HMAS Anzac (D59)

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For other ships with the same name, see HMAS Anzac.

HMAS Anzac
History
Australia
NamesakeThe Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
BuilderWilliamstown Naval Dockyard
Laid down23 September 1946
Launched20 August 1948
Completed22 March 1951
Commissioned14 March 1951
Decommissioned4 October 1974
ReclassifiedTraining ship (1961)
Motto"United We Stand"
Honours and
awards
FateSold for scrap, 24 November 1975
General characteristics
Class and typeBattle-class destroyer
Displacement
  • 2,436 tons (as destroyer)
  • 3,450 tons (as training ship)
Length
  • 379 ft (116 m) overall
  • 355 ft (108 m) between perpendiculars
Beam41 ft (12 m)
Draught21 ft 11.5 in (6.693 m)
Propulsion2
Admiralty 3-drum boilers, Parsons geared turbines, 50,000 shp
, 2 shafts
Speed31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph)
Complement
  • 320 as destroyer
  • 169 + 109 trainees as training ship
Armament
  • 4 ×
    QF 4.5 inch /45 (113 mm) Mark V guns
    in 2 twin mountings UD Mark VI
  • 12 ×
    40 mm Bofors
    anti-aircraft guns (3 twin, 6 single)
  • 2 × 21 in 5-tube Pentad torpedo tube sets
  • Squid anti-submarine mortar

HMAS Anzac (D59) was a

training vessel. Anzac remained in service until 1974, and was sold for breaking
a year later.

Design and construction

Main article: Battle-class destroyer

Anzac was built to the British

geared turbines; these generated 50,000 shaft horsepower (37,285 kW) for the destroyer's two propeller shafts.[1] Anzac was designed to reach 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h; 36.2 mph), but could usually only reach 31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph).[1] The ship's company originally consisted of 320 personnel, but after conversion into a training ship, this changed to 169 ship's company plus 109 trainees.[1]

Lateral view

The main armament of Anzac consisted of four

21-inch (533 mm) Pentad torpedo launchers.[1]

Anzac was

Williamstown Naval Dockyard at Melbourne, Victoria on 23 September 1946.[1] The ship was originally to be named Matapan, for the Battle of Cape Matapan, but this was changed to Anzac, for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps prior to launch.[2] She was launched on 20 August 1948 by the wife of John Augustine Collins, the Chief of the Naval Staff and a former commanding officer of the previous HMAS Anzac.[1][3] Anzac was commissioned as a ship of the RAN on 14 March 1951.[1] Acceptance from dockyard hands occurred on 22 March.[3]

Operational history

On 30 July 1951, Anzac left Australian waters for her first deployment to the

fired in anger for the first time at 18:15.[5] During 12–26 September, Anzac led US Ships Thompson and Naifeh in a blockade of Wosan, before returning to Japanese waters at the end of the month.[5]

Her first Korean tour completed, Anzac escorted HMS Glory to Sydney, where they arrived on 20 October.

Queen Elizabeth II, Anzac operated off the west coast until 13 June; the conclusion of her second Korean tour.[5] Anzac arrived in Sydney on 3 July.[5]

For her two tours, Anzac was awarded the

Australian penny cut from the sheet, which was then mounted to the top of the mainmast as a 'weathervane'.[7] This method of identification was later adopted across the RAN: all major fleet units now bear a red kangaroo symbol on each side of their exhaust funnels or superstructure.[8]

During late 1953 and early 1954, Anzac was assigned to Queen Elizabeth II's coronation tour.[3] The destroyer carried the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, and other members of the Royal Party during visits to locations in Queensland, then Papua and New Guinea.[3]

Anzac operated during the Malayan Emergency. Following an overhaul of the RAN battle honours system, the destroyer was retroactively awarded a second honour to recognise this: "Malaya 1956".[6][9]

Between 1956 and 1959, the destroyer was deployed on several occasions to serve with the Far East Strategic Reserve.[3]

In September 1960, Anzac was performing gunnery exercises with sister ship HMAS Tobruk.[10] A malfunction in Anzac's gun direction equipment negated the deliberate 6° mis-aiming of her guns, with the resulting shell hitting Tobruk and doing enough damage to the destroyer to make repairs uneconomical.[10] Two of Anzac's personnel were charged by the Naval Board,[10] while Tobruk was decommissioned a month later.

In March 1961, Anzac completed conversion into a

midshipmen from the RAN training facility at HMAS Creswell and supplementary list midshipmen[clarification needed] (and in later years, trainees from the RAN's Papua New Guinea Division and from the Singapore Armed Forces) were embarked on three-month stints to receive practical experience and training in naval operations and duties.[3] Training cruises typically occurred through the South Pacific, with several port visits to broaden the trainees' cultural horizons.[3]

During February and March 1963, Anzac served as escort for Queen Elizabeth II and the

Royal Yacht Britannia during the royal tour of Australia.[3][11] In October, Anzac accompanied the troop transport Sydney on a training cruise in northern Queensland waters.[12] During May and June 1964, the destroyer embarked the Governor-General, Viscount De L'Isle for a visit to the territories of Papua and New Guinea.[3] In September 1965, Anzac and the carrier Melbourne escorted Sydney on the outbound leg of her second troop-transport voyage to Vietnam.[13][14] On 21 May 1968, Anzac and Sydney left Brisbane on the latter's eleventh of twenty-five Vietnam voyages.[15] The ships arrived at Vũng Tàu on 1 June, and returned to Brisbane on 13 June.[15] During 1969, Anzac visited Tahiti and Western Samoa, and was in New Zealand for the bicentenary of James Cook's landing at Poverty Bay.[3] In 1970, the destroyer was part of another bicentenary celebration of Cook's first voyage of discovery; this time at Cook's last Australian landfall at Possession Island.[3] During the training cruises of the ship's final years, Anzac visited Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and New Zealand.[3]
HMAS Anzac escorted HMS Britannia during the Commonwealth Games held in Christchurch NZ during 1974 berthing at Lyttleton Harbour.

Decommissioning and fate

Anzac was berthed at

paying off.[3] She was decommissioned on 4 October 1974, after travelling 639,582 nautical miles (1,184,506 km).[3] She was sold for A$41,780 to the Hifirm Corporation Limited of Hong Kong on 26 November 1975, and departed Sydney on 30 December 1975 under tow by the Japanese tug Herakuresu.[3][11]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cassells, The Destroyers, p. 10
  2. ^ Cassells, The Destroyers, p. 9
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Perryman & Djokovic, Ships Named Anzac
  4. ^ Cassells, The Destroyers, pp. 10–11
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cassells, The Destroyers, p. 11
  6. ^ a b "Royal Australian Navy Ship/Unit Battle Honours" (PDF). Royal Australian Navy. 1 March 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  7. ^ Cassells, The Destroyers, pp. 11–12
  8. ^ Perryman, The Origin of RAN Squadron and National Insignia
  9. ^ "Navy Marks 109th Birthday With Historic Changes To Battle Honours". Royal Australian Navy. 1 March 2010. Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  10. ^ a b c Frame, Where Fate Calls, pp 36–7
  11. ^ a b Cassells, The Destroyers, p. 12
  12. ^ Frame, Where Fate Calls, p. 37
  13. ^ Nott & Payne, The Vung Tau Ferry, p. 170
  14. ^ Grey, Up Top, p. 106
  15. ^ a b Nott & Payne, The Vung Tau Ferry, p. 173

References

Books

Journal and news articles

Websites

Further reading

  • Hodges, Peter (1971). Battle Class Destroyers. London: Almark Publishing.
    ISBN 0-85524-012-1
    .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMAS Anzac (D59).
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