HMAS ''Gawler'' (J188/B241/A115), named for the town of

Gawler Gawler is the oldest country town on the Australian mainland in the state of South Australia. It was named after the second Governor (British Vice-Regal representative) of the colony of South Australia, George Gawler. It is about north of the ...

, was one of 60 ''Bathurst''-class corvettes 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). The ship was laid down by

BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

at its Whyalla shipyard in early 1941, launched later that year, and commissioned in 1942. After a short assignment to Fremantle as an anti-submarine patrol ship, ''Gawler'' was assigned to 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 ...

as a convoy escort. In April 1943, she was sent to the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

for minesweeping duties. The corvette participated in the Allied

invasion of Sicily The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis powers ( Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany). It bega ...

, rescued survivors from the torpedoed troopship , and on one occasion escorted a convoy in the Atlantic. In October, ''Gawler'' rejoined the Eastern Fleet and resumed

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...

convoy escort duties. After a refit at the start of 1945, ''Gawler'' joined 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 ...

. At the war's end, the corvette was tasked with mine-clearing and anti=piracy operations around Hong Kong, then sent to the

Molucca Islands The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located ...

to inspect former Japanese facilities. ''Gawler'' was decommissioned from the RAN in April 1946. The Admiralty transferred the ship to the

Turkish Navy The Turkish Naval Forces ( tr, ), or Turkish Navy ( tr, ) is the naval warfare service branch of the Turkish Armed Forces. The modern naval traditions and customs of the Turkish Navy can be traced back to 10 July 1920, when it was establis ...

, where she was recommissioned as TCG ''Ayvalik''. The corvette remained in Turkish service until 1963.

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 ''Gawler'') ordered by the British Admiralty but manned and commissioned as RAN vessels, and four 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 ...

.Donohue, ''From Empire Defence to the Long Haul'', p. 29Stevens et al., ''The Royal Australian Navy'', p. 108 ''Gawler'' was laid down by the

at its Whyalla shipyard on 24 January 1941. She was launched on 4 October 1941 by the wife of Sir Winston Dugan, then

Governor of Victoria The governor of Victoria is the representative of the monarch, King Charles III, in the Australian state of Victoria. The governor is one of seven viceregal representatives in the country, analogous to the governors of the other states, and th ...

, and commissioned into the RAN on 14 August 1942. The ship was originally to be named ''Gambier'', for the city of

Mount Gambier Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with an estimated urban population of 33,233 . The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about south-east of the capital Ad ...

Operational history

RAN service

Upon entering service in September 1942, ''Gawler'' was briefly based at Fremantle as an anti-submarine patrol vessel before being assigned to the

and ordered to sail to

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo m ...

. The corvette served in the Indian Ocean as a convoy escort between January and April 1943. Following this, ''Gawler'' and three sister ships were formed into as the 21st Minesweeping Flotilla and sent to the

to serve as minesweepers and convoy escorts. On 17 June 1943 when the British

troopship A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable land troops directly on shore, typicall ...

was sunk off the coast of

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

, ''Gawler'' and her sister ship were among the ships that rescued 1,477 survivors. In July, ''Gawler'' was involved in the Allied

, and in August the corvette sailed into the Atlantic to meet a Mediterranean-bound convoy. ''Gawler'' rejoined the Eastern Fleet in October 1943, and resumed escort duties until January 1945, with the exception of a refit in

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

during January and February 1944. After leaving the Eastern Fleet, ''Gawler'' underwent a four-month refit in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, before joining the

Manus Island Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth-largest island in Papua New Guinea, with an area of , measuring around . Manus Island is covered in rugged jungles w ...

in April 1945. She remained with the Pacific Fleet until after the end of World War II; operating in Hong Kong waters during September with mine-warfare and anti-piracy duties, before sailing to the

and spending the rest of 1945 providing surveillance of former Japanese positions in the area. ''Gawler'' returned to Australian waters in February 1946, and was decommissioned in Sydney on 5 April 1946. The corvette received three

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", "Indian Ocean 1942–45", and "Sicily 1943".

Turkish Navy service

Prior to decommissioning, ''Gawler'' was marked for transfer to the

. Upon decommissioning, ''Gawler'' was immediately recommissioned into the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

as HMS ''Gawler''. On 21 May 1946, ''Gawler'', with sister ships and , sailed for Colombo, where they were decommissioned from the Royal Navy and commissioned into the Turkish Navy. ''Gawler'' was renamed TCG ''Ayvalik''. The corvette was withdrawn from service in 1963. The name was passed on to sister corvette TCG ''Antalya'' (the former ).

Citations

References

;Books * * * ;Journal and news articles * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gawler (J188) Bathurst-class corvettes of the Royal Australian Navy Bathurst-class corvettes of the Turkish Navy Corvettes of the Cold War Ships built in South Australia World War II corvettes of Australia 1941 ships