Category Archives: Australia

Big Navy Anniversaries This Year

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Besides the U.S. Navy’s recent 250th anniversary last October, two allied fleets are celebrating big milestones this year.

The French Navy is marking its 400th anniversary, dating officially back to an order by the Cardinal Richelieu, chief minister to King Louis XIII, establishing the first true French Royal Navy (la Marine Royale, later the Armée de Mer and today’s Marine Nationale) through the Edict of October 1626.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, the Royal Australian Navy is marking its 125th anniversary in March, commemorating a July 1911 grant from King George V to rename Australia’s nascent Commonwealth Naval Forces.

Up to 20 visiting ships from all over the world are expected to pass through Sydney Heads and into the harbor on the morning of Saturday, 21 March 2026, for an International Fleet Review to ring in the 125th.

They will be led into Sydney by the RAN flagship, HMAS Canberra.

Plus, RIMPAC is 30 this year.

Where has the time gone?

The official logo of the Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2026. RIMPAC is a biennial exercise designed to foster and sustain cooperative relationships, critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region. The exercise, which takes place in the waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands, is a unique training platform designed to enhance interoperability and strategic maritime partnerships. (U.S. Navy graphic by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class L

Getting Some Sun with the Boys

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Some 85 years ago today. 6th Australian Division, Cyrenaica, Libya. 29 December 1940. Official wartime caption: “Near Bardia, one of the BREN gun posts is placed to protect the artillery batteries from dive bombers. Left to Right: Gunners N.H. McLeod and Whalen, Bombardier Greenwood.” Note the Boys .55 caliber anti-tank/anti-material gun and its distinctive “donut” style muzzle break.

Negative by James Francis (Frank) Hurley, Australian War Memorial No. 004944

Formed in September 1939 from the 16th (New South Wales), 17th (Victoria), and 18th Australian Infantry Brigades, the 6th Australian Infantry Division Brigade sailed for the I Australian Corps in the Middle East via brigade-sized lifts between 20 January and 8 May 1940 with the last (the 18th Bde) diverted to England at the time of Dunkirk. The carved-out brigade was replaced by the newly formed 19th Bde, raised in Palestine from the 2/4th, 2/8th, and 2/11th Battalions, in November 1940. (The 18th, having spent six months on defensive duties in England, finally reached North Africa in January 1941, where it was attached to the Australian 7th Division).
 
The 6th Australian Division entered combat at Fort Maddalena and Garn el Grein on 11 and 12 December 1940 and would see lots of action during Operation Compass in and around Tobruk, where the division lost 214 men killed, 790 injured and 21 captured– traded for a part in capturing 65,000 Italians by 5 February 1941. 
 

Members of C Company (mostly from 14 Platoon), Australian 2/11th Infantry Battalion, part of the 6th Division’s 19th Bde, having penetrated the outer defenses of Tobruk, assemble again on the escarpment on the south side of the harbor after attacking anti-aircraft gun positions, on 22 January 1941. San Giorgio is one of the plumes in the background. Burning fuel oil tanks at the port are the second. AWM

Rushed to Greece in March 1941, the 6th Division suffered more than 2,800 casualties– most of those taken prisoner– in the withdrawal from Greece. Used to capture Syria from the Vichy French, post-Pearl Harbor/Darwin, the 6th was pulled from Syrian garrison duty and rushed home where they soon were allowed to bask in the “joy” of the Kokoda trail and the New Guinea campaign. 
 
Disbanded in early 1946, during its six-year war, over 40,000 Australians served in the division’s ranks, fighting across three continents from Libya to Greece to Syria and New Guinea. Of these, 1,763 were killed in action or died, a further 3,978 were wounded and a total of 5,153 men became prisoners of war. 

So long, Armidales

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Australia this week said goodbye to the last of 14 aluminum-hulled Armidale-class patrol boats, with the last three active members (HMAS Bathurst, Albany, and Childers) sailing into Darwin’s HMAS Coonawarra for the last time.

HMA Ships Bathurst, Albany, and Childers sail into Darwin harbour for the final time.

HMA Ships Bathurst, Albany, and Childers sail into Darwin harbour for the final time.

They began entering service in 2005, but due to almost constant deployments via 21 rotating crews, and taskings that took them as far as Timor, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Christmas Island, as well as on joint counter-terrorism patrols in the Sulu Sea with the Philippine Navy, they are ready for retirement.

