1 0 Indian Ocean—Mediterranean Interlud E
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CHAPTER 1 0 INDIAN OCEAN—MEDITERRANEAN INTERLUD E N November 1940 the R.A.N. had lost its first ship in the war when I the auxiliary minesweeper Goorangai was sunk in collision with a merchant ship in Port Phillip Bay. In June 1943 the navy lost its fifteenth ship in the war when the corvette Wallarool sank off Fremantle after a collision with a merchant ship . On 10th June Wallaroo (Lieutenant Ross, ' R.A.N.R.) sailed from Fremantle escorting two American merchant ships , John G. Whittier (7,176 tons), and Henry Gilbert Costin (7,200 tons) . Her instructions from Commodore Pope, the N .O .I.C. Fremantle, were to lead the convoy in column at 102 knots, in order Wallaroo (giving anti- submarine protection), John G. Whittier, Henry Gilbert Costin, four cables apart, until moonset about midnight that night . The convoy was then to disperse to the respective ocean routes of the ships, and Wallaroo was to return to port. When the dispersal point was reached—about 60 miles west of Fremantle—at midnight on the 10th, there was a moderate westerl y wind and moderate to rough sea, the moon had gone and the sky wa s overcast, with visibility about one mile . The three ships were darkened, steaming in column as pre-arranged, on course W . + N. Ross, Wallaroo's C.O., decided that weather conditions made further escorting unnecessary . He altered course to starboard to N.E. by E E, and while turning signalle d to John G. Whittier by lamp, to disperse . Wallaroo passed John G. Whittier, and then she and Henry Gilbert Costin each sighted the other on the star- board and port bows respectively, and the corvette passed the dispersa l signal to the merchant ship. As the ships approached each other, each commanding officer realise d that a collision was imminent and took avoiding action . But it was too late, and Henry Gilbert Costin struck the corvette on the starboard side, mortally wounding her . Two ratings were killed in the collision, and one fell overboard and was lost.' Wallaroo's C .O. was badly injured in the collision and the First Lieutenant, Lieutenant Hull, 4 took command. After an attempt to steam astern before the sea proved impracticable, Hull turned the ship with her engines and lay hove to, stern to sea . From 4 a.m. the weather worsened, and about 7 a .m. on the 11th, after two heavy seas had flooded the upper deck through the hole resulting from the collision , Wallaroo capsized to starboard, turned over, and sank . All the survivors of her company got clear. Meanwhile Henry Gilbert Costin, unaware of the HMAS Wallaroo, corvette (1942), 650 tons, one 4-in gun, 152 kts. Sunk off Fremantle, 1 1 Jun 1943 . 2 Lt-Cdr E. S . Ross ; RANR . HMAS Burnie ; comd HMAS Wallaroo 1942-43 . Of Wellington, NZ ; b . Palmerston North, NZ, 24 Feb 1909 . S Killed in the collision were AB D . L. B . Cowen, H1875 and Motor Mechanic G . W . Garratty, 2551 ; AB J . J. Clarke, PM2278 was lost overboard . , Lt-Cdr H . J . Hull, VRD ; RANK . HMAS ' s Kybra, Wallaroo, Cowra, Broome ; comd HMAS Cootamundra 1944-46 . Reader ; of Hawthorn, Vic ; b . Kew, Vic, 23 Apr 1911 . Feb-lun 1943 STRENGTH OF R .A .N . 295 extent of damage to Wallaroo, returned to Fremantle where Pope had learned by signals of Wallaroo's plight before her sinking, and had saile d H.M.A.S. Dubbo5 (Lieutenant Weber°) to her aid, and also arranged wit h Fleet Air Wing 10 for an air search . A Catalina aircraft sighted the survivors in the water, spread over an area of about 10 miles, and the y were picked up by Dubbo during the forenoon of the 11th without an y more casualties . At 30th June 1943 the total combat strength of the R .A.N. (excluding auxiliary minesweepers and other ships engaged on purely home-defence duties) was 83 ships, variously disposed and consisting of three cruisers , 10 destroyers, three sloops, 48 corvettes, 16 Fairmile motor launches, and the three L.S.I's. In the north-eastern area, north of Brisbane, wer e Australia, Hobart, Arunta and Warramunga, comprising Task Force 74 and patrolling in the Coral Sea ; the destroyers Stuart and Vendetta and 15 corvettes .' In the north-western area were corvettes Castlemaine and Inverell, and in the south-western Dubbo and Horsham . 8 The sloops Swan and Moresby were in the eastern and southern area on escort work, wher e similarly engaged, were 12 corvettes . 9 Six destroyers' were with the Eastern Fleet (two of them, Nepal and Quiberon, spent some weeks in April and May refitting in Australia) as were 13 corvettes. 