HMS Arawa: The dramatic war service of an unglamorous Armed Merchant Cruiser

By Allan A. Murray

'Men and Ships at War' describes the service of a number of ships from the middle of the 20th Century. The connective thread of the Series is the family members of the author who served either aboard or alongside these ships during World War II. The Series explores leadership, luck and the service of HMS Arawa and HMA Ships Nepal, Mildura and Australia (II) as well as the merchant vessels SS Iron Chieftain, Iron Knight and Leprena. The two Iron vessels were sunk during the War by Japanese submarines off the south-east coast of Australia. The three key protagonists are Bobby Forbes, his brother Arthur 'Dukesy' Forbes, and George Anderson. The Forbes brothers are paternal great-uncles of the author and George Anderson is the maternal grandfather. Between them, they served in every ocean, against every foe and their sea time encompassed every year of the War. All three survived the War. This first book in the Series is a description of the service in early World War II of the armed merchant cruiser HMS Arawa with Bobby Forbes on board. No stranger to drama, for 15 years she transported passengers between Australasia and England amid financial collapses, corporate restructures, route changes and even a name change. At the outbreak of World War II, TSS Arawa was hastily converted to an armed merchant cruiser in Sydney, Australia. With a top speed of 28 kilometres/hour, no armour plating, seven 1898-vintage 6-inch guns with no central fire control system, and a crew of mainly Australian Navy Reservists, this unglamorous warship was dispatched to Hong Kong before serving in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Her two years of service saw HMS Arawa at the centre of a diplomatic incident between the United Kingdom and Japan; be offered as a sacrificial lamb to German surface raiders and warships hunting Allied merchant vessel convoys; and duel with German and Italian submarines and aircraft in the Battle of the Atlantic. This book tells for the first time the tale of each of these dramas and more. They are indicative of the experience of many of the armed merchant cruisers in World War II.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1519027435
• ISBN13: 9781519027436
• Release Date: December 2016
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 78 Pages
• Weight: 0.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"