Decent ships at some 186 feet in length, they had a 300-ton displacement and a reliable MTU diesel powerplant, which gave them long legs and a 42-day endurance. Armed with a 25mm Mk38 in a Typhoon remote mount and two .50 cals, they carried a 21-member crew– small for a 186-foot PC– as well as two 24-foot RIBs.

However, aluminum is not known for extended durability in high sea states often encountered in the region, and besides hull cracking, they are just worn out.

HMAS Childers prepares to come alongside HMAS Coonawarra in Darwin. Photo: Petty Officer Leo Baumgartner

HMAS Coonawarra has joined former Armidale Class Patrol Boats crew members to welcome the last of the ACPBs, HMA Ships Albany, Bathurst, and Childers, as the ships conducted a final group entry into HMAS Coonawarra

They were also the stars (and set) of Seasons 2-5 of the excellent Ozzie maritime LE drama, Sea Patrol, which aired from 2008 to 2011 and is widely available to watch for free online.

They are being replaced by a half-dozen larger (262 foot/1,600-ton) Arafura-class offshore patrol vessels, which have the same armament but an aviation deck and better seakeeping abilities.

Navy’s second Offshore Patrol Vessel NUSHIP Eyre arrives at Fleet Base West to begin her transition to the operational release phase. *** Local Caption *** NUSHIP Eyre berthed alongside Fleet Base West for the first time on Friday, 3 October 2025. Her arrival marks the beginning of the transitions to Operational release – a proud moment for the crew, who have proven themselves responsive and adaptive throughout the dynamic lead-up to this milestone.

These are augmented by a dozen 189-foot/400-ton Cape and Evolved Cape class PBs, built by Austal.

109 years on: bottle mail set for delivery

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This interesting piece out of Australia.

Beachcombers along Wharton Beach, southeast of Perth, came across an old bottle. Sealed, it contained two yellowed and deteriorating pencil-written letters.

Carefully retrieved, they were addressed from “somewhere at sea” and detailed an outward-bound leg on the troopship HMAT Ballarat, which departed Adelaide in August 1916, bound for the Great War in Europe.

It turned out they belonged to ANZAC privates Malcolm Alexander Neville (48th Australian Infantry Battalion) and William Kirk Harley (4th Australian Light Horse).

Sadly, Neville would be killed months later in France and remains there with a white cross over his grave. Harley survived and returned home, but passed having never seen his letter again.

The families have been found and are finally set to receive their long-lost sea mail.

The beachcombers are keeping the bottle, though.

Australia Goes $1.12B Hard in the Remote Minisub Paint

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Palmer Luckey’s California-based Anduril Industries has developed its Ghost Shark XLAUV (Extra-Large Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) autonomous submarine from rough draft to finished product in three years.

Scalable, it can be anywhere from 20 feet to 98 feet oal with the sweet spot being the 39-ish foot variant, with a square cross-section that can carry and deploy “dozens” of Copperhead-100 class UUVs (or Copperhead-100M loitering munitions) and “multiple” Copperhead-500 class UUVs (or Copperhead-500M loitering munitions), also developed by Anduril.

The Australian government spent A$140M on the program in 2022, and Anduril has invested another $60M in a “sophisticated, robotic XL-AUV manufacturing facility in Australia, where employees are at work to produce entirely sovereign autonomous maritime platforms.”

Now, the Australian MoD has announced an A$1.7B (US$1.12B) Program of Record to deliver a fleet of Ghost Sharks, with production already underway. The five-year contract will support around 120 existing jobs and create more than 150 new jobs at Anduril Australia.

As noted by the company:

The reason for the magnitude of risk-taking in this enterprise is clear: the Ghost Shark’s entry into full-rate production marks the start of a new era of seapower through maritime autonomy. For years, Australia has faced the persistent and threatening presence of Chinese naval assets in its home waters. Ghost Shark is the instantiation of a Program of Record for AUVs that can directly address this challenge through coastal defense patrols and area-wide domain awareness powered by artificial intelligence at scale. Success in this effort would be a landmark opportunity to demonstrate the potential of autonomous seapower to address clear and urgent national security problems.

Ghost Shark can fit inside a 40-foot shipping container, which in turn can fly out on a C-17 or similar. The RAAF flew a prototype to Hawaii for last year’s RIMPAC.

The following is from Anduril on how the Copperhead/Ghost Shark combo can draw a “line in the sea,” so to speak.

