HMA Ship Histories
HMAS AE2
Statistics
| Type | E Class Submarine |
|---|---|
| Displacement | 660 tons (surfaced), 800 tons (submerged) |
| Length | 181 feet |
| Beam | 22 feet 6 inches |
| Draught | 12 feet 6 inches |
| Builder | Vickers Ltd, Barrow-in-Furness, England |
| Laid Down | 10 February 1912 |
| Launched | 18 June 1913 |
| Machinery | 2 sets of 8 cylinder diesel engines, battery driven electric motors |
| Horsepower | 1,750 (surfaced), 550 (submerged) |
| Speed | 15 knots (surfaced), 10 knots (submerged) |
| Armament | 4 x 18-inch torpedo tubes |
| Complement | 35 |
HMAS AE2 commissioned at Portsmouth, England, on 28 February 1914 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Henry H.G.D. Stoker RN.
Accompanied by her sister ship HMAS AE1, the other of the Royal Australian Navy's first two submarines, AE1 reached Sydney from England on 24 May 1914, manned by Royal Navy officers with a mixed crew of sailors drawn from the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy.
On the outbreak of World War I, AE2 joined the naval forces assigned to the capture of the German Pacific colonies. With AE1, which was lost on 14 September 1914, she took part in the operations leading to the occupation of German New Guinea, including the surrender of Rabaul on 13 September 1914 and the general surrender of the New Guinea territories on 22 September 1914.
On 4 October 1914 she proceeded to Suva as a unit of Admiral Patey's force (HMA Ships AUSTRALIA, SYDNEY, ENCOUNTER, WARREGO and AE2, and HMS MONTCALM) under orders to counter any threat from the German cruisers SCHARNHORST and GNEISENAU, which had attacked the French Society Islands on 22 September.
Following three uneventful weeks based at Fiji, AE2's service in the Pacific came to an end when he detached from Patey's squadron at Suva on 8 November. On 16 November the submarine returned to Sydney.
On 19 December 1914 AE2 departed Sydney en route for Albany in Western Australia, where she joined the 2nd Convoy of AIF troops assembling in King George's Sound. The convoy of 17 transports sailed on 31 December for Suez. There were no escorting warships. BERRIMA led the convoy with AE2 in tow. On 28 January 1915 the convoy reached Suez following an uneventful passage across the Indian Ocean.
Arriving in the Mediterranean, AE2 was attached to the British squadron engaged in the Gallipoli campaign. Prior to Anzac Day, 25 April 1915, her part in the operations had been uneventful, but on that day Admiral de Robeck, Commander-in-Chief Eastern Mediterranean Fleet, ordered her to attempt a passage through the Dardanelles into the Sea of Marmara and there endeavour to block enemy traffic between the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. All previous attempts by submarines to pass through the Straits had failed. Obstructions natural and artificial appeared and had thwarted the most determined attempts. In his report Lieutenant Commander Stoker commented:
'Having proceeded from the anchorage off Tenedos, I lay at the entrance off the Dardanelles until moonset and about 2:30 am on 25th April entered the Straits at 8 knots. Weather calm and clear. As the order to run amok in the Narrows precluded all possibility of passing through unseen, I decided to travel on the surface as far as possible.'
Searchlights continually swept the Strait but AE2 continued unmolested until 4:30 am when batteries opened fire from the northern shore. The submarine dived and began her passage through the minefield. Wires continually scraped her sides for the next half hour. Twice she surfaced in the minefield for observation. At 6:00 am she was within two miles of the Narrows submerged to periscope depth. The sea was flat calm. Forts on both sides of the Narrows sighted her and immediately opened heavy fire. Stoker watching through his periscope observed a number of ships and decided to attack a small cruiser of the PEIK-E-SHETHEK type. His report continued:
'At a range of three to four hundred yards I fired the bow torpedo, ordering 70 yards to avoid a destroyer which was attempting to ram on the port side. As the vessel dived the destroyer passed overhead close, and the torpedo was heard to hit.'
After a brief interval underwater Stoker decided to take a look around.
'As the vessel was rising, she hit bottom and slid up on to the bank to a depth of ten feet, at which depth a considerable portion of the conning tower was above water. Through the periscope I saw that the position was immediately under Fort Anatoli Medjidieh.'
The fort opened fire and for some minutes shells fell on all sides until, efforts to refloat her succeeding, AE2 slid into the safety of deep water. The relief on board the submarine proved brief and it was not long before AE2 was again stranded.
'Through the periscope I judged the position to be immediately under Serina Burnu, and I further observed two destroyers, a gunboat, and several small craft standing close off in the Straits firing heavily and a cluster of small boats which I judged to be picking up survivors of the cruiser.'
'As my vessel was lying with inclination down by the bows I went full speed ahead. Shortly afterwards she began to move down the bank, bumped, gathered way and then bumped very heavily. She, however, continued to descend and at 80 feet I dived off the bank. The last bump was calculated to considerably injure the vessel, but as I considered my chief duty was to prove the passage through the Straits possible, I decided to continue.'
