AH Challenge: Australia keeps the Gift Fleet

At the end of WWI the British government gave Australia a small force of warships as a reward for their assistance.

This force consisted of:

1 Destroyer Leader: HMAS Anzac
5 Destroyers: HMAS Swordsman, Success, Stalwart, Tasmania & Tattoo
6 Submarines: J 1-5 & J 7 (J 6 had been sunk during the war).
1 Submarine Depot Ship: HMAS Platypus
3 Sloops/Minesweepers: HMAS Geranium, Mallow & Marguerite

This force, consisting of fairly new vessels, was known as the Gift Fleet. However financial constraints saw all of the ships disposed of by the mid 1930's.

See: The Gift Fleet for the full details.

The challenge I am posting is as follows, firstly, keep this force intact until the start of World War II, either with or without the later additions to the Royal Australian Navy during the 1930s, secondly, work out their likely war service.
 
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Markus

Banned
This force, consisting of fairly new vessels, was known as the Gift Fleet. However financial constraints saw all of the ships disposed of by the mid 1930's.

See: The Gift Fleet for the full details.

The challenge I am posting is as follows, firstly, keep this force intact until the start of World War II, either with or without the later additions to the Royal Australian Navy during the 1930s, secondly, work out their likely war service.

Fairly new? In 1919 maybe but even at that time all the DD were obsolescent as they were pre-V/W class designs. The sloops were from 1915 and had to have seen a lot of hard wartime service. The subs would have been well worn and obsolete by WW2 too.

The only ships that would have been useful in WW2 are the DD. I would decommission and keep them in reserve like in OTL. They actually survived until 1935/37 by which time Japan had dropped out of the WNT. That can be used to justify keeping them in reserve longer. The Brits actually did this in 1937. Their wartime role would likely be the same as the one of the more modern V/W DD: ASW escorts. Though two or three old S-class DD saw real destroyer action in the first months of 1942.
 
Fairly new? In 1919 maybe but even at that time all the DD were obsolescent as they were pre-V/W class designs. The sloops were from 1915 and had to have seen a lot of hard wartime service. The subs would have been well worn and obsolete by WW2 too.

The only ships that would have been useful in WW2 are the DD. I would decommission and keep them in reserve like in OTL. They actually survived until 1935/37 by which time Japan had dropped out of the WNT. That can be used to justify keeping them in reserve longer. The Brits actually did this in 1937. Their wartime role would likely be the same as the one of the more modern V/W DD: ASW escorts. Though two or three old S-class DD saw real destroyer action in the first months of 1942.
Ja, tatsachliche eine Gift Flotte.
(Ya, indeed a poison fleet.)
 

Larrikin

Banned
Gift Fleet

Keeping Plats and a couple of the subs, just to keep the capability, would have been about the best things to keep running.

The amount of work required to keep most of the rest of them running wasn't worth it.
 
Costs were a serious problem during the Depression.

At one point the Canadian Navy only saved itself from draconian cuts with the ultimate threat of paying off the fleet, which would have left Canada with pensions and such for the retired personnel...and NO navy at all. I doubt Australia was much better off than Canada and a collection of WWI antiques wil be low priority.
 
It seems impossible to keep such a collection of ancient designs in service up to 1941, given the age of teh vessels and their characteristics.

The minesweepers are too old to be of any use, unless they were mothballed after the purchase and did not serve in peacetime, creating less wear and tear.
The Destroyer Leader is of a design, quite obsolete, even after WW1 and already has had a heavy servicehistory, which will definitely have caused the engines and equipment to show signs of wearing down. No ship, with such a servicerecord can survive for long, as the systems internally will break down.
The S-Class destroyers are obsolete as well, but some survived to serve in WW2, although in a limmited role, given their age and design. These old ships too have had enough service and will definitely show signs of age and breaking down of systems. Perhaps a period of conservation will keep them in service to make an entry in WW2, but in most likely a limmited coastal role.
 
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