RANCA NSW
HMAS LITHGOW J 206
Namesake: City of Lithgow, NSW Builder: Mort's Dock
Laid down: 19 August 1940
Launched: 21 December 1940
Commissioned: 14 June 1941
Decommissioned: 8 June 1948
Battle honours:
Darwin 1942
Pacific 1941–45
New Guinea 1942–44
Fate: Sold for scrap in 1956
Displacement: 650 tons (standard),
1,025 tons (full war load)
Length: 186 ft (57 m)
Beam: 31 ft (9.4 m)
Draught: 10 ft (3.0 m)
Propulsion: triple expansion
engine, 2 shafts
Speed: 15 knots (28 km/h;
17 mph) at 1,750 hp
Complement: 85
Armament: 1 × 4-inch gun,
3 × Oerlikons
Extract from Corvette magazine
HMAS LITHGOW - The Story of a Ship From Ern Pask
During the Second World War, the City of Lithgow contributed very significantly to the Australian war effort. Its mines and munitions production played no small part in the victory gained in that conflict. But by no means was the least of Lithgow’s contribution at that time the bestowal of the city's name on a small but sturdy ship built for the Royal Australian Navy that was to serve her country with distinction and courage from her commissioning in June 1941 until the end of her seagoing career in 1948.
HMAS Lithgow was a Bathurst Class minesweeper, designed for Anti-submarine and escort duties, as well as the sweeping of mines. Later they became known as Corvettes.
Lithgow's first active duty after commissioning was with the 20th Minesweeping Flotilla, sweeping in Bass Strait and Tasmanian waters. Twenty German mines were swept by the flotilla, Lithgow accounting for a number of these.
When Japan entered the war in December 1941, the ship commenced anti-Submarine patrols off Sydney before escorting the first US convoy to Darwin in January 1942. It was in this area that Lithgow together with her sister ships Deloraine, Katoomba and USS Destroyer Edsall, sank the Japanese Submarine I.124, the first Japanese Submarine to be destroyed by the RAN.
Lithgow continued operations from Darwin during the period of heavy Japanese air attack on that area, carrying out anti-Submarine patrols and escorting convoys to Thursday Island. Later she escorted convoys from Townsville to Port Moresby and played a significant part in landing troops and tanks at Oro Bay for the start of the Buna campaign. This was performed despite severe navigational difficulties and considerable enemy opposition. For this work Lithgow's Captain, Commander Victor Knight, was awarded an OBE.
Following a much needed refit at the end of 1942, the ship spent nine months on arduous anti-Submarine and Convoy Escort work on the Queensland coast, at a time when there were many sinking off the East Coast of the continent.
A poignant duty at this period was a search for survivors of the torpedoed Hospital Ship "Centaur", as her then Captain, Theo Haultain's sister was one of the Nurses on the sunken ship. She was one of the many who lost their lives. This period ended with a convoy to Port Moresby, after which Lithgow continued patrolling and escorting convoys in New Guinea waters.
As the war moved along the Northern New Guinea coast and westward to Hollandia and the Halmaheras, she was in the forefront of operations, with other ships of her class only one step behind the invasion forces, ferrying troops, bombarding shore positions, escorting convoys, patrolling. Spending the maximum possible time at sea she was operational all through this area, from Milne Bay to Biak Island and Morotai. From Manus Island to Wewak, Madang, Hollandia and countless lesser known but vital outposts of operations, in all weathers and under all conditions, she kept to her allotted tasks.
One, for the crew, nerve-shattering patrol took her to within a few miles of the heavily fortified and aggressive Japanese base at Rabaul.After a further refit at the end of 1944, Lithgow transferred to the Solomon Islands sector, based on Torokina. In June and July 1945 the ship took part in Australian operations in the Solomons, supporting the land forces with a series of bombardments against enemy held territory.
When Japanese resistance collapsed and hostilities ceased in August of that year she was despatched to take the surrender of the Japanese General Kanda off Bougainville, but due to a breakdown in Japanese communications, this was delayed and the mission was aborted. What was to have been the first Japanese surrender of the war took place some days later in another area.
Meanwhile Lithgow with two other Corvettes was ordered urgently to Rabaul to sweep the approaches to Rabaul Harbour in preparation for the arrival by sea of the Australian Occupation Force. Steaming into Rabaul and operationally sweeping under the muzzles of the many 9.2 inch guns that guarded the harbour, with over 100,000 undefeated Japanese troops ashore was possibly the most dangerous of all the tasks the ship was called on to perform, despite the cessation of hostilities.
Returning to the mainland the ship became once more a part of the 20th Minesweeping Flotilla, constantly employed in in dangerous minesweeping duties, both off the Queensland coast and the New Guinea - Solomons area.
