Published
by the Naval Historical Society of Australia, this black and white monograph
covers the short history of the Indefatigable Class Battlecruiser HMAS Australia
with a short summary dealing with the concept of the Battlecruiser itself.
HMAS Australia was laid down in 1910, launched in 1911 and completed in 1913. Departing for Australia after working up, she took part in the entry into Sydney Harbour of the Australian Fleet where she and the other ships were welcomed by a week long celebration. The Battlecruiser had caught the public's imagination in a way that has only been paralled by aircraft carriers and the acquisition of such a ship was not just a matter of national pride but with the close proximity of the German East Asiatic Squadron to Australia was felt to be a key element of the developing Australian Navy.
However, with the outbreak of WW1 the RAN was put under the control of the Admiralty for the duration and HMAS Australia was primarily used as convoy escort. The exception to this was her opportunity to strike at the German East Asiatic Squadron which was said to be in Rabaul in then German New Guinea. More than a match both in armament and speed for Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the prescence of HMAS Australia was enough to force von Spee to abandon the German Pacific possessions and head for South America in order to avoid her once Japan also entered the war on the side of the Allies.
December 1914 saw HMAS Australia depart Pacific waters to serve with the Home Fleet as the defeat of von Spee at the Falklands gave the Admiralty the opportunity to confine the Kreigsmarine to the North Sea and North Atlantic. On her way she sank the Eleonore Woermann and when she arrived she became the Flagship of the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron which did many sweeps of the North Sea but missed the Battle of Jutland due to a collission with HMS New Zealand (also an Indefatigable Class).
HMAS Australia also became the first aircraft carrying ship in the RAN; using a platform built over the guns, aircraft were successfully launched from the ship. She continued in this role after the war as part of both her training and patrol duties using converted "Imperial Gift" Avro 504Ks. However she was paid off in 1921 and sadly, in 1924 under the terms of the Washington Treaty was towed out to a position some 24 miles East of Sydney and scuttled.
This 88 page monograph is thermally bound and has over 90 black and white photos and profiles of not just HMAS Australia but of others in the Indefatigable Class as well as a comprehensive foldout side profile of Australia herself. With so many photos it's a shame that the photo reproduction is not the best, (they appear to be photocopies of high quality prints). However, having said that the photos are still good enough to provide a starting point for modellers keen to build HMAS Australia. The history of the ship during the war years is comprehensive however I would have liked to have seen more information on her activities post war as well.
I can recommend this book to both modellers and historians.
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