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Walter Burroughs

The Naval Evacuation of Singapore – February 1942

Singapore – a bastion of the British Empire, an impregnable fortress, fortified to withstand attack and prevent siege. With that in mind, thoughts of evacuation were therefore unnecessary.

What the British refer to as the Far East and Australians South East Asia was mostly dominated by the colonial powers of Britain, France and the Netherlands, with the ex-Spanish Philippines controlled by the United States. All these had considerable armed forces at their disposal, so a move by the Japanese to gain control of their oil, rubber and minerals was a dramatic undertaking without guarantee of success. But help was at hand.

Help from friends

On 11 November 1940 the German raider Atlantis encountered the Blue Funnel liner Automedon. When Automedon refused to stop she was raked by shells, killing the captain and his bridge team. A boarding party discovered a small weighted bag destined to have been thrown overboard. This contained top secret British Cabinet papers addressed to Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham, Commander-in-Chief Far East. These explained the inadequacy of British forces to withstand a Japanese attack in the Far East and the Royal Navy’s inability to send a fleet in defence. The report also contained an order of battle for the defence of Singapore and the roles to be played by Australian and New Zealand forces should Japan enter the war.

In recognition of their importance these documents were entrusted to the prize crew of a recently captured Norwegian tanker, Ole Jacob, and immediately sent to Japan. The documents were delivered to the German Embassy which provided copies to Japanese authorities. This information, coupled with its own appreciation, convinced the Japanese War Office of the weakness of the British position (Robinson 2016).

At the same time, bowing to Japanese political pressure and possibly compounding foreseen weakness, Britain withdrew from its Chinese based garrisons at Shanghai and Tientsin and repositioned these regiments in Singapore, leaving the last east Asian outpost at Hong Kong alone and vulnerable.

Japanese expansion – South East Asia

War finally came with Japanese forces attacking the northern beaches of Malaya on 8 December 1941 – because of the dateline, one hour ahead of Pearl Harbor.Within days their attacks had extended to the Philippines and Hong Kong and through a pincer movement, down both sides of the Malay Peninsula. Britain responded, sending the battleship HMS Prince of Walesand the battlecruiser HMS Repulseplus four destroyers to intercept the invasion force. On 10 December both capital ships were lying on the sea bed off the east coast of Malaya with 840 dead and 2000 survivors seeking help from the beleaguered garrison.

Area map

As a prelude to events unfolding in Singapore in early December 1941 the Japanese Army’s 38th Division of over 50,000 men massed on the border between China and the British-leased New Territories. Opposed to them were about 8,000 men comprising two battalions of British infantry, two battalions of Indian infantry, and recently arrived, two battalions of Canadian infantry. Also on hand was the elite Indian manned Hong Kong and Singapore Regiment of Royal Artillery (HK&SRRA) and the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Force. They were supported by seven obsolete aircraft, one elderly destroyer, two gunboats and eight motor torpedo boats (MTBs). Of the defensive forces only one British regiment and the Indians were prepared for operational service against a superior battle hardened force.

 On Monday 8 December the Japanese crossed the border and carried out bombing attacks which completely destroyed the defending aircraft. Despite stubborn resistance and inflicting considerable casualties over 17 days of fighting, Hong Kong surrendered on Christmas Day 1941. The surviving garrison was marched into Japanese prison camps, some never to return.

The Japanese advance through the Malay Peninsula was unprecedented, and despite resistance by numerically superior defenders, appeared unstoppable. Accordingly, large numbers of families of servicemen and civilians were encouraged to leave. When the first bombs fell on Singapore the evacuation began in earnest with torrents of people desperately seeking passage in the next available ship. Many European and Eurasian women and children were evacuated before the end of December. A further 1500 women and children left early in the New Year and a final large contingent of 4000 departed in four passenger liners in late January 1942.

