Artillery WA issue 4

The Secret Potshot (Exmouth) Base – The Onslow Fuel Tanks

By Bob Glyde

Several issues ago of “Aiming Post” the subject of the artillery presence at the base was covered.

What is possibly not so well known was that in order to supply the Potshot base with marine fuel oil, marine distillate and aviation fuel, four 2000 ton welded steel tanks were constructed at the port of Onslow The tank for distillate for the submarines, was in service mid 1943. It may be recalled the tanker my “Ondina” served as floating storage until the Onslow tank was complete Thenceforth the US Navy provided a 500 ton barge to collect the distillate and pump it ashore into shore tanks at Potshot..

A PWD engineer, Ken Kelsall, who was sent to Onslow to supervise the construction of the tanks, states the task was completed in 1944. The work was carried out by members of the Allied Works Council. The steel for the tanks had to be transported by sea from Perth, the lower section being plate of half inch thickness and thinning out to quarter inch plate at the higher levels. The cement, sand and metal for the tank bases, buildings was barged from Perth whilst the blast walls were of rammed earth construction using local clay/sand and gravel mixed with cement.

All tanks were set well down in the dunes, the two fuel oil tanks being situated close to the shore with a large pumping station between them, whilst the distillate tank was further back and further inland again was the aviation fuel tank.

Onslow Fuel Oil Storage 1943-45

The 2 marine fuel oil tanks with the pump house in between

Photo by Glen Potter - 2004

The jetty extended out for three quarters of a kilometre, large vessels, were not able to tie up to the jetty and the tankage was used primarily to bunker vessels, such as corvettes and destroyers. Some units of British Eastern Fleet were believed to have refuelled at Onslow followed by a raid by them on Japanese facilities in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) in May 1944.

The aviation fuel tank possibly was to supply filled drums for use at the air force facilities at Exmouth, Yanrey and Onslow. It may also have provided drummed fuel for the secret air base at Corunna Downs, near Marble Bar. The latter would have been transhipped to Port Hedland and sent out on the tramline which then existed between Port Hedland and Marble Bar.

Onslow Naval Fuel Storage 1943-45

Distillate tank now used for town water supply

Photo by Glen Potter - 2004

On 15^th September 1943, Onslow was bombed and according to an article in the “West Australian” 2^ndMarch 2004, eight high explosive and eight incendiary bombs were dropped, mostly in the vicinity of the airstrip which was closer in towards Onslow than the present day airfield. It is of interest that this incident did not even warrant a mention in the 3^rd Aust Corps War Diaries of that date even though unidentified aircraft from time to time over Derby and Wyndham appeared to justify recording. The raid made Onslow as the furthest point south to be attacked by Japanese aircraft. Following this raid, the US Navy provided a number of AA weapons to protect the tank area and remained there until November 1944. Prior to this, during the operation of the Potshot base, the 2/3^rd Aust LAA Regiment provided a battery of 40 mm Bofor guns at Onslow. Primarily they were situated to protect the fighter airstrip.

At the end of World War 2, the Shell Company of Australia took over the operation of the fuel depot which supplied fuel to the State Shipping Service, the Blue Funnel Line vessels Charon and Gorgon and naval units involved in the atomic tests at Barrow Island. In 1961 a cyclone destroyed a 300 metre section the jetty and the Government decided the jetty would not be rebuilt. The facility was offered up for tender won by Tom Snyder of Rockingham. He and four others were killed in 1963 when their light aircraft crashed near Marilla Station, west of Onslow whilst flying to Onslow and the second tenderer Midalia and Benn were awarded the tender.

They constructed an underwater pipeline from the end of the jetty and a flexible pipe was winched out of the sea so the remaining oil in the tanks could be pumped from the tanks into a ship standing offshore.. Most of the 12,000 tons of fuel remaining in the tanks was thus recovered however on the second last load a ship fouled the pipeline with its anchor and so damaged it that it was deemed too costly to recover the last remaining 150 tons of fuel oil.

Many of the facilities still exist today. The marine diesel tank was cleaned out and is used for the town water storage, the aviation gasoline tank is used for storage and as a cyclone shelter. The northern most fuel oil tank is used fir storage and the remaining fuel oil tank still contains the fuel oil left in it after the recovery programme ceased.

I am indebted to Glenn Potter, a member of the RAAHSWA, for the resume of what he found out about the facility when he visited the Exmouth/Onslow area in 2004.and for the photos, which accompany the article. He was good enough to give me access to information he obtained from the Onslow Information Centre.

Information Sources:

Glenn Potters – Notes on the Onslow Naval Storage Facility.

Ken Kelsall – Notes on the Onslow Naval Storage Facility. Handout at the Onslow Information Centre.

Ken Kelsall – Onslow Revisited”. Handout at the Onslow Information Centre.