Her seagoing career ended in January 1948 when she paid off into reserve at Freemantle. HMAS Lithgow, like her name City, earned a reputation as a sturdy, thoroughly reliable, hardworking and indispensable part of the Royal Australian Navy's wartime fleet. Most of her work was unspectacular and certainly unsung, but at wars end she had steamed 178,000 miles and had been under way for over 20,000 hours. She and her sister ships were Australian built, Australian crewed, and they had a real Australian spirit. They fought and endured and never quit, and those who served in them remember them with affection and with pride.
Sadly, in August 1956, HMAS Lithgow was sold as scrap to the Hong Kong Delta Shipping Company, Hong Kong.
hHMAS LITHGOW
Extract Corvette Magazine September 2001
At the last Anzac Day gathering the Lithgow contingent, with numbers diminishing each year, decided they should return their march banner to the City for safe keeping.
At the invitation of the Lithgow City Council nine Ex Lithgow crew travelled to that city on 24th July for the opening of an exhibition of HMAS Lithgow to mark the Federation Year. Here at an official function they were welcomed by the Mayor and Jim Davis presented the banner to the City. The impressive banner, the ships bell, and photographs will be on Permanent display in the Council Chambers.
Lithgow was the seventh corvette launched and the third to leave the slips at Mort's Dock. She began he active career in July 1941 as a unit of the 20th Mine-sweeping Flotilla sweeping in Bass Strait and Tasmanian waters. Twenty German mines were swept by the Flotilla during 1941. Lithgow accounting for one of these off Tasman Island on 14th October.
The outbreak of the war with Japan ended sweeping operations for Lithgow and she assumed anti-submarine patrols off Sydney, before proceeding in January 1942 to Darwin, escorting the first US convoy. On 20th January 1942 Lithgow together with sister corvettes Deloraine and Katoomba and the destroyer USS Edsall were successful in sinking the Japanese mine-laying submarine 1-124. Escorting the Darwin - Thursday Island convoys occupied Lithgow until September when she departed from Townsville escorting a troop convoy of three ships to Port Moresby. Then more escort duties with Operation Lilliput protecting New Guinea convoys on the regular supply line between Buna and Oro.
In December she took part in the landing of troops and equipment at Oro Bay for the Buna campaign. On 30th December 1942 on completion of more than eighteen months service she put into Brisbane for refitting.
On completion of the refit on 5th March 1943 Lithgow began nine months escort and anti-submarine duty on the Queensland coast. In May she helped search for survivors of the Hospital ship Centaur which had been sunk off Morton Island by the Japanese submarine I - 177, no survivors were found. 1944 began with escort duties to New Guinea and a refit in Melbourne. In April she arrived at Milne Bay to begin a period of ten months escort and anti-submarine operations. She was in constant service to Langemak, Hollandia, Madang, Wakde, Biak, Morotai, Noemfoor and Mios Woendi.
After a seven-week refit at Williamstown in April/May 1945 she returned to New Guinea waters, supporting the land forces with anti - barge patrols and bombarding enemy held territory on East Bougainville. She remained based in the Solomon's until the end of September 1945, operating as a minesweeper in the latter period.
An incident during this period emphasised the constant danger that Lithgow and other ships of the RAN were to constantly encounter. Sweeping between the southern extremity of Bougainvillea and the Shortland Islands, a relatively narrow strip of water and close to Japanese held territory, it was discovered to be infested with mines. The Captain decided to withdraw and return to this task at a later date. To navigate through this extremely dangerous situation they had to rely on the skill of the Asdic operator who used the anti - submarine equipment to pinpoint the mines and constantly instruct the helmsman to change course. When the passage was eventually swept, forty eight mines were detected.
Following the cessation of hostilities, Lithgow with war correspondents and photographers set out for the southern tip of Bougainville to rendezvous with a Japanese vessel to accept the surrender of the Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands.
However, when the Japanese barge came alongside, it was discovered that General Kanda was not on board. Captain Takanaka representing General Kanda, carried a message indicating that the General did not have the necessary authority to surrender. Lithgow was then despatched to Raboul in advance of the occupation troops and to sweep the entrance channel of Raboul harbour. She then spent four days in Raboul harbour surrounded by the Japanese, on full alert with a machine gun on each wing of the bridge. Nobody was allowed ashore during this time until the arrival of the troopship Duntroon when Australian troops landed for occupation. The surrender ceremony took place on the British aircraft carrier HMS Glory.
Between 1946/7 Lithgow was operating as a unit of the 20th Mine sweeping Flotilla. The Flotilla consisted of twelve corvettes and the flotilla leader the sloop HMAS Swan. This was the beginning of well over twelve months intensive sweeping operations between the New Britain Solomon's area and the Queensland coast. It was during this time that after many incident free months of duty HMAS Warnambool, which always swept immediately in front of Lithgow, struck a mine and went down with the loss of four dead and twenty nine injured.