivor of the Canberra, argues in his book that the Canberra was disabled not by Japanese bombs and torpedoes but by a torpedo fired from the American destroyer, Bagley. The Canberra's sister ship, the Australia, was spared the same fate as she was on patrol at the time of the Japanese attack. She went on to support allied landings in the northern New Guinea campaign. In 1944 she supported, as part of the Australian squadron under the command of Commodore J. Collins RAN, the landing at Leyte Gulf in the Philippines on 21 October. Here the Australia came under attack by kamikaze aircraft. One plane struck the foremast and bridge area. The ship's captain, E. F. V. Dechaineux, was killed as well as 29 others and Commodore Collins was badly wounded. The Australia sailed home for repairs but on return to the war zone was struck by four kamikaze planes in the Lingayen Gulf, Philippines, in January 1945. Forty-four men died as a result of these attacks and the Australia was forced home for further repairs. Like the Australia, HMAS Hobart was not present at the Battle of Savo Island as she was operating on the northeast side of the fleet when it was attacked. Later that month she acted as an escort for the carrier USS Saratoga. In July 1943 she was torpedoed off the Solomons. Thirteen men were killed and the ship extensively damaged. After being towed back to Australia for repairs she returned to active duty supporting the Australian landings in Borneo. Australian ships also served with the British Pacific Fleet which was attached to the American Fifth Fleet and designated Task Force 57 and committed to Operation ICEBERG, the seizure of Okinawa. Two RAN destroyers, Quickmatch and Quiberon, joined the fleet and later the Napier, Nepal, Nizam and Norman were also attached. Measured in simple terms of losses and victories the RAN in the Pacific could not claim to have had a glorious war. They sunk only one submarine and shared a claim for two others, figures dwarfed by the 400 enemy vessels sunk by the United States' Navy. Maritime warfare however, is not decided in such terms but on the basis of the strategic value afforded by navies in their control of the seas. In this more fundamental sense, the RAN made a valuable contribution to victory in the Pacific War. |
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