With the Japanese stranglehold over the Malay Peninsula there was no land exit, and after the last few RAF aircraft evacuated on 10 February the enemy controlled the skies. To prevent the remaining ships falling into enemy hands the senior naval officer, Rear Admiral Ernest Spooner, decreed that these must sail by 13 February.

Local sketch plan of evacuation

That afternoon the Admiral called a meeting in his office at Fort Canning and told us that the decision that Singapore could not hold out had been agreed and orders had been given for the remaining naval and Air Force personnel, as well as selected Army technicians, to leave that evening (Pool 1987). The first embarkation was to be made as soon after dark as possible in order to allow all craft to clear Singapore and its approaches before daylight the following morning.

With an estimated capacity for 3000 personnel, 1800 spaces were allocated to Army, a few hundred to RN and RAF, and the rest to civil government. Following Japanese atrocities in Hong Kong as many female nurses as possible were to be evacuated. The AIF was given a disproportionately small allocation of 100 places to all ranks.

The Japanese were considered unprincipled in the conduct of war and there are many stories of survivors being killed, but there is another side to this story. The converted riverboat Wah Sui,not an internationally registered hospital ship, but painted white with large red crosses on both sides, had already been used to evacuate wounded from Singapore to Java and was now anchored in the harbour. Japanese authorities asked that she be moved away from the proximity of legitimate shipping targets. Wah Suiembarked a further 300 wounded, plus nurses, and sailed on 10 February. Although buzzed by enemy aircraft she was unmolested and made the safety of Tanjung Priok1.

Army officials were instructed that passes should go to men of outstanding ability with the intention of integrating this nucleus with Javanese troops in Batavia. Crowds now formed at the embarkation areas, some with passes and others without. Adding to the panic, they were being bombed. Radio Tokyo also broadcast messages that the British were not going to be allowed to escape in another Dunkirk.

Lieutenant Richard Pool RN, a survivor from Repulse,had been allocated to ML 310 and writes of his experiences (Pool 1987):

All day long columns of evacuees filed patiently along the approach road and on the wharf and gradually found spaces in the miscellany of craft which now thronged the dockside. Unfortunately, despite all efforts, some military at the point of a gun, forced their way on board. Every conceivable kind of boat, including yachts, was being pressed into service and my thoughts returned to those days of Dunkirk almost two years before. I could not help wondering why such an outflow of civilians, Europeans as well as Asians, should have been allowed at this late hour. I think many of us felt at the time that it was yet another example of the lack of firm leadership.

Michael Pether (Pether 2018), whose parents were in Singapore2, also describes the scene:

On the evening of 13 February 1942 as the Japanese Army tightened its encirclement of the central area of the city of Singapore the Allied troops and civilians endured constant bombing and artillery shelling – the city was in flames; thousands of dead bodies littered the streets and much of the city lay in ruins.

 Government authorities had been tardy and inefficient in the evacuation of civilians until only a few days before and now, as the last vessels that could be remotely called ‘ships’ prepared to leave, chaotic scenes were taking place at the Singapore wharves as dozens of European and Eurasian civilian men, together with hundreds of servicemen from the UK, Australia, India and New Zealand scrambled onto any vessel departing that would take them. Most women and children who wanted to escape by ship had already gone – albeit that most of the ships which had left in the previous couple of days were doomed to be sunk.

 Lynette Silver (Silver 1990) is more precise:

Rather than face the prospect of spending the rest of the war in prison, many chose to take the perilous journey across the sea to Sumatra, the only escape route now open. Colonels and brigadiers, civilians and civilservants,battle-hardenedwarriorsandarmy deserters intent on escape at any price, left in launches, junks, rowing boats, naval craft, in fact anything that floated.

Troops aboard transport awaiting disembarkation Singapore, 15 August 1941

The Plymouth Highlanders

 Malaya and Singapore had an ample supply of defending forces, with a British Army supported by Australian and Indian troops, however, many of these had been hastily put together and quantity was not matched by quality. The Army’s strength was further limited by a lack of tanks, armoured cars and a shortage of anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns. Air cover was in a worse state with 158 obsolete aircraft, including four RAAF squadrons, two of Brewster Buffalo fighters and two of Lockheed Hudson bombers.

