HMAS Anzac (D59) was a of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Named after the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the destroyer was commissioned in 1951. The ship served on two tours of duty during the Korean War, and attempts to distinguish herself from British ships led to the practice of red kangaroo symbols on Australian warships. During 1956, Anzac served during the Malayan Emergency. In 1960, a malfunction in the destroyer's gun direction equipment caused Anzac to fire directly on sister ship during a gunnery exercise, with Tobruk left unrepairable. In 1961, the destroyer was reclassified as a training vessel. Anzac remained in service until 1974, and was sold for breaking a year later.

Design and construction

Anzac was built to the British design. The ship had a displacement of 2,436 tons as designed, although this displacement increased to 3,450 tons after her 1963 reclassification as a training ship. She was launched on 20 August 1948 by the wife of John Augustine Collins, the Chief of the Naval Staff and a former commanding officer of the previous HMAS Anzac. Anzac was commissioned as a ship of the RAN on 14 March 1951. Sicily was replaced by the Royal Navy (RN) light carrier on 2 September, and on 6 September, Anzac was ordered to shell a suspected communist position near Haeju, and fired in anger for the first time at 18:15. During 12–26 September, Anzac led US Ships and in a blockade of Wosan, before returning to Japanese waters at the end of the month. This method of identification was later adopted across the RAN: all major fleet units now bear a red kangaroo symbol on each side of their exhaust funnels or superstructure.

During late 1953 and early 1954, Anzac was assigned to Queen Elizabeth II's coronation tour.

Between 1956 and 1959, the destroyer was deployed on several occasions to serve with the Far East Strategic Reserve. A malfunction in Anzacs gun direction equipment negated the deliberate 6° mis-aiming of her guns, with the resulting shell hitting Tobruk and doing enough damage to the destroyer to make repairs uneconomical. During May and June 1964, the destroyer embarked the Governor-General, Viscount De L'Isle for a visit to the territories of Papua and New Guinea. On 21 May 1968, Anzac and Sydney left Brisbane on the latter's eleventh of twenty-five Vietnam voyages. The ships arrived at Vũng Tàu on 1 June, and returned to Brisbane on 13 June.

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Further reading

  • Royal Australian Navy webpage for HMAS Anzac II