Coastal Forces of the Royal Australian Navy

Coastal Forces was a division of the Royal Navy established during World War II.They were employed on routine patrols, convoy escorts, running special forces in and out of Japanese-held areas, boom defence patrols in harbours at home and abroad, courier operations, survey work, and raiding Japanese-held coasts.Originally designed in the UK for coastal anti-submarine and convoy duties, the RAN Fairmiles performed these and a variety of other functions.The fate of second last to stay afloat was ex HML 815 which became Roylen Pataj (named after the son and grandson of the operators of Roylen Cruises, Peter with the last letters of AJAX as it was known) this sank Rendova Island in the Solomon Islands and was later raised and sunk again near Kennedy Island near Gizo as dive site by the local scuba diving company.Petaj was fitted out as a luxury cruiser and was also used to ferry HRH Prince Charles around the Barrier Reef in 1965 before being acquired by Roylen Cruises.
A painting by official war artist Able Seaman Rex Julius depicting the upper deck of a Fairmile launch in 1944
Rex JuliusCoastal ForcesRoyal NavyWorld War IImotor launchessubmarine chasersair-sea rescue launchesmotor gun boatsmotor torpedo boatsRoyal Australian NavyHarbour defence motor launchFairmile B motor launchHDML 1321HDML 1324HMAS RushcutterNew GuineaHRH Prince CharlesBarrier Reef.PT 109ML 827Jacquinot BayNew BritainCambrian SalvorCoastal Forces of the Royal NavyCoastal Forces of the Royal Canadian NavyCoastal Forces of the Royal New Zealand NavyCoastal Forces of World War IIFairmile A motor launchCanadian Fairmile BCoastal motor boatMotor torpedo boatFairmile D motor torpedo boatVosper 73 ft motor torpedo boatMotor gunboatFairmile C motor gun boatSteam gun boat