In early 1942, advancing Japanese forces began examining the possibility of capturing:
Port Moresby
Tulagi
New Caledonia
Fiji
Samoa.
The occupation of Port Moresby would cut off the eastern sea approaches to Darwin. It would also provide the…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/battle-coral-sea
A Fleet Review, in the British tradition, is a formal inspection of the fleet of a navy by the monarch. Today, the purpose of reviews is celebratory, and intended to commemorate milestones. The reviews conducted in 1986, 1988 and 2013 were some of…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/fleet-reviews-over-years
In August 1942, the RAN heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra operated with the US Navy in support of the American landings on the strategically vital islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi. These operations ended with the loss of Canberra in the Battle of Savo…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/battle-savo-island
In late 1942, the war in the Pacific had not yet decisively turned in the Allies’ favour. Japanese air power – from bases in Truk (Chuuk), occupied Timor, Rabaul and elsewhere in the region – proved to be a deadly force. Allied air cover was limited…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/hmas-armidale-i-support-australian-army
The Grimsby-class sloop HMAS Yarra served in the Mediterranean until early December 1941. After the Japanese attacks on British outposts in the Pacific, Yarra and other ships raced back to defend Australia. By the end of January 1942, the British…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/hmas-yarra-evacuation-east-indies
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) embarked upon its largest peacetime disaster relief operation to date on Christmas Day 1974. In the early hours of 25 December, Cyclone Tracy devastated the city of Darwin. Wind speeds were in excess of 160 knots (296…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/cyclone-tracy
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN), and the war effort in the Pacific, experienced a grim time in 1942. The Japanese advance south into the Netherlands East Indies seemed unstoppable.
Several RAN vessels were recalled from the European theatre to…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/hmas-perth-battles-java-sea-sunda-strait
Australian defence planning in the 1920s and 1930s was characterised by cycles of funding cuts and boosts. Succeeding governments differed on spending and strategy. At the same time, voters were recovering from the horrors of the First World War.…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/singapore-strategy-fall-singapore
Australia’s defence of the Libyan harbour town of Tobruk against German and Italian forces was key to slowing their advance into Egypt and the Suez Canal. Tobruk’s location made it strategically valuable. While the Allies held Tobruk, Axis powers…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/tobruk-ferry-service
Japan attacked British and US outposts in Malaya and Hawaii on 7 and 8 December 1941. During that time, very few Australian ships were serving in Australian waters. Australian apprehension of Japan had grown after Britain had declared war on Germany…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/outbreak-pacific-war
On 19 November 1941, HMAS Sydney (II) was in pursuit of an unknown vessel off the north-west coast of Western Australia. Sydney was suspicious of the ship. This was due to German raiders who were believed to be disguising themselves as merchant…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/loss-hmas-sydney-ii
As Australian men deployed to the various fronts of the Second World War, women ably stepped into the void they left in the workforce at home. The need for their service in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) soon became clear.
The Women’s Royal…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/womens-royal-australian-naval-service-wrans
In July 1940, the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney (II) incapacitated the Italian light cruiser the Bartolomeo Colleoni during the Battle of Cape Spada. Two Royal Navy destroyers, the HMS Hyperion and HMS Ilex, eventually destroyed the Italian…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/hmas-sydney-ii-bartolomeo-colleoni
The Dominion Yachtsman Scheme was established by the British Admiralty to recruit volunteers from across the Dominions. They were to serve as naval officers and sailors in the Royal Navy (RN).
About 500 men across Australia volunteered as ‘Yachties…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/dominion-yachtsman-scheme
When the Australian Government declared war on 3 September 1939, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) had 13 operational ships:
2 heavy cruisers
4 light cruisers
5 First World War–vintage destroyers
2 sloops.
Four new ships were still being built:
2…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/outset-second-world-war
The Australian coastwatching network was established to provide information on the movements and disposition of enemy forces in the South Pacific during the Second World War. The intelligence that they gathered played a significant part in the…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/coastwatchers
At least 7 Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ships, and hundreds of personnel, took part in the Battle of the Atlantic. It was a long campaign fought by Allied forces against German submarines that had been targeting war materiel crossing the Atlantic…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/royal-australian-navy-battle-atlantic
On the night of 31 May 1942, 3 Japanese submarines – I-27, I-22 and I-24 – dispersed in an arc formation outside the entrance to Sydney Harbour. Each of them released a 2-man midget submarine to launch an audacious, clandestine attack on the harbour…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/japanese-midget-submarine-attack-sydney-harbour
The 1st Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train (RANBT) was initially intended to be a horse-drawn engineering unit that could support operations on the Western Front. A ‘train’ was a series of wagons that carried a unit’s building materials and the…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/royal-australian-naval-bridging-train
HMA Submarine AE2 was Australia’s second submarine. Launched in June 1913, it had a crew of both Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy officers and sailors under Lieutenant Commander Henry Hugh Gordon Dacre Stoker RN.
Following service elsewhere at…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/hmas-ae2-dardanelles-campaign
Australia’s first single-ship battle at sea was between HMAS Sydney (I) and Germany’s SMS Emden on 9 November 1914. The battle shows the strategic importance of Australia’s oceanic connections to the world.
By October 1914, the German light cruiser…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/battle-between-hmas-sydney-sms-emden
The main ships of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) fleet had arrived in Australia in October 1913. As a result, the Navy was unusually well prepared when the First World War broke out less than a year later.
Common training standards for the RAN and…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/outbreak-first-world-war
At the outbreak of war in August 1914, the first task of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) was to seize or neutralise German territories in the Pacific. These territories represented a formidable network capable of providing intelligence and logistic…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/capture-german-colonial-possessions-pacific
On 4 October 1913, the new Royal Australian Navy fleet unit sailed into Sydney Harbour. Large crowds watched the entry from boats and from every available headland around the harbour. The Australian fleet’s arrival marked an important milestone.…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/royal-australian-navy-fleet-unit-sails-into-sydney-harbour
By 1909, Australia had stopped paying a subsidy to the Royal Navy to ensure its defence of Australian waters. Instead, Australian authorities ordered a flotilla of destroyers from Britain. They intended to bolster the capability of the Commonwealth…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/king-george-v-grants-title-royal-australian-navy
The Boxer Rebellion was an uprising led by the Chinese Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists. They were also known as ‘Boxers’, as many of them were trained in Chinese martial arts.
Beginning in 1899 and culminating in 1901, Boxers massacred…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/boxer-rebellion-hmcs-protector
With the federation of the six Australian colonies on 1 January 1901, the governor-general became Australian commander-in-chief. On 1 March that year, the former colonies transferred their naval and military forces to the federal government. The…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/foundations-australian-navy
Her Majesty’s Colonial Ship (HMCS) Victoria was the first Australian warship to be deployed overseas by a government on the Australian continent. In April 1860, four decades before Australian Federation, Victoria was sent in support of colonists…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/history/history-milestones/deployment-hmcs-victoria-new-zealand-wars
Acknowledgements
Good morning Minister Papalia, ladies and gentlemen. It is a pleasure to be here for this important event.
I would like to begin by acknowledging the Whadjuk Nyoongar people on whose traditional lands we meet today. I pay my…
https://www.navy.gov.au/about-navy/leaders/chief-navy/speeches/2024-07-24/indian-ocean-defence-symposium-keynote-address
The Royal Australian Navy Band are performing in a number of events in September 2024.
Date / Time
RAN Band / Ensemble
Event name / Address
1 September 2024
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Queensland - Big Band
Wynnum Manly Jazz Festival
Lower…
https://www.navy.gov.au/community-engagement/events/2024-09-01/royal-australian-navy-band-september-performances