Disembarkation from HMAT Manoora, Douglas Watson, May 1945. Troops of the 2/48th Battalion leaving the Landing Ship, Infantry (LSI) HMAS Manoora to enter a landing craft for the assault on Tarakan, Borneo. [Oil on artist board with some scratching in, 50.6 x 35.6cm. AWM ART22476]

Shortly after dawn we anchored with all the other assault ships. ‘Away all boats’ sounded off soon after at 0700. The bombardment by cruisers, destroyers and rocket firing ships commenced, Shropshire, Hobart and Arunta included. It was a terrific bombardment setting up large fires mainly oil along the foreshore, actually the bombardment had been going on for 16 days and this coupled with the bombing by planes reduced Balikpapan and surrounding countryside to shambles.

Thus Midshipman John Mackay in HMAS Kanimbla described the scene as the sun rose at Balikpapan, Borneo on 1 July 1945 and ‘Operational Action Stations’ was sounded at 6.35 am.

HMA Ships Kanimbla, Manoora and Westralia were about to embark on their last major operation of the war – the 7th Division’s assault on Balikpapan in Borneo. The three Australian Landing Ships, Infantry (LSIs) had been hastily converted from armed merchant cruisers during 1943. Originally coastal passenger vessels, they had been commandeered in 1939 by the RAN as ‘armed merchant cruisers’ used to patrol the maritime trade routes of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Then the war with Japan created a need for ships to carry infantry in towards the beaches where smaller landing craft could take the troops ashore so Manoora, Kanimbla and Westralia were converted to troop carriers or ‘Landing Ships, Infantry’.

Lieutenant William Swan, who served in the Westralia, described some of the changes necessary to convert an armed merchant cruiser into a battle-ready LSI. All the luxurious fittings that had existed pre-war disappeared:

The stair well from the first class lounge (now the wardroom) to the dining saloon (the ratings’ cafeteria) was considered by dockyard officers to be a funnel for encouraging fires, and the handsome wooden stairs were removed and replaced by a structure of bare steel.

Cafeterias were built to feed the thousands of soldiers that Westralia would carry, the first of their kind on an Australian warship.

Able Seaman Leonard Hemus at the wheel of the LSI HMAS Kanimbla in May 1945. [AWM 089372]

By the middle of 1945 the three vessels had already taken part in several amphibious assaults in New Guinea, the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) and the Philippines. Now their last operation was to help to land more than 10,000 Australian soldiers, their weapons, vehicles and equipment on the beaches of Balikpapan in southern Borneo.

Before this final campaign, the Australian LSIs had participated in a number of significant amphibious landings, mostly supporting American forces. The first were operations in New Guinea and the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) and then they helped the Americans to return to the Philippines with landings in October 1944 at Leyte Gulf and in January 1945 at Lingayen Gulf. In May, June and July 1945, they transported men of the Australian 7th and 9th Divisions to landings on Borneo at Tarakan (1 May), Brunei Bay (10 June) and Balikpapan (1 July).

These landings at Tarakan, Brunei Bay and Balikpapan were the RAN’s final large-scale operations in the Pacific. While the troops were landed from the three LSIs, Manoora, Kanimbla and Westralia, cruisers and destroyers supported them with covering fire. RAN frigates, sloops and corvettes continued their patrols, minesweeping, surveying and escorting duties and even the smaller Fairmile launches were involved in these final operations.

Dacre Smyth, a prolific artist, produced this painting of his ship engaged in shelling German positions at Normandy on D-Day. [HMS Danae, D Day 6 June 1944, Dacre Smyth 1993; artwork reproduced with kind permission]

'D-Day'

‘each of us played a vital role’

In June 2004 a small group of Australian D-Day veterans returned to France for the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings at Normandy. While they were there the four were presented with the Legion of Honour. One of those veterans, Dacre Smyth, whose Legion of Honour was personally presented by the French President, believes that although no more than a few hundred Australian sailors were involved in the operations they all played a vital role.

Dacre Smyth receives his Legion of Honour from the French president, Jacques Chirac, June 2000. [DVA]

Lieutenant Dacre Smyth, RAN, was just 21 when he took part in the D-Day landings at Normandy, France. During an earlier secondment to the Royal Navy (RN) in 1942, Dacre had served in motor gunboats at Lowestoft in the English Channel before returning to Australia in 1943 to serve in the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia in the Pacific. In March 1944 he returned to Britain to continue his naval training. He was posted to the British light cruiser HMS Danae. Although he was the only Australian on board, he was accepted without question as ‘one of the team’. The British warship was involved in escort duties and later supported Allied forces assembled for the landings at Normandy.

Lieutenant Dacre Smyth, RAN. [Image provided by Dacre Smyth]

The Danae, an old warship built in 1918, was part of the fleet that sailed from Britain to cover the troopships and bombard the beaches on which Allied troops were landing. The Danae with other warships continued to bombard German shore positions for some weeks as the Allied troops advanced inland and along the coast and was later redeployed for patrols and escort duties. In October 1944, Danae was transferred to the Free Polish forces and Dacre Smyth went on to serve in the Australian destroyer HMAS Norman in the Burma campaign.