An exception to the fighting force was the Second Battalion of Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, part of the Indian 12thBrigade, who had been positioned in Malaya in late 1939 to bolster the local forces. The Highlanders, who had trained in jungle warfare, fought well against the Japanese, until they too were overwhelmed. Fighting courageously, they were amongst the last to pass from the mainland over the Causeway and retreat into garrison Singapore.

The Highlanders, now down to 250 men, reformed with the addition of 210 Royal Marine survivors from the Prince of Walesand Repulse. They were whimsically known as the Plymouth Argylls (Plymouth Argyle is a football club).

When the first Japanese came ashore on Singapore Island on 8 February the thinly spread Australians defending the northwestcoast failed to halt the attack and the Argylls were send to help stem the tide in the brief Battle of Singapore. Survivors from this closely knit unit stayed together and some managed to escape whilst others were taken into custody. Brigadier Archie Paris with Major Angus Macdonald commandeered a private yacht Celia, skippered by Captain Mike Blackwood, and together with a number of other Highlanders made their way to Padang, only to join the ill-fated SS Rooseboom. From the composite Plymouth Argylls, 52 Highlanders and 22 Marines finally reached Colombo.

Singapore’s Dunkirk

Lieutenant Geoffrey Brooke served in the battleship Prince of Wales which sank on 10 December 1941. He survived this ordeal and when the opportunity came he and a number of his shipmates escaped in the river steamer Kung Wo. Brooke writes of his experiences in Singapore’s Dunkirk (Brooke 1989), but tragically this episode did not emulate the success of the English Channel crossing.

Another unfortunate consequence leading to confusion was that naval personnel responsible for coding and decoding signals were approved to leave the island aboard HMS Jupiterin the early hours of 12 February. As they had destroyed all code books the Rear Admiral Malaya was thereafter unable to read signals. While the presence of a Japanese Fleet, bound for Sumatra, was known to the Dutch it was nolongerpossibletopassthisinformationto Admiral Spooner. This proved disastrous as by dreadful coincidence the Japanese invasion fleet heading for the Banka Strait converged with the approaching fleet of small ships departing Singapore.

Women & Children being evacuated from Singapore February 1942

With the Japanese now within gun range on the opposite side of the Causeway a few thousand more persons escaped in an organized convoy on the night of 11/12 February. Afterwards a fragile fleet of forty-four independent unescorted sailings occurred on ‘Black Friday’ 13 February, with a few stragglers coming behind on 14 February. Over the final five-day period before surrender on Sunday 15 February 1942, about 5000 souls escaped but less than one in four made a safe landing, the rest being killed or captured.

On paper the escape plan seemed straightforward, a 20-mile passage over the Singapore Strait at night, and then laying up under cover of one of the numerous Netherlands East Indies islands, before island hopping to cover the next 60 miles and crossing the Banka Strait to the large island of Sumatra. The Japanese, however, were well aware of this deadly game of cat and mouse and had set a trap with aircraft overhead and ships guarding the Straits which caused havoc.

While particulars of all vessels involved in the exodus are incomplete the following participated.

