About This Unit
Hospital Ships WW2
During WW2 a number of civilian ships were requistioned / contracted by the Army for conversion to Hospital Ships to transport sick and wounded personnel. Designated Australian Hospital Ships, and allocate the prefix AHS, they were all staffed primarily by the Army Medical Corps Staff.
The ships were in two groups: Australian ships and Dutch ships transferred to the control of the Australian Government. The Dutch ships retained their original Dutch officers and Javanese sailors, with replacements from an international pool being added as necessary, and they also continued to sail under the Dutch flag.
There was a third group of Hospital ships, associated with the island campaigns near Australia and Australian troops, but they are outside the scope of this record as they were Dutch ships operated under United States Army control.
AHS 2/1 Manunda
Manunda was an Australian registered and crewed ship operated by the Adelaide Steamship Company. She was converted into a hospital ship at Sydney in compliance with the Geneva Convention Regulations and was taken over by the authorities on 25 May 1940, and entered service as AHS Manunda on 22 July 1940, under Captain James Garden, previously the captain of the Adelaide Steamship Company and Commodore of the Adelaide Steamship Fleet. The general hospital based on board was commanded by Lt. Col. John Beith, and members of the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) on board were led by Matron Clara Jane Shumack (1899–1974).
Role and Service. Manunda sailed on a shakedown cruise to Darwin, Port Moresby and returned to Sydney, before heading for Suez in the Middle East (she made four trips to the Middle East and Mediterranean between November 1940 and September 1941). She was then despatched to Darwin. On the morning of 19 February 1942, Manunda was damaged during the Japanese air raids on Darwin, despite her highly prominent red cross markings on a white background. 12 members of the ship's crew and hospital staff were killed, 19 others were seriously wounded and another 40 or so received minor wounds.
After a refit in Adelaide, she went to Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea, where she acted as a floating hospital for the Allied forces who were stationed there. She spent several nights in Milne Bay, during attacks by Japanese warships, but her status as a hospital ship was, on this occasion honored by Japanese naval units, which raked her with searchlights on three nights running. She made a total of 27 voyages from Milne Bay to Brisbane and Sydney transporting wounded troops.
Manunda's final wartime voyage was to New Zealand transporting civilian passengers. During the war she carried approximately 30,000 casualties to safety.
After the Japanese surrender, Manunda was despatched to Singapore to repatriate ex-POWs and civilian internees who had been imprisoned in Changi Prison. She also sailed to Labuan in Borneo to pick up ex-POWs and civilian internees from Batu Lintang camp.
Significance. Manunda operated in all of the theatres of war in which Australian ground forces participated in WW2.
Postwar. Manunda was decommissioned in September 1946 and refitted then returned to her pre-war owners . She returned to service on 2 April 1948, transporting passengers around the Australian coast. In September 1956 she was withdrawn from service and sold to the Japanese Okadagumi Line, who renamed the vessel Hakone Maru. The company's plans for the ship did not eventuate, and she was broken up the next year in Japan, arriving in Osaka for scrapping on 18 June 1957.
An interesting detailed history of the ship in military and civil service can be found HERE (en.wikipedia.org)
AHS 2/2 Wanganella
The 2/2 Australian Hospital Ship had formerly been the SS Wanganella which was an Australian-registered ocean liner built by Harland and Wolff that entered service on the trans-Tasman route in 1933. Originally named Achimota, she was acquired by Huddart Parker after the original sale to Elder Dempster Lines fell through. Renamed Wanganella, the ship sailed between New Zealand and Australia until 1941, when she was converted into a hospital ship.
Role and Service: The Wanganella (AHS2) operated as a hospital ship, transporting casualties from the Middle East and SW Pacific to base hospitals in Australia. Between 19 May 1941 and 1946, AHS Wanganella carried wounded and sick evacuees from the Middle East, Italy, India, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Bougainville, Morotai, Borneo and the South Pacific, travelling over 251,011 nautical miles (464,872 km) and transporting 13,385 wounded.
