HMAS Adelaide (1918)

At launch, the cruiser's armament consisted of nine BL 6-inch Mk XII naval guns, a single QF 3-inch anti-aircraft gun, a single Ordnance QF 12-pounder 8 cwt field gun, four QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss saluting guns, ten .303-inch machine guns (a mix of Lewis and Maxim guns), two submerged broadside 21-inch torpedo tubes, and two depth charge chutes.[2] The number of machine guns was increased to twelve in 1924.[2]

During a refit in 1938 and 1939, Adelaide's armament was altered.[1] One 6-inch gun, the field gun, the anti-aircraft gun, and the torpedo tubes were all removed. They were replaced with three 4-inch anti-aircraft guns.[1] Fire-control equipment was also upgraded at this time.[7] During May and June 1942, the anti-aircraft armament was supplemented by six 20 mm Oerlikon guns.[1] Another refit lasting from June to September 1943 saw a second 6-inch gun removed, the 4-inch armament reduced to two guns, and four hydraulic depth charge throwers installed.[1]

Adelaide sailing into Burrard Inlet in British Columbia, Canada, during the 1924 Special Service Squadron world cruise.

After a brief sea-trials and working up period off Jervis Bay, Adelaide spent the period from commissioning until February 1924 operating on standard duties and exercises throughout the Australia Station.[1][4] On 18 April 1924, following a brief refit, she joined the Royal Navy's Special Service Squadron for a flag-showing cruise outside Australian waters.[1] During the voyage, Adelaide visited New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, the western coasts of Canada and the United States, the Panama Canal (becoming the first RAN ship to travel through), the Caribbean, and eastern Canada, before reaching Portsmouth on 28 September.[1] The cruiser left for home on 10 January 1925, sailing via the Mediterranean, Ceylon, Singapore, and Thursday Island, and reached Sydney on 7 April.[1][4]

In October 1927, Adelaide was called to the Solomon Islands in response to the killing of a district officer, a cadet, and fifteen native police by Kwaio natives at Malaita.[1][4] Arriving at Tulagi on 14 October, an officer and sixteen sailors were sent ashore to reinforce local law enforcement.[4] The ship then proceeded to Malaita to protect the landing of three platoons of troops on 17 October, then remained in the area to provide personnel support for the soldiers as they searched for the killers, in what became the Malaita massacre.[1][4] Adelaide returned to Australia on 23 November.[1] Over the next year, Adelaide continued a pattern of exercises and promotional visits to Australian ports.[4]

The cruiser was paid off into reserve on 27 June 1928.[1] During 1938 and 1939, the ship underwent a 60,000 pound modernisation, which included the conversion from both coal and oil as fuel to oil-only (requiring the removal of two boilers and an exhaust funnel), and alterations to the cruiser's armament.[1] The cruiser was recommissioned on 13 March 1939, and undertook exercises with the Australian and New Zealand Squadrons.[7] The ship returned to Sydney in late April, and was paid off again on 17 May, so that the ship's company could be sent to England aboard SS Autolycus to commission the new light cruiser HMAS Perth.[7] With the threat of war in Europe imminent, Adelaide was prepared for a return to service, and was commissioned on 1 September.[8]

The ship was initially used for convoy escort and protection duties in Australian waters.[8]

In September 1940, Adelaide carried the French official Henri Sautot from the New Hebrides (later Vanuatu) to Nouméa, New Caledonia. Sautot had been appointed governor by Free French leader Charles de Gaulle, following attempts by Vichy France to gain control of the French colony.[8] On 3 September, while en route, Adelaide collided with the merchant vessel SS Coptic. (Although both ships only suffered minor damage, the Shaw, Savill & Albion Line sued the Australian government in 1947 for £35,000 in damages.[8]) After Sautot landed, on 25 September, Adelaide patrolled off the coast, to counter a perceived threat from the Vichy sloop Dumont d'Urville.[8] The Australian cruiser remained in the area until the situation had stabilised, returning to Sydney on 8 October.[8] Adelaide resumed escort and patrol duties around Australia and New Guinea waters.[7]

During May to July 1942, Adelaide was docked at Garden Island for a refit, focused primarily on increasing the ship's anti-aircraft weapon outfit.[5][7] Consequently, the ship was one of several major Allied vessels in Sydney Harbour during the Japanese midget submarine attack of 31 May 1942.[9] After the refit, Adelaide was assigned to Fremantle for convoy escort work in the Indian Ocean.[5]

Adelaide in 1944

In November 1942, Adelaide, along with the Dutch cruiser HNLMS Jacob van Heemskerk and the Australian corvettes Cessnock and Toowoomba, escorted a convoy across the southern Indian Ocean.[5] On 28 November, the ships spotted an unidentified vessel, which claimed to be the Norwegian merchantman Taiyang.[5] Officers aboard Adelaide recognised the ship as the German blockade runner Ramses, but did not receive a response to their challenging until two boats were lowered from the ship, followed by the sound of an explosion from a scuttling charge.[5] Adelaide opened fire, hitting with the third salvo onwards, and continued shooting until Ramses sank eight minutes later, then recovered the Germans from the boats.[5]

Adelaide continued to operate from Fremantle until October 1944, apart from a refit at Williamstown Naval Dockyard from June to September 1943, where further armament alterations were made.[5][7] On 8 October 1944, the cruiser made for Sydney.[5] On 26 February 1945, Adelaide was decommissioned, but then recommissioned on 19 May to serve as a tender to the naval base HMAS Penguin.[5] Adelaide was awarded the battle honours "Pacific 1941–43" and "East Indies 1942" for her wartime service.[10][11]