Allan a Murray

HMS Arawa Allan a Murray

This first book in the Series, Men and Ships at War, is a description of the service in early World War II of the armed merchant cruiser, HMS Arawa, when Allan's great-uncle, Bobby Forbes, was on board.

No stranger to drama, for 15 years she transported passengers between Australasia and England amid financial collapses, corporate restructures, route changes and even a name change. At the outbreak of World War II, TSS Arawa was hastily converted to an armed merchant cruiser in Sydney, Australia. With a top speed of 28 kilometres/hour, no armour plating, seven 1898-vintage 6-inch guns with no central fire control system and a crew of mainly Australian Naval Reservists, this unglamorous warship was dispatched to Hong Kong before serving in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.

Her two years of service saw HMS Arawa at the centre of a diplomatic incident between the United Kingdom and Japan; be offered as a sacrificial lamb to German surface raiders and warships hunting Allied merchant vessel convoys; and duel with German and Italian submarines and aircraft in the Battle of the Atlantic. This book tells for the first time the tale of each of these dramas and more. They are indicative of the experience of many of the armed merchant cruisers in World War II.

The Foreword for this book is by Recognised Minister James 'Jimmy' Forbes, Allan's second cousin and the son of Bobby Forbes.