Only 64 of the 332 crew on board survived.
On the Australian hospital ship AHS Centaur was sunk by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Queensland. The most significant of these actions was in March 1943 when RAAF crews were involved in the destruction of a Japanese convoy heading for Lae through the Bismarck Sea. The war at sea also involved air forces, with Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) squadrons participating in anti-submarine patrols and attacks on shipping. Although the RAN lost other vessels of various classes during the next three years of the war, and some were badly damaged, the months of 1942 were 'the RAN's black months'. The depot ship HMAS Kuttabul was sunk in Sydney Harbour during the Japanese midget submarine attack on 31 May-1 June and the destroyer HMAS Nestor was lost in the Mediterranean in June 1942. None of Sydney's crew of 645 survived.ĭuring 1942, the RAN's involvement in operations against the Japanese in Malaya, Java, Timor, the Bay of Bengal and the Solomon Islands resulted in the loss of HMA Ships Perth, Yarra, Vampire, Canberra, Voyager and Armidale. Just a week earlier, on 19 November 1941, and much closer to home, HMAS Sydney had been attacked and sunk off the West Australian coast by the German raider Kormoran. However there were only 23 survivors from the crew of 160 officers and men in HMAS Parramatta when it was sunk off Tobruk on 27 November 1941. On 30 June 1941, HMAS Waterhen was crippled by air attacks and sunk, but with no loss of crew. Two RAN ships were lost during the 'Tobruk Ferry' supply runs in 1941. Several hundred Australian naval personnel also served on British and Allied warships and some on merchant ships as gunners. During World War II, Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ships carried troops, escorted merchant ships, carried out bombardments and provided support for Allied operations in the Mediterranean, the North Sea and the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
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