text:
HMAS Tobruk (L 50)
For other ships with the same name, see HMAS Tobruk.
HMAS Tobruk at Fleet Base East in 2013
Namesake: The Siege of Tobruk
Ordered: 3 November 1977 (construction contract signed)
Builder: Carrington Slipways, Tomago
Cost: $59 million[1]
Laid down: 7 February 1978
Launched: 1 March 1980
Commissioned: 23 April 1981
Decommissioned: 31 July 2015
Motto: "Faithful and Strong"
Honours and
Battle honours:
East Timor 1999
Plus two inherited honours
Status: Sunk as dive wreck
Class and type: Modified Round Table-class Landing Ship Heavy
Displacement:
3,353 tons (standard)
5,791 (full load)
Length: 127 m (417 ft)
Beam: 18.3 m (60 ft)
Draught: 4.9 m (16 ft)
Propulsion: 2 × Mirrlees Blackstone KDMR8 diesel engines, 9,600 horsepower (7,200 kW), 2 shafts
Speed: 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Range: 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Boats & landing
craft carried: 2 × LCM-8, 2 × LCVP, 2 x NLE pontoons
300 to 520 soldiers (long vs. short term)
1,300 tons of cargo or 330 lane metres of vehicles
Complement: 148, including 13 officers (as of 2012)
Sensors and
processing systems:
Kelvin Hughes Type 1006 surface search radar
Kelvin Hughes Type 1007 navigational radar
Armament:
As built:
2 × 12.7 mm machine guns
2 × Bofors 40/60 bow mounted guns
Final:
2 × Mini Typhoon Guns
Aviation facilities:
2 helicopter spots on main cargo deck
1 helicopter spot on rear flight deck
Both decks rated up to Chinook
HMAS Tobruk (L 50) was a Landing Ship Heavy (LSH) of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), based on the design of the Round Table-class of the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary. Planning for the ship began in the 1970s to provide the Australian Army with a permanent sealift capability, she was laid down by Carrington Slipways in 1979, launched in 1980, and commissioned in 1981. She was a multi-purpose, roll-on/roll-off heavy lift ship capable of transporting soldiers, APCs, and tanks, and delivering them to shore via landing craft or directly by beaching.
The ship experienced problems during her early career with her engines (which differed from the British base design) and sewerage system (leading to the death of a cadet in 1981). During the 1980s, the ship delivered supplies to the Multinational Force and Observers on the Sinai Peninsula, assisted in the withdrawal from RAAF Base Butterworth, provided support and accommodation for delegates to the South Pacific Forum, and was part of the Australian response to the 1987 Fijian coups d'état. In the early 1990s, Tobruk was part of ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the landing at Anzac Cove, then after a refit, participated in peacekeeping efforts in Somalia.
Plans to replace Tobruk with one of the Kanimbla-class ships began in 1993. She was offered for sale to the Royal New Zealand Navy, who refused because of the ship's manpower requirements. Delays in converting the Kanimbla's for service meant Tobruk continued with normal operations during the 1990s. Attempts to sell the ship to the British and the Portuguese did not succeed, and in 1997 the decision was made to keep Tobruk, as the Kanimbla's could not completely replace the heavy lift capability provided. During this period, Tobruk was deployed to Bougainville on several occasions as peacekeeping operations during the Bougainville Civil War. At the end of the decade, Tobruk operated as part of the INTERFET peacekeeping operation in East Timor.
In 2000 and 2001, Tobruk was sent to the Solomon Islands on several deployments in response to the civil war: first to evacuate Australian citizens, then as a neutral venue for peace talks. From late 2001 to early 2002, the ship was in northern Australian waters on border-protection duties as part of Operation Relex. During 2005 and early 2006, Tobruk sailed to the Middle East on several occasions to deliver vehicles and cargo to Australian forces in the region. Tobruk and the two Kanimbla's were set to East Timor in mid-2006 in response to the 2006 East Timorese crisis, forming the first RAN amphibious readiness group since World War II. The rest of the decade included further border protection deployments under Operation Resolute, a visit to Hawaii for the RIMPAC multinational naval exercise, support for the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program, relief operations following the 2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami, and use as the venue for a Fall Out Boy concert.
After spending several months in 2010 undergoing extended maintenance, Tobruk participated in the United States Navy's Pacific Partnership humanitarian assistance deployment; because of the need for propeller shaft repairs, Tobruk could not be part of the military response to Cyclone Yasi. Heavy use and lack of maintenance in previous years began to take its toll, with Tobruk unavailable for service on several occasions during the early 2010s; as the two Kanimbla's had been forced out of service by ongoing issues, the Australian government had to charter a succession of civilian ships to provide standby heavy transport capability. In 2013, Tobruk again participated in Pacific Partnership, followed by a visit to the Philippines with disaster relief supplies after Typhoon Haiyan. In early 2015, the ship was part of the response to Cyclone Pam's impact on Vanuatu. Tobruk was decommissioned in July 2015, and was scuttled as a dive wreck in June 2018.
1 Design and construction
2 Operational history
2.3 2000–present
3 Decommissioning and fate
Design and construction[edit]
In the late 1970s, it was decided that the Australian Army needed to be provided with a long-term sealift capability, preferably through the acquisition of a dedicated cargo ship;[2] the chartering of civilian ships to provide this capability when required—as had been done with the merchant vessels Jeparit and Boonaroo during the Vietnam War—was considered and rejected, because Australian National Line was unable to provide the necessary level of support.[2] It was decided that a purpose-built ship would be constructed for the role, and would be operated by the RAN.[2] While the Army did not require that the ship be capable of beaching, the RAN set this as a requirement, to maximise the ship's flexibility. In 1975, the Navy successfully convinced Australian Military's Force Structure Committee to endorse this requirement over the Army's opposition, and the committee authorised the purchase of a Landing Ship Heavy (LSH) on 19 March 1975.[3]
HMAS Tobruk beaching during an exercise in 2006
Two designs were considered for Tobruk, with a modified Sir- or Round Table-class landing ship logistics, in use with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary at the time, selected for construction.[2] Tobruk's design was based on RFA Sir Bedivere, the second of the class, which had been modified following the Royal Fleet Auxiliary's experience with operating the class' lead ship, RFA Sir Lancelot.[4] The ship is designed as a multi-purpose, roll-on/roll-off heavy lift and transport vessel;[5] the Australian modifications to the design were kept to a minimum to simplify construction; the most significant changes were to improve the ship's ability to operate both large and multiple helicopters, fitting an operations room, and adding a derrick with a lift of 70 tonnes. Most of the other changes related to bringing accommodation conditions into line with Australian requirements. Like the other ships of the Round Table class, Tobruk was built to commercial rather than military standards, and is unable to sustain as much damage as warships.[6]
The ship has a standard displacement of 3,353 tons, and a full load displacement of 5,791 tons,[5] she is 127 metres (417 ft) in length, with a beam of 18.3 metres (60 ft), and a draught of 4.9 metres (16 ft).[5] Propulsion machinery consists of two Mirrlees Blackstone KDMR8 diesels, which provide 9,600 horsepower (7,200 kW) to the ship's two propeller shafts;[7] the ship was fitted with different engines to those used in the equivalent British ships, which were proven unreliable early in Tobruk's career.[8] Top speed is 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph), with a range of 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).[7] A 400 horsepower (300 kW) bow thruster is also fitted to assist with confined-waters manoeuvring.[9] Armament initially consisted of two 40/60 Bofors guns, supplemented by two 12.7 mm machine guns.[10] During the 1990s, the Bofors were removed,[11] they were later replaced by two Mini Typhoon 12.7 mm mounts, which were not permanently installed but fitted as needed, and the number of standard 12.7 mm machine guns was increased to six.[5] The sensor suite includes a Kelvin Hughes Type 1006 surface search radar and a Kelvin Hughes Type 1007 navigational radar.[7] In 2012, the ship's company was 148, including 13 officers.[7]
Tobruk is capable of embarking between 300 and 520 soldiers (extended duration versus short term), along with 1,300 tons of cargo or 330 lane metres of vehicles (equivalent to 18 Leopard 1 or M1 Abrams main battle tanks plus 40 M113 armored personnel carriers or Australian Light Armoured Vehicles).[5][7][10] Vehicles and cargo can be embarked via bow or stern ramps, with the reinforced tank-deck running the length of the ship, and inter-deck transfer ramps fitted;[5][12] the bow ramp is contained behind horizontal-opening bow doors, and can be extended and lowered for beach or harbour loading, while at the stern a combined door-ramp can be used conventionally when at suitable facilities, or for ramp-to-ramp loading of landing craft at sea.[12] Additional cargo handling is provided by the 70-tonne Velle heavy lift derrick (a feature singled out for attention in Jane's Fighting Ships), supplemented by two 8.5-tonne Favco cranes.[5][10] Two LCM-8 landing craft can be carried in cradles on the main deck, while two LCVP are carried in derricks on the superstructure.[5][10] Two Naval Lighterage Equipment pontoons can be carried on the ship's flanks to extend the reach of the bow ramp when beaching, or as rafts to transport cargo ashore;[9] the ship has an aft helicopter platform capable of handling aircraft up to Sea King size, while the main deck (once cleared of landing craft and cargo) can be used as a secondary flight deck for helicopters up to Chinook size.[7][12] Both flight decks can be operated simultaneously, and both have capability for landed or at-hover refuelling.[5]
Tobruk was built by Carrington Slipways, Tomago, New South Wales; the company was selected following a competitive tender in May 1977, with contract negotiations completed on 3 November 1977.[13] Construction of Tobruk formally began on 7 February 1978, when the ship's keel was laid.[10] Tobruk was launched on 1 March 1980 by Lady Anna Cowen, wife of Governor General Zelman Cowen;[5][14] the ship left the dockyard for the first time in December 1980: her construction had been delayed by over four months by industrial disputes, and her final cost of A$59 million was 42 percent greater than originally estimated.[1][15] The ship's sea trials were conducted in early 1981 off Newcastle and Port Stephens by a joint Navy-Army-civilian crew, and fitting out was completed on 7 April 1981. Tobruk was handed over to the Navy on 11 April 1981 and was commissioned at Newcastle on 23 April;[16] the ship's name had been selected in 1976 and refers to the Siege of Tobruk during World War II, in which the RAN's 'Scrap Iron Flotilla' supplied the besieged 9th Australian Division.[4] She is the second RAN ship of this name; preceded by the Battle-class destroyer HMAS Tobruk (D37). She is the first purpose-built major amphibious vessel in RAN service, and is classified as a Landing Ship Heavy by the RAN.[17]
Operational history[edit]
1980s[edit]