Ship Captain Crew Passengers
HMS Changteh LEUT D Findlay RNVNVR 10 40
HMS Dragonfly LEUT A Sprott RN 70 75
Blumut – tug 5 29
Celia CAPT M Blackwood – Army 2 15
HMS Dymas 5 16
Elizabeth – tug LEUT Nigel Kempson RN
HMS Fanling – customs launch LEUT J Upton RNZNVR 5 47
HMS Fuh Wo LEUT N Cook RNR 10 30
HMS Giang Bee LEUT H Lancaster RNR 48 245
Heather LEUT     St Aubin RNR 4 50
HMS Grasshopper CMDR J Hoffman RN Rtd 70 250
Haig Hen CAPT O Jennings (Army) 4 25
Hung Ho LCDR H Vickers RNR
Hung Jao LEUT R Henman RNVR
Hock Sieuw Major G Rowley-Conwy RA 3 166
Kembong 4 25
Kofoku Maru CAPT Roy (Bill) Reynolds MN 9 76
Kuala LEUT F Caithness RNR 50 700
Kung Wo LCDR E Thompson RNR 20 140
HMS Li Wo LEUT T Wilkinson RNVR VC 24 60
HMS Malacca LEUT F Man RNVR 15 62
Mata Hari LEUT A Carston RNR 83 400
Mary Rose CAPT G Mulloch RN 4 38
ML 310 LEUT J BULL RNZNVR 16 28
ML 311 LEUT E Christmas RANVR 15 57
ML 432 LEUT H Herd RNZNVR 15 60
ML 433 LCDR H Campey RANVR 15 60
HDML 1062 LEUT C MacMillan RNZNVR 10 30
HDML 1063 LEUT M Innes RNVR 10 20
Panglima – HDML LEUT H Riches MRNVR 10
Pulo Soegi LEUT A Martin RNZNVR 10 60
Redang Captain S Rasmussen MN 13 100
Scorpion LEUT G Ashworth RNVR 70 250
HMS Scott Harley LEUT J Rennie RNR 14 200
Shu Kwang CMDR A Thompson RNR Rtd 25 300
HMS Siang Wo 90 142
Tandjong Penang LEUT B Shaw RNZNVR 17 220
Tenggaroh LEUT   Whitworth MRNVR 5 42
Tern 3 21
Tien Kwan LEUT R Heale SSRNVR 15 300
Trang LEUT H Rigden MRNVR 10 71
HMS Tapah LEUT J Hancock MRNVR 19 45
HMS Vyner Brooke LEUT R E Borton RNR 47 250
Unnamed lifeboat Major M Ashkanasy AIF 2 38
HMS Yin Ping –tug LEUT Pat Wilkinson SSRNVR 14 62
Total            45 890 4845

Michael Pether (Pether 2018) has identified another twenty or so small craft which attempted the treacherous crossing. In addition, HMS Laburnumwas badly damaged by bombing and she, together with HDMLsPenghambat(LEUT F Man RNVR) and Penyengat were scuttled at Singapore to prevent them falling into enemy hands. HMS Panjiwas also sunk by enemy gunfire at Singapore. In January 1941 a large component of the Australian Army’s recently raised 8th Division was posted to Malaya. An element of some 6000 men departed Sydney in the liner Queen Maryas part of Convoy US9 on 4 February 1941, arriving in Singapore two weeks later on 18 February. A further 5000 troops in Convoy US111B arrived at Keppel Harbour on 15 August 1941. Under the command of Major General Gordon Bennett, the force initially established its headquarters at Kuala Lumpur. Bennett had urged for specific territorial responsibility for his Division, and this resulted in an area which included Johore and Malacca, coming within his responsibility.

Artist’s impression of Kung Wo taking on Japanese convoy

 The Australian Army 8th Division in Malaya eventually reached about 15,000 men. An apt description of the commander, Major General Henry (Gordon) Bennett, found in a Veterans’ Affairs publication, (Moremon & Reid 2002) reads:

A prominent citizen soldier, he had proven himself in World War I to be a fierce fighter and leader, but he was well known for his prickly temperament, argumentative nature and proneness to quarrel. His relations with senior British commanders and staff in Malaya were, at times, strained, as he grappled to maintain control of the Australian troops.

Bennett’s independent spirit did not fit into the Allied command structure, however his Division generally acquitted themselves well against a seasoned enemy.

Immediately following surrender of the garrison by Lieutenant General Arthur Percival on the evening of Sunday 15 February 1942, Major General Bennett handed over his command to Brigadier Cecil Callaghan and executed an escape plan (Bennett 1944).

