1941: HMAS AUSTRALIA [II] leaves Sydney in her only camouflage pattern - Dept of Information.

3899. We don't have the precise date, but for some reason HMAS AUSTRALIA [II] only carried one camouflage pattern during WWII, applied, from memory, during her serviuce in British/North Atlantic waters at the end of 1940. In his 1982 book 'The Royal Australia Navy: Historic Naval Events Year by Year,' from which this pic is taken, the late Lew Lind says camouflage was dispensed with in 1943.*

 

The camouflage seen here is the same pattern, but much faded from that shown in the next image, taken in Scotland the year before.

 

One can see that the photograph above was before the outbreak of the Pacific War, and AUSTRALIA does not yet have the AA basins located on the top of 'B' and 'X' turrets. In any event, on June 8, 1943, AUSTRALIA was wearing A US Navy dark blue scheme when photographed by an RAAF 7th Squadron aircraft at Palm Island, off Townsville. We had a great photo of her there at pic NO. 165, which can be seen here:

 

www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/3850881649/

 

*We're not sure how broadly Lew Lind's comment about camouflage being dispensed with in 1943 was intended, perhaps just HMAS AUSTRALIA. As we've seen. HMAS SHROPSHIRE arrived in Australia with a heavy Admiralty camouflage pattern in September 1943, and HMAS ADELAIDE had camouflage from 1941 to the end of her WWII service. It could still be seen as she was being broken up at Port Kembla in 1949.

 

Photo: Department of Information, it is held in the Naval Historical Collection, Australian War Memorial image ID NO. 007066, listed as copyright expired, public domain.It appears in the late Lew Lind's book 'The Royal Australian Navy: Historic Naval Events Year By Year' Reed Books, Sydney 1982] p94.

 

A three-part COMPENDIUM of links to more than 200 HMAS AUSTRALIA [II] images on this Photostream begins at Pic Entry NO 5412, here:

 

www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/6627997309/in/photostream

 

 

Done