HMS Arawa

The dramatic war service of an unglamorous Armed Merchant Cruiser

By: Allan A. Murray

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Australians in the Battle of the Atlantic, 1940-41.

This book is a description of the service in early World War II of the armed merchant cruiser, HMS Arawa, when Allan's great-uncle, Bobby Forbes, was on board.

The armed merchant cruisers were an interim measure by the British Admiralty pending the delivery of greater numbers of light cruisers to the British Royal Navy. They were, in effect, sacrificial lambs. As converted ocean liners, they were slow; lacked the armour protection afforded to warships; were hastily fitted with 6-inch un-turreted guns that dated from before World War I; and they lacked a centralized gun-fire-control system. As the battle on 5 November 1940 between sister ship, HMS Jervis Bay, and the German Navy pocket battleship, KMS Admiral Scheer, attests, any encounter would generally be fatal for the armed merchant cruiser.

HMS Arawa performed as an armed merchant cruiser for a little under two years before being returned to the more appropriate role of troopship. In that time, she served in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Her service gives insights into the Preliminary and Limited Disruption phases of the Australian Campaign. Of the sixty-seven armed merchant cruisers commissioned into the Australian, British, Canadian and New Zealand Navies, eighteen were lost. HMS Arawa was lucky, but her service was no less dramatic and is indicative of the service by the armed merchant cruisers of World War II and of relevance to Australia through the predominance of Australians, like Bobby Forbes, in her crew.

The Foreword for this book is by Recognised Minister James 'Jimmy' Forbes, Allan's second cousin and the son of Bobby Forbes.