Sea denial, 21st Century style.

Two ways to bite the frigate apple

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In June 2021, the Navy announced that Naval Station Everett would be the future home of the first 12 of 20 Constellation-class frigates. The new ships, a variant of the proven Franco-Italian FREMM multipurpose frigate, which has almost two dozen hulls in the water, teased a rapid build-up as they were more or less “off the shelf.”

Except that the Navy wanted to change almost everything on the design.

200430-N-NO101-150 WASHINGTON (April 30, 2020) An artist rendering of the guided-missile frigate FFG(X). The new small surface combatant will have multi-mission capability to conduct air warfare, anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare, electronic warfare, and information operations. (U.S. Navy graphic/Released)

Four years later, and the late and over-budget first frigate of the class, the future USS Constellation (FFG-62), is only 10 percent complete— while the design is yet to be finalized by Big Navy and approved!

It is thought that she will only be delivered in 2029 if no other problems arise.

As Fincantieri Marinette Marine, the builder of the FFG-62s, is also the same yard that had massive issues with the Freedom-class littoral combat ships, which are still trying to get right 20 years into that program, the prospects for 2029 do not seem bright.

Meanwhile, the Royal Australian Navy this week announced it has gone for 10 new upgraded Mogami-class frigates from Mitsubishi in Japan.

The proposed RAN Mogami

The proposed RAN Mogami

The proposed RAN Mogami

The ships will carry the same 32-cell VLS and 16 anti-ship missiles as Constellation, and will have a phased array radar and helicopter/UAV facilities as well as an ASW capability. The Mogamis will only have a 10-cell SeaRam, rather than the 21-cell RAM of Constellation.

With longer legs than the 6,000nm ranged Connies, the RAN Mogamis will be able to steam 10,000nm. They also have a much more capable gun, a full 5″/62 Mk 45, rather than the 57mm Bofors of the Connies. Plus, they will have a set of ASW tubes, which Connie will not.

As the agreement could see steel cut as early as 2026, and MHI has a track record of building Mogamis in less than three years per hull, it is feasible that the Aussies could see their first new Japanese-built frigate in 2029.

How about that?

Olga and the Gang’s Borneo Vacation

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Balikpapan Operation: “Olga,” a Royal Australian Air Force No 4. Squadron Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation Boomerang interceptor, serial A46-121 coded QE-N, is shown parked on Sepinggang Airstrip, Netherlands East Indies. 25 July 1945. Only three weeks prior, the strip had been under Japanese control– and the Australians had already been flying from the site for two of them!

U.S. Air Force Number 63247AC, NARA 342-FH-3A31731-63247AC

A second shot of Olga is in the Australian War Memorial

The Boomerang behind “Olga” appears to have a stylized traditional Aboriginal boomerang piece of nose art painted on the left side of the fuselage. In the background is another CAC Boomerang and a CAC Wirraway aircraft, coded ‘QE-U’, the serial number is obscured. (Donor: Museums and Art Galleries of the N.T., AWM P00630.007)

Located along the Vasay highway about 12 miles northeast of the strategically important Balikpapan Refinery, Sepinggang was originally constructed by the Dutch for the protection of the fields. Occupied by the Japanese in February 1942, by 3 July 1945 the strip was under new management for the third time in as many years after being almost completely destroyed by USAAF B-24s dropping 500 and 1000 lb. bombs over the first half of 1945.

Allied engineers were quick to make improvements, with the easiest fix being building a new strip across the road.

As detailed by the Australian Naval Institute:

The squadrons of No 61 Airfield Construction Wing RAAF were landed on 6 July, two days behind schedule, although they commenced work immediately. They managed to repair the damage at Sepinggang, with its 3,000-foot runway, and it became fully operational on 15 July, eight days later than originally planned.

August 1945. “Construction of Sepinggang fighter strip across the road from Sepinggang strip. Heavy equipment was used in the leveling area and hauling was sent to fill low spots. Note the typical Japanese pillbox in the center of the photo. This pillbox was uncovered and was being removed by blasting.” (U.S. Air Force Number 63290AC)

Besides the Boomerangs, Spitfire Mk.VIIIs of the RAAF’s No. 452 Squadron and P-40N Kittyhawk Mk.VIs of No. 80 Squadron moved into the strip, flying CAP and CAS missions until VJ Day and then transitioning to conducting pacification operations through the end of the year.

