HMAS ''Wollongong'' (J172), named for the city of

Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wa ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, was one of 60 s constructed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and one of 20 built for the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

but manned by personnel of and commissioned into the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

(RAN).

Design and construction

In 1938, the

Australian Commonwealth Naval Board The Australian Commonwealth Naval Board was the governing authority over the Royal Australian Navy from its inception and through World Wars I and II. The board was established on 1 March 1911 and consisted of civilian members of the Australian ...

(ACNB) identified the need for a general purpose 'local defence vessel' capable of both anti-submarine and mine-warfare duties, while easy to construct and operate.Stevens, ''The Australian Corvettes'', p. 1Stevens, ''A Critical Vulnerability'', p. 103 The vessel was initially envisaged as having a

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics * Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

of approximately 500 tons, a speed of at least , and a range of Stevens, ''A Critical Vulnerability'', pp. 103–4 The opportunity to build a prototype in the place of a cancelled Bar-class boom defence vessel saw the proposed design increased to a 680-ton vessel, with a top speed, and a range of , armed with a 4-inch gun, equipped with

asdic Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects on ...

, and able to fitted with either depth charges or

minesweeping Minesweeping is the practice of the removal of explosive naval mines, usually by a specially designed ship called a minesweeper using various measures to either capture or detonate the mines, but sometimes also with an aircraft made for that ...

equipment depending on the planned operations: although closer in size to a sloop than a local defence vessel, the resulting increased capabilities were accepted due to advantages over British-designed mine warfare and anti-submarine vessels. Construction of the prototype did not go ahead, but the plans were retained.Stevens, ''A Critical Vulnerability'', p. 104 The need for locally built 'all-rounder' vessels at the start of World War II saw the "Australian Minesweepers" (designated as such to hide their anti-submarine capability, but popularly referred to as "corvettes") approved in September 1939, with 60 constructed during the course of the war: 36 ordered by the RAN, 20 (including ''Wollongong'') ordered by the British Admiralty but manned and commissioned as RAN vessels, and 4 for the

Royal Indian Navy The Royal Indian Navy (RIN) was the naval force of British India and the Dominion of India. Along with the Presidency armies, later the Indian Army, and from 1932 the Royal Indian Air Force, it was one of the Armed Forces of British India. F ...

.Stevens, ''A Critical Vulnerability'', pp. 105, 148Donohue, ''From Empire Defence to the Long Haul'', p. 29Stevens et al., ''The Royal Australian Navy'', p. 108 ''Wollongong'' was laid down by

Cockatoo Docks & Engineering Company The Cockatoo Docks & Engineering Company was a ship building and maintenance company which operated the Cockatoo Island Dockyard on Cockatoo Island in Sydney, Australia between 1933 and 1992. History The Cockatoo Docks & Engineering Company ...

on 29 January 1941. She was launched on 5 July 1941, by the wife of

Jack Beasley John Albert Beasley (9 November 1895 – 2 September 1949) was an Australian politician who was a member of the House of Representatives from 1928 to 1946. He served in the Australian War Cabinet from 1941 to 1946, and was a government ministe ...

, then Minister for Supply and Shipping, and was commissioned into the RAN on 23 October 1941.

Operational history

World War II

After entering active service, ''Wollongong'' was deployed as a convoy escort in Australian waters. On 11 January 1942, she was sent to Singapore. The corvette was involved in patrols and the evacuation of Allied personnel from Malaya, Java, and Sumatra, and was the last Australian ship to leave Singapore before it was surrendered to the Japanese on 15 February. She then provided a rear escort to a convoy fleeing Tanjong Priok, Batavia. During this, ''Wollongong'', stood by the tanker , which ran aground and eventually had to be abandoned, was forced to sink the minesweeper , which attempted to turn back to the captured port, and broke off from the convoy to escort the damaged SS ''British Judge'', which was torpedoed on the night of 28 February and could not keep up. The main convoy and the escorting sloop was sunk on 4 March by a Japanese cruiser group. ''Wollongong'' was then ordered to Fremantle, where she served as an escort ship before sailing on 14 September to

Diego Garcia Diego Garcia is an island of the British Indian Ocean Territory, a disputed overseas territory of the United Kingdom. It is a militarised atoll just south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean, and the largest of the 60 small islands of ...

to join the

British Eastern Fleet The East Indies Station was a formation and command of the British Royal Navy. Created in 1744 by the Admiralty, it was under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies. Even in official documents, the term ''East Indies Station'' was ...

. She operated in the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, and Mediterranean as a convoy escort and patrol vessel, and twice entered the Atlantic Ocean to meet Mediterranean-bound convoys. In September 1943, while in the Mediterranean, ''Wollongong'' was called on to shell the beached German submarine ''U-617'', and was awarded partial credit for the submarine's destruction. ''Wollongong'' returned to Australian waters in February 1945, then was assigned to the

British Pacific Fleet The British Pacific Fleet (BPF) was a Royal Navy formation that saw action against Japan during the Second World War. The fleet was composed of empire naval vessels. The BPF formally came into being on 22 November 1944 from the remaining ships o ...

. The corvette was involved in the Battle of Okinawa. After the end of World War II, ''Wollongong'' was sent to the Far East, where she was involved in anti-piracy patrols, before returning to Australia at the end of 1945. The ship received six

battle honour A battle honour is an award of a right by a government or sovereign to a military unit to emblazon the name of a battle or operation on its flags ("colours"), uniforms or other accessories where ornamentation is possible. In European military t ...

s for her wartime service: "Pacific 1942–45", "Indian Ocean 1942–45", "Sicily 1943", "Mediterranean 1943", "East Indies 1943", and "Okinawa 1945".

RNLN service

After the end of the war, ''Wollongong'' was marked for transfer to the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN). She was decommissioned in Sydney on 11 February 1946, was recommissioned into the RNLN, and renamed HNLMS ''Banda''. The corvette remained with the RNLN until April 1950.

TNI-AL service

The ship was transferred to the new

Indonesian Navy The Indonesian Navy ( id, Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Laut, , Indonesian National Military-Naval Force, TNI-AL) is the naval branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. It was founded on 10 September 1945 and has a role to patrol ...

in April 1950, and was renamed KRI ''Radjawali''. The corvette left service in early 1968, and was scrapped in Hong Kong.

Citations

References

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Journal and news articles

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wollongong (J172) Bathurst-class corvettes of the Royal Australian Navy Ships built in New South Wales 1941 ships World War II corvettes of Australia Bathurst-class corvettes of the Indonesian Navy