Following her commissioning, Tobruk proceeded to her initial home port of HMAS Moreton in Brisbane, Queensland for the first time, then undertook further sea trials. These trials were conducted during the winter of 1981, and were intended to both test whether the ship met her design specifications and develop procedures for landing helicopters and beaching; the trials were generally successful, although Tobruk's engines continued to be unreliable and problems were encountered with the sewage system.[18] The ship undertook its first tasking in the spring of 1981 when she transported elements of the 16th Air Defence Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery from Adelaide to Port Alma, Queensland. Following this Tobruk proceeded to Port Phillip Bay and suffered a serious engine malfunction while approaching Station Pier. While the engines were repaired, the main engine control mechanism was later found to be entirely unreliable and had to be redesigned and reconstructed at Brisbane. During trials following this repair the ship's sewerage system seriously malfunctioned, fatally gassing one of the Australian Navy Cadets who had been embarked for seagoing experience;[19] the cadet's death led to an inquiry into the ship by the Commonwealth Government's Auditor General which concluded that she should not have been accepted by the RAN at the time she was commissioned due to the number of defects still present.[20]
HMAS Tobruk in 1987
Tobruk conducted her first trips outside Australia in the early 1980s. On 15 February 1982, the ship left Brisbane to transport eight UH-1 Iroquois helicopters from the Royal Australian Air Force, plus supporting stores, to join the Australian contingent to the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai Peninsula. Tobruk arrived in Ashdod, Israel on 19 March, becoming the first Australian warship to visit the country, and arrived back in Brisbane on 30 April; the ship transported cyclone relief stores to Tonga in May and spent the remainder of the year undertaking tasks in Australian waters. These included supporting the 1982 Commonwealth Games, which were held in Brisbane. In early 1983, Tobruk travelled to Malaysia to assist the RAAF in withdrawing units from RAAF Base Butterworth. In February 1984, Tobruk took part in exercises in New Zealand, before travelling to Tuvalu in August, where she provided support and accommodation for delegates to the South Pacific Forum.[21] In late 1985, the naval base HMAS Moreton was decommissioned, prompting the disbanding of the Amphibious Squadron (which had consisted of Tobruk and the six Balikpapan-class landing craft) and the relocation of Tobruk's homeport to Fleet Base East in Sydney.[22]
In May 1987, Tobruk formed part of the Australian military force which deployed to Fiji following the 1987 Fijian coups d'état; the goal of this deployment, which was designated Operation Morris Dance, was to evacuate Australian citizens if necessary. Tobruk left Sydney carrying Army stores and five helicopters on 21 May and embarked 'B' Company of the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) at Norfolk Island on 23 May. Tobruk joined HMA Ships Sydney, Parramatta and Success off Suva on 26 May. By this time it had become clear that there would not be a need to evacuate Australians from Fiji, and Tobruk proceeded to support the South Pacific Forum meeting at Apia, Samoa after cross-decking the troops and their supplies to the other ships. Operation Morris Dance revealed serious shortcomings in the Australian Defence Force's ability to deploy forces outside Australia, with the Army unit having no previous experience of amphibious operations and the naval helicopters being unable to carry Army supplies.[23]
After Operation Morris Dance, Tobruk returned to mainly routine duties, she travelled to New Zealand on a training cruise in early 1988 and was placed on alert to carry an Army force to evacuate Australian civilians from Vanuatu in April 1988 following a political crisis there. While Tobruk was loaded with stores and three Sea King helicopters, this deployment did not eventuate and the ship was unloaded on 24 May; the ship transported the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment's vehicles and supplies to the west coast of the United States in early 1989 and participated in a joint Australian, British, Canadian and United States amphibious warfare exercise at Monterey Bay. The ship then visited Canada before returning to Australia. In December 1989, Tobruk was forced to undergo unscheduled repairs at Newcastle to repair damage caused by excessive vibration, which had possibly been caused by her engines revving at a higher rate than the ship had been designed for.[24]
Tobruk began the 1990s with another deployment at short notice to the South Pacific. On 26 January 1990, she was tasked to assist with evacuating Australian citizens from Bougainville in Papua New Guinea; this operation was cancelled in early February while the ship was travelling to the island from Sydney. On 5 March, Tobruk left Sydney bound for Gallipoli, Turkey in company with HMAS Sydney to participate in ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the landing at Anzac Cove. Tobruk carried vehicles, stores and support personnel for the ceremony on 25 April, with many of the ship's crew also going ashore to visit the battlefields on Anzac Day.[25] In 1991, the ship was refitted by Forgacs (formerly Carrington Slipways) in the company's new floating dock;[26] the refit was delayed by industrial action by the Painters and Dockers Union.[26]
Tobruk with Adelaide underway as part of an Australian/U.S. Navy task group commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1992
In late December 1992, Tobruk was selected to take part in Operation Solace, Australia's contribution to the international peacekeeping effort in Somalia.[27] Initial notice of the deployment was given on 9 December, then confirmed on 15 December, with personnel recalled from leave.[28] Working-up exercises ran between 22 and 26 December, before the ship left Sydney for Townsville.[28] En route, the ship's company was informed that Tobruk would remain on station in Somalia for the duration of Operation Solace.[28] In Townsville, equipment and vehicles for 1RAR and elements of the 3rd/4th Cavalry Regiment (Australia).[27][28][29] Tobruk sailed for Somalia on 1 January 1993: the loading process was delayed by another serious toxic gas incident in one of the ship's sewerage plants;[27] the sealift operation in support Operation Solace, conducted by Tobruk and Jervis Bay, was the largest performed by the RAN since the Vietnam War.[29] Tobruk arrived at Mogadishu on 19 January, and unloaded during 20 January,[28] she spent the next few days at anchor, during which she was used as a training platform for boarding and seizure operations by the United States Navy SEALs, in their preparation for the arrival of a merchant vessel smuggling weapons.[28][29] Between 26 and 28 January, Tobruk visited Mombasa, Kenya to collect building materials for the reconstruction of the United States embassy in Somalia.[28]
The ship remained in Somali waters until late May, apart from runs to Mombasa to embark humanitarian supplies, along with a port visit to the Seychelles in late April;[27][28] as well as providing heavy lift and logistic support, Tobruk provided the main communications link for 1RAR back to Australia, and served as a venue for rest and recreation for soldiers.[28][29] Re-embarkation of Australian equipment began on 14 May, and Tobruk sailed for home on 20 May;[27][28] the ship called at Diego Garcia and Singapore before unloading in Townsville, then returning to Sydney on 21 June.[28] After a maintenance period lasting until August, Tobruk resumed normal exercise and training routines;[28] the ship was awarded the Gloucester Cup for 1993 for her service off Somalia and subsequent operations during the year.[27][28]
In 1993, the Australian Government decided to purchase two ex-United States Navy Newport-class tank landing ships to replace Tobruk and the navy's training and sealift ship Jervis Bay in 1994. Plans were developed to place Tobruk in reserve or lease her to the Royal New Zealand Navy. While the New Zealand government was interested in obtaining a sealift ship, the RNZN did not feel that it could afford to crew and operate Tobruk and the negotiations with New Zealand ended unsuccessfully in September 1994; the unexpected difficulty of converting the two LSTs into the Kanimbla class led to the date of Tobruk's retirement being postponed to mid-1996, with the ship continuing normal operations.[30] After the negotiations with New Zealand ended, the RAN opened negotiations with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, which was considering scrapping one of their Round Tables and replacing it with Tobruk. A British team travelled to Australia to inspect the ship in December 1994, but this sale did not eventuate; the Portuguese Navy expressed interest in buying Tobruk in 1995 and sent a team to Sydney in 1996 to inspect the ship. During this period Tobruk remained in active service, and in 1997 the new Liberal Party government decided to retain her until 2010 as the two LSTs could not fully replace her ability to carry heavy equipment; the period of uncertainty about the ship's fate led to a deterioration in her material condition, as she did not receive a major refit during the period she was up for sale.[31]
Tobruk played an important role in efforts to end the civil war in Bougainville during the 1990s. In September 1994, she transported an Australian peacekeeping force to Bougainville to protect peace talks which were attempting to end the civil war on the island; these talks were not successful and during the deployment one of the ship's Sea King helicopters was damaged by small arms fire; the first damage sustained by a RAN unit since the Vietnam War.[32] A peace agreement was signed in October 1997, and Tobruk returned to Bougainville in November of that year to deploy a peace monitoring group; the ship made several voyages to the island during the first four months of 1998 to support the peace process. Further voyages to Bougainville took place in September 1998, February 2000 and August 2003; the last of these was to extract the peace monitoring group following the successful conclusion of this mission. Tobruk also participated in a major international exercise in South East Asia in 1999.[33]
In 1999 and 2000, Tobruk took part in the international peacekeeping effort in East Timor. On 30 August 1999, the day the referendum which led to East Timor's independence was held, she left Sydney for Townsville to load elements of the 3rd Brigade in case there was a need to evacuate Australians and other foreigners from East Timor; the referendum was followed by widespread violence and the Indonesian government agreed to an international peacekeeping force (the International Force for East Timor (INTERFET) being deployed to East Timor in mid-September. Tobruk left Darwin on 18 September under escort by HMS Glasgow, and arrived at Dili on 21 September. The ship made six further voyages between Darwin and East Timor in September and October 1999, and continued to make an important contribution to the peacekeeping operation until November, when she returned to Sydney for maintenance. Tobruk made two further trips to East Timor in March and April 2000.[34] Tobruk was later awarded the battle honour "East Timor 1999" in recognition of her contribution to INTERFET.[35][36]
2000–present[edit]
In mid-2000, a civil war broke out in the Solomon Islands; Tobruk was ordered to the Islands' capital, Honiara, to evacuate Australian citizens, she arrived on 8 June and embarked 486 civilians, who were then transported to Cairns, Queensland. After a brief maintenance period, Tobruk returned to the Solomons in late June, where she served as the venue for peace talks, she spent almost all of July at anchor off Honiara and returned to Australia after a cease-fire agreement was signed on board the ship on 2 August. Tobruk made a further voyage to the Solomons in December 2000 to support the International Peace Monitoring team which had been established there. A peace treaty ending the conflict was signed on board the ship on 7 February 2001 and she returned to Sydney on 15 February.[37] Tobruk took part of Operation Relex in late 2001 and early 2002 where she transported would-be refugees to Nauru and Christmas Island, she also made a further voyage from Darwin to East Timor in April 2002 to deliver supplies to the Australian Defence Force units there.[38]
Tobruk unloading an ASLAV during her deployment to the Middle East in 2005