Onslow – Onslow Information Centre

“West Australian” Newspaper Cutting, 2^nd March 2004 – Onslow Air Raid Shattered Night Idyll.

Darwin’s Doctors Gully Gun

Visitors taking an early morning stroll along the foreshore overlooking the Darwin Harbour in the vicinity of Doctor’s Gully, most likely would have noticed a grey well kept gun pointing out across the harbour waters. A closer inspection would identify the weapon as an American 4-inch naval gun.

This gun is of great historical value for a further reading of the plaque records that it was recovered from the USS “Peary” (DD226) sunk during the first air raid on Darwin by the Japanese on 19^th February 1942.

The “Peary” was a unit of the American Asiatic Fleet based at Subic Bay in the Philippines in 1941. She was laid down during the Great War and completed in 1920, being one of sixty one ships of the type built for the US Navy at that time. They were known as “four-stackers” by virtue of the four funnels. The “Peary” was of 1090 tons displacement, capable of 35 knots and equipped with 4 – 4-inch (101.6 mm) 50 calibre Mark 9, Model 5 guns, 1 – 3 inch (76.2 mm) gun and 12 – 21 inch (53.3 cm) torpedo tubes. The 4-inch guns were low angle capacity and had a maximum range of 14560 metres.   They were not suitable for anti-aircraft protection.

In the early days of the war with Japan, the “Peary” had remained at Subic Bay with her sister ship USS “Pillsbury”, both ships under repair as the result of a collision. In the meantime, the remainder of the surface vessels of the Asiatic Fleet had sailed for Balikpapan, thence to Singapore. On the 15^th February, the vessel assisted in the escort of four transports to Timor from Darwin however the convoy returned to Darwin as it had been detected by the Japanese and came under heavy air attack. There were also reports of strong Japanese naval forces in the area. The “Peary” left Darwin soon after returning with the transports but was soon after involved in the hunting of the Japanese submarine I-124 which was subsequently sunk by Australian corvettes. The fuel used by the “Peary” in this action forced her return to Darwin to refuel. The vessel arrived back in Darwin Harbour at about the same time as a Japanese carrier force commenced flying off their aircraft for the first raid on Darwin. She anchored and the crew commenced carrying out maintenance.

Immediately upon the alarm being sounded the “Peary” got underway, as did all the other vessels able to do so. Within minutes of the commencement of the raid, the vessel received a direct hit on the stern, which destroyed her steering gear followed by another bomb hit amidships. Within moments the ship was on fire and sinking, taking about 80 of her crew with her. Only one officer survived.

For fourteen years the whereabouts of the wreck of the “Peary” remained a mystery, despite searches by the RAN and divers from the US War Graves Unit, which apparently spent a considerable time searching.

Commercial divers were also interested as it was rumoured the vessel had a quantity of gold on board, some saying it was from the Philippines, others that it was of Dutch origin.

In 1956, the HMAS “Quadrant” was leaving harbour and apparently testing her sonar equipment, when the sonar operator reported an unidentified object in the main harbour anchorage. Naval divers went down to investigate and reported the object was the wreck of the “Peary” lying with a two degree list in a thirty metre deep hole in silt up to the main deck level, almost directly out from the Atrium Hotel on the Darwin Esplanade. The vessel was declared not to be a navigational hazard and no further action was taken but the wreck was declared a War Grave. Tom Lewis, the author of “Wrecks in Darwin Waters” makes the comment that in view of the location of the wreck it must be assumed the ship was moving when struck or at least had enough buoyancy to allow the tides to move her from the area in which she was seen to have sunk.

In 1959 a Japanese salvage team won the right to salvage the wrecks still lying in Darwin Harbour. At this point in time the harbour master decided there could be some risk to vessels anchoring in the quarantine area of the anchorage and demanded the vessel be stripped down to the level of the main deck. This drew protests from the US War Graves Commission and the Japanese salvage company. The latter protesting because it meant searching for and removing ammunition, torpedoes, etc, before work reducing the superstructure could commence.

Eventually one of the 4 inch guns was presented to Darwin for a memorial. It was possibly the gun on the forecastle. Whether the two guns on the starboard and port sides were landed is not known. The gun on the stern section has not been recovered as when the bomb burst on the stern it must have caused the stern section to break away and that piece of wreckage, as far as is known, has never been found.

Today the gun No.1080 (or 1090, the paint was too thick to record precisely) as indicated is mounted on a concrete plinth at Doctor’s Gully and is pointed in the general direction of the wreck. The gun is in remarkable condition considering it lay for 14 years under the sea   It was manufactured in 1918 by the Root Van Der Voort Engineering Company

This information would be of considerable interest to researchers of the WA Coast Defences 1942 – 45 as four such guns were emplaced in Western Australia; two at Geraldton in 1942 and two at Beacon Battery-Garden Island in 1943. These were the only such guns used in the coastal defence role in Australia, For years the myth was circulated that they were guns salvaged from the “Peary” but research has shown quite definitely that this was not so. This is further confirmed by an examination of the gun which reveals it is a Mk 12 Model 5 weapon whereas the guns in the Western Australian batteries were Mk 9, Models 5 and 6. What is of interest is the publication “Naval Weapons of World War Two” does not show that Mk 12 guns were built or formed part of the American Naval ordnance inventory.