Balikpapan, Borneo. 15 July 1945. First RAAF fighter aircraft at Sepinggang airstrip prepare for action. Technicians were at work preparing these spitfire aircraft, code GY-G, GY-E, of No. 452 Squadron RAAF to meet Japanese raiders a few minutes after the aircraft had landed. AWM OG3042

Balikpapan, Borneo Spitfire Mk.VIIIs of No 452 Squadron, Sepinggang, NARA

The last RAAF airman killed in offensive operations in WWII was 22-year-old 80 Squadron Flight Sergeant Eldred “Ted’ Quinn” shot down by Japanese ground fire on 9 August over enemy positions at Sanga Sanga, Borneo.

The Allied, followed by the Dutch, eventually left and in 1960 handed Sepinggang over to the Indonesians. Today the field is the Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Sepinggan Airport.

Last flight of JA853

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This haunting polyptych, courtesy of the Australian War Memorial, depicts the final moments of RAF 7 Squadron Pathfinder Force Avro Lancaster JA853 MG-L, bound for Berlin, but instead was downed over Holland by night fighter pilot Oberleutnant Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer in a Messerschmitt Bf 110 G-4 (G9+DZ) of 12./NJG 1. JA853 took all seven of her crew with her.

As described by the AWM:

A memorial dedicated to five Australian and two British airmen was unveiled at Follega, in the Netherlands, last weekend. The seven men were amongst more than 55,000 lives lost in Bomber Command during the Second World War and were tragically shot down in Avro Lancaster JA853 MG-L in December 1943.

The establishment of this memorial, more than six years in the making, was an initiative undertaken by Diana Bentley, the niece of pilot Wallace Watson RAAF, and Melvin Chambers, who works to preserve the memory of Australian Dambuster pilot, Les Knight, DSO.

JA853 is also featured in a short film that depicts the incident in which these young men were killed, which was enabled through communication between Memorial staff and 7 Squadron (PFF) RAF Association in the UK.

These four still images from the short film sequence, which will soon be displayed in the Bomber Command gallery of Anzac Hall, accurately portray the event in which top German night-fighter ace, Heinz Schnaufer, shot down the Australian-British flown Lancaster bomber, using vertically firing ‘jazz music’ cannons.

Six of the seven crew members of Lancaster JA853 MG-L had previously flown the Memorial’s own ‘G for George’ when they were serving with 460 Squadron (RAAF). For their skill, they were chosen to join the elite Pathfinders with 7 Squadron RAF, marking targets for the main Bomber Command force.

While Schnaufer survived the war, with the record of the most successful night fighter pilot in the history of air warfare with 121 victories, the RAAF captured his plane in 1945, and one of its rear stabilizers hangs in the AWM.

Echoes of OBOE 2 at 80

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This week marks the 80th Anniversary of the landing at Balikpapan, Borneo. The “Ploesti of the Pacific” was finally being liberated after weeks of systematic attack by the “Jungle Air Force” of the “Fighting” 13th AAF’s bombers and fighters operating out of New Guinea and the Solomons.

As we have covered in the past, it was the peak of the U.S. Navy’s WWII UDT operations.

Official period caption: “On July 1, 1945, Americans and Australians island-hopped right into the center of the rich, Japanese-held oil fields of Balikpapan, Borneo. Units of the Navy’s Seventh Fleet paved the way for the Australian landing. In the bombardment that preceded the landings at Balikpapan, Seventh Fleet units fired over 10,000 rockets. LCI(B) 338 opens up in the first of two rocket runs made by these craft on the beach. Rockets have proven to be very effective “persuaders” in the Navy’s amphibious landings. National Archives Identifier 153724649

Underwater demolition swimmer, SF1c John Regan gets a drink and smoke after setting charges off Balikpapan, circa early July 1945. Note his sheath knife 80-G-274698

Underwater demolition swimmer, SF1c John Regan gets a drink and smoke after setting charges off Balikpapan, circa early July 1945. Note his sheath knife 80-G-274698

Going further, Operation OBOE 2 comprised the Australian 7th Division, composed of the 18th, 21st, and 25th Infantry Brigades and the 1st Armoured Regiment AIF (RNSWL) ‘A’ and B’ Sqns, complete with their 50 or so Matilda II tanks.

Barring Gallipoli, this was the largest amphibious landing in Australia’s history.

