HMAS Anzac (D59)
Template:Short description Template:Other ships Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English
Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristicsHMAS Anzac (D59) was a Template:Sclass2 of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Named after the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the destroyer was commissioned in 1951. The ship served on two tours of duty during the Korean War, and attempts to distinguish herself from British ships led to the practice of red kangaroo symbols on Australian warships. During 1956, Anzac served during the Malayan Emergency. In 1960, a malfunction in the destroyer's gun direction equipment caused Anzac to fire directly on sister ship Template:HMAS during a gunnery exercise, with Tobruk left unrepairable. In 1961, the destroyer was reclassified as a training vessel. Anzac remained in service until 1974, and was sold for breaking a year later.
Design and construction
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Anzac was built to the British Template:Sclass2 design.<ref name=Cassells10>Cassells, The Destroyers, p. 10</ref> The ship had a displacement of 2,436 tons as designed, although this displacement increased to 3,450 tons after her 1963 reclassification as a training ship.<ref name=Cassells10/> She was Template:Convert long overall and Template:Convert long between perpendiculars, with a beam of Template:Convert, and a draught of Template:Convert.<ref name=Cassells10/> Propulsion was provided by two Admiralty 3-drum boilers supplying steam to Parsons geared turbines; these generated Template:Convert for the destroyer's two propeller shafts.<ref name=Cassells10/> Anzac was designed to reach Template:Convert, but could usually only reach Template:Convert.<ref name=Cassells10/> 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.<ref name=Cassells10/>
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The main armament of Anzac consisted of four [[QF 4.5-inch Mk I – V naval gun|Template:Convert Mark VI]] guns in two twin turrets.<ref name=Cassells10/> This was supplemented by twelve Bofors 40 mm guns for air defence, (three twin mountings and six single mountings, a Squid anti-submarine mortar, and two sets of 5-tube [[British 21 inch torpedo|Template:Convert]] Pentad torpedo launchers.<ref name=Cassells10/>
Anzac was laid down by the Williamstown Naval Dockyard at Melbourne, Victoria on 23 September 1946.<ref name=Cassells10/> 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.<ref>Cassells, The Destroyers, p. 9</ref> 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.<ref name=Cassells10/><ref name=PerrymanDjokovic>Perryman & Djokovic, Ships Named Anzac</ref> Anzac was commissioned as a ship of the RAN on 14 March 1951.<ref name=Cassells10/> Acceptance from dockyard hands occurred on 22 March.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/>
Operational history
On 30 July 1951, Anzac left Australian waters for her first deployment to the Korean War.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/> Arriving in Japan on 14 August, the destroyer was assigned as an escort to the United States Navy (USN) escort carrier Template:USS and operated off the west coast of Korea.<ref>Cassells, The Destroyers, pp. 10–11</ref> Sicily was replaced by the Royal Navy (RN) light carrier Template:HMS on 2 September, and on 6 September, Anzac was ordered to shell a suspected communist position near Haeju, and fired in anger for the first time at 18:15.<ref name=Cassells11>Cassells, The Destroyers, p. 11</ref> During 12–26 September, Anzac led US Ships Template:USS and Template:USS in a blockade of Wosan, before returning to Japanese waters at the end of the month.<ref name=Cassells11/>
Her first Korean tour completed, Anzac escorted HMS Glory to Sydney, where they arrived on 20 October.<ref name=Cassells11/> The destroyer then proceeded to Melbourne for a refit, which lasted until the end of 1951, and remained in Australian waters until deploying with the cruiser Template:HMAS in April 1952 for a training cruise through Maritime Southeast Asia.<ref name=Cassells11/> After undergoing another, brief refit, Anzac rejoined the Korean War effort, and spent most of September patrolling the west coast of Korea, then joined the escort screen of the RN light carrier Template:HMS at the start of October.<ref name=Cassells11/> After a short break in Kure, the destroyer was assigned to patrols and shore bombardments on the west coast until 19 December, when she relieved Template:HMCS and assumed responsibility for the defence of Yongdo Island.<ref name=Cassells11/> Herself relieved on 3 January 1953, Anzac returned to the west coast of Korea, where she resumed patrols and bombardments.<ref name=Cassells11/> Apart from a brief stint on the east coast shelling supply lines and a visit to Tokyo to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Anzac operated off the west coast until 13 June; the conclusion of her second Korean tour.<ref name=Cassells11/> Anzac arrived in Sydney on 3 July.<ref name=Cassells11/>
