Researching Australian military service: Second World War, Troopships

Ships
Convoys
Voyages
Embarkation rolls
Photographs and film

Ships

Roger W. Jordan, The world’s merchant fleets 1939: the particulars and wartime fates of 6000 ships. (London: Chatham Publishing,1999). Includes specifications, date of building and builder and some photographs, arranged by name of shipping company.

Convoys

Official records

Series AWM963/23/* contains statistics, lists of ships in some convoys, administrative arrangements for some convoys e.g. units embarking on ships.

General

Peter Plowman, Across the sea to war: Australian and New Zealand troop convoys from 1865 through two world wars to Korea and Vietnam (Dural, NSW: Rosenberg Pub)

Voyages

  • Unit diariesfor individual ships, (Official records AWM52 37/1/*). Only diaries for some voyages are held. Those held are listed on RecordSearch under name of ship or its number for the voyage.
  • Voyage reports(Official records AWM 54 963/13/* - AWM 54 963/19/*) Statistics, conditions and medical reports for some voyages.
  • Routine orders  (Official records AWM54 707/11/*)

General

  • Letters, diaries and other papers of some who travelled on troopships are held in the Private Records collection. Use Collections Search to identify items.
  • Newspapers and magazines were published aboard troopships to help relieve the boredom of the long journeys. Use the Books Database to identify items: search by name of publication or name of ship.

Embarkation rolls

Apart from several miscellaneous items in the Research Centre, embarkation rolls from 1 December 1939 – 31 December 1944 are held at the National Archives of Australia in series AT226/10. Use RecordSearch to find details.

Photographs and film

  • Collections Search database contains over 500 photographs and some films showing transport ships, including images of life on board
  • PhotoSearch is the online photographic catalogue of the National Archives of Australia, and contains digital images of photographs from the collections in all state and territory offices of the Archives.
  • Trove can search photographs and other images held by a range of major Australian libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions

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