In April 2005, HMAS Tobruk left Sydney to transport 20 ASLAVs to Kuwait, where they would equip the Australian Army's Al Muthanna Task Group in Iraq; the ASLAVs were embarked at Darwin on 18 April and the ship arrived at Kuwait on 9 May. She returned to Australia via India, arriving back in Sydney on 22 June.[39] Tobruk undertook a second voyage to the Middle East in late 2006 to transport the equipment for the Army forces in the Reconstruction Task Force in Afghanistan and arrived home via the Philippines in April 2007.[40]
Tobruk travelled to Nias Island in Indonesia in March 2006 to support ceremonies commemorating the anniversary of the crash of Sea King helicopter Shark 02 there on 2 April 2005. Following this deployment, she took part in Exercise Croix du Sud off New Caledonia, then proceeded to the Philippines where she was to embark an OV-10 Bronco aircraft for the Australian War Memorial.[41] In mid-May, Tobruk was recalled from her voyage to the Philippines to embark elements of the 3rd Brigade for an urgent deployment to East Timor following fighting caused by unrest in the country's military, she proceeded to Dili in company with the Navy's two Kanimbla-class landing platform amphibious ships. This was the first time that an Australian amphibious readiness group had been formed since World War II;[42] the Group departed from Townsville on 23 May and arrived at Dili a few days later. After unloading her cargo, Tobruk returned to Townsville where she embarked a second load of vehicles and supplies for the Australian forces in East Timor, arriving back at Dili in the first week of June, she returned to Sydney in late June.[43]
In November 2006 it was reported that while the Department of Defence had engaged a specialist to supervise the removal of large quantities of asbestos from Tobruk, her crew were concerned that the ship was continuing operations during the overhaul; the report also stated that removal of the material had been delayed for several years due to the ship's high operational tempo.[44]
In late December 2007, two groups of 60 Australian Navy Cadets and staff were embarked aboard Tobruk for the final part of the ship's deployment with Operation Resolute and the return voyage from Darwin to Sydney;[45] this was the first time cadets had been embarked under these conditions.[45][clarification needed] The first group remained aboard until Tobruk arrived in Cairns, where they were replaced with the second group for the return to Sydney.[45]
An 817 Squadron RAN Sea King helicopter landing on Tobruk's stern flight deck in 2008
In 2008, Tobruk formed part of the Australia Defence Force's contingent during the annual RIMPAC exercise off Hawaii,[46] she left Sydney on 10 June and returned on 18 August. During the exercise Tobruk embarked and landed United States Marines Amphibious Assault Vehicles.[47][48] In October, Tobruk and HMAS Brunei supported the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program (AACAP) by transporting equipment from Kalumburu, Western Australia at the end of an AACAP project.[49]
On 22 February 2009, Tobruk was used as the venue for a Fall Out Boy concert.[50] From 3 April to 24 June she operated off northern Australia as part of Operation Resolute.[51] On 16 April she was one of the ships which responded to an explosion on board the refugee ship 'Siev 36'. During this operation she provided medical treatment to people wounded in the blast and her embarked Sea King helicopter flew the more badly injured to Mungalalu Truscott Airbase.[52] Tobruk subsequently carried 136 refugees to Christmas Island in early May.[53] During the period 3 April to 24 June she spent 79 days at sea and only four in port, steamed 16,867 nautical miles (31,238 km) and embarked more than 250 asylum seekers.[51] In October 2009 she sailed to Samoa to conduct relief operations after the islands were affected by the 2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami.[54]
Tobruk completed a period of extended maintenance in April 2010; as of late May that year, she had sailed 823,587 nautical miles (1,525,283 km; 947,767 mi) during her service with the RAN.[54] During the first week of September 2010, Tobruk and two other RAN amphibious ships participated in the United States-led Pacific Partnership 2010 deployment in Papua New Guinea.[55]
Tobruk during International Fleet Review 2013 Open Day
In early 2011, Tobruk was at Garden Island Naval Dockyard for heavy repairs to the propeller shaft; as a result, she was not available to participate in Operation Yasi Assist following Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi and, due to both ships of the Kanimbla class being out of service with mechanical problems, the Navy did not have an amphibious transport capacity at the time.[56] Minister for Defence Stephen Smith stated afterwards that he was misinformed about when Tobruk would be ready to put to sea if required.[57][58] Temporary repairs were completed by 7 March, and the ship was returned to "48-hours deployment notice" status, although more permanent repairs will be required in the future.[59] Following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011, Tobruk and Sydney were placed on alert to transport supplies and Australian Army engineers to Japan if this was requested by the Japanese Government.[60] In May 2011, the ship began a two-month-long maintenance period in Sydney.[61] To provide an amphibious capability during this refit, the civilian icebreaker Aurora Australis was chartered from May until August.[61][62] Although Tobruk was to be active during late August and early September, she would then return to dockyard hands for further maintenance during September and October in preparation for the 2011–12 tropical cyclone season;[62] the Australian Customs vessel Ocean Protector was used for humanitarian and disaster relief operations during Tobruk's docking.[62]
In June 2013, Tobruk was deployed to Papua New Guinea as part of the annual United States Navy Pacific Partnership humanitarian assistance operation.[63] Tobruk was designated the command platform for Pacific Partnership operations around Papua New Guinea during her seven-week deployment, and she was accompanied by the Japanese destroyer Yamagiri.[63][64] In October, Tobruk participated in the International Fleet Review 2013.[65] On 18 November, the ship sailed from Townsville with disaster relief supplies for Tacloban City and coastal regions of Leyte in the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan;[66] the ship returned to Sydney on 21 December.[67]
In March 2015, Tobruk was deployed to Vanuatu as part of Australia's response to Cyclone Pam; the ship embarked 355 personnel and a helicopter.[68] Tobruk visited Newcastle, her city of origin, for the seventh and final time on 19 June 2015.[26] From there, the ship sailed to Sydney, arriving on 25 June;[26][69] that day Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten and Speaker of the House of Representatives Bronwyn Bishop made statements in parliament acknowledging the ship's service.[69][70]
Decommissioning and fate[edit]
Tobruk was decommissioned in Sydney on 31 July 2015.[14][69] During her 34-year operational history, Tobruk sailed over 947,000 nautical miles (1,754,000 km; 1,090,000 mi), and was deployed on 26 major operations (more than any other ADF unit), leading to a reputation as the "workhorse of the RAN".[71]
Several entities called for the ship to be scuttled as a dive wreck. Federal Member of Parliament Keith Pitt spent several years campaigning for the scuttling of a warship in Hervey Bay as a tourist attraction, with Tobruk his preferred vessel.[72] Another proposal came from the community of St Helens, Tasmania, for the ship to be sunk in Skeleton Bay;[73] the Gold Coast also expressed interest.[72][73]
On 2 December 2016 it was announced that Tobruk would be scuttled off the Fraser Coast, at a location halfway between Bundaberg and Hervey Bay, by late 2018;[74] as the ship awaited its scuttling, Tobruk was located between the Australian Navy Cadet Base TS Bundaberg and the Burnett Heads Marina.[75] The ship was transported to this area in late 2016 and was used as a tourist attraction whilst undergoing preparations for scuttling.[76]
She was sunk off the coast between Bundaberg and Hervey Bay on 29 June 2018,[77] but instead of coming to rest upright on its keel, the ship instead rolled 90 degrees to starboard (right) and came to rest on its side in a position that severely limits its dive opportunities.[78][79]
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^ Doolan (2007), pp. 8–13.
^ a b Doolan (2007), p. 15.
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^ a b Gillett (1988), p. 81
^ a b c d e Sharpe (ed.), (1998), p. 30
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^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Royal Australian Navy, HMAS Tobruk (II) – Part 2
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^ Brooke (2008), Tobruk spirit
^ Sea Power Centre (2006).
^ Allard, Tom (28 November 2006). "Falling dust: crew sounds alarm over asbestos in navy ship". The Sydney Morning Herald.
^ a b c Royal Australian Navy (2008).
^ "RIMPAC 2008 Australian units". United States Navy. Archived from the original on 4 August 2008. Retrieved 7 February 2009.
^ "Aloha RIMPAC" (Press release). Department of Defence. 10 June 2008. Retrieved 7 February 2009.
^ "Homecoming for HMAS Tobruk" (Press release). Department of Defence. 19 August 2008. Retrieved 7 February 2009.
^ "HMAS TOBRUK and HMAS BRUNEI assist AACAP". Department of Defence. 28 October 2008. Retrieved 7 February 2009.
^ AAP (2 February 2009). "Fall Out Boy to play on HMAS Tobruk". ABC News. Retrieved 7 February 2009.
^ a b "High Praise for Crew". Navy News. Department of Defence. 23 July 2009. Retrieved 2 August 2009.
^ Knox, Malcolm (17 April 2009). "Many questions but far too few answers". Brisbanetimes.com.au. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
^ Karvelas, Patricia (4 May 2009). "Refugee influx crowding detention centre". The Australian. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
^ a b "Tobruk Marks Major Milestones". Royal Australian Navy. 26 May 2010. Archived from the original on 20 February 2011. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
^ "HMAS Tobruk takes charge at Pacific Partnership". Defence News. Department of Defence. 1 September 2010. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
^ Dan Oates (16 February 2011). "Neglect of amphibious fleet triggers Defence inquiry". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 21 February 2011.
^ Cameron Stewart (16 February 2011). "Defence delivers a costly farce". The Australian. Retrieved 21 February 2011.
^ Alexandra Kirk (15 February 2011). "Navy's third amphibious ship out of action". PM. Retrieved 21 February 2011.
^ Cooper, Hayden (7 March 2011). "Call for heads to roll over rust-bucket Navy". ABC News. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
^ Ellery, David (14 March 2011). "Australia sending ships to Japan". The Canberra Times. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
^ a b "Amphibious Ship Update". Media release (Press release); the Hon. Jason Clare MP Minister for Defence Materiel. Archived from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
^ a b c "Decommissioning of HMAS Kanimbla" (Press release). Minister for Defence Materiel and Minister for Defence. Archived from the original on 29 December 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
^ a b "ADF personnel participate in humanitarian mission". Defence News. Australian Department of Defence. 19 June 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
^ "Navy's Pacific Partnership 2013 Mission to Assist in Oceania". U.S. Pacific Fleet Public Affairs. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
^ "Participating Warships". International Fleet Review 2013 website. Royal Australian Navy. 2013. Archived from the original on 10 December 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
^ McPhedran, Ian (18 November 2013). "Relief ship HMAS Tobruk leaves Townsville bound for the Philippines". The Herald Sun. News Corporation. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
^ Australian Associated Press (21 December 2013). "HMAS Tobruk returns home after aid mission". The Brisbane Times. Retrieved 26 December 2013.