Shortly afterwards AE2 again rose to periscope depth. She was seen to be approaching Nagara Point. On all sides she was surrounded by pursuit craft. Every time she showed her periscope the destroyers tried to ram her and every time she eluded them. At last in an attempt to shake the enemy off Stoker decided to lie on the bottom on the Asiatic shore to await developments.
All day, 25 April, AE2 lay in 80 feet of water while the searching enemy ships passed and repassed overhead. Once she was hit by a heavy object being trailed along the bottom. At 9:00 pm she rose to the surface to charge batteries. All signs of shipping had vanished.
At 4:00 pm on 26 April, AE2 proceeded on the surface up the Straits. Stoker commented:
'As soon as light permitted, I observed through periscope, two ships approaching - both men-o-war. Sea was glassy calm and I approached with periscope down. On hoisting periscope I observed ship on line of sight of port tube. I immediately fired but ship altered course and the torpedo missed. I discovered I had fired at the leading ship and found it impossible to bring another tube to bear on second ship (a battleship Barbarossa class) with any chance of success. I therefore did not fire.'
'I continued on course through the Straits, examined the Gallipoli anchorage, found no ship worthy of attack and so proceeded in the Sea of Marmara, which was entered about 9:00 am.'
About 9:30 am AE2 sighted several ships, but since only six of her eight torpedoes remained Stoker decided not to fire until he was certain his target was a troop transport.
'With this intention I dived close to the foremost ship - a tramp of about 2,000 tons. Passing about 200 yards abeam of her I could see no sign of troops; but as I passed under her stern she ran up colours and opened rifle fire at the periscope. I dived over to the next ship and attacked at 400 yards with starboard beam torpedo. The torpedo failed to hit.'
Half an hour later AE2 surfaced and spent the rest of the day on the surface, charging batteries and making good defects. Shortly after dark she was attacked by a small anti-submarine vessel and throughout the night of 26/27 April she was attacked on several occasions shortly after surfacing.
At dawn on 27 April she sighted a ship escorted by two destroyers. Evading the escort, she manoeuvred into position at 300 yards but this time the torpedo refused to leave the tube. A destroyer tried to ram, forcing a hurried dive. Nothing else was sighted that day. The following night Stoker rested his crew on the bottom of Artaki Bay. Twice on 28 April she made attacks only to see the torpedoes narrowly miss the target.
'At dawn on 29 April I dived towards Gallipoli and observed a gunboat patrolling ahead of Strait off Eski Farnar Point. Dived under gunboat down Strait, and returned up Strait showing periscope to give the impression that another submarine had come through. Destroyers and torpedo boats came out in pursuit; having led them all up towards Sea of Marmara, I dived back and examined Gallipoli anchorage but found nothing to attack.'
AE2 then proceeded out into the Sea of Marmara pursued by anti-submarine units. She surfaced half an hour later, spotted the gunboat, fired and missed by one yard.
On the same day, off Kara Burnu Point, she met HMS E14, the second British submarine to successfully pass through the Dardanelles. A new rendezvous was arranged for 10:00 am the following day.
On the night of 29/30 April, AE2 lay on the bottom north of Marmara Island. Arriving at the rendezvous at 10:00 am she sighted a torpedo boat approaching at high speed. Stoker commented on subsequent events:
'Dived to avoid torpedo boat; whilst diving sighted smoke in Artaki Bay, so steered south to investigate. About 10:30 the boat's nose suddenly rose and she broke surface about a mile from the torpedo boat. Blew water forward but boat would not dive. Torpedo boat firing very close and ship from Artaki bay, a gunboat was also firing; flooded a forward tank and boat suddenly assumed big inclination down by the bows and dived very rapidly. AE2 was only fitted with 100 foot depth gauges. This depth was quickly reached and passed. After a considerable descent the boat rose rapidly, passed the 100 foot mark and in spite of efforts to check her broke the surface stern first. Within seconds the engine room was hit and holed in three places. Owing to the inclination down by the bow, it was impossible to see torpedo boat through the periscope and I considered any attempt to ram would be useless. I therefore blew main ballast and ordered all hands on deck. Assisted by Lieutenant Haggard, I then opened all tanks to flood the sub and went on deck. The boat sank in a few minutes in about 55 fathoms, in approximate position 4 degrees north of Kara Burnu Point at 10:45 am. All hands were picked up by the torpedo boat and no lives lost.'
Thus AE2's game of hide and seek was brought to an end, and her Commanding Officer and crew were on their way to spend the next three-and-a-half years in a Turkish prison camp. Four ratings died in captivity.
In early 1996, Mr Selçuk Kolay, director of the Rahmi Koç Museum in Istanbul, discovered what he believed to be the wreck of AE2 lying in 86 metres of water. With the assistance of an Australian diving team, which visited Turkey to dive on the wreck in October 1997, it was determined that the wreck was that of an old steamer.
After a further thorough side-scan sonar and magnetometric survey of the reported scuttling site of the AE2, Mr Kolay located AE2 in June 1998, lying in 72 metres of water, and was first dived upon the following month. An Australian dive team again visited Turkey in October 1998, with further dives confirming the identification of AE2.
Computer model of AE2 courtesy of DSTO
Computer model of AE2 firing bow torpedo courtesy of DSTO