The General, accompanied by his ADC, Lieutenant Gordon Walker, and staff officer Major Charles Moses3plus some Malaysian officers arranged to hire a junk. When the junk did not arrive the ADC swam to a sampan and guided her inshore, allowing the party to cross to Johore. Here they met a Chinese who for payment agreed to take them to Sumatra. After four days at sea they were sighted by the Singapore Harbour Services Launch Tern which took the General and his two aides inshore. Later they were flown to Batavia and from there to Australia. The escape was not well thought of by other senior Army officers, and in parliamentary circles it was politely termed ‘unwise’.

Another well-known escape was of 65 Australian nurses aboard HMS Vyner Brooke which sailed on 12 February. Property of the Rajah of Sarawak, she was requisitioned by the Admiralty, lightly armed andgivenacoatofgreypaint.Sheretainedher civilian crew who were given naval reserve ranks, commanded by Captain Richard Borton. On sailing there were about300 passengers and crew. Just short of Sumatra she was bombed and sunk when about 150 survivors made Banka Island. Nearly all were captured by the Japanese and 21 nurses were summarily executed with a further eight dying in captivity (Shaw 2010). Only 24 Australian Army nurses survived the bombings, massacre and POW captivity.

HMS Yin Ping was a WWI vintage coal burning unarmed tug requisitioned into the local naval forces under the command of an Australian planter, LEUT Patrick Wilkinson SSRNVR. When ordered to leave Singapore she was heavily laden with 14 crew and 62 passengers. She also towed a motor launch Eureka, manned by a petty officer and two ratings. Her passengers included the skipper’s wife, a civilian nurse Alice Wilkinson, and 12 Dockyard personnel, plus 50 from the RAF and Army. Ying Ping was first bombed with some damage but continued to the Banka Strait where she was shelled by an enemy cruiser. She sustained casualties, was soon on fire and had to be abandoned before she sank. It is believed 32 survivors, some wounded, came ashore which included the captain; his wife Alice had been killed during the attacks. LEUT Wilkinson came through the ordeal of captivity as a POW. Alice’s nephew is CMDR Mike Storrs RAN Rtd.

The most positive escape concerns the ex-Japanese fishing vessel Kofoku Maruskippered by Australian master mariner turned mining engineer, William (Bill) Reynolds. In early December 1941 Malayan Police rounded up about 1200 Japanese and impounded their fleet of fishing vessels. A Royal Navy assessment of these vessels was scathing, finding them in poor repair and mostly unseaworthy, and many were later burned. Reynolds had other ideas and as a skilled sailor and engineer he ‘borrowed’ a vessel. With necessary repairs he found that the 1934 built fishing vessel Kofoku Maru (Happiness), with a copper sheathed teak hull and German diesel engine, was a very sound craft and he recruited eight Chinese to crew her. She was similar in size to a Navy HDML but narrower in the beam.

Reynolds made a successful voyage in her from Singapore to Sumatra, taking 76 evacuees. After seeking cover in mangrove river estuaries he worked with local Dutch officials in helping rescue many other evacuees from sunken ships who had become stranded on remote islands. In deference to his Chinese crew Bill renamed his vessel Suey Sin Fah,and armed her with a machine gun before sailing with refugees from Sumatra to southern India. Here she was acquired by the Australian Government, renamed Krait, and shipped back to Australia as deck cargo before taking part in her famous commando operations against Japanese shipping in Singapore (Silver 1990).

A least one ship put up a gallant fight against overwhelming odds, she was the converted ferry cum armed patrol boat, HMS Li Wo, under command of Temporary Lieutenant Thomas Wilkinson RNR. With a makeshift crew Li Wo cast off with 84 passengers and crew and made for the Banka Strait. She suffered air attacks with some damage but then sailed directly into a convoy of enemy transports escorted by warships. With the option of surrender or attack Wilkinson, with the support of his crew, chose the latter and sank one transport and damaged another before Li Wowas sunk. There were only seven survivors and Lieutenant Wilkinson was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

Naval Relocations

With the decision taken to relocate major royal naval assets to Java, most naval personnel were evacuated in MV Empire Staron 12 February. This left Rear Admiral Spooner with three river gunboats, Dragonfly, Grasshopper andScorpion, under the command of retired Commander J. Hoffman RN and a squadron of seven motor launches (MLs) under the command of Lieutenant Commander H.Campey, RANVR, plus sundry other small craft.

