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| Royal New Zealand Navy |
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| Components |
| History |
| Ships |
| Other |
| Devonport Naval Base |
The history of the Royal New Zealand Navy leads back to early New Zealand-based gunboats used in controlling the British interests in the new colony, as well as to the strong linkages to the British Navy itself.
Originally the British Royal Navy provided security for the colony of New Zealand, but in 1846, the settlers bought their first gunboat. Later, the so-named Waikato Flotilla operated from 1860 to 1865, and at the same time a Naval Artillery Volunteer corps was established to provide harbour defence. In 1884, the government purchased four new spar torpedo boats, and starting in 1887 it funded ships of the Australasian Auxiliary Squadron.
Before establishment of the navy, the people of New Zealand paid for the building of the battlecruiser HMS New Zealand, which was at the Battle of Jutland and which served the Royal Navy with distinction.
The Naval Defence Act 1913 formally established the New Zealand Naval Forces, and the old RN cruiser HMS Philomel was the first to be commissioned into it. From 1921, the forces were known as the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, operating two cruisers and a minesweeper.
When Britain went to war against Germany in 1939, New Zealand immediately also declared war. In recognition of the fact that the naval force was now largely self-sufficient and independent of the Royal Navy, the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy became the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN), the prefix "royal" being granted by King George VI (as King in right of New Zealand) on 1 October 1941. Ships thereafter were prefixed with HMNZS (His/Her Majesty's New Zealand Ship).
The light cruiser HMS Achilles participated in the first major naval battle of World War II, the Battle of the River Plate off the River Plate estuary between Argentina and Uruguay, in December 1939. Achilles and two other cruisers, HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter, were in an operation that forced the crew of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee to scuttle their ship rather than face the loss of many more German seamen's lives. This decision apparently infuriated Adolf Hitler. Achilles moved to the Pacific, and was working with the US Navy when damaged by a Japanese bomb off New Georgia. Following repair, she served alongside the British Pacific Fleet until the war's end.
Achilles sister ship, HMS Leander, escorted the New Zealand Expeditionary Force to the Middle East in 1940, and was then deployed in the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean, where she was subjected to air and naval attack from Axis forces, conducted bombardments and escorted convoys, and sank the Italian auxiliary cruiser Ramb I. After serving in the Mediterranean she returned to the Pacific in 1943, assisting in the destruction of the Japanese cruiser Jintsu and being seriously damaged by torpedoes during the Battle of Kolombangara.
There was a plan in 1941 for HMS Neptune to become New Zealand's third light cruiser. To that end, it was partially crewed with New Zealanders. On 19 December, New Zealand's worst naval loss occurred when 150 of the New Zealand crew died after the ship hit mines and sank off the coast of Libya. [1]
As the war progressed, the size of the RNZN greatly increased, and by the end of the war there were over 60 ships in commission. These ships participated as part of the British and Commonwealth effort against the Axis in Europe, and against the Japanese in the Pacific. They also played an important role in the defence of New Zealand, from German raiders, and especially when the threat of invasion from Japan appeared imminent in 1942. Many merchant boats were requisitioned and armed for help in defence. One of these was HMNZS Monowai, which saw action against a Japanese submarine off Fiji in 1942. In 1941–1942, it was decided in an agreement between the New Zealand and United States government that the best role for the RNZN in the Pacific was as part of the United States Navy, so operational control of the RNZN was transferred to the South West Pacific Area command, and its ships joined United States 7th Fleet taskforces.
In 1943, the light cruiser HMS Gambia was transferred to the RNZN as HMNZS Gambia. In November 1944, the British Pacific Fleet (BPF), a joint British Commonwealth taskforce, was formed, based in Sydney, Australia. Most RNZN ships were transferred to the BPF, including Gambia and Achilles. They took part in the Battle of Okinawa and operations in the Sakishima Islands, near Japan. In August 1945, Gambia was New Zealand's representative at Japan's surrender.
Altogether, 561 New Zealanders died during World War II while in naval service. [1] The end of the war saw massive cutbacks. [2]
During April 1947 a series of non-violent mutinies occurred amongst the sailors and non-commissioned officers of four RNZN ships and two shore bases. Overall, up to 20% of the sailors in the RNZN were involved in the mutinies. The resulting manpower shortage forced the RNZN to remove Black Prince, one of their most powerful warships, from service, and set the navy's development and expansion back by a decade. Despite this impact, the size and scope of the events have been downplayed over time. [3]
Six Loch-class frigates were deployed during the Korean War; HMNZ Ships Hawea, Kaniere, Pukaki, Rotoiti, Taupo, and Tutira. RNZN crews in Korea went ashore in several "Nelsonian" night raids against coastal targets and took several prisoners for intelligence gathering.
