Appendix 19.1
Flags Flown by Australian Army Watercraft
Ken Duncan
Over the years I have been personally intrigued as to why two different flags were flown on the Small ships and watercraft of the Australian Army, during the second world war and in the post war periods. No explanation could ever be given as to why during the war a flag with 'crossed dirks' on the fly was used, whereas the post-World War 2 Transportation Service craft always flew the flag known as the RE Afloat.
In discussions with various members of long-standing belonging to both of the eras I could not learn of any reasons for the two flags being used in the two different periods or when the change over occurred. One story however, with a possible degree of credibility is that in the early days of the Royal Australian Engineers Transportation Service (RAE Tn) development there was no specific flag in use on Army watercraft, just the Australian National Flag. With the fall of Singapore to the Japanese in early 1942, cargo vessels ex the United Kingdom were diverted while at sea to Australian ports to be discharged, in order to back-load stores and cargo for urgent use in Britain. The discharged cargo was then supposedly sorted, to be used by Australian forces and for expediency just delivered to possibly relevant units. Apparently, quite a few anchors, navigation lights and several boxes of water transport flags were amongst sundry maritime type stores that arrived unannounced at the then Australian Army watercraft base at Clifton Gardens on Sydney Harbour.
Suddenly it seemed the fledgling Army watercraft organization had a flag of its own to fly and, once in use, the same flag became accepted as normal and saw service on RAE (Tn) craft throughout the Pacific region. However, from my limited research it would seem that there were no Royal Engineer watercraft or Inland Water Transport (IWT) units in Singapore at the time of the capitulation, however the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC), as operators of smallcraft in the British Army were well represented. Therefore, it does seem that the flag with the 'crossed dirks' as used by the Transportation Service of the RAE throughout the second-world war, was actually that of the RASC.
From here mere supposition creeps in but, from 1949 to 1955 the three Directors of Transportation were all Royal Engineer Officers on detachment. The first Australian post-war Director was Lt Col E.J. Cassidy 1955-1956, at which time the RE Afloat flag was, from personal knowledge, the only flag in use. It seems probable therefore, that one of the three Royal Engineer Directors of Transportation between 1949 and 1955 saw the RASC flag in use on RAE (Tn) watercraft and implemented the change.
References
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2. http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/gb-bordn.html#use.
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