HMAS Bataan (I91)

HMAS "Bataan" (D9/D191/I91) was a "Tribal" class destroyer laid down by Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company Limited at Sydney in New South Wales on 18 February 1942, launched on 15 January 1944 by the wife of General Douglas MacArthur, and commissioned at Sydney on 25 May 1945.

She was named after the Battle of Bataan, to honour the scene of resistance by American and Filipino defenders, under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, against an overwhelming Japanese invading force on the island of Luzon in the Philippine Islands from 1 January to 9 April 1942. She was originally to have been named "Kurnai", after an Australian aboriginal tribe but was renamed "Bataan" as a gesture to the United States for naming one of their ships "Canberra".

"Bataan" was present in Tokyo for the official Japanese surrender on 2 September 1945, [cite web |url=http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq69-2.htm |title=Allied Ships Present in Tokyo Bay During the Surrender Ceremony, 2 September 1945 |accessdate=2007-01-13 |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date=27 May 2005|publisher=Naval Historical Center - U.S. Navy|quote=Taken from "Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas (CINCPAC/CINCPOA) A16-3/FF12 Serial 0395, 11 February 1946: Report of Surrender and Occupation of Japan"] and operated in support of United Nations Forces during the Korean War.

"Bataan" paid off at Sydney on 18 October 1954 and was laid up in reserve awaiting conversion to an anti-submarine escort. The conversion was cancelled in 1957, with "Bataan" placed on the disposal list and sold for scrap to Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha Limited of Tokyo on 2 May 1958.

References

External links

* [http://www.navy.gov.au/HMAS_Bataan Sea Power Centre history of HMAS "Bataan"]