Corvettes in the RAN in World War Two

Shortly before war began in 1939 the British government approved funding for admiralty plans for a new type of small escort vessel. Because these ships, essentially submarine chasers, were based on a civilian whaler design, it was proposed calling them 'whalers'.

But before the type entered service Prime Minister Winston Churchill expressed the view that this description was an "entire misnomer, as they are not going to catch whales".

As a result the term 'corvette' - referring to a warship smaller than a frigate from the days of sail - was revived and applied to this type. Designed to be relatively cheap and simple to build, orders for corvettes were placed in large numbers with shipyards in Canada, as well as Britain.

In Australia, orders were received for ten ships of a new kind of fleet minesweeper, the Bangor Class, to be built for the Royal Navy in Australian yards under the wartime shipbuilding programme. The first of these were laid down at Cockatoo Island in February 1940. In May, however, the War Cabinet decided to take over and man these for local purposes, particularly harbour defence. Slight modifications were made to the Admiralty design and the ships were designated 'Australian Minesweepers' or AMS vessels. These ships, very similar to the new little sub chasers, with their one 4-inch (10 cm) gun and antiaircraft guns and depth-charges, were soon dubbed corvettes and became widely known by this name.

The first AMS HMAS Bathurst, featured on one of the stamps, was launched in August 1940. This vessel gave its name to the class of Australian corvettes, although they also became known as 'Town Class' vessels from the fact that each ship was named for an Australian country town. By the time the last, Parkes, was completed in May 1944, 60 Bathurst Class minesweeper- corvettes had been built in eight different shipyards at Sydney, Melbourne, Newcastle, Brisbane, Whyalla (SA) and Maryborough (Qld). Twenty of the vessels were originally intended for the Royal Navy but were then commissioned and manned by RAN personnel, four went to the Royal Indian Navy and 36 went directly to the RAN.

Firing a depth-charge from HMAS Castlemaine.

Tough and adaptable, though not fast, the corvettes became the RAN's work horses or 'maids of all work'. As one naval authority put it, these vessels, "conceived as substitutes for trawlers, finished up in many respects as substitutes, If not for battleships, certainly for destroyers". Noted for their handling characteristic of rolling dramatically in rough weather - it was popularly said that they would "roll on wet grass" - they were not designed for crew comfort. Apart from their principal ocean mine-sweeping role, they served as convoy escorts and troop carriers (they were capable of carrying 300 troops in an emergency, 400 in a ship-to-shore role). As well, they were used on sea rescue, anti-submarine and coastal survey duties.

Each costing about one-third to half the cost of a destroyer, corvettes were about 57 metres in length with a beam of less than ten metres, and displaced between 660 and 965 tonnes. At first fitted with asdic devices for the underwater detection of submarines, they later carried radar, along with equipment for sweeping acoustic and magnetic mines as well as contact mines. Initially each ship's complement ranged from 62 to 80, but this later increased with the installation of radar and sound echoing gear.

Throughout 1941 corvettes were being launched in Australian shipyards at the rate of almost two a month, this pace continuing into 1942. In August 1941 no fewer than five vessels were launched, matched by a further four in the space of Just eight days in October. This effort ensured that when war came to the Pacific in December, there were more than 20 of this type in service with the RAN.

Four Australian corvettes - Burnie, Goulburn, Bendigo and Maryborough - were at Singapore when Japan struck, and Wollongong subsequently arrived there. In the days before the British base fell to the Japanese in February 1942, Bendigo and Wollongong were subjected to air raids two or three times daily. When the troop transport Empress of Asia was set on fire during an attack on 5 February, both vessels assisted HMAS Yarra and the Indian sloop Jumna in rescuing more than 1800 men from the flames.

Corvettes were often used to carry troops.

Here Ballarat transports infantry to Oro Bay before the assault on Buna, December 1942.

The same five corvettes, joined by Ballarat and Toowoomba, also played significant roles during operations in the Netherlands East Indies.

When the Allies were forced to evacuate Java in early March, Ballarat was the last vessel to leave, having remained to collect stragglers and other evacuees and to demolish port facilities.

After providing vital radio communications for the defenders, Burnie had embarked Commodore Collins, now commander of China Force, and his staff, for return to Australia. During this same period, corvettes had been making a major contribution to events in Australian waters. On 20 January two American destroyers located a Japanese mine-laying submarine, 1124, 80 kilometres west of Darwin and unsuccessfully attacked it with depth charges.

Three corvettes, Katoomba, Lithgow and Deloraine, were ordered to provide assistance. The last-named vessel, under Lieutenant- Commander D.A. Menlove, was first on the scene. As it approached, torpedoes were fired at it; due mainly to Menlove's quick response, these missed - one passing only three metres astern.

Making asdic contact with the enemy boat shortly after 1.30 p.m., Deloraine began dropping depth charges. The appearance of oil and air bubbles on the surface almost immediately revealed that these had scored a hit. The corvette pressed the attack, soon exhausting its supply of charges, but the necessary damage had been done. At 1.48 p.m. the submarine broke the surface, before plunging to the sea floor. The destruction of 1124 - the first Japanese vessel to fall victim to the RAN - was officially credited to all three corvettes and the USS Edsall. Menlove was decorated with the Distinguished Service Order for the action, and eight members of his crew also received awards.

