Royal Australian Navy in the Pacific and Indian Ocean

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Royal Australian Navy.



There was Axis naval activity in Australian waters throughout the war. In November 1941, the HMAS Sydney was sunk with the loss of all hands (645 officers and men) after a battle with the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran, off the coast of Western Australia.
Following the Japanese attacks in December 1941 the RAN redeployed its larger ships to home waters to protect the Australian mainland from Japanese attack. At the Battle of Sunda Strait, in March 1942, the RAN suffered the loss of another Leander class vessel, HMAS Perth.
The RAN took part in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, where HMAS Australia survived a brief but intense attack from Japanese torpedo bombers. The battle averted a Japanese attack on Port Moresby. HMAS Hobart also participated in the battle and would latter participate in the amphibious assaults on the Philippines and Borneo. She was in Tokyo for the Japanese surrender in 1945.
The most significant Japanese naval attacks in Australian waters occurred in May and June 1942, when Japanese submarines attacked Sydney and Newcastle. Three Japanese midget submarines were launched but only one actually attacked allied shipping in Sydney harbour, sinking the depot ship HMAS Kuttabul and damaging a Dutch submarine. On June 8, a Japanese submarine surfaced about 10 km (6 miles) off Sydney. For a four minute period, the submarine's deck gun was fired at the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Every shot landed well short of its target, all but one of the shells failed to explode and there were no fatalities or serious injuries. The RAN's biggest single ship loss of the war was the sinking of the heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra at the Battle of Savo Island in August 1942.
In the Battle of the Bismarck Sea in 1943, Bristol Beaufighters of No. 30 Squadron RAAF proved to be highly effective ground attack and maritime strike aircraft, inflicting heavy loses on Japanese troop convoys, along with other RAAF squadrons. The battle was a combined operation with the United States Army Air Force and resulted in the sinking of 12 Japanese transporters and destroyers and hampered the Japanese forces in New Guinea.
At the Battle of Leyte Gulf, in October 1944, HMAS Australia became the first Allied ship to be hit by a kamikaze. The ship survived that and several other suicide attacks, although many crew members were killed. Overall, more than 30 Australian warships were lost in the war, the costliest in RAN history.