HMAS Kalgoorlie (J192)

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Royal Australian Navy
HMAS Kalgoorlie
period of service
Builder: Broken Hill Pty Ltd , Whyalla
Keel laying: July 27, 1940
Launch: August 7, 1941
Commissioning: April 7, 1942
Fate: On May 8th, 1946 handed over to the Dutch Navy and there as Mr. Ms. Ternate put into service.
General properties
Ship type : corvette
Displacement : 650  ts standard
1025 ts maximum
Length: 57.7 m
Width: 9.1 m
Draft : 2.6 m
Drive : 2 Admirality 3-drum steam boilers
2 3-way expansion steam engines
1,750 WPS on 2 screws
Speed : 15 kn
Crew : 80
Armament: 1 × 4 inch gun
1 x 40 mm Bofors - Flak
3 x 20 mm Oerlikon cannons
up to 40 depth charges

The HMAS Kalgoorlie (J192) was a Bathurst-class corvette of the Royal Australian Navy, named after the town of Kalgoorlie , during World War II . A total of 60 ships of this class were built during the war in Australia as part of the war emergency program as mine sweepers, 36 for the Royal Australian Navy, 20 (including the Kalgoorlie ) on behalf of the British Admiralty , but manned and used by the Royal Australian Navy, and four more for the Royal Indian Navy .

After her commissioning, the Kalgoorlie was used as an escort ship on the east coast of Australia until August 1942. Then she was moved to Darwin , from where she was used in the Battle of Timor . In September she transported troops to Timor and on September 25th, together with her sister ship HMAS Warrnambool, took over the crew of the destroyer HMAS Voyager , which had run aground two days earlier at Betano in East Timor and had to be abandoned. In November she supported command operations on Timor, and in early December she looked for survivors of the corvette HMAS Armidale sunk by the Japanese . Despite repeated enemy air strikes, she managed to recover a total of 49 survivors.

The Kalgoorlie escorted convoys between Darwin and Thursday Island until February 1943 , followed by escort duties on the east coast of Australia and on the Australia- New Guinea route until mid-1944. During this period, only one ship escorted by the Kalgoorlie was lost. June 1943 a Japanese submarine sank the freighter Portmar from the convoy GP55 escorted by the Kalgoorlie , Warrnambool , HMAS Deloraine , HMAS Cootamundra and HMAS Bundaberg . The corvette searched in vain for the submarine for several days. In August and September 1944, she and HMAS Pirie cleared Australian minefields at the passages of the Great Barrier Reef that were no longer needed.

In January 1945 the corvette was assigned to the British Pacific Fleet as part of the 21st demining flotilla and operated in the Philippines from late March to early July 1945 . She then returned to Brisbane for an overhaul that was not over until Japan's surrender . On May 8, 1946, the corvette was decommissioned by the Australian Navy and handed over to the Dutch Navy , which she named as Mr. Ms. Ternate put into service.

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