For her two tours, Anzac was awarded the battle honour "Korea 1951–53".<ref name=honourslist/> During these tours, the ship's company often found themselves mistaken for British warships, as the RAN ensign at the time was identical to the British White Ensign, and the Battle class was a British design.<ref name=Cassells11/> To counteract this, the executive officer acquired the largest sheet of brass he could find, and had the kangaroo design from the reverse of the Australian penny cut from the sheet, which was then mounted to the top of the mainmast as a 'weathervane'.<ref>Cassells, The Destroyers, pp. 11–12</ref> 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.<ref>Perryman, The Origin of RAN Squadron and National Insignia</ref>
During late 1953 and early 1954, Anzac was assigned to Queen Elizabeth II's coronation tour.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/> 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.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/>
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".<ref name=honourslist>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=newhonours>Template:Cite news</ref>
Between 1956 and 1959, the destroyer was deployed on several occasions to serve with the Far East Strategic Reserve.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/>
In September 1960, Anzac was performing gunnery exercises with sister ship Template:HMAS.<ref name=FrameWFC>Frame, Where Fate Calls, pp 36–7</ref> A malfunction in AnzacTemplate:'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.<ref name=FrameWFC/> Two of AnzacTemplate:'s personnel were charged by the Naval Board,<ref name=FrameWFC/> while Tobruk was decommissioned a month later.
In March 1961, Anzac completed conversion into a training ship.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/> This conversion included the removal of several weapons systems, including the second 4.5-inch turret, and the conversion of the freed space to classrooms and training spaces.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/> Cadet midshipmen from the RAN training facility at Template:HMAS and supplementary list midshipmenTemplate:Clarify (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.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/> Training cruises typically occurred through the South Pacific, with several port visits to broaden the trainees' cultural horizons.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/>
During February and March 1963, Anzac served as escort for Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Yacht Britannia during the royal tour of Australia.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/><ref name=Cassells12/> In October, Anzac accompanied the troop transport Template:HMAS on a training cruise in northern Queensland waters.<ref name=FrameWFC37>Frame, Where Fate Calls, p. 37</ref> 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.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/> In September 1965, Anzac and the carrier Template:HMAS escorted Sydney on the outbound leg of her second troop-transport voyage to Vietnam.<ref name=NottPayne170>Nott & Payne, The Vung Tau Ferry, p. 170</ref><ref name=Grey106>Grey, Up Top, p. 106</ref> On 21 May 1968, Anzac and Sydney left Brisbane on the latter's eleventh of twenty-five Vietnam voyages.<ref name=NottPayne173>Nott & Payne, The Vung Tau Ferry, p. 173</ref> The ships arrived at Vũng Tàu on 1 June, and returned to Brisbane on 13 June.<ref name=NottPayne173/> During 1969, Anzac visited Tahiti and Western Samoa, and was in New Zealand for the bicentenary of James Cook's landing at Poverty Bay.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/> 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.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/> During the training cruises of the ship's final years, Anzac visited Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and New Zealand.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/> HMAS Anzac escorted HMS Britannia during the Commonwealth Games held in Christchurch NZ during 1974 berthing at Lyttelton Harbour.
Decommissioning and fate
Anzac was berthed at Garden Island on 11 August, in preparation for paying off.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/> She was decommissioned on 4 October 1974, after travelling Template:Convert.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/> 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.<ref name=PerrymanDjokovic/><ref name=Cassells12>Cassells, The Destroyers, p. 12</ref>
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