RNZN medical personnel were members of the 1st New Zealand Services Medical Team (NZSMT) in Vietnam, a 19-strong detachment of medical personnel from the Royal New Zealand Navy, Royal New Zealand Air Force, and Royal New Zealand Army Medical Corps deployed in April 1967. The team's role was to provide medical and surgical assistance to South Vietnamese civilians and developing local knowledge in this field. The New Zealanders relieved a United States Army medical team at Bong Son in Binh Dinh province. They also treated military casualties who were brought to the Bong Son Dispensary, including Army of the Republic of Vietnam personnel and Viet Cong prisoners. In June 1969 the team moved to the new 100-bed Bong Son Impact Hospital. The average bed-state was 92 and approximately 46,000 outpatients (mostly civilians) were treated annually before the team's withdrawal in December 1971.
Two RNZN personnel served with the second New Zealand Army Training Team Vietnam (2NZATTV), an 18-man team deployed in February 1972 based at Dong Ba Thin Base Camp, near Cam Ranh Bay. It assisted with the training of Cambodian infantry battalions. This team also provided first aid instruction and specialist medical instruction at Dong Ba Thin's 50-bed hospital.
Throughout the 1960s to 1984, the Royal New Zealand Navy operated with SEATO, before its dissolution, and ANZUS treaty nations. In 1984, the relationship began to break down over the issue of nuclear-powered ship visits and nuclear weapons access to New Zealand. On several occasions, New Zealand dispatched RNZN vessels to monitor environmental damage caused by French nuclear testing in the Pacific.
The RNZN supported INTERFET landings with the deployment of frigate HMNZS Te Kaha and the tanker HMNZS Endeavour. Te Kaha was later replaced by the Leander-class frigate HMNZS Canterbury, which escorted the Australian landing ship HMAS Tobruk to Suai, with elements of the New Zealand Army's 1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment aboard. A further three battalion groups, with attached naval personnel, were deployed to East Timor with INTERFET and as part of the UN peacekeeping force.
HMNZS Achilles was a Leander-class light cruiser, the second of five in the class. She served in the Royal New Zealand Navy in the Second World War. She was launched in 1931 for the Royal Navy, loaned to New Zealand in 1936 and transferred to the new Royal New Zealand Navy in 1941. She became famous for her part in the Battle of the River Plate, alongside HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter and notable for being the first Royal Navy cruiser to have fire control radar, with the installation of the New Zealand-made SS1 fire-control radar in June 1940.
The Royal New Zealand Navy is the maritime arm of the New Zealand Defence Force. The fleet currently consists of nine ships. The Navy had its origins in the Naval Defence Act 1913, and the subsequent purchase of the cruiser HMS Philomel, which by 1921 had been moored in Auckland as a training ship. A slow buildup occurred during the Interwar period, and then perhaps the infant Navy's finest hour occurred soon after the beginning of World War II when HMS Achilles fought alongside two other Royal Navy cruisers at the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939.
The British Pacific Fleet (BPF) was a Royal Navy formation that saw action against Japan during the Second World War. The fleet was composed of empire naval vessels. The BPF formally came into being on 22 November 1944 from the remaining ships of the former Eastern Fleet then being re-named the East Indies Fleet and continuing to be based in Trincomalee. The British Pacific Fleet's main base was at Sydney, Australia, with a forward base at Manus Island in northern Papua New Guinea. One of the largest fleets ever assembled by the Royal Navy, by Victory over Japan Day it consisted of over two hundred ships and submarines and more than 750 aircraft; including four battleships and six fleet aircraft carriers, fifteen smaller aircraft carriers, eleven cruisers and numerous smaller warships, submarines, and support vessels. The fleet took part in the Battle of Okinawa and the final naval strikes on Japan.
HMNZS Leander was a light cruiser which served with the Royal New Zealand Navy during World War II. She was the lead ship of a class of eight ships, the Leander-class light cruiser and was initially named HMS Leander.
HMS Black Prince was a Dido-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy, of the Bellona subgroup. The cruiser was commissioned in 1943, and served during World War II on the Arctic convoys, during the Normandy landings, and as part of the British Pacific Fleet. In 1946, the cruiser was loaned to the Royal New Zealand Navy, becoming HMNZS Black Prince. The cruiser was docked for modernisation in 1947, but in April, her sailors walked off the ship as part of a series of mutinies in the RNZN. The shortage of manpower resulting from these mutinies meant that the modernisation had to be cancelled, and Black Prince was placed in reserve until 1953. She returned to service after refitting with simplified secondary armament with a single quad "pom pom" in Q position and eight Mk3 40mm Bofors guns. The ship was decommissioned again two years later, and returned to the Royal Navy in 1961. Black Prince did not re-enter service, and was towed from Auckland to Osaka for scrapping in 1962.