^ "Tropical Cyclone Pam: HMAS Tobruk on its way to Vanuatu to help with rescue efforts". ABC News. 20 March 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
^ a b c Harrison, Claudia (25 June 2015). "Tobruk home to heroes' farewell". Navy Daily. Royal Australian Navy. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
^ "HMAS Tobruk". Hansard. Parliament of Australia. 25 June 2015. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
^ Morley, Dave (13 August 2015). "Better than a 'Mitsi'". Navy News. Royal Australian Navy. p. 15. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
^ a b Johnson, Hayden (5 February 2015). "HMAS Tobruk may be scuttled for divers off Hervey Bay". Fraser Coast Chronicle. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
^ a b Bryan, Emily (27 September 2013). "Tasmania bids for Navy dive ship". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
^ Moore, Tony (2 December 2016). "Fraser Coast wins the battle for HMAS Tobruk". Brisbane Times. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
^ "Bundaberg Region - Tobruk Dive Wreck". www.bundabergregion.org. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
^ "Tickets for ex-HMAS Tobruk tours sold out". News Mail. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
^ "Ex-HMAS Tobruk scuttled off the Queensland coast to become dive wreck". ABC News. 29 June 2018.
^ "Tobruk scuttling a 'devastating failure'". NewsMail. 9 July 2018.
^ "HMAS Tobruk scuttling a 'stuff-up', Queensland tourism operators say". The Guardian Newspaper. 10 July 2018.
Doolan, Ken (2007). HMAS Tobruk: Warship for Every Crisis. Queanbeyan: Grinkle Press. ISBN 978-0-9802821-0-8. OCLC 225713122.
Gillett, Ross (1988). Australian and New Zealand Warships since 1946. Brookvale, NSW: Child & Associates. ISBN 0867772190. OCLC 23470364.
Jones, Peter (2001). "Towards Self Reliance; A Period of Change and Uncertainty". In Stevens, David (ed.). The Royal Australian Navy; the Australian Centenary History of Defence. III. South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-555542-2. OCLC 50418095.
Saunders, Stephen, ed. (2012). IHS Jane's Fighting Ships 2012–2013. Jane's Fighting Ships. Coulsdon: IHS Jane's. ISBN 9780710630087. OCLC 793688752.
Sharpe, Richard, ed. (1998). Jane's Fighting Ships 1998–99. Jane's Fighting Ships (101st ed.). Coulsdon, Surrey: Jane's Information Group. ISBN 071061795X. OCLC 39372676.
News and journal articles
Australian Associated Press (2 February 2009). "Fall Out Boy to perform on HMAS Tobruk". The West Australian. Archived from the original on 31 December 2012. Retrieved 7 February 2009.
Brooke, Michael (5 April 2007). "Tobruk spirit". Navy News. Archived from the original on 13 September 2007. Retrieved 12 August 2008.
"RAN clears amphibious ships for Abrams tank" (Subscription required). Jane's Navy International. 11 August 2004. Retrieved 14 September 2008. [dead link]
"Last blast for Bofors". Royal Australian Navy. 2007. Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2009.
"Navy Cadets in HMAS Tobruk". Royal Australian Navy. 21 January 2008. Archived from the original on 9 January 2009. Retrieved 7 February 2009.
"Operation Astute – the RAN in East Timor". Sea Power Centre – Australia. 2006. Archived from the original on 14 May 2009. Retrieved 13 September 2008.
"HMAS Tobruk (II) – Part 1". Royal Australian Navy. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMAS Tobruk (L 50).
The Carrington Slipways Story on YouTube - HMAS Tobruk footage begins at 17:12.
Round Table-class landing ships logistics
Sir Bedivere
Sir Galahad (1966)
Sir Geraint
Sir Percivale
Sir Tristram
Republic of Singapore Navy
Perseverance (ex-Sir Lancelot)
Modified design
Royal Australian Navy
Almirante Sabóia (ex-Sir Bedivere)
Garcia D'Avila (ex-Sir Galahad (1987))
Preceded by: Mark 8 Landing Craft Tank
Followed by: Bay class
List of amphibious warfare ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary
List of amphibious warfare ships of the Royal Australian Navy
Australian amphibious warfare ships
Canberra-class landing helicopter dock
Bay-class landing ship
Choules
Round Table-class landing ship logistics
Kanimbla-class landing platform amphibious
HSC catamaran
Balikpapan-class landing craft heavy
Wewak
Salamaua
LSM-1-class landing ship medium
Harry Chauvel
Brudenell White
Vernon Sturdee
Clive Steele
Landing Ship Tank (Mark 3)
LST 3008
Landing ship, infantry
Westralia
Australian Army amphibious craft
ALC 50
Landing Ship Medium Mark II
LARC-V
LCM-8
LCM2000 class
Royal Australian Navy amphibious craft
Mexeflote
List of major warship classes of the Royal Australian Navy
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HMAS_Tobruk_(L_50)&oldid=892696399"
Round Table-class landing ships logistics of the Royal Australian Navy
Ships built in New South Wales
Ships sunk as dive sites
Underwater diving sites in Australia
Scuttled vessels of Australia
Wikipedia articles needing clarification from February 2009
Bougainville Island
Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea. This region is known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons, its land area is 9,300 km2. The population of the province is 234,280, which includes the adjacent island of Buka and assorted outlying islands including the Carterets. Mount Balbi at 2,700 m is the highest point. Bougainville Island is the largest of the Solomon Islands archipelago, forming part of the Northern Solomon Islands, politically separate from the sovereign country called Solomon Islands. Bougainville was first settled some 28,000 years ago. Three to four thousand years ago, Austronesian people arrived, bringing with them domesticated pigs, chickens and obsidian tools; the first European contact with Bougainville was in 1768, when the French explorer Louis de Bougainville arrived and named the main island for himself. Germany laid claim to Bougainville in 1899. Christian missionaries arrived on the island in 1902. During World War I, Australia occupied German New Guinea, including Bougainville.
It became part of the Australian Territory of New Guinea under a League of Nations mandate in 1920. In 1942, during World War II, Japan invaded the island, but allied forces launched the Bougainville campaign to regain control of the island in 1943. Despite heavy bombardments, the Japanese garrisons remained on the island until 1945. Following the war, the Territory of New Guinea, including Bougainville, returned to Australian control. In 1949, the Territory of New Guinea, including Bougainville, merged with the Australian Territory of Papua, forming the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, a United Nations Trust Territory under Australian administration. On 9 September 1975, the Parliament of Australia passed the Papua New Guinea Independence Act 1975; the Act set 16 September 1975 as date of independence and terminated all remaining sovereign and legislative powers of Australia over the territory. Bougainville was to become part of an independent Papua New Guinea. However, on 11 September 1975, in a failed bid for self-determination, Bougainville declared itself the Republic of the North Solomons.
The republic failed to achieve any international recognition, a settlement was reached in August 1976. Bougainville was absorbed politically into Papua New Guinea with increased self-governance powers. Between 1988 and 1998, the Bougainville Civil War claimed over 15,000 lives. Peace talks brokered by New Zealand led to autonomy. A multinational Peace Monitoring Group under Australian leadership was deployed. In 2001, a peace agreement was signed including promise of a referendum on independence from Papua New Guinea, which will be held in 2019. Bougainville is the largest island in the Solomon Islands archipelago, it is part of the Solomon Islands rain forests ecoregion. Bougainville and the nearby island of Buka are a single landmass separated by a deep 300-metre-wide strait; the island has an area of 9000 square kilometres, there are several active, dormant or inactive volcanoes which rise to 2400 m. Mount Bagana in the north central part of Bougainville is conspicuously active, spewing out smoke, visible many kilometres distant.
Earthquakes cause little damage. The daily volume of wild rivers appears to be decreasing; this has been affected by deforestation caused by the increased demand for gardens to feed the growing population. Mining with its use of chemicals and its aftereffects poses other environmental issues, e.g. alluvial gold mining and the now decommissioned Rio Tinto-owned Panguna mine. Bougainville has one of the world's largest copper deposits; these have been under development since 1972. The majority of people on Bougainville are Christian, an estimated 70% being Roman Catholic and a substantial minority United Church of Papua New Guinea since 1968. Few non-natives remain. There are many indigenous languages in Bougainville Province, belonging to three language families; the languages of the northern end of the island, some scattered around the coast, belong to the Austronesian family. The languages of the north-central and southern lobes of Bougainville Island belong to the North and South Bougainville families.
The most spoken Austronesian language is Halia and its dialects, spoken in the island of Buka and the Selau peninsula of Northern Bougainville. Other Austronesian languages include Nehan, Solos, Saposa and Tinputz, all spoken in the northern quarter of Bougainville and surrounding islands; these languages are related. Bannoni and Torau are Austronesian languages not related to the former, which are spoken in the coastal areas of central and south Bougainville. On the nearby Takuu Atoll a Polynesian language is spoken, Takuu; the Papuan languages are confined to the main island of Bougainville. These include Rotokas, a language with a small inventory of phonemes, Terei, Nasioi, Siwai, Baitsi and several others; these constitute North Bougainville and South Bougainville. None of the languages are spoken by more than 20% of the population, the larger languages such as Nasioi, Korokoro Motuna and Halia are split into dialects that are not always mutually understandable. For general communication most Bougainvilleans use Tok Pisin as a lingua franca, at least in the coastal areas Tok Pisin is learned by children in a bilingual environment.
English and Tok Pisin are the languages of official government. A 2013 U
Typhoon Haiyan, known as Super Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, was one of the most powerful tropical cyclones recorded. On making landfall, Haiyan devastated portions of Southeast Asia the Philippines, it is the deadliest Philippine typhoon on record, killing at least 6,300 people in that country alone. In terms of JTWC-estimated 1-minute sustained winds, Haiyan is tied with Meranti for being the strongest landfalling tropical cyclone on record. In January 2014, bodies were still being found; the thirtieth named storm, thirteenth typhoon, fifth super typhoon of the 2013 Pacific typhoon season, Haiyan originated from an area of low pressure several hundred kilometers east-southeast of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia on November 2, 2013. Tracking westward, environmental conditions favored tropical cyclogenesis and the system developed into a tropical depression the following day. After becoming a tropical storm and attaining the name Haiyan at 00:00 UTC on November 4, the system began a period of rapid intensification that brought it to typhoon intensity by 18:00 UTC on November 5.