2 The 16 Fairmile moto r launches were variously disposed and employed. In dock refitting, or undergoing trials, were the cruiser Adelaide (in Williamstown dockyard) , the sloop Warrego, and corvettes Ararat, Cootamundra, Gladstone, 3 and Whyalla, the first named of which was newly commissioned, on 16th June . II The Australian destroyers and corvettes operating on Australia's wester n flank were deployed and employed as events dictated and circumstances demanded. These affected dispositions and activities in both the India n Ocean and the Mediterranean . In the first half of the year, Germa n U-boats renewed their activities off the Cape, and gradually extended thei r operations northwards to the Gulf of Aden and Gulf of Oman to intercep t Red Sea and Persian Gulf traffic . Later in the year German submarine s moved to the Far East, and operated from Penang, which the Japanes e made available to them as a base. During the period February-April the "Sea-Dog" pack of four U-boats—U 160, U 506, U 509 and U 182— which left Lorient at the turn of the year, operated in South African s HMAS Dubbo, corvette (1942), 650 tons, one 4-in gun, 151 kts . s Lt N . G . Weber, RANK . Comd HMAS 's Dubbo 1942-44, Cairns 1944-45 . Ship's officer ; o f Sydney ; b . Sydney, 8 Mar 1907 . 7 Benalla, Bowen, Bunbury, Colac, Fremantle, Geelong, Goulburn, Gym pie, Kapunda, Katoomba , Latrobe, Lithgow, Pirie, Shepparton, Wagga. 8 HMAS ' s Inverell and Horsham, corvettes (1942), 650 tons, one 4-in gun, 151 kts . 0 Ballarat, Bendigo, Broome, Bundaberg, Deloraine, Echuca, Glenelg, Kalgoorlie, Mildura, Rock- hampton, Townsville, Warrnambool . 'Napier, Nepal, Nizam, Norman, Quiberon, Quickmatch. 2 Bathurst, Burnie, Cairns, Cessnock, Gawler, Geraldton, Ipswich, Launceston, Lismore, Mary - borough, Tamworth, Toowoomba, Wollongong . 3 HMAS's Ararat and Gladstone, corvettes (1943), 650 tons, one 4-in gun, 151 kts. 296 INDIAN OCEAN—MEDITERRANEAN INTERLUDE Feb-Aug waters. In their operational cruise they (plus two other submarines i n the area at the time) sank 23 ships totalling 147,604 tons . U 182 was los t with all hands. Two other U-boats operated in the area at this time, the Italian Leonardo da Vinci,' and the German U 180. Leonardo da Vinci was sunk with no survivors when approaching Bordeaux on 23rd May . U 180 left Germany on 9th February, carrying material of value to th e Japanese, and the Indian Nationalist Chandra Bose and his assistant . On 23rd April she met the Japanese submarine 129 to the south of Mada- gascar, with a cargo for Germany including two tons of gold . Cargoes were exchanged, and U 180's two passengers were transferred to 129 (the y were later landed in southern India to foment trouble there) and th e submarines returned to their respective bases . The German reached Bordeaux safely on 3rd July . She sank two ships totalling 13,298 tons o n the round voyage . This initial contact between Germany and Japan by operational and transport submarines was later extended . The six Australian destroyers were in the western Indian Ocean, wit h occasional breaks for refitting, throughout most of the first half of th e year, and divided their time between screening duties with the Easter n Fleet, then based on Kilindini, and convoy escorting and anti-submarine patrols. During February Nizam (Commander Brooks), Norman and Nepal were with the fleet-covering convoy "Pamphlet" on that stage of its voyage to Australia ; and in March Quickmatch was in company with a former Australian ship, H.M.S. Albatross, when she escorted her from Durban to Madagascar . That month the U-boats operating in South Africa n waters had their best success in a not very fruitful period when they san k four ships in a convoy . Total U-boat successes in the area during Februar y and March were 16 ships of 97,498 tons . In April six more German U-boats of the large "cruiser" class were on their way to southern waters, where they arrived late that month and in early May to operate along the offshore shipping routes from Walvis Bay in West Africa to Lourenc o Marques and the Mozambique Channel in the east. To help in coping with this campaign a number of Eastern Fleet destroyers was temporaril y detached to the South Atlantic Station, including Nizam and Norman. The U-boats in this area during April and May sank 14 ships of 86,151 tons . (Quiberon and Nepal sailed from Geraldton, Western Australia, on 1st June to rejoin the Eastern Fleet after refitting . ) June, July and August were months of heavy shipping losses in th e Indian Ocean . June's losses to U-boats of 12 ships of 67,929 tons increase d in July to 16 ships of 89,580 tons, and made this month's Indian Ocean losses the heaviest in any theatre .