AHS Manunda

Yesterday, I wrote about the unfortunate sinking of the Australian Hospital Ship (AHS) Centaur and mentioned that a Japanese warship had trained a spotlight on the AHS Manunda eight months earlier at Milne Bay, Papua-New Guniea, but had not fired on it. I'd never heard of the Manunda so looked it up in good old Wikipedia.

The Manunda had been an Australian coastal cargo and passenger ship before World War II after being built in Scotland in 1929. It was converted into a hospital ship and commissioned the AHS Manunda July 22, 1940.

On February 19, 1942, it was damaged in the Japanese attack on Darwin with 13 crew and staff being killed, 19 seriouslr wounded and 40 slightly. After the attack, it served as a clearing station for casualties from the other ships in the harbor.

After repairs, the Manunda went to Milne Bay, Papua-New Guinea, and served as a floating hospital for actions in the area. Altogether during the war, the ship made 27 voyages from there to Brisbane and Sydney, carrying some 30,000 casualties.

After Japan's surrender, the Manunda went to Singapore to pick up POWs and civilian internees before being decommissioned in 1946. After that, it again carried passengers and cargo around Australia and then was sold to a Japanese company and renamed the Hakone Maru. In 1957, the ship was broken up

The Story of a Ship. --Cooter