On this day in Royal Australian Navy History 17 June 1941 CAPT J. A. Collins, CB, RAN, was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff to the C in C, China. 1942 HMAS NESTOR, (destroyer), was sunk by enemy action. 4 ratings lost their lives. The Bathurst class minesweeper, (corvette), HMAS CASTLEMAINE, (LCDR P. J. Sullivan, RANR(S)), was commissioned. CASTLEMAINE was laid down in Williamstown Dockyard, Melbourne, on 17 February 1941, and launched on 7 August 1941. Mrs R. G. Menzies, (Wife of the Prime Minister), performed the launching ceremony. 1943 HMA Ships GAWLER and LISMORE, (minesweepers) and two motor minesweepers, picked up 1353 survivors from the troop ship YOMA, sunk by a German submarine off Derna, Libya. Operation Lilliput ended. Australian small warships and transports carried 2400 troops and 40,000 tons of supplies from Milne Bay to Buna, to defeat the Japanese bid to take Port Moresby. HMA Ships BALLARAT, BENDIGO, BOWEN, BROOME, BUNBURY, COLAC, ECHUCA, GLENELG, GYMPIE, KAPUNDA, KATOOMBA, LATROBE, LITHGOW, PIRIE, POLARIS, STELLA, WAGGA, and WHYALLA, were engaged in the operation. 1945 LEUT W. J. Starkey, RAN, in HMAS LACHLAN, (frigate), piloted assault craft up the Padas River to attack Weston, in Brunei. 1968 At 0300 the destroyer HMAS HOBART, (CAPT K. W. Shands, RAN), was accidentally attacked by a US Air Force F-4 fighter, off Cap Lay, Vietnam. The aircraft fired a total of three missiles at HOBART, in two separate attacks. All three missiles hit the ship, and two RAN personnel, Ordinary Seaman R. J. Butterworth, and CPO R. H. Hunt, were killed, and seven others wounded. An enquiry into the incident revealed that due to the darkness, the pilot of the aircraft mistook the radar picture of the ship as an enemy helicopter. 1974 LEUT K. Frank, RAN, of Samarai, Papua-New Guinea, was appointed to command HMAS LADAVA, (patrol boat). LEUT Frank was the first New Guinea native to command a ship of the RAN. 1980 The destroyer escort HMAS SWAN, (CMDR D. T. Read, RAN), rescued 72 Vietnamese refugees from a disabled vessel in the South China Sea. 1991 RAN ships PALUMA and MERMAID, (survey vessels), made a goodwill visit to the Aboriginal community at Milikipati, on Melville Island. The ships were surveying in the area.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 23:50:31 +0000
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