As with most classes of fighting ship, the little ships - Motor Gunboats, Harbour Defence Motor Launches (HDMLs) and rescue launches - used by the RAN in world war II were of foreign design. At this time, Australia traditionally used equipment designed (if not produced) by the mother country, England. In the case of small fighting ships, Australia used Fairmile motor launches and Admiralty-designed HDMLs. But some - the rescue launches - were of American types. These mosquito-warriors were excellent craft for the kind of guerrilla war the RAN waged against the Japanese in the Arafura Sea, the Timor Sea, the waters north of New Guinea and around the Celebes. They were also very handy for the close-inshore survey work which RAN ships often found themselves carrying out.
Motor Gunboats
HDMLs
Air-Sea rescue
Motor Gunboats
35 Fairmile B-type Motor Launches - MLs 424 - 431; 801 - 827.
Specifications
Round-bilge plywood construction, 600 hp petrol engine. Dimensions - length 112 feet o/a, beam 18.24 feet, draft 3.6 feet, 65 tons. Performance - 20 knots maximum at 2,200 rpm. Complement - 16. Armament - various. A common armament in Australian service was one Bofors 40 mm AA gun, or one 20 mm Oerlikon gun (or both), one or two single or twin machine guns and approximately 14 depth charges.
All these launches were of the British Fairmile "B" type; though some were pre-fabricated in England all were built in Australia. It has been said that, like the Bathurst class minesweepers, the Fairmiles were to be found anywhere and everywhere in the South West Pacific. The first, ML 807, was commissioned into service on 8th April 1943. They served as boom defence patrols in harbours at home and abroad, they escorted convoys across the Torres Strait to Milne Bay and Port Moresby, acted as couriers to ships and submarines at sea, took part in the endless survey work and raided up and down the Japanese-held coasts. ML 817 endured a fierce air-raid at Morobe (New Guinea) which left her with 42 holes above the water line. MLs 816 - 819, 801, 426, 428 and 430 formed a flotilla under the command of the US CTG 70.1 at Mois Woendi. ML 430 fell victim to the dark and confusion. On the night of 6th/7th August 1944 she was mistaken for a Japanese submarine by ML 819. In the gunfire which followed she was set on fire and burned to the waterline. Others, together with similar New Zealand boats, formed the 12-boat strong 80th and 81st ML flotillas in the South West Pacific in January 1945. ML 823 shot down a fighter bomber in Jacquinot Bay (New Britain). ML 816 was in action alongside HMAS Diamantina at Bougainville at the time of the surrender there.
After the war ended there was no role for the Fairmile B in a peacetime Navy. It was a Motor Gun-boat - a warship pure and simple, heavily armed, expensive to run and needing a relatively large crew. The class quickly passed out of service after August 1945.
Harbour Defence Motor Launches (HDMLs)
28 boats, HDMLs 1074, 1129, 1161, 1321 - 1329; 1340 - 1347; 1352 - 1359 (some sources add two more boats - HDMLs 1338 and 1339).
Specifications
Round-bilge wooden boats, copper sheathed, 300 hp diesel engines. Dimensions varied, depending on the builder. 1074, 1129 and 1161 were built in Britain; 1321-1329 in Australia; and the others in a variety of American yards. Australian built boats were the biggest, measuring 72 feet o/a, beam 15 feet, draft 5.5 feet max, displacing 47 tons standard, 58 tons battle-weight. Complement - 10-12. Performance - 11.5 knots at 260 BHP. Armament - extremely varied. As per the original British design they carried a 2-pounder forward and two twin machine-guns; but a common later Australian configuration was one 2-pounder or 40 mm Bofors AA gun forward, one 20 mm Oerlikon gun aft, plus sundry machine guns and depth charges.
The HDMLs were a numerous class of British-Admiralty-designed boats intended originally to patrol harbours and estuaries. As with every other type of ship, the Australian Navy stretched these possibilities to the limit. From the time the first, HDML 1074, was commissioned into Australian Service on 7th October 1942, these craft were employed on routine patrols, convoy escorts, running special forces in and out of Japanese-held areas, and a hundred other vital tasks, sometimes humdrum, sometimes exciting. Proof of the basic soundness of the design is the saga of HDML 1074. This boat survived a storm on the open sea and collision with a destroyer to join action at Morotai and - still unrepaired - re-charted the harbour after it was secured from the Japanese. HDML 1353 engaged in survey duties in Torres Strait in late 1944 as part of TU 70.5.2. 1359 took part in the surrender ceremony at South Borneo; 1343 at Sandakan; 1322, 1324 and 1329 at Timor. The Australian-built boats were retained for service in the post-1945 RAN.
"Air" or "Miami" class - twenty boats, ASR 908 - 912; 914 - 927.
These little ships were given names beginning with Air - 908 was Air Hope, 909 was Air Faith, and the others were, respectively, Air Speed, Spray, Foam, Sense, Bird, Trail, Mist, Chief, Master, Save, Rest, Clan, View, Cloud, Mercy, Sailor, Watch, Nymph, and Guide. Also two "Y" types - Y 257; Y260.
As with every other kind of naval vessel, there was a tremendous shortage of rescue craft in the RAN during the early war years. For much of the war in the South West Pacific, just about anything that could float was from time to time tasked with rescuing downed airmen. The "Y" types seem to have been built for civilian use in Australian yards and taken over for war service. Also used as rescue craft was a variety of civil motor boats, with names like Larrakia, Tropic Bird, Esmeralda and Mowong; and the armed yachts Martindale, Boonooroo and Sea Mist. From time to time the Fairmile motor launches also carried out these tasks.
The first of them, Air Chief, ASR 918, commissioned into Australian service on 12th August 1944. By the end of the war they were operating from bases as far afield as Newcastle on the New South Wales coast, and Manus Island in the south west Pacific. Apart from ASR 917, Air Mist, wrecked in December of 1945, all these boats passed into reserve at the end of the war, then into Royal Australian Air Force useage in 1949-50, then back to the RAN in the early 1950s. By the mid 1960s, they were passing out of service.
August 1944 saw the introduction of purpose-built high-speed rescue boats into the RAN. Twenty 63-foot (19.2 metre) high-speed boats were delivered to the RAN from the United States during the last twelve months of the second World War. Designed by the Miami Shipbuilding Company in 1942 to meet British Royal Air Force requirements, they quickly became known to Australians as "Miami" class, or - perhaps because of the use the of the word "Air" in their names - as the "Air" class. These 23-ton boats were powered by twin petrol engines developing 1260 horsepower delivering a maxiumum speed of 33 knots. Their only armamament was two sets of twin 0.5 inch machine guns amidships, either side of the upper works - but since they were intended for rescue work, not to fight pitched battles, their very high speed was more of an asset than their light armament.