Operation Inmate was an attack by the British Pacific Fleet against Japanese positions on Truk Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean during the Second World War. The attacks against the isolated islands on 14 and 15 June 1945 were conducted to provide combat experience for the aircraft carrier HMS Implacable and several of the fleet's cruisers and destroyers ahead of their involvement in more demanding operations off the Japanese home islands.
HMS Royalist was a Bellona-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy (RN) during the Second World War.
HMS Gambia was a Fiji-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was in the service of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) as HMNZS Gambia from 1943 to 1946. She was named after the then Crown colony of the Gambia, and has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.
HMNZS Waikato (F55) was a Leander Batch 2TA frigate of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN). She was one of two Leanders built for the RNZN, the other being the Batch 3 HMNZS Canterbury. These two New Zealand ships relieved British ships of the Armilla patrol during the Falklands conflict, freeing British ships for deployment.
HMNZS Arbutus was a modified Flower-class corvette of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN). Built for the Royal Navy as HMS Arbutus, the corvette was transferred to the RNZN on completion in 1944, and operated in the British Pacific Fleet during the final year of World War II. In April 1947, Arbutus was one of the units involved in a mutiny over poor pay and working conditions. She was decommissioned in 1948 and broken up for scrap in 1951.
HMNZS Endeavour (A11) was a fleet oiler for the Royal New Zealand Navy. She was named after James Cook's Bark Endeavour and the third ship in the RNZN to carry that name, though if continuity with the Royal Navy ships of the name HMS Endeavour is considered, she is the twelfth. The previous two ships of the RNZN were Antarctic research support vessels. Endeavour was built in South Korea to a commercial design and commissioned on 8 April 1988, and decommissioned on 15 December 2017.
HMNZS Canterbury (F421) was one of two broad beam Leander-class frigates operated by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) from 1971 to 2005. She was built in Scotland and launched in 1970. Commissioned in 1971, Canterbury saw operational service in much of Australasia and other regions like the Persian Gulf. She undertook operations such as supporting UN sanctions against Iraq and peace-keeping in East Timor. With her sister ship HMNZS Waikato she relieved the Royal Navy frigate HMS Amazon in the Indian Ocean during the Falklands War. Early in HMNZS Canterbury's career, in 1973, she relieved the frigate HMNZS Otago, as part of a unique, Anzac, naval operation or exercise at Moruroa during anti-nuclear protests, supported by a large RAN tanker, providing fuel and a large platform for Australian media. This was due to F 421 being a more modern RNZN frigate, with then current Rn surveillance radar and ESM and a more effectively insulated frigate from nuclear fallout, with the Improved Broad Beam Leander steam plant, for example, being remote controlled and capable of unmanned operation and therefore the ship provided a more effective sealed citadel for operations in areas of nuclear explosions.
The New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy also known as the New Zealand Station was formed in 1921 and remained in existence until 1941. It was the precursor to the Royal New Zealand Navy. Originally, the Royal Navy was solely responsible for the naval security of New Zealand. The passing of the Naval Defence Act 1913 created the New Zealand Naval Forces as a separate division within the Royal Navy.
HMNZS Philomel is the main administrative naval base of the Royal New Zealand Navy. Originally a training base on board the cruiser it takes its name from, it is part of the Devonport Naval Base in North Shore City, Auckland, New Zealand.
The Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNZNVR) is the volunteer reserve force of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN).
HMNZS Puriri (T02) was a coastal cargo boat which was requisitioned by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) and converted into a minesweeper. She was sunk by a German mine 25 days after she was commissioned.
During April 1947, the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) experienced a series of non-violent mutinies amongst the enlisted sailors of four ships and two shore bases. Over 20% of the RNZN's enlisted personnel were punished or discharged for their involvement. The main cause was the poor rates of pay compared to the rest of the New Zealand Defence Force and equivalent civilian wages, exacerbated by the release of a long overdue government review which failed to address the issue. Sailors saw the new pay rates as still inferior to the other branches of the military, with the increases being consumed by taxes, inflation, and the cancellation of allowances and benefits. The poor living and working conditions aboard RNZN ships was another issue, compounded by sailors having no effective way to make dissatisfaction known to the higher ranks. Dissatisfaction with peacetime duties and opportunities also contributed, with many sailors locked into enlistment periods of up to 12 years, and demobilisation efforts prioritising those enlisted specifically for the duration of World War II.
Commodore George Raymond Davis-Goff was a senior officer in the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN).
The Torpedo Bay Navy Museum is the official museum of the Royal New Zealand Navy. It opened in 2010, to replace an earlier naval museum. The museum is in Devonport, Auckland.
The Royal New Zealand Navy Band is the musical arm of the Royal New Zealand Navy, serving its musical needs from its headquarters at HMNZS Philomel on Devonport Naval Base, North Shore City, Auckland.
Civilian administration and oversight: Ministry of Defence (New Zealand) |
