 | The Royal Australian Navy |
The Admiralty V & W class destroyer HMAS Waterhen (D 22) of the Royal Australian Navy. She was lost on 30 Jun 1941.
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) did not participate as much in the Battle of the Atlantic as the other allied navies. This has its obvious reasons of course (the Pacific war being somewhat closer and no less important to Australia).
The RAN did however take a part in the battle and is credited with sinking one U-boat. They hunted the Bismarck and took also part in the D-Day landings.
In 1939 its strength was a mere 7 ships (1 heavy cruiser, 3 light cruisers, 1 destroyer and 2 sloops) and one destroyer in reserve. When the war ended they had a fleet of 1 heavy cruiser, 3 light cruisers, 11 destroyers, 6 frigates, 2 sloops, 53 corvettes, 1 minelayer and 73 other vessels.
Read more about the Royal Australian Navy here.
Ships of the Royal Australian Navy
Minesweepers (57)
Motor Launchs (36)
Frigates (22)
Destroyers (17)
Harbour Defence Motor Launchs (13)
Sloops (5)
Light cruisers (4)
Boom Defence Vessels (4)
Heavy cruisers (3)
Rescue Tugs (3)
Armed Merchant Cruisers (2)
Armed Yacht (1)
Submarine (1)
Minelayer (1)
Summary
169 warships of 14 types.
War losses
According to our files the Royal Australian Navy lost 16 warships during WWII (9.47%). See them all here.