When it was Darwin's turn to feel the weight of Japanese bombs on 19 February, several corvettes were present here too, including Townsville and Warrnambool. Katoomba was in the unenviable predicament of being in the floating dock undergoing repairs when the first air raid occurred, but the crew still fought back at the attacking Japanese planes with every weapon available: two Vickers machine guns, a single 12-pounder and .303 rifles.

HMAS Deloraine was also in the harbour, anchored alongside the merchant ship Neptuna while her boilers were being cleaned. Caught thus at a severe disadvantage like Katoomba, this vessel's engines and boilers were reassembled in near record time, enabling it to move out into the harbour where evasive action could be taken.

On the night of 31 May, when three Japanese midget submarines penetrated Sydney Harbour on a mission to destroy allied warships at their anchorages, the corvettes Whyalla and Geelong were berthed at Garden Island.

Also in the harbour was an Australian-built corvette of the Indian navy, Bombay, at Man-of-War anchorage.

The two Australian corvettes played a part in the following action, with Geelong opening fire at one of the enemy boats spotted near Bradley's Head soon after I I p.m.

Both ships then directed their searchlights on the area, attempting to pick up trace of the submarine's movements.

Deloraine's success against Japanese submarine 1124 on 20 Jan 1942 won Lieut-Commander D. A. Menlove the DSO.

Corvettes played a vital role during the effort to maintain the Australian commandos operating against the Japanese on Timor.

Regular naval runs were conducted from May 1942 carrying men and supplies, braving the gauntlet of enemy air attacks.

Inevitably, however, such operations were not without cost.

On 1 December, Armidale was on its wav to deliver fresh troops to the island when it was attacked by nine Japanese bombers and four fighters. Despite a gallant defence which claimed two of the attacking aircraft, the ship was struck by two torpedoes, and possibly a bomb, and turned over and sank within three or four minutes. The action was notable for the conduct of Ordinary Seaman E. Sheean, a loader for one of the ship's Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns. A shipmate recalled:

When the order 'abandon ship' was given, be made for the side, only to be bit twice by the bullets of an attacking Zero. None of us will ever know what made him do it, but be went back to his gun, strapped himself in, and brought down a Jap plane, still firing as he disappeared beneath the waves.

The gallantry of Sheean, just days away from his 19th birthday, was recognised with a mention-in-despatches.

Ordinary Seaman Sheehan (Dale Marsh).

Only a third of the 150 personnel on board the Armidale were rescued. Armidale thus became the first RAN corvette lost to enemy action, but two others were sunk through accidents. In June 1943 Wallaroo was involved in a collision with a civilian steamship off Fremantle, while Geelong went down after colliding with an American oil tanker in New Guinea waters in October 1944. Still others, of course, received damage as a result of encounters with enemy forces.


	Allied operations to push back Japanese advances in northern Papua, Colac, Broome and Ballarat carried troops from Milne Bay to Oro Bay in December 1942. They then joined another eleven corvettes in the sea transport effort to supply the allied build-up around Buna and Gona. The presence of so many ships in the Papua-New Guinea area duly provided tempting targets for the Japanese. In April 1943 large-scale air raids were mounted against shipping at Oro Bay, Milne Bay and Port Moresby. At Oro Bay on 11 April, Pirie was among the small ships attacked by 90 Japanese planes. In the first attack that day, Pirie shot down one of the raiding planes, but not before the naval rating manning the crow's nest lost a hand in the enemy strafing and also suffered severe head wounds.

Corvettes were not designed for crew comfort. HMAS Broome in heavy weather in the Coral Sea 1943.

In a second raid the ship was struck by a bomb which exploded behind the 4-inch (10 cm) gun on the upper deck, killing the gunnery officer and six of the gun crew, and injuring others.

Meanwhile, twelve Australian corvettes assigned to the British Eastern Fleet for convoy protection duty had seen service in the Persian Gulf during 1942. Some of these same vessels were formed into minesweeping flotillas during May 1943, and took part in the invasion of Sicily in July. Later, when the British Pacific Fleet was formed at Ceylon from November 1944, this force came to have an Australian component which included sixteen corvettes organised into two minesweeping flotillas. Thus, RAN corvettes remained active right up to the end of the war, with three of these ships being present during the formal surrender of Japan in Tokyo Bay in August 1945.

With the reductions in naval strength which followed the end of the war, many corvettes were placed in reserve or put up for disposal. Eight of the British vessels were sold to the Netherlands in 1946, four of which were later given to Indonesia, while another five were transferred to Turkey. Of the Australian ships, four were presented to the New Zealand navy; one, Bendigo, after several changes in ownership ended up in the navy of communist China. Another, Warrnambool, was lost in September 1947 when it struck a mine while clearing a defensive minefield laid off the Queensland coast, killing four crewmen and injuring 29 others.

Commemorating the service of these remarkable little ships, in October 1980 a stained-glass window was placed in the Dockyard Chapel at Garden Island in Sydney. Commissioned by the Ipswich Corvette Association with contributions from the towns which were the ships' namesakes, the window lists the 56 vessels which were manned by the RAN.

Designed by Sydney artist Phil Handel and installed by dockyard Joiners, it was dedicated in the presence of the Governor-General, Sir Zelman Cowan.