USCG-manned USS LST 66 headed for a hot beach at Balikpapan. Note the oil tanks ashore. Commissioned on 12 April 1943, LST-66 was on her 12th series of landings after hitting the beach with Marines and soldiers at Cape Gloucester, Saidor, Hollandia, Toem-Wakde-Sarmi, Biak, Noemfoor, Cape Sansapor, Morotai, Leyte, Lingayen, and Mindanao, earning eight battle stars. NARA 26-G-4741

Australian landing craft reach the beach at Balikpapan to launch the invasion of Borneo’s greatest oil refining district. Beach installations and anti-aircraft positions inland still smoke from a pre-invasion pounding by bombers and fighters of the (U.S. Air Force Number 58861AC)

Original caption: This is the Balikpapan Invasion scene snapped by Coast Guard Combat Photographer James L. Lonergan as his own picture was taken by a fellow Coast Guard Photographer, Gerald C. Anker, from an adjoining LCVP. Note the identical posters in each photo of the Aussie wading ashore, the group behind the tractor, and the Coast Guardsmen bending over the bow of the vessel. A few moments later both photographers narrowly escaped death from Jap snipers when they sought a vantage point from which to “shoot” the entire invasion beach. NARA 26-G-4721

Patrols of 29 Bn, 18th Brigade (Australian) move cautiously into the village area of Penadjam, Balikpapan, Borneo, under sniper fire. 5 July, 1945. SC 374826 Photographer: Lt. Novak. U.S. National Archives. Digitized by Signal Corps Archive.

The 25-ton Matilda II carried a 40 mm QF 2-pounder main gun, a hull-mounted GPMG, and, while slow at 15 mph on its twin Leylan engines, may have been dead meat on a European battlefield in 1945 but was aces in the Pacific.

Balikpapan, Borneo, 30 July 1945. Matilda tanks of A squadron, 1st Armoured Regiment AIF (RNSWL), being overhauled in the unit’s open-air workshop. AWM 112525

Australian 1st Armoured Regt AIF (RNSW Lancers) Matilda II in action at Balikpapan, July 1945, shown clearing a former Japanese-held Royal Dutch Shell oil refinery complex.

Oil Refinery Balikpapan OBOE 2 Australian Matilda tank ‘B Sqn 1st Armoured Regiment AWM 110916

One of the Balikpapan Matildas, “Ace,” is preserved at the NSW Lancers Memorial Museum in Parramatta.

The Museum will be holding a display on Sunday, 6th July, in Lancer Barracks to commemorate the Balikpapan anniversary. All are welcome. If you are in the area…

Aitape Triple Canopy

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80 years ago this week: 26-year-old Australian Army Private Rosslyn Frederick Gaudry (Service Number: NX94822) of 2/3rd Infantry Battalion, 16th Brigade, 6th Division “watches his sector with his Owen submachine gun in a forward observation pit at Kalimboa Village” in Aitape, Wewak, New Guinea, 26 April 1945.

Australian War Memorial AWM 091259

Raised for WWII at Victoria Barracks, Sydney on 24 October 1939, 2/3 Aust. Inf. Battalion A.I.F. sailed from Sydney just 11 weeks later for North Africa and disembarked in Egypt on 14 February 1940. Fighting first against the Italians in Libya in early 1941, they were sent to the fiasco in Greece then evacuated to Palestine where they fought the French in July 1941 then remained here until March 1942 as a garrison force. Returned to Australia, they were soon fighting along the Kokoda Trail and would remain in and around the green hell of New Guinea until the end of the war. The battalion left 207 of its men on the Roll of Honour, earned boxes of decorations (4 DSO; 16 MC; 12 DCM; 30 MM; 2 BEM; 73 MID), and 16 battle honours stretching from Tobruk to Mount Olympus to Damascus and Kokoda.

As for the very haggard Pte. Gaudry shown above, he was born in Gulgong, New South Wales in 1918 the son of George Henry Gaudry and Maude Gaudry (nee: Lyons). He enlisted in the Australian Army on 10 April 1942 in Paddington, Kandos, NSW and served in 2/3 Bn across New Guinea from the Owen Stanley Mountain Range along the Kokoda Track to the Aitape-Wewak Campaign.

Discharged from service on 4 October 1946, he returned to NSW and became a salesman. Married to Joan May Gloede in 1953, Gaudry passed at age 61 on New Year’s Eve 1979 in Homebush, Australia.

He is buried in the New South Wales Garden of Remembrance in Rookwood.

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