Jervis Bay
The Royal Australian Naval College had relocated from Jervis Bay to Flinders Naval Depot, Victoria, before the start of the Second World War owing to funding cuts. In 1944, the RAAF 2nd Military Rehabilitation Unit was transferred there to care for 250 airmen convalescing from illness or injuries. After the war, the unit served to rehabilitate repatriated RAAF prisoners of war.
Nearby was RAAF Base Nowra, a shore establishment completed in May 1942. A satellite airfield was built at Jervis Bay, principally for search and rescue operations and to assist aircrews training in torpedo dropping procedures and tactics. Training was made as realistic as possible, and the converted ferry HMAS Burra-Bra was often used as a target ship.
RAAF Base Nowra was chosen to provide logistical support to the recently arrived Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm. From 1945, ships and submarines from the British Pacific Fleet passed through Jervis Bay on their way to the South-West Pacific Area.
No. 2 Convalescent Depot, Jervis Bay, primarily cared for orthopaedic patients. There were occupational therapy and educational programs for airmen for whom physical training was too strenuous while they had limbs in plaster.
An essential job carried out on Jervis Bay was the collection of torpedoes dropped by aircrews from RAAF Base Nowra on their training runs. Here RAAF Torpedo Recovery Vessel 03-5 hoists in a Mark XII 18-inch torpedo.