Just got finished watching a HIstory Channel show about McHales navy, and realized, if they were so close to Australia, where was Australia's navy at this time? Or did they not have a big enough naval force to expend ships to the War in the Pacific?
thanks
-Shain

Australia's navy was there taking punishment the same as the US Navy. It may have been only a small number of vessels but it's presence was felt.

Also you cannot forget the New Zealand Navy, the Indian Navy, The British Navy and even the Dutch had a ship or two along with ground forces in the Pacific.

It is Just that the US wants to think they fought the Pacific war by themselves and most publications, films etc are bias in this regard.

Cheers
Cliff

PS> I think you need to edit your post as I believe that NO ONE 'sacrificed any thing deliveritly in the Pacific war except the Japanese.

Thanks, for the reply, and when I said sacrafice, I didnt mean sacrafice deliberatly, what I meant was, they might have not had enough ships to expend into the war effort. But the Dutch, how did their ships survive the Japanese expansion into the West Indies? And did the Indian Navy contain carriers, or just battleships, cruisers etc...

thanks
shain

Well you have to take into account that Australia only had about 15-20 million people so it stands to reason that their navy would be smaller as well.I'm sure if you look at the major battles in the south pacific there was an R.A.N. presence of some sort. I know they lost a cruiser ( Perth or Sydney )at Savo Island.If I'm wrong one of our more knowledgable Australian friends will let us know.

During WW2 a lot of the Dutch, New Zealand etc ships were merchant type cargo ships rather then destroyers for instance.

A lot of smaller coastal craft and landing barges etc were built here in Australia for the Pacific campaign so what we lacked in large ships we made up for it with 100's of coastal craft.

The American Navy supplied larger LCM's etc to bulk move troops and vehicles around and then our smaller coastal craft came into action doing supply runs etc.

Cheers
Cliff

I did a little research and it was the Canberra that was lost off Savo Island. The Perth was lost off Western Australia when she fell in with a German armed merchantman disguised as a Dutch freighter. The German ship was so severely damaged that she had to scuttle herself. The Perth was never heard from again. The R.A.N. was quite busy in spite of its size,and the Pacific is really big.