WORLD WAR 2

With the Fall of the Philippines in 1942, Fremantle, Western Australia became a defacto home of the United States Navy. As a consequence, it became the largest submarine base in the Southern hemisphere supporting US war patrols, personnel, infrastructure and ships. Now where would you expect the US Navy to keep one of their largest ammunition depots filled with explosives, mines, torpedoes. Fremantle? Cottlesloe? Swanbourne? How about Northam.

Northam is about 100km from the coast and a 90 minutes drive from the Port of Fremantle. It was the site of a large Australian Army camp for the training and mobilisation of troops and was the birthplace of three Western Australian Imperial Force battalions 2/11th, 2/16th, and 2/28^th. It also housed interned persons and nearly 4000 Italian Prisoners of War prior to their repatriation to Italy. There were plans to use Northam as an evacuation point in the event of an invasion of Perth, it was well suited with its distance from the coast, proximity to rail and logistical infrastructure such as storage tanks for aviation fuel were installed with this in mind.

During WW2 as mentioned the US Navy also had a presence there. They needed a secure and remote location to store weapons and explosives with good road and rail access. Springhill about 8km outside of Northam was deemed suitable because the Australian military already had fuel and weapons storage in the area. Previously 202 hectares of farmland was compulsorily acquired and developed as the ‘Australian Army Central Ammunition Depot’ (CAD) designated ‘6 CAD’ for Western Australia.  Near there land was allocated for what was to become  the 7 Naval Ammunition Depot (7 NAD) one of three Naval Ammunition Depots developed across Australia to support operations in the South West Pacific. the other two at Mount Coot-tha, near Brisbane designated Navy 134 and at Newington, Sydney (Navy 135). At Springhill, storage was constructed to supply ammunition to warships and in particular MKXIV torpedoes for submarines of the US 7th Fleet conducting their war patrols from Fremantle…..

Listen to the episode at Apple Podcasts, Audible and Spotify.

(Images courtesy of History Online, The Us Naval Institute & the Naval History Magazine)

Bickley Point on Western Australia’s Rottnest Island was the location of two 6 inch coastal defence guns. Its role was as a close defence battery to prevent enemy ships passing through the strategic ‘South Passage’ between Rottnest and Carnac Island to attack Fremantle. It had a secondary role as an ‘Examination Battery’ for the challenging and identification of ships entering Gage Roads. It became operational in 1939 and was an important part of the Fremantle Coastal Defence Fortress.

A remnant of the battery sits today at nearby Kingstown Barracks. The barrel of gun Number 2309, manufacted at the Royal Ordnance Factory, Leeds, which was once part of the armament of the Chatham Class Cruiser HMAS Melbourne.

There is more to come on the Bickley Point Battery, to know more about the ‘Rotto Guns’ you can listen to the story here:

The Italian ‘Carro Veloce CV.33’ was a 2 person mini-tank used in every theatre the Italian Army (Regio Esercito) fought before and during World War 2. While successful during the Italo-Abyssinian War and Spanish Civil War its light armour and armament made it unsuited to modern combat and it was primarily used for reconnaisance and supply (towing cargo) It weighed approximately 3,000KG, had a top speed of 41km per hour and was armed with twin machine guns (Ususally Fiat-Revelli Modello 35) operated by a gunner on the left, with a driver on the right.

The below (colour) example was captured in North Africa, likely by British troops and sent to England for evaluation. It was then shipped to Canada and is now on loan from the Canadian War Museum to the Australian War Memorial (AWM) in Canberra. It’s painted in the ‘Ram’s Head’ livery of the 132nd Armoured Division ‘Ariete’. (‘Ariete’ refers to ‘Aires’ the Ram star constellation) This division was destroyed at the Second Battle of El Alamein.

I recently took a trip to Canberra and visited the Australian War Memorial. One of the displays that impressed me was the captured Italian Anti-Aircraft cannon mounted on a Chevrolet truck.

The piece in question is a Breda 20mm Model 1935 anti-aircraft gun. These were captured in such large numbers in North Africa that they were used to equip Australia, British and some Free French units.

Fed by trays of 12 shells, the captured Breda’s were used in an anti-aircraft or ground support role. They could be fixed in position or mobile and mounted on trucks by units such as the Australian 3rd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment and the British Long Range Desert Group (LRDG).

They were used widely by Italian and German forces and interestingly also mounted by Italy’s equivalent to the LRDG, the Auto – Saharan Companies (Compagnie Auto-Avio-Sahariane).

Contact between these two units was described as ‘The First Clash of Special Forces’ by Kuno Gross and Robert Chiavaretto. In January 1941 in southeastern Libya, the British LRDG were intercepted by the an Auto-Saharan unit in the Gebel Sherif valley.

“The enemy (Italians) who were forty-four strong in two armoured fighting vehicles and five trucks had the advantage of close co-operation with aircraft and of being armed with Breda guns (Auto-avio sahariana)”

— Ambush at Jebel Sherif – Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939-45.

APPLE PODCASTS

The ‘Z Special Unit’ was one of the most audacious and little known clandestine units of World War 2. It comprised of Australian, British, New Zealand, Dutch, Timorese and other Allied personnel. One of their most famous missions was ‘Operation Jaywick’. This saw a disguised Japanese fishing vessel the ‘Kofuku Maru’ renamed the ‘MV Krait’. It set sail from Exmouth Gulf to Singapore where the operatives, after paddling more than 50KM in collapsable canoes called ‘Folbots’, attacked Japanese ships at anchor with ‘Limpet mines’. They then made their escape and returned to Australia leaving the Japanese confounded as to where the raiders came from. This extraordinary operation was followed by 81 other covert missions including the ill-fated ‘Operation Rimau’ and ‘Operation Semut’. This episode of Backyard Battlefields is a chat with Gavin Mortimer, author of the Osprey Publication ‘Z Special Unit’ about the history, people and events surrounding this incredible force. Gavin is also the author of some other seminal books on wartime special forces including; ‘David Stirling: The Phoney Major, The Life, Times and Truth about the Founder of the SAS’ the SBS in World War II, The Long Range Desert Group in World War II and Merrils Marauders.

During WW2, the Western Australian port of Fremantle was host to over 170 US, British and Dutch Submarines who conducted 416 war patrols between March 1942 and August 1945. This episode of Backyard Battlefields is an interview with Lynne Cairns, author of ‘Secret Fleets: Fremantles World War 2 Submarine Base. (Image copyright WA Maritime Museum)

In 1943 Japanese Navy Kawanishi ‘Emily’ Flying boats operating out of Surabaya, Indonesia bombed the Western Australian town of Onslow.