Background
For more details on this topic, see Axis naval activity in Australian waters.During 1942 and 1943 Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) submarines conducted a number of patrols along Australia's east coast. On 16 May 1942 the submarine I-29 attacked the Soviet freighter Wellen 50 miles (80 km) south-east of Newcastle, but did not cause any damage to the ship. In response, a naval force was dispatched from Sydney to attempt to locate the submarine and ships were not permitted to sail between Newcastle and Sydney for 24 hours. On 23 May I-29's floatplane flew over Newcastle and Sydney searching for shipping which could be attacked by midget submarines.
On the night of 31 May three Japanese midget submarines attacked shipping in Sydney Harbour. The ultimate aim was to sink the U.S. Navy Heavy Cruiser USS Chicago (CA-29), although unsuccessful in this objective, the attack did result in the sinking of the accommodation ship HMAS Kuttabul. All three midget submarines were however lost in the attack. Following this raid, the large submarines which had launched the midgets attacked shipping off the east coast; these included two attacks on ships near Newcastle on the night of 3 June. At 10:18 pm the coastal steamer Age was shelled by I-24 35 miles (56 km) south-east of Norah Head; she did not sustain any damage and docked at Newcastle at 1 am the next day. At about midnight on 3 June the coaster Iron Chieftain was torpedoed and sunk by I-24 near where Age had been attacked.
Read more about this topic: Shelling Of Newcastle
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