By November 6, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center assessed the system as a Category 5-equivalent super typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. Thereafter, Haiyan continued to intensify; the Hong Kong Observatory put the storm's maximum ten-minute sustained winds at 285 km/h prior to landfall in the central Philippines, while the China Meteorological Administration estimated the maximum two-minute sustained winds at the time to be around 78 m/s. At the same time, the JTWC estimated the system's one-minute sustained winds at 315 km/h, unofficially making Haiyan the strongest tropical cyclone observed based on wind speed, a record which would be surpassed by Hurricane Patricia in 2015 at 345 km/h. Haiyan is tied with Typhoon Meranti in 2016 as the second-strongest tropical cyclone in the Eastern Hemisphere by 1-minute sustained winds. At 20:40 UTC on November 7, the eye of the typhoon made its first landfall in the Philippines at Guiuan, Eastern Samar at peak strength. Weakening, the storm made five additional landfalls in the country before emerging over the South China Sea.
Turning northwestward, the typhoon struck northern Vietnam as a severe tropical storm on November 10. Haiyan was last noted as a tropical depression by the JMA on the following day; the typhoon caused catastrophic destruction in the Visayas on Samar and Leyte. According to UN officials, about 11 million people were affected and many were left homeless. On November 2, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center began monitoring a broad low-pressure area about 425 kilometers east-southeast of Pohnpei, one of the states in the Federated States of Micronesia; as the system moved through a region favoring tropical cyclogenesis, the Japan Meteorological Agency classified it as a tropical depression early on November 3. The system intensified into a tropical storm, prompting the JMA to assign it the name Haiyan at 0000 UTC on November 4. Tracking westward along the southern periphery of a subtropical ridge, rapid intensification ensued by November 5 as a central dense overcast with an embedded eye developing. On November 6, the Philippine Atmospheric and Astronomical Services Administration assigned the storm the local name Yolanda as it approached the Philippine Area of Responsibility.
Intensification slowed somewhat during the day, though the JTWC estimated the storm to have attained Category 5-equivalent super typhoon status on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale around 1200 UTC. The eye of the typhoon passed over the island of Kayangel in Palau. Around 1200 UTC on November 7, Haiyan attained ten-minute sustained winds of 230 km/h and a minimum central pressure of 895 mbar. Six hours the JTWC estimated Haiyan to have attained one-minute sustained winds of 315 km/h and gusts up to 380 km/h; the storm displayed some characteristics of an annular tropical cyclone, though a strong convective band remained present along the western side of the system. At 2040 UTC on November 7, Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in Eastern Samar at peak intensity; the JTWC's unofficial estimate of one-minute sustained winds of 305 km/h would, by that measure, make Haiyan the most powerful storm recorded to strike land. This record was tied by Typhoon Meranti in 2016. Interaction with land caused slight degradation of the storm's structure, though it remained an exceptionally powerful storm when it struck Tolosa, Leyte around 2300 UTC.
The typhoon made four additional landfalls as it traversed the Visayas: Daanbantayan, Bantayan Island and Busuanga Island. Haiyan, with its core disrupted by interaction with the Philippines, emerged over the South China Sea late on November 8. Environmental conditions ahead of the storm soon became less favorable, as cool stable air began wrapping into the western side of the circulation. Continuing across the South China Sea, Haiyan turned more northwesterly late on November 9 and through November 10 as it moved around the southwestern edge of the subtropical ridge steering it westward. Rapid weakening ensued as Haiyan approached its final landfall in Vietnam striking the countr
Roll-on/roll-off
Roll-on/roll-off ships are vessels designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, semi-trailer trucks and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using a platform vehicle, such as a self-propelled modular transporter. This is in contrast to lift-on/lift-off vessels, which use a crane to unload cargo. RORO vessels have either built-in or shore-based ramps that allow the cargo to be efficiently rolled on and off the vessel when in port. While smaller ferries that operate across rivers and other short distances have built-in ramps, the term RORO is reserved for large oceangoing vessels; the ramps and doors may be any combination thereof. At first, wheeled vehicles carried. Automobiles had their fuel tanks emptied and their batteries disconnected before being hoisted into the ship's hold, where they were chocked and secured; this process was tedious and difficult, vehicles were subject to damage and could not be used for routine travel. An early roll-on/roll-off service was a train ferry, started in 1833 by the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway, which operated a wagon ferry on the Forth and Clyde Canal in Scotland.
The first modern train ferry was Leviathan, built in 1849. The Edinburgh and Newhaven Railway was formed in 1842 and the company wished to extend the East Coast Main Line further north to Dundee and Aberdeen; as bridge technology was not yet capable enough to provide adequate support for the crossing over the Firth of Forth, five miles across, a different solution had to be found for the transport of goods, where efficiency was key. The company hired the up-and-coming civil engineer Thomas Bouch who argued for a train ferry with an efficient roll-on/roll-off mechanism to maximise the efficiency of the system. Custom-built ferries were to be built, with railway lines and matching harbour facilities at both ends to allow the rolling stock to drive on and off the boat. To compensate for the changing tides, adjustable ramps were positioned at the harbours and the gantry structure height was varied by moving it along the slipway; the wagons were loaded off with the use of stationary steam engines.
Although others had had similar ideas, it was Bouch who first put them into effect, did so with an attention to detail which led a subsequent President of the Institution of Civil Engineers to settle any dispute over priority of invention with the observation that "there was little merit in a simple conception of this kind, compared with a work carried out in all its details, brought to perfection."The company was persuaded to install this train ferry service for the transportation of goods wagons across the Firth of Forth from Burntisland in Fife to Granton. The ferry itself was built by a partner of the firm Grainger and Miller; the service commenced on 3 February 1850. It was called "The Floating Railway" and intended as a temporary measure until the railway could build a bridge, but this was not opened until 1890, its construction delayed in part by repercussions from the catastrophic failure of Thomas Bouch's Tay Rail Bridge. Train-ferry services were used extensively during World War I.
From 10 February 1918, high volumes of railway rolling stock and supplies for the Front were shipped to France from the "secret port" of Richborough, near Sandwich on the South Coast of England. This involved three train-ferries to be built, each with four sets of railway line on the main deck to allow for up to 54 railway wagons to be shunted directly on and off the ferry; these train-ferries could be used to transport motor vehicles along with railway rolling stock. That month a second train-ferry was established from the Port of Southampton on the South East Coast. In the first month of operations at Richborough, 5,000 tons were transported across the Channel, by the end of 1918 it was nearly 261,000 tons. There were many advantages of the use of train-ferries over conventional shipping in World War I, it was much easier to move the large, heavy artillery and tanks that this kind of modern warfare required using train-ferries as opposed to repeated loading and unloading of cargo. By manufacturers loading tanks and other heavy items for shipping to the front directly on to railway wagons, which could be shunted on to a train-ferry in England and shunted directly on to the French Railway Network, with direct connections to the Front Lines, many man hours of unnecessary labour were avoided.
An analysis done at the time found that to transport 1,000 tons of war material from the point of manufacture to the front by conventional means involved the use of 1,500 labourers, whereas when using train-ferries that number decreased to around 100 labourers. This was of utmost importance, as by 1918, the British Railway companies were experiencing a severe shortage of labour with hundreds of thousands of skilled and unskilled labourers away fighting at the front; the increase of heavy traffic because of the war effort meant that economies and efficiency in transport had to be made wherever possible. After the signing of the Armistice on 11 November 1918, train ferries were used extensively for the return of material from the Front. Indeed, according to war office statistics, a greater tonnage of material was transported by train ferry from Richborough in 1919 than in 1918; as the train ferries had space for motor transport as well as railway rolling stock, thousands of lorries, motor cars and "B Type" buses used these ferries to return to England.
During World War II, landing ships were the first purpose-built seagoing ships enabling road vehicles to roll directl
The Siege of Tobruk lasted for 241 days in 1941, after Axis forces advanced through Cyrenaica from El Agheila in Operation Sonnenblume against Allied forces in Libya, during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. In late 1940, the Allies had defeated the Italian 10th Army during Operation Compass and trapped the remnants at Beda Fomm. During early 1941, much of the Western Desert Force was sent to the Syrian campaigns; as German troops and Italian reinforcements reached Libya, only a skeleton Allied force remained, short of equipment and supplies. Operation Sonnenblume, forced the Allies into a retreat to the Egyptian border. A garrison, consisting of the 9th Australian Division remained at Tobruk, to deny the port to the Axis, while the WDF reorganised and prepared a counter-offensive; the Axis siege of Tobruk began on 10 April, when the port was attacked by a force under Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel and continued during three relief attempts, Operation Brevity, Operation Battleaxe and Operation Crusader.
The occupation of Tobruk deprived the Axis of a supply port closer to the Egypt–Libya border than Benghazi, 560 mi west of the Egyptian frontier, within the range of RAF bombers. The siege diverted Axis troops from the frontier and the Tobruk garrison repulsed several Axis attacks; the port was bombarded by artillery, dive-bombers and medium bombers, as the RAF flew defensive sorties from airfields far away in Egypt. Allied naval forces, such as the British Mediterranean Fleet ran the blockade, carrying reinforcements and supplies in and wounded and prisoners out. On 27 November, Tobruk was relieved by the Eighth Army in Operation Crusader; the Western Desert Campaign was fought from Mersa Matruh in Egypt to Gazala in Cyrenaica on the Libyan coast, an area about 390 kilometres wide along Via Balbia along the coast, the only paved road. A sand sea 150 mi inland marked the southern limit of the desert, at its widest at Giarabub and Siwa. Extending inland from the coast lies a raised, flat plain of stony desert, about 500 ft above sea level, for 120–190 mi to the sand sea.
Scorpions and flies populated the region, inhabited by a small number of nomads. Bedouin tracks linked wells and the more traversed ground; when Italian troops advanced into Egypt in September 1940, the Maletti Group got lost leaving Sidi Omar and had to be found by aircraft. In spring and summer, days are miserably hot and nights cold. German engines tended to overheat and tank engine life fell from 1,400–1,600 mi to 300–900 mi, made worse by the lack of standard parts for German and Italian types; the ground is a hard surface which drops with the coast cut by ravines. The Italian fortifications at Tobruk included an outer perimeter, comprising a double semi-circle of dug-in strong points with concrete walls, positioned well for forward observation, an inner anti-tank ditch, some parts of which were behind barbed wire and/or included booby traps, as well as several more fortified positions closer to the port, at the Bardia–El Adem road junction and towards Fort Pilastrino. On the morning of 5 January 1941, as soon as the 63rd Infantry Division Cirene garrisoning Bardia surrendered, the 7th Armoured Brigade set off for El Adem and next day began to cut off the port.
The Australian 19th Brigade group reached the eastern defences of Tobruk on 7 January and the 16th Brigade group took over on the west side. The British 4th Armoured Brigade moved to the west part of the perimeter, the Support Group blocked the western exits and the British 7th Armoured Brigade screened the force from interference from the west, although little resistance had been met during the moves from Bardia; the Regia Aeronautica had lost many aircraft since Operation Compass began and the main repair depot at El Adem was captured, causing the Italians great difficulty in maintaining the serviceability of the remaining aircraft. The attack was to be made against the perimeter east of the El Adem road, where a battalion of the 16th Australian Brigade was to capture the defences in a night attack, through which the rest of the brigade and the 7th RTR would pass and fan out east and west advance towards the harbour; the Australian 17th Brigade and the Support Group were to stage diversions either side of the attack and Italian artillery positions were to be located for counter-battery fire.
Sandstorms blew up and grounded the Desert Air Force for much of the time but raids were carried out on Tobruk and the Italian bomber bases at Benina and Berka. On the night of 20/21 January, several gunboats bombarded the harbour.
Blackstone & Co
Blackstone & Co. was a farm implement maker at Stamford, United Kingdom. This business was established in 1837 as Smith & Ashby known as Rutland Iron Works. Still it came into the ownership of Ashby and G. E. Jeffery. In 1877 Edward Christopher Blackstone was admitted to a new partnership owning Rutland Iron Works known as Jeffery and Blackstone. Blackstone and George Mills, a member of Blackstone's wife's family, bought out Jeffery in 1882. A limited liability company, Blackstone & Co Limited, was incorporated on 29 January 1889 to take ownership of the business. Following E. C. Blackstone's death in late 1916 the business was sold to a new combine, Agricultural & General Engineers group, but retained its identity and management. Blackstone shareholders were paid with new AGE shares, their former business continued to prosper but the profits went to support unprofitable members of the new combine. AGE turned out to be a failure from start to finish and had to be liquidated following its financial collapse in 1932.
AGE shares proved worthless. Three of E. C. Blackstone's sons managed to buy back Blackstone's from the liquidator with the support of an unidentified investor. An agreement had been reached with Massey-Harris of Canada to supply them all Blackstone's agricultural machinery marked with the brand name Massey-Harris-Blackstone. In the middle of 1936 ownership of Blackstone's was taken by R A Co Limited. Blackstone's factory remained in Stamford, Lincolnshire In 1929 AGE advertised the following Blackstone products: Engines: oil engines for small and large powers and vertical, paraffin engines, petrol engines. Unchokeable pumps, corn crushing and grinding mills, lighting sets. Hay and straw elevators, horse rakes, land rollers, side rakes, swath turners, turnip cutters. In 1896 they built. By 1912 they had developed a new internal combustion engine that ran on vaporising oil and was fired by a spark, it did not need a hot bulb like most engines of the time. By 1919 they had mounted a 25 hp 3-cylinder version in a crawler tractor, which they built till 1925.
By 1929 they were building diesel engines for the General Engineers group. Richard Garrett & Sons assembled some of these tractors, they were similar to an International 15/30. AGE collapsed in 1932, after which Blackstone & Co. continued as an engine builder and was taken over by R A Lister and Company in 1937 to form Lister Blackstone. The Associated British Oil Engine Company was a British engineering company. In 1945 Mirrlees and Day joined the group. R A Lister & Company was taken over by the Hawker Siddeley Group in 1965 and, in a re-organisation, Lister became Lister Petter and Blackstone became Mirrlees Blackstone. Mirrlees Blackstone Limited was formed on 1 June 1969 by the merger of Mirrlees National Limited and Blackstone & Company Limited. All were, at the time, members of the Hawker Siddeley Group. In 1988, General Electric Company plc merged its Paxman and Mirrlees Blackstone diesels businesses with the Alsthom division of Compagnie Générale d'Electricité to form GEC-Alsthom. In 2000, Alstom sold its diesel engine businesses to MAN Group.
Mirrlees Blackstone were bought by MAN Diesel, along with the diesel businesses of the collapsed GEC, although little remains. The Stockport factory has been demolished and replaced with a new office and warehouse facility which still serves the aftermarket for spares and servicing of Lister Blackstone engines under the MAN Diesel & Turbo tagline; the Blackstone name lives on with the Blackstones F. C.. Diesel engines Marine diesel engines Shell casing during First World War Stationary engine Farming Equipment and engines for tractors Potato digger Swath Turner and Collector Blackstone supplied a number of diesel engines for British Rail locomotives but these were unsuccessful and were not adopted. In the 1980s, four of the well-established Paxman Valenta-engined HST trainset power cars were re-engined with Mirrlees Blackstone MB190 engines for trials; these were unsuccessful and Valenta engines were reinstalled. In the 2000s, the fleet was re-engined with MTU V16 4000 engines; the handful of British Rail Class D3/5 used the Blackstone ER6T The Class 10 was a small number of the widespread Class 08 0-6-0 diesel-electric shunter, in which a Blackstone ER6T engine was fitted instead an English Electric 6KT.
They were withdrawn early. Class 30 Type 2 locomotives were built with a Mirrlees Blackstone JVS12T but all were rebuilt as the British Rail Class Class 31 with the English Electric 12SVT, as used in the Class 37; the projected Type 3 freight Class 38 of the 1980s was considered for use of a Mirrlees MB275T. Four of the refurbished Class 37/9 at this period were rebuilt with the engine as a trial, two more used the Ruston RK270T as a comparison. In the end, the Class 38 was cancelled in favour of the Class 60. Class 60 heavy freight Type 5 locomotives of the 1980s replaced the projected Class 38. Like the 38, these used the Mirrlees MB275T engine.. These 8 cylinder engines, compared to the more common V12 or V16 engines in this power range, were hoped to show lower operating costs owing to their simplicity; the Stamford East railway station serviced. John Henry Pick, the founder of The Pick Motor Company worked for Blackstones. Harry Watson, Managing Director, Mirrlees Blackstone Ltd, he was mentioned in The Queen 1991 Birthday Honours list.
Examples of Blackstone engines can be seen at the Anson Engine Museum near Manchester. The f
East Timor or Timor-Leste the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Maritime Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island surrounded by Indonesian West Timor. Australia is the country's southern neighbour, separated by the Timor Sea; the country's size is about 15,410 km2. East Timor was colonised by Portugal in the 16th century, was known as Portuguese Timor until 28 November 1975, when the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor declared the territory's independence. Nine days it was invaded and occupied by the Indonesian military, was declared as the country's 27th province the following year; the Indonesian occupation of East Timor was characterised by a violent, decades-long conflict between separatist groups and the Indonesian military. In 1999, following the United Nations-sponsored act of self-determination, Indonesia relinquished control of the territory.
East Timor became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century on 20 May 2002 and joined the United Nations and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. In 2011, East Timor announced its intention to become the eleventh member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. East Timor is part of the Timor Leste -- Indonesia -- Australia Growth Triangle, it is one of only two predominantly Christian nations in Southeast Asia, the other being the Philippines, as well as the only Asian country to be located in the Southern Hemisphere. "Timor" derives from timur, the word for "east" in Indonesian language, which became recorded as Timor in Portuguese, thus resulting in the tautological toponym meaning "East East": In Portuguese Timor-Leste. In Indonesian, the country is called Timor Timur, thus using the Portuguese name for the island followed by the word for "east", as adjectives in Indonesian are put after the noun; the official names under the Constitution are Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste in English, República Democrática de Timor-Leste in Portuguese and Repúblika Demokrátika Timór-Leste in Tetum.
The International Organization for Standardization official short form in English and all other languages is Timor-Leste, adopted by the United Nations, the European Union, the national standards organisations of France, the United States, United Kingdom and Sweden, all diplomatic missions to the country by protocol and the CIA World Factbook. Humans first settled in East Timor 42,000 years ago. Descendants of at least three waves of migration are believed still to live in East Timor; the first is described by anthropologists as people of the Veddo-Australoid type. Around 3000 BC, a second migration brought Melanesians; the earlier Veddo-Australoid peoples withdrew at this time to the mountainous interior. Proto-Malays arrived from south China and north Indochina. Hakka traders are among those descended from this final group. Timorese origin myths tell of ancestors that sailed around the eastern end of Timor arriving on land in the south; some stories recount Timorese ancestors journeying from the Malay Peninsula or the Minangkabau highlands of Sumatra.
Austronesians migrated to Timor, are thought to be associated with the development of agriculture on the island. Before European colonialism, Timor was included in Chinese and Indian trading networks, in the 14th century was an exporter of aromatic sandalwood, slaves and wax. Since the 1500's, the Timorese people had military ties with the Luções of present-day northern Philippines, it was the relative abundance of sandalwood in Timor that attracted European explorers to the island in the early 16th century. During that time, European explorers reported that the island had a number of small chiefdoms or princedoms; the Portuguese established outposts in Maluku. Effective European occupation of a small part of the territory began in 1769, when the city of Dili was founded and the colony of Portuguese Timor declared. A definitive border between the Dutch-colonised western half of the island and the Portuguese-colonised eastern half of the island was established by the Permanent Court of Arbitration of 1914, it remains the international boundary between the successor states East Timor and Indonesia.
For the Portuguese, East Timor remained little more than a neglected trading post until the late nineteenth century, with minimal investment in infrastructure and education. Sandalwood remained the main export crop with coffee exports becoming significant in the mid-nineteenth century; as was the case, Portuguese rule was neglectful but exploitative where it existed. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a faltering home economy prompted the Portuguese to extract greater wealth from its colonies, met with East Timorese resistance. During World War II, first the Allies and the Japanese occupied Dili, the mountainous interior became the scene of a guerrilla campaign, known as the Battle of Timor. Waged by East Timorese volunteers and Allied forces against the Japanese, the struggle resulted in the deaths of between 40,000 and 70,000 East Timorese; the Japanese drove the last of the Australian and Allied forces out. However, following the end of World War II and Japanese surrender, Portuguese control was reinstated.
Following the 1974 Portuguese revolution, Portugal abandone
Portuguese Navy
The Portuguese Navy is the naval branch of the Portuguese Armed Forces which, in cooperation and integrated with the other branches of the Portuguese military, is charged with the military defense of Portugal. On 12 December 2017, the Portuguese Navy commemorated the 700th anniversary of its official creation by King Denis of Portugal. Tracing its origins back to the 12th century, it is one of the oldest continuously serving navies in the world; the Navy played a key role at the beginning and during the great voyages of the Age of Discoveries in the 15th and 16th centuries. The resulting of this technical and scientific discoveries led Portugal to develop advanced ships, including the caravel and more sophisticated types of carracks for interoceanic travel and the oceanic galleon, to find the sea route to the East and routes to South America and Northern North America. Bartolomeu Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa and Vasco da Gama reached India, linking Europe and Asia for the first time by ocean route, as well as the Atlantic and the Indian oceans.
This led to the discovery of Brazil in the first expeditions that linked Europe, the New World, Asia on a single voyage, such as the expedition of Pedro Álvares Cabral, through the skills and experience of their navigators in the Atlantic, the Indian ocean, in the Far East contributed to the technical and geographical advance of other European navies, such as the first circumnavigation by Ferdinand Magellan, sailing across the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. For the most of the 16th century, the Portuguese India Armadas and fleets the world leader navy of shipbuilding and naval artillery, dominated most of the Atlantic Ocean south of the Canary Islands, the Indian Ocean and the access to the western Pacific. Today, the Portuguese Navy assumes a dual role capacity: Naval combat missions to assure Portugal's sovereignty and international commitments, coast guard operations in its territorial waters and areas of influence; the Portuguese Navy participates in missions related with international commitments assumed by Portugal, as well as missions of civil interest.
The first known battle involving Portuguese naval forces happened in 1180, during the reign of Portugal's first king, Afonso I. The battle occurred off Cape Espichel, with a Portuguese naval squadron, commanded by the knight Fuas Roupinho, defeating a Muslim naval squadron. Fuas Roupinho made two incursions at Ceuta, in 1181 and 1182, died during the latter of these attempts to conquer the North African city. During the 13th century, in the Reconquista, the Portuguese naval forces helped in the conquest of several coastal Moorish towns, like Alcácer do Sal and Faro, it was used in the battles against Castile - through incursions in Galicia and Andalusia - and in joint actions with other Christian fleets against the Muslims. King Denis decided to give a permanent organization to his naval forces, appointing Manuel Pessanha of Genoa to be the first Admiral of the Kingdom, on the 12 December 1317; this is considered the official date of foundation of the Portuguese Navy, with its 700 years being commemorated on the 12 December 2017.
In 1321, the Portuguese Navy attacked Muslim ports in North Africa. Maritime insurance began in 1323 in Portugal. Between 1336 and 1341, the first attempts at maritime expansion are made, with the expedition to Canary Islands, sponsored by King Afonso IV. In the context of the 1383–85 Crisis, the Portuguese Navy took an active participation in the war against Castile. A Portuguese naval campaign conducted in Galicia led to the conquest of the coastal towns of Baiona, A Coruña and Neda, as well as the destruction of the naval base of Ferrol and of several ships that were on the way to reinforce the Castilian forces that were besieging Lisbon. In July 1384, the Portuguese Navy was able to break the Castilian siege of Lisbon and to supply the city, defeating the Castilian Navy in the naval battle of the Tagus. At the end of the 14th century, more Portuguese discoveries were made, with the Navy playing a main role in the exploration of the oceans and the defense of the Portuguese Empire. Portugal became the first naval world power.
In the beginning of the 15th century, the country entered a period of stability. Europe was still involved in wars and feudal conflicts which allowed Portugal to be the only capable country to methodically and start the exploration of the Atlantic. Portuguese expansion during the 15th century can be divided in: Territorial expansion to North Africa Hydrographic survey of the African coast and Canary Islands Oceanographic and meteorologic survey of the Atlantic Ocean Development of navigation techniques and methodsTerritorial expansion began in Morocco with the conquest of Ceuta in 1415. Exploration in the west African coast started in 1412 and ended with the crossing of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. After his return from Ceuta, Henry the navigator founded a school of navigation in Sagres, a place to discuss the art of navigation; the vessel employed in the beginning of the Discoveries was the caravel, varying from 50 to 160 tons. The first results came soon and Gonçalves Zarco discovers the Porto Santo Island in 1419 and the Madeira Island in 1420, Diogo de Silves discovers the azorean island of Santa Maria in 1427.
In 1424, Gil Eanes crosses the Cape Bojador. Diogo Cão and Bartolomeu Dias arrived to the mouth of the Zaire River in 1482. In the same year, the São Jorge da Mina castle is built in the coast of Western Africa, by Diogo de Azambuja, becoming one of the most important Portuguese naval bases. In 148
Siege of Tobruk [videos]
The Siege of Tobruk lasted for 241 days in 1941, after Axis forces advanced through Cyrenaica from El Agheila in Operation Sonnenblume against Allied forces in Libya, during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. In late 1940, the Allies had defeated the Italian 10th Army …
Australian troops occupy a front line position at Tobruk
Image: Italian convoy heading towards North Africa
Blackstone & Co [videos]
Blackstone & Co. was a farm implement maker at Stamford, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. — History — Ownership — This business was established in 1837 as Smith & Ashby later known as Rutland Iron Works. Later still it came into the ownership of Ashby and G. E. Jeffery. In 1877 Edward …
Blackstones original company building Broad Street, Stamford
Blackstones Works, Ryhall Road, Stamford
Lister Blackstone sign at the Anson Engine Museum with collection of engines
Scale model of a Mirrlees Blackstone ESL8 Mk 2 diesel engine at Anson
Bofors 40 mm gun [videos]
The Bofors 40 mm gun, often referred to simply as the Bofors gun, is an anti-aircraft autocannon designed in the 1930s by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. It was one of the most popular medium-weight anti-aircraft systems during World War II, used by most of the western Allies as well some …
British Bofors 40 mm L/60 on Mk VII, Priddy's Hard, Gosport, United Kingdom.
Finnish Bofors 40 mm. This gun mounts the original reflector sights, and lacks the armor found on British examples.
British 40mm L/60 includes the British-designed Stiffkey Sight, being operated by the gun layer standing on the right. The layer operates the trapeze seen above the sights, moving them to adjust for lead. The loader stands to the layer's left, and the two trainer/aimers are sitting on either side of the gun.
Q.F. 40 mm Mk. 1 displayed at CFB Borden. This example mounts a Stiffkey Sight, and displays the additional armor protecting the gunners.
Typhoon Weapon Station [videos]
The Typhoon is a type of remote weapon station manufactured by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems of Israel, and it shares similar design principles and common technologies with Samson Remote Controlled Weapon Station, a land-based system manufactured by the same developer. Like Samson …
Typhoon armed with 25 mm gun on Shaldag class fast patrol boat of the Israeli Navy.
The Typhoon Mounting the 25mm M242 Bushmaster onboard the Australian Ship HMAS Armidale.
Image: HMAS Parramatta stern Jan 2010
Image: MK 38 25mm gun system
Boeing CH-47 Chinook [videos]
The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is an American twin-engined, tandem rotor, heavy-lift helicopter developed by American rotorcraft company Vertol and manufactured by Boeing Vertol. The CH-47 is among the heaviest lifting Western helicopters. Its name, Chinook, is …
A U.S. Army CH-47 departs a landing zone in 2014 after unloading soldiers.
HC-1B during in-flight evaluation
A CH-47 Chinook airlifts a MIKE Force Hurricane Aircat airboat from Don Phuc to the Seven Mountains in Vietnam.
Imperial Iranian Air Force CH-47C in France before delivery in 1971
Royal Australian Navy [videos]
The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force, called the Commonwealth Naval Forces. Originally intended for local …
HMAS Collins, Collins class
HMAS Canberra, Canberra class
HMAS Perth, Anzac class
HMAS Newcastle, Adelaide class
Royal Fleet Auxiliary [videos]
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary is a naval auxiliary fleet owned by the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence and is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. Its purpose is to support the Royal Navy to maintain operations around the world. Its primary role is to supply the Royal Navy with …
USS Donald Cook receives fuel during a replenishment at sea (RAS) with RFA Wave Ruler.
Image: Royal Fleet Auxiliary Logo
Image: RFA Tiderace arrives at Fleet Activities Yokosuka for a scheduled port visit in August 2017
Image: Wave Knight replenishment tanker
Australian Army [videos]
The Australian Army is Australia's military land force. It is part of the Australian Defence Force along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. While the Chief of the Defence Force commands the ADF, the Army is commanded by the Chief of Army. The CA is …
Soldiers of the Australian 39th Battalion in September 1942
Two Australian soldiers during the Shah Wali Kot Offensive in Afghanistan
Australian Cavalry Scout in Iraq, 2007
1 RAR machine-gun team training in Hawaii during RIMPAC 2012
Roll-on/roll-off [videos]
Roll-on/roll-off ships are vessels designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using a platform vehicle, such as a self-propelled modular transporter. This is in …
Loading a ro-ro passenger car ferry
Procyon Leader - stern quarter ramp
Super Shuttle Ferry from Santa Fe, Bantayan to Cebu in the Philippines
Floating Railway, opened in 1850 as the first roll-on roll-off train ferry in the world
Multinational Force and Observers [videos]
The Multinational Force and Observers is an international peacekeeping force overseeing the terms of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. The MFO generally operates in and around the Sinai peninsula. — Background — On September 17, 1978, the Camp David Accords were signed by Israeli …
MFO patch
French Air Force Twin Otter on the El Gorah Flight Line 1989
A Colombian soldier hosts a Canadian helicopter pilot 1989. The Colombian is wearing the distinctive terracotta-colored beret that is unique to the MFO.
Canadian CH135 Twin Huey helicopter and an MFO Observer wearing the distinctive orange uniform used in 1989
Sinai Peninsula [videos]
The Sinai Peninsula or simply Sinai is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a land bridge between Asia and …
Mount Sinai (Gabal Musa)
Image from Gemini 11 spacecraft, featuring part of Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula in the foreground and the Levant in the background
St. Catherine's Monastery is the oldest working Christian monastery in the world and the most popular tourist attraction on the peninsula.
