H.M.S. - H.M.A.S. KanimblaPrint Page 
The plaque commemorates those who served in H.M.S. - H.M.A.S. Kanimbla in the various conflicts in which Australia has been involved. The plaque location is indicated by a red poppy in the second image.
H.M.A.S. Kanimbla was a passenger ship converted for use as an armed merchant cruiser and landing ship infantry during World War Two. Built during the mid-1930s as the passenger liner MV Kanimbla for McIlwraith. McEacham and Company, the ship operated in Australian waters until 1939, when she was requisitioned for military service, converted into an armed merchant cruiser, and commissioned in the Royal Navy as H.M.S. Kanimbla.
Initially used to board and take control of merchant vessels belonging to Occupied Europe and operating in Asian waters, H.M.A.S. Kanimbla led the raid to capture the Iranian port of Bandar Shahpur in August 1941, and was present during the covert Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour in 1942. In 1943, the ship was converted into a Landing Ship Infantry, transferred to the Royal Australian Navy as H.M.A.S. Kanimbla , and operated throughout the South West Pacific Theatre until the end of the war.
Between October 1946 and June 1948 she made a number of voyages between Sydney and Japan transporting members of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces. In the course of these voyages she also called at various Pacific Island ports transporting persons and cargo caught up in the post war adjustments in the Pacific. In 1948 Kanimbla took personnel and stores to the United Kingdom to commission H.M.A.S. Sydney, returning with British personnel who had enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy as well as 432 displaced persons.
Kanimbla was decommissioned and returned to her commercial owners in 1950. In 1961, she was sold to the Pacific Transport Company and renamed Oriental Queen. The ship operated as a liner throughout the Pacific and to Japan until 1973, when she was broken up for scrap.
Location
| Address: | Fairbairn & Limestone Avenues, Captain Reg Saunders Courtyard, Australian War Memorial, Campbell, 2612 |
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| State: | ACT |
| Area: | AUS |
| GPS Coordinates: | Lat: -35.280169 Long: 149.147612 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate. |
Details
| Monument Type: | Plaque |
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| Monument Theme: | Conflict |
| Sub-Theme: | WW2 |
Dedication
| Actual Monument Dedication Date: | Tuesday 1st October, 2002 |
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HMS - HMAS Kanimbla
Armed Merchant Cruiser - Landing Ship Infantry
Commissioned 6 October 1939 (HMS) as an Armed Merchant Cruiser.
Most of the crew was RAN Volunteer Reserve.
Recommissioned 1 June 1943 (HMAS) as a Landing Ship Infantry and included among its crew men of the 3rd Landing Ship Detachment AIF.
KANIMBLA served on the China Station, in the East Indies, the Indian Ocean and with great success in the Persian Gulf. As a Landing Ship,
KANIMBLA played a vital role in landing troops in the initial assaults at Tananmerah Bay (Hollandia), Morotai, Panaon Leyte, Lingayen Gulf-Luzon, Brunei and Balikpapan.
After the Second World War, Kanimbla assisted the British Commonwealth Occupation Force.
