HMAS AE2

On the outbreak of World War I in September 1914, Along with AE1 were assigned to the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force as it captured German New Guinea. During the capture of New Guinea, AE1 disappeared without a trace. After the German surrender, AE2 spent three weeks patrolling around Fiji with the battlecruiser Australia, then returned to Sydney on 16 November for maintenance and repairs. As AE2 was the only submarine in the region and the German threat to Australia had disappeared, Stoker suggested that the boat be transferred to Europe. Both the RAN and the British Admiralty agreed, and on 31 December, she left Albany with AIF Convoy 2 (under the tow of SS Berrima). The submarine was the only warship assigned to the sixteen-ship convoy, as after the Battle of Cocos resulted in the destruction of the last active German ship in the Indian or Pacific Oceans, the Admiralty felt no need to protect shipping in the Indian Ocean. AE2 arrived in Port Said, Egypt, on 28 January 1915, and was ordered to join the British 2nd Submarine Flotilla, and proceeded to take part in patrols in support of the Dardanelles Campaign

On 10 March, the submarine ran aground off Mudros when returning from a patrol, as the harbour lights used to aid navigation had been switched off in AE2's absence, which Stoker was not prepared for. The submarine was towed to Malta for repairs and returned to operation in April. The aim of the Dardanelles Campaign was to knock Germany's ally, the Ottoman Empire, out of the war and open up supply lines to the Russian Empire via the Black Sea. Attempts to open the Dardanelles through naval power were unsuccessful: three Allied battleships were sunk, and another three crippled, during a surface attack; although the British submarine HMS B11 was able to enter the strait and sink the modernised ironclad Mesudiye, two failed attempts to traverse the waterway and enter the Sea of Marmara resulted in the loss of HMS E15 and the French submarine Saphir to mines and strong currents. Plans were made to capture the Turkish defences by a land attack, with landings at Cape Helles and Anzac Cove. Despite the failures of E15 and Saphir, Stoker planned his own attempt, which was approved by the Allied fleet's commander, Vice Admiral John de Robeck. he forward hydroplane coupling failed, making the submarine impossible to control underwater and forced Stoker to retreat. At 02:30 on the following day, Stoker made a second attempt.[12] The submarine was spotted by shore artillery and fired on from about 04:30; Stoker ordered the boat to dive to avoid the shells and to traverse the first minefield AE2 spent the next hour picking her way through the mines' mooring cables: defensive wires that had been welded to the submarine in Malta prevented the mooring cables from catching. By 06:00, AE2 reached Chanak, and proceeded to torpedo a Turkish gunboat believed to be a Peyk-i Şevket-class cruiser while simultaneously taking evasive actions to avoid an enemy destroyer. The submarine ran aground beneath a Turkish fort, but the fort's guns could not be lowered enough to fire, and AE2 was able to free herself within four minutes. Shortly after, the submarine's periscope was sighted by a Turkish battleship firing over the peninsula at the Allied landing sites; this prompted the ship to stop firing and withdraw. AE2 advanced toward the Sea of Marmara, and at 08:30, Stoker decided to rest the boat on the ocean bottom and wait until nightfall before continuing. At around 21:00, AE2 surfaced to recharge her batteries, and Stoker radioed his success back to the fleet; the first Allied vessel to transit the Dardanelles. ] Stoker had orders to "generally run amok", and with no enemies in sight, he ordered the boat to enter the Sea of Marmara. Although the landing at Cape Helles was going well at the time Stoker reported in, the landing at Anzac Cove was not as successful, and the commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, Lieutenant-General Sir William Birdwood was pushing for reembarkation of his troops. Some sources identify AE2 as one of the factors leading to Birdwood's decision to commit to the attack, although the Australian War Memorial claims there "is no real evidence" to support this. The submarine made appearances across the Sea of Marmara over the following five days to give the impression of multiple boats, and several attacks against Turkish ships were made, although all failed because of increasing mechanical problems. News of the submarine's successes was spread to the soldiers ashore to improve morale. On 29 April, AE2 met E14, one of several submarines that had entered the Dardanelles following the Australian boat's successful attempt. The submarines arranged a rendezvous for the next morning.[4][17] When AE2 reached the rendezvous point on 30 April, smoke from the torpedo boat Sultanhisar was sighted, so the submarine dove and moved to investigate.[17] At 10:30, about a mile from the torpedo boat, AE2 inexplicably rose and broke the surface. While diving to evade, the boat passed below her safe diving depth; frantic attempts to correct this caused the submarine's stern to break the surface. Sultanhisar immediately fired on the submarine, puncturing the pressure hull in three places near the engine spaces.[ Stoker ordered the boat's company to evacuate, and scuttled AE2 at 10:45'. All personnel survived the attack and were captured by Sultanhisar, although four died from illness while in captivity AE2's achievements showed others that the task was possible, and within months Turkish shipping and lines of communication were badly disrupted, with supplies and reinforcements for the Turkish defence of Gallipoli forced to take underdeveloped overland routes. AE2 was the only RAN vessel to be lost as a result of enemy action during World War I, and along with sister boat AE1, the total of the RAN's operational losses in the war.[

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