The Navy Vol_70_No_4 Oct 2008 - Navy League of Australia

An RAAF Beaufort bomber. The RAAF’s ASW effort proved unsuccessful. An RAAF Beaufort claimed a successful attack on a
surfaced Japanese submarine off Gabo Island on the east coast during the War but records show no submarine being sunk there.
of the submarine campaign against Australia.
A detachment from Submarine Squadron 3 soon arrived
off the east coast and commenced attacks on 20 July, I-11
subsequently torpedoed the 4,883 ton freighter G.S. Livanos
off Jervis Bay. Three hours later, in the same area, she sunk
the SS Coast Farmer. Just over 24 hours later, she sank a third
ship, the 7,176 ton William Dawes. During the same period, I-
175 made three attacks around Newcastle and Sydney, sinking
a further two vessels and damaging another.
On 4 August came an attack on the other side of the country.
The passenger steamer Katoomba was attacked on the surface
at night by I-32, 188 nautical miles southeast of Esperance.
The submarine surfaced alongside the steamer and opened fire
with its 5.5 inch deck gun. Katoomba’s master put on speed
and made evasive manoeuvres while the gun crew returned
Japanese fire. After a three hour running battle, I-32 broke off
the attack and left the area, en route to Penang.
As a result of these attacks, the convoy system was reintroduced
on 22 July. Unfortunately, there was now a shortage of escorts,
as the US Navy had taken its destroyers off escort duty and
sent them north to Guadalcanal while the RAN had most of its
escorts operating off the coast of New Guinea. Ships were now
held in port until a suitable escort could be assembled, slowing
shipping schedules across the country. By 10 August signals
intercepts showed the submarines leaving the area, re-directed
to the waters off Guadalcanal. This time the convoy system
was not dropped and remained in force until 1944. No further
submarine attacks were reported for the rest of the year as the
Japanese concentrated their submarine effort to the waters
around Guadalcanal in attacks either against allied warships or
increasingly as transports.
Allied anti-submarine measures had been dismal, to say the
least. Up to the end 1942 the RAN had managed to sink only
two submarines, one off New Guinea and one off Darwin, but
none in the east coast shipping lanes where most Japanese
submarine activity was concentrated. There had been several
attacks on contacts, but without any confirmable results. While
keeping a submarine from attacking a convoy is a success for
the escort forces, the public and the politicians prefer verified
‘kills’. In the same period the RAAF claimed between eight and
ten definitely sunk, five probably sunk and two damaged. All
this by only twenty documented anti submarine attacks during
the whole war. In actuality, their score was one submarine
lightly damaged. On July 29th a Beaufort bombed I-11 off
Gabo Island in Bass Strait, damaging some of the wooden
planks on her deck. Despite many claims to the contrary, no
submarines were sunk or seriously damaged by the RAAF
during the course of the war in Australian coastal waters.
January 1943 heralded the beginnings of the new Japanese
submarine offensive. I-21 had orders to fly a reconnaissance
mission over Sydney. She announced her arrival off the East
Coast on the 18th by sinking the 2,047 ton Kalingo. Later that
same day she put two torpedoes into the US flagged tanker
Mobilube, 60 nautical miles off Sydney. A maximum effort
ASW search by all available warships from Sydney assisted
by ten RAAF planes found nothing. In a four week period
I-21 made six torpedo attacks on shipping sinking three and
damaging two so badly they were subsequently scrapped.
THE NAVY VOL. 70 NO. 3 33