Second World War Troopships
Second World War Troopships
Researching Australian military service
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 diaries for 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 includes photographs and other images held by a range of major Australian libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions.