SS Allara

 

Now for a bit more about Newie during the second world war, about six weeks after the Japanese shelled Newcastle the city experienced another example of the realities of war, however, only those who were connected to the waterfront were permitted to know about it.

The Japanese hoped to isolate Australia and New Zealand from their allies, to do this they tried using subs against merchant shipping. Of course, the Aussies used anti-sub patrols and a convoy system for shipping, didn’t stop the Japanese from sinking some ships using torpedoes and mines.

The powers that be decided that people didn’t need to know this, and many things were not allowed to appear in papers. One such thing was the torpedoing of the SS Allara a freighter owned by the Adelaide Steamship Company.

On a run from Cains to Sydney with a cargo of sugar on the SS Allara on the 23 July 1942 when at 5.15am it was unlucky to encounter the Japanese sub I-175 about 25 nautical miles of the coast of Newcastle. The sub fired two torpedoes one hitting the ships stern blowing off the propeller, rudder and wireless antenna. This was directly under where 22 men were sleeping it killed four men outright and injuring three others, with one of them dying later.

The crew struggled to the deck with their injured mates while the sub surfaced and the Japanese fired a shell from a deck gun across the Allara’s bows, signalling the Ausie’s to abandon ship. The Japanese thought the ship would sink so dived and left the area, however, after an hour in lifeboats the ships crew realised that the Allara wasn’t going to sink, so they returned to the ship.

More about this next weeka