The wilderness of Sinai, 1862
Landing at Anzac Cove [videos]
The landing at Anzac Cove on Sunday, 25 April 1915, also known as the landing at Gaba Tepe, and to the Turks as the Arıburnu Battle, was part of the amphibious invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula by the forces of the British Empire, which began the land phase of the Gallipoli Campaign of the First …
North Beach (north of Anzac Cove) looking south, Gallipoli, in 2014
Battleship HMS Irresistible sinking during the attack on the Dardanelles Narrows, 18 March 1915
Initial objectives for the landing shown in red; the dotted green line is what was actually achieved. Darker tones indicate higher ground.
First wave landings. The dotted lines from the red ships indicate the first six companies of the first wave. Those from the orange ships are the second six companies. The solid red lines show the routes taken once ashore.
Royal New Zealand Navy [videos]
The Royal New Zealand Navy is the maritime arm of the New Zealand Defence Force. The fleet currently consists of ten ships and eight naval helicopters. — History — Pre–World War I — The first recorded maritime …
HMNZS Royalist in Waitemata Harbour, 1956
HMNZS Te Kaha in Hong Kong.
HMNZS Wellington in port at Wellington
A boarding team from HMNZS Te Mana during the ship's deployment to the Gulf of Oman in 2004
Portuguese Navy [videos]
The Portuguese Navy is the naval branch of the Portuguese Armed Forces which, in cooperation and integrated with the other branches of the Portuguese military, is charged with the military defense …
The mixed propulsion corvette Bartolomeu Dias and other Portuguese warships arriving at the Tagus with Queen Stephanie on board, in 1859
Expeditionary force of naval infantry preparing to embark to Angola in 1907.
The Portuguese cruiser Adamastor.
NRP Augusto Castilho, leading figure of the Action of 14 October 1918 in the North Atlantic.
Bougainville Island [videos]
Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea. This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons. Its land area is 9,300 km2. The population of the province is 234,280, which includes the …
Marines on Bougainville in 1943
Bagana volcano
Northern part of the island
Buka men performing at a Buin folk festival
East Timor [videos]
East Timor or Timor-Leste, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Maritime Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of …
A demonstration for independence from Indonesia held in Australia during September 1999
José Ramos-Horta, 1996 Nobel Peace Prize winner, second President of East Timor
Xanana Gusmão, the first East Timorese President.
F-FDTL soldiers standing in formation
Solomon Islands [videos]
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania lying to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu and covering a land area of 28,400 square kilometres. The country's capital, Honiara, is located on the island …
American Marines rest during the 1942 Guadalcanal Campaign.
Solomon Islands' National Parliament building was a gift from the United States.
UNESCO declared East Rennell World Heritage Site in 1998.
Aerial view of Solomon Islands.
History of Solomon Islands [videos]
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in the Melanesia subregion of Oceania in the western Pacific Ocean. — This page is about the history of the nation state rather than the broader geographical area of the Solomon Islands archipelago, which covers both Solomon Islands and Bougainville Island, a …
The Solomon Islands in Oceania.
Two warriors in battle dress (1895)
Postage stamp with portrait of King George VI, 1939
American B-17 bombers over Gizo.
Exercise RIMPAC [videos]
RIMPAC, the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, is the world's largest international maritime warfare exercise. RIMPAC is held biennially during June and July of even-numbered years from Honolulu, Hawaii. It is hosted and administered by the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet, headquartered at Pearl …
The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier battle group along with ships from Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, and South Korea during RIMPAC 2000.
RIMPAC 2010
Sea Combat Control (19 July 2010)
Multinational task force in RIMPAC 2014.
2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami [videos]
The 2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami took place on 29 September 2009 in the southern Pacific Ocean adjacent to the Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone. The submarine earthquake occurred in an extensional environment and had a moment magnitude of 8.1 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI. It …
Crews working near the damage from the tsunami in American Samoa
Niuatoputapu before the tsunami. (Vegetation is red, bare ground is pale blue-grey, clouds and breaking waves are white or cyan.)
Niuatoputapu after the tsunami.
FEMA generators being unloaded.
Fall Out Boy [videos]
Fall Out Boy is an American rock band formed in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist Pete Wentz, lead guitarist Joe Trohman, and drummer Andy Hurley. The band originated from Chicago's hardcore punk scene …
Fall Out Boy performing at Rock im Park 2014. From left to right: Joe Trohman, Patrick Stump, Andy Hurley and Pete Wentz.
Fall Out Boy on NBC's The Today Show in Rockefeller Center
Fall Out Boy performing at a concert during the Monumentour
Many of the band's melodies are created by Stump (left), while lyricism is handled by Wentz (right).
Typhoon Haiyan [videos]
Typhoon Haiyan, known as Super Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, was one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded. On making landfall, Haiyan devastated portions of Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines. It is the deadliest Philippine typhoon on record, killing at least 6,300 …
An aerial view of Guiuan, the town where the typhoon made its first landfall
Destruction in Basey, Samar after the typhoon passed over the town.
Devastated coconut trees in Guiuan
The remains of a home destroyed by the storm in Tacloban City.
Cyclone Pam [videos]
Severe Tropical Cyclone Pam was the second most intense tropical cyclone of the south Pacific Ocean in terms of sustained winds and is regarded as one of the worst natural disasters in the history of Vanuatu. A total of 15–16 people lost their lives either directly or indirectly as a result of Pam …
Severe Tropical Cyclone Pam strengthening off the Santa Cruz Islands on March 11
Severe Tropical Cyclone Pam transitioning into an extratropical cyclone to the northeast of New Zealand on March 15
Port Vila seafront on March 14
Image: Pam 2015 03 13 0220Z
Scuttling [videos]
Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull. — This can be achieved in several ways—seacocks or hatches can be opened to the sea, or holes may be ripped into the hull with brute force or with explosives. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned …
Monument to the scuttled ships by Amandus Adamson at Sevastopol. The Russian Black Sea Fleet was scuttled prior to the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War.
A sunken ship at Sevastopol, 1858
Merrimack alight on 20 April 1861
The wreck of USS Merrimac
Derrick [videos]
A derrick is a lifting device composed at minimum of one guyed mast, as in a gin pole, which may be articulated over a load by adjusting its guys. Most derricks have at least two components, either a guyed mast or self-supporting tower, and a boom hinged at its base to provide articulation, as in …
Two guy derricks at a granite quarry
Iron oil derrick
Wooden Derrick (1917)
Stülcken heavylift derrick
International Force East Timor [videos]
The International Force East Timor was a multinational non-United Nations peacemaking taskforce, organised and led by Australia in accordance with United Nations resolutions to address the humanitarian and security crisis that took place in East Timor from 1999–2000 until the arrival of …
Australian members of International Force East Timor (INTERFET), talk to a citizen in Dili, East Timor, in February 2000.
Return of Xanana Gusmão from Indonesian prison (1999).
Commander INTERFET, Major General Cosgrove, joins hands with the new East Timor leadership during a celebration to mark the official handover to UNTAET.
RMAF Butterworth [videos]
RMAF Butterworth is an Air Force Station of the Royal Malaysian Air Force situated 4.5 nautical miles from Butterworth in Penang, Malaysia. It is also currently home to the Headquarters Integrated Area Defence System, part of the Five Power …
RAF Butterworth crest
No. 45 Squadron RAF de Havilland Venoms at RAF Butterworth, 1957 during the Malayan Emergency
An Avro Vulcan in 1965.
Cyclone Yasi [videos]
Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi was a powerful and destructive tropical cyclone that made landfall in northern Queensland, Australia in early 2011, causing major damage to the affected areas. Originating as a tropical low near Fiji on 26 January, the system intensified to tropical cyclone status …
Satellite image of Cyclone Yasi intensifying on 1 February
Downed power pole and lines on Kings Road in Townsville
Image: Cyclone Yasi 2 February 2011 approaching Queensland
Forgacs Shipyard [videos]
Forgacs Shipyard is a shipbuilding company located at Tomago, New South Wales on the Hunter River. It was originally opened in 1957 by John Laverick Sr. at Carrington as Carrington Slipways, and built 45 ships between then and 1968. By 1972, the business required larger premises and moved to …
Forgacs Shipyard seen from Laverick Avenue
Image: Forgacs shipyard Tomago 02 from Pacific Highway 20150412
Round Table-class landing ship logistics [videos]
The Round Table class, also known as the Sir Lancelot class, was a British ship class designed for amphibious warfare missions in support of the main amphibious warfare ships. They were designated landing ship logistics. — All ships were named after Knights of the Round Table. — Class history …
Image: RFA Sir Bedivere 1
Image: HMAS Tobruk (L 50)
LCM-8 [videos]
The LCM-8 is a river boat and mechanized landing craft used by the United States Navy and Army during the Vietnam War and subsequent operations. They are currently used by governments and private organizations throughout the world. The acronym stands for "Landing Craft Mechanized …
LCM-8 in March 1972
Australian Army LCM-8 showing the extended wheelhouse of the Australian vessels, off Palm Island, Queensland in 2005
Operation Morris Dance [videos]
Operation Morris Dance was an Australian military operation conducted in May 1987 in response to the first of the 1987 Fijian coups d'état. — On the morning of 14 May 1987 the Military of Fiji took control of the country in a bloodless coup d'état. In response to the coup, the Australian Defence …
HMAS Tobruk during an exercise in 1987
A 1982 photo of HMAS Adelaide
Tomago, New South Wales [videos]
Tomago is a combined industrial/semi-rural suburb of the Port Stephens local government area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located just north of the Hunter River and west of the body of water known as Fullerton Cove. Tomago means "sweet water" in the local Aboriginal …
Hexham Bridge, seen from Tomago, connects Port Stephens to Newcastle
Sinking ships for wreck diving sites [videos]
Sinking ships for wreck diving sites is the practice of scuttling old ships to produce artificial reefs suitable for wreck diving, to benefit from commercial revenues from recreational diving of the shipwreck, or to produce a diver training site. — Preparation — To prepare a hulk for sinking as a …
Explosives detonating to sink HMNZS Wellington (F69) in 2005
LCVP (Australia) [videos]
Since 1993, the Royal Australian Navy has operated four Australian-designed and built Landing Craft, Vehicle and Personnel from the landing ship, heavy ex-HMAS Tobruk, replenishment oiler HMAS Success and LSD HMAS Choules. These aluminum craft …
A Royal Australian Navy LCVP in 2010