January 13th - On This Date - Australian Navy History

1916

189 men of the RANBT, then encamped at Mudros on the island of Imbros, mutinied over lack of pay and refused to muster for work. They were placed under arrest and an enquiry was held. Three weeks later the men were released and the units second in command, LEUT T. A. Bond, DSO, RANR was removed due to his failure to ensure that the men had been adequately paid.

HMA Ships PARRAMATTA, and WARREGO (destroyers), joined the allied contraband patrols in the South China Sea. The destroyers operated out of Bangkok.

1917

The armed yacht and patrol vessel HMAS SLEUTH was commissioned. As the steam-yacht ENA she was built in Sydney in 1901. ENA was requisitioned for patrol service in January 1917.

1941

HMA Ships STUART and VAMPIRE (destroyers), intercepted the Italian supply schooner SAN DIEGO attempting to enter Tobruk under cover of darkness. The schooner was later sunk by VAMPIRE.

1943    

Fremantle-based USS SEARAVEN (submarine), sank the Japanese supply ship SHIRAHA MARU in the Philippines.

1969

CPO B. W. Wilson and AB R. H. Spicer of Clearance Diving Team 3, participated in an amphibious operation to destroy enemy positions on 5km of river bank in southern An Xuyen Province, Vietnam. The divers destroyed 65 bunkers, 13 huts, and a concrete revetment while under enemy sniper fire.

RAN Clearance Diving Team 1, under LEUT D. Ramsden, RAN, salvaged the patrol boat HMAS ARROW at Darwin. The patrol boat sank during Cyclone Tracy.

2005

HMAS KANIMBLA, (CMDR Steve Woodall, RAN), arrived at Banda Aceh, (Northern Sumatra), to provide support as part of Operation Sumatra Assist, following the devastation wreaked on the area by a Tsunami on 26 December 2004. Large portions of the coastal areas of Northern Sumatra, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and India were destroyed, and nearly 400,000 people killed, and millions made homeless. KANIMBLA carried Sea King helicopters which were used to support the distribution of food and water, and heavy engineering equipment for use by the Australian Army’s 1st Combat Engineer Regiment, (which flew to Aceh by RAAF C-130 aircraft). The Primary Casualty Receiving Facility onboard KANIMBLA was also used to treat many injured Indonesian civilians.