Military History of Australia During World War I - Royal Australian Navy Operations

Royal Australian Navy Operations

At the outbreak of war the Royal Australian Navy consisted of the battlecruiser HMAS Australia, the light cruisers Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane (under construction), the destroyers Parramatta, Yarra and Warrego, and the submarines AE1 and AE2. Three more destroyers were also under construction. The Squadron was under the command of Rear Admiral Sir George E. Patey, a British admiral who was knighted on the deck of the Australia before it departed England in 1913.

The first naval operation of the war was in support of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force during the occupation of German New Guinea. The naval portion of the force included the Australia, Melbourne, Sydney, Warrego, Encounter, and submarine AE1. The only loss during the New Guinea Campaign was when the AE1 disappeared on 14 September 1914, taking three officers and 32 men with it.

The first major RAN victory of the war occurred when the cruiser, HMAS Sydney sank the German light cruiser, SMS Emden off the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean on 9 November 1914. Four Australians were killed in the engagement and another 12 were wounded. Ships of the RAN helped provide naval cover for the ambitious landings at Gallipoli, and the submarine AE2 broke the blockade of the Dardanelles to harass Turkish shipping but was later sunk and her crew captured in the Sea of Marmara.

In 1915 the light cruisers Melbourne and Sydney were deployed to the Atlantic where they worked alongside the Royal Navy's North American and West Indies Squadrons, which were engaged in surveillance operations on the large number of German ships that had taken refuge in neutral American ports when the war had broken out. This continued until September 1916 when both cruisers were moved to the North Sea where they joined Australia, which had been assisting the Royal Navy in its blockade of the German High Seas Fleet.

During this time the RAN also continued to carry out operations in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. By 1915 there were up to 74 German ships which had taken refuge in ports in the Netherlands East Indies. The presence of these ships close to Australia and the sea lanes that connected the nation to the United Kingdom and the Middle East was a cause of concern to the Navy and so in the middle of 1915 the cruiser Psyche and the sloop Fantome were sent to the Bay of Bengal to conduct patrol operations. Later in the year, in October, a force of three destroyers, a yacht and the cruiser Encounter were sent into the Macassar Strait to search for a German munitions base that had been reported in the area. Nothing was found, although the patrol served to interrupt German efforts to carry out subversive activities in a number of British possessions.

In May 1917 the British government requested assistance from the Australian government in dealing with the increasing threat posed by German U-boats. Six destroyers—the Warrego, Parramatta, Yarra, Swan, Torrens and Huon—were sent in response to this request, and undertook anti-submarine operations in the Adriatic, working out of Brindisi, Italy as part of the Otranto Barrage.

The most decorated RAN unit of the war was the Bridging Train. A reserve unit commanded by Lieutenant Commander Leighton Bracegirdle, it supported the British at Suvla Bay during the Gallipoli Campaign by constructing piers and harbours in the bay. Afterwards it served in Egypt and Palestine, taking part in an amphibious assault in El Arish and the First Battle of Gaza before it was disbanded in 1917. A number of members later went on to serve with the AIF and RAN. During the war the RAN lost 171 men killed, including 15 officers and 156 sailors, of which six officers and 57 sailors had been on loan from the Royal Navy.