Significance: It was a key medical vessel, operating under the Red Cross in the latter stages of the war, notably in July 1945.
Post-War: Following its service, the Wanganella was used as a migrant ship, a construction worker hostel in New Zealand, and was eventually scrapped in 1970.
An interesting detailed history of the ship in civil service can be found HERE (en.wikipedia.org)
AHS 2/3 Centaur
The best known of the WW2 Hospital Ships largely because of the tragedy which befell it, and the outrage which the circumstances of its loss provoked. Centaur was British-registered with an Australian crew. She was converted to a hospital ship on 12 March 1943. She was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-177 on 14 May 1943, during her second voyage to New Guinea as a hospital ship. Of the 332 medical personnel and civilian crew aboard, 268 died.
The Scottish-built vessel was launched in 1924 as a combination passenger liner and refrigerated cargo ship and operated a trade route between Western Australia and Singapore via the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), carrying passengers, cargo, and livestock.
Role. At the start of World War II, Centaur was (as were all British Merchant Navy vessels) placed under British Admiralty control. After being fitted with defensive equipment, it was allowed to continue normal operations. In November 1941, the ship rescued German survivors of the engagement between Kormoran and HMAS Sydney. Centaur was relocated to Australia's east coast in October 1942, and used to transport materiel to New Guinea. In January 1943, Centaur was handed over to the Australian military for conversion to a hospital ship, as her small size made her suitable for operating in Maritime Southeast Asia. The refit (including installation of medical facilities and repainting with Red Cross markings) was completed in March, and the ship undertook a trial voyage: transporting wounded from Townsville to Brisbane, then from Port Moresby to Brisbane. She was lost on her second voyage, with the 2nd/12th Field Ambulance on board. (/explore/units/790)
Significance. The circumstances of Centaur's loss resulted in public outrage as attacking a hospital ship is a war crime under the 1907 Hague Convention. Protests were made by the Australian and British governments to Japan and efforts were made to discover the people responsible so they could be tried at a war crimes tribunal. In the 1970s the probable identity of the attacking submarine, I-177, became public.
An interesting detailed history of the ship in civil service can be found HERE (en.wikipedia.org)
AHS 2/4 Oranje
The modern 20,166-ton liner Oranje was completed in early 1939 for the Nederland Line, and began its maiden voyage to Batavia in September of the same year. The outbreak of war between the Netherlands and Nazi Germany found the Oranje at Surabaya, where it remained for over a year, owing to the uncertain world situation. In early 1941, the Dutch government-in-exile offered the ship to the Australian and New Zealand governments as a hospital ship, an offer that was quickly accepted. Initial conversion of the vessel for its new role took place at Batavia, and the work was completed at Sydney.
Role. Capable of 26 knots, Oranje was at the time the fastest hospital ship in the world, and represented a valuable addition to the Allies’ medical capability. Originally staffed and operated by a Dutch crew, with a small complement of New Zealand and Australian staff, it later carried a largely Australian, and eventually a largely New Zealand medical staff. The Oranje completed 41 war voyages, covering over 382,000 nautical miles and carrying some 32,461 patients. It was then used to repatriate many Dutch internees from the NEI to the Netherlands.
Significance. The largest fastest and most comfortable Hospital Ship in Australian service in WW2.
Post War. After the war, it was refitted as a luxury liner and returned to its original passenger route until 1964. Angelina Lauro: The ship was sold to the Italian Flotta Lauro Lines in 1964 and renamed the Angelina Lauro. While docked in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, in 1979, the ship was gutted by a fire. It eventually sank in the Pacific Ocean on September 24, 1979, while being towed to a scrapyard in Taiwan.
An interesting detailed history of the ship in civil service can be found HERE (/admin/units/2319/An%20interesting%20detailed%20history%20of%20the%20ship%20in%20civil%20service%20can%20be%20found%20HERE)
Compiled by Steve Larkins February 2026
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