Information Sources

“Wrecks in Darwin Waters” by Tom Lewis Published by Turton and Armstrong Pty Ltd of NSW. Printed 1992.

“Naval Weapons of World War Two” by John Campbell. Published by Conway Maritime Press Ltd, London. UK

“Australia in the War 1939-45, Navy Volume , Royal Australian Navy 1939-42”, by G H Gill. Published by the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.1957.

US Navy Ordnance Pamphlet 1112 (2^nd Rev), 4-in Mount Mark 12, Mod 3

Ordnance Equipment Audit Beacon Battery 30^th June 1943.

The Merredin BL 6 in 26 cwt Howitzer

Society members passing through the eastern wheatbelt town of Merredin along the Great Eastern Highway would possibly have noticed an unusual heavy gun displayed outside the Military Museum.

It is an incomplete BL 6 in 26 cwt howitzer and is one of two such type of gun on display in this State. Unfortunately like all the Australian guns displayed in the State, little is known of its history whilst in service in the Australian Army.

When the weapon first came to the notice of the Society it was in a dismantled form comprising the barrel, recuperator system and the trail, the latter having a piece cut out of it. It was held for some time at the Society Workshop at Karrakatta, the thought being it would be cleaned up, reassembled and restored for display. When it appeared this was not likely to eventuate, it was returned to Bob Endersby who was deeply involved in the Military Museum at Merredin.

Details of the howitzer are:

BL 6 in Howitzer 26 cwt Mk I, No.6821

(Only the Mk I was ever produced), Built by the Coventry Ordnance Works in 1918.

Carriage No. C32838 built by Vickers Ltd in January 1918.

Originally fitted with wooden wheels and later modified during WW2 and fitted with pneumatic tyres.

The BL 6 in Howitzer formed part of the equipment of a 1942 artillery Medium Regiment which comprised two batteries normally one battery equipped with 8 - 6 in howitzers and the second battery equipped with 8 - BL 60 prs. In 1942 Australia held 18 – 6 in howitzers but by 1945 this number had increased to 90 with 20 being forwarded direct from the UK the balance of stock being sent from stocks held on the British Middle East ordnance depots. By then they had been declared obsolete in the British Army.

It is possible the Merredin howitzer had served with the 2^ndAust Medium Regiment which arrived in Western Australia in March 1943 and was under the command of the Corps Commander, Royal Australian Artillery (CCRAA) 3^rd Aust Corps.

The 2^nd Aust Medium Regiment, comprising the 5^th and 6^th batteries, was stationed in Western Australia until October 1943 when it returned to the Eastern States and was posted to Queensland, where it re-equipped with 5,5 in gun howitzers and 155mm American M1A1 howitzers. The unit, on leaving Western Australia, was under instruction to return its weapons as well as the 6x4 gun tractors to Ordnance before leaving the State in view of the fact it was to be re-equipped.

There is a more complete example of this weapon on display at the Big Gun Toyota vehicle sales yard on the Great Eastern Highway, Bellevue. It is fitted with non standard wooden spoked wheels.

The RAAHSWA Photographic Library has a shot of a pre 1939 militia unit on exercises with the gun being towed by a Cletrac tractor the typical gun tractor for such equipment at that time..

Information Sources

Australian Army War Effort Feb 1942. Australian National Archives.

Australian Army, Order of Battle and Allotment of Unit Serial Numbers, October 1942. Australian National Archives

“British and American Artillery of World War Two”, Ivan V Hogg, Published by Arms and Armour Press.

“Guns of the Regiment”, S N Gower, Published by the AWM Canberra.

3^rd Aust Corps Unit Location Statements March – October 1943.

Conversation with K Glyde, Military Historian, Claremont, Tasmania

LAST POST

BEATRICE (Bea) INGRAM

It is with some sadness to advise the demise of Beatrice (Bea) Ingram on 2 May 2005, aged 92 years. Bea, together with her late husband Fred, was a Foundation Member of the Society and a dedicated contributor to our Objects. For the past three years Bea was confined to a Nursing Home but retained her charm and dignity for which she was renowned.

Perhaps best known among the WAGS for the Tea and Coffee Service, she will be fondly remembered by all Members. The Funeral Service on 5 May was attended by Ronnie Roach and Don Rae.


Major Scot Sullivan	Maj Andrew Dunjey.

President Bruce Campbell presenting Certificate of Appreciation To Curator Don Rae	And presenting a 15 year membership badge to Mrs. A Rae.

NOTICE BOARD

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE