Secret fleets : Fremantle's World War II submarine base /
Lynne Cairns.
- 2nd ed.
- Welshpool, W.A. : Western Australian Museum, 2011.
- 238 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.
Published with the assistance of the Australian Association for Maritime History. W.A. content.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. The development of the submarine -- 2. Australia's early submarines -- 3. World War II begins -- 4. Japan enters the war -- 5. Australia prepares for invasion -- 6. The US submarines come to Fremantle -- 7. 1942: Submarines on the offensive -- 8. 1943: The Fremantle submarines at war -- 9. Meanwhile, on the home front -- 10. A submariner's life -- 11. Early 1944: The Allies fight back -- 12. Late 1944: British submarines arrive -- 13. Clandestine operations -- 14. The war comes to an end -- 15. Remembering the submarine base -- 16. Submarines return to Western Australia.
During the war, Fremantle played host to over 170 Allied submarines, with submarines of the Unites States, British and Dutch navies making a total of 416 war patrols out of the port between March 1942 and August 1945. The Fremantle Port was closed, and barbed wire and sentries appeared at various strategic points, transforming it, almost overnight, from a relatively quiet place to the largest submarine base in the Southern Hemisphere. The secrecy surrounding the operation of the Fremantle submarine base meant that its existence was little known at the time and, until now, has been largely forgotten by history.
9781920843526 (pbk.)
Navy-yards and naval stations--History.--Western Australia--Fremantle World War, 1939-1945--Naval operations--Submarine. World War, 1939-1945--Western Australia--Fremantle.