HMAS 'Australia' [kamikaze attack]

Three sailors running out of the way of a Japanese aircraft and kamikaze attack. HMAS 'Australia' was the first ship to be hit by the suicide attacks during the Second World War and the ship went on to be hit the most times. It never sank, but required extensive repairs on several occasions.

The artist Alan Hall(1919-1979) enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in 1936 at the age of 17 years. During the Second World War he served on several different ships, including HMAS Australia from 5 April 1944 to 1 February 1947. Hall was a self taught artist who recorded via small sketches a variety of different aspects of naval life and service on HMAS Australia during the war. The Memorial holds a total of 35 drawings by Hall which include general sketches of convoys in the Philippines, recreational activities and in several cases the impact, both physically and psychologically, of kamikaze attacks. Hall also submitted several illustrations for the military publications HMAS Mk III and Salt.

HMAS Australia was launched in 1927 and was the first Allied ship to come under Japanese attack by kamikaze pilots in October 1944. It was targeted a further six times but remarkably was not sunk. These attacks killed 87 RAN members and left an indelible impression upon those men that witnessed and survived the attacks.