The once proud naval base, HMS Sultan,was evacuated at the end of January and set on fire with personnel relocated to a hutted camp at Seletar. Those remaining of the ships’ companies from Prince of Walesand Repulse after successive drafts had been sent to other ships, among them two officers, LEUT G. Brooks and LCDR A.H. Terry, with about 200 men.

On the morning of 12 February naval personnel were told they would be embarking in half-a-dozen small ships later that evening. A trio of old Yangtze river steamers Kung Wo, Kualaand Tien Kuangwere crewed as naval auxiliaries: RNR officers Brooks and Terry, plus 100 men, embarked in the largest of these, Kung Wo.Others aboard Kung Wo were a five strong media contingent which included an attractive budding Chinese film actress, Doris Lim.

In the first few minutes of 13 February the headquarters ship Laburnum, signaling by Morse light,gave orders to sail. ML 310was waiting in the stream for Rear Admiral Spooner and Air Vice Marshal Conway Pulford to embark.

River Gunboats and Motor Launches  

The Locust class river gunboats were relatively new steam turbine ships of 585 tons capable of 17 knots. They carried 2 x 4-inch guns, 1 x 3.7-inch gun and 8 machine guns, with a crew of 75 officers and men. Scorpionmade her escape on 9 February and suffered air attacks but was able to continue until encountering the Japanese cruiser Yuraand two destroyers when she was sunk. Of the few survivors eight were picked up by the Japanese and later six more were found by the steamer Mata Hari.  

Dragonfly and Grasshopper sailed in company on 13 February with about 325 troops, bound for Sumatra. Both ships were attacked by aircraft in the Banka Straits with Dragonfly hit three times, sinking quickly. Grasshopperwas hit twice and set on fire but her captain managed to beach her on nearby Sebayer Islands. There was considerable loss of life and casualties from both vessels, and most survivors were captured.

HMS Grasshopper

Fairmile Motor Launches (MLs) were versatile small craft produced in their hundreds and served in most theatres during WWII. They displaced 85 tons, were 112feet in length, with a top speed of 20 knots. They were armed with a single 3 pounder gun and twin machine guns, plus depth charges. They had a crew of 15 and up to 60 passengers could be crammed onboard. A smaller version was the Harbour Defence Motor Launch (HDML).

 

A number of MLs and HDMLs had completed building at Singapore within weeks of the evacuation. These were MLs 432and 433and HDMLs 1062and 1063. Three other HDMLs for the Straits Settlement Volunteer Reserve (SSVR) were given names in lieu of numbers, Panglima, Penghambatand Penyengat.

After ML310 was attacked by enemy ships she grounded on Tjebia Island about 30 miles north of Banka Strait. To avoid capture, the senior officers came ashore before she was examined by a Japanese boarding party and her engines disabled. The Japanese let the other survivors go ashore and the wreck was used for occasional bombing practice. A US submarine S-39was sent to look for the survivors but they could not be found. In seeking help LEUT Bull and two others eventually made Java where they became POWs. Twenty-two others escaped the island after rebuilding a native vessel but were captured and returned to Singapore as POWs. The remaining nineteen men including the Executive Officer of ML 310, SBLT Malcolm Henderson RANVR, the Admiral and the Air Marshal died of disease when on the island.

On 13 February ML311was attacked and destroyed by enemy surface ships and two days later ML432 was captured when beached off Banka Island. ML 433 and HDMLs 1062 and 1063 and Panglima were sunk by enemy gunfire off Banka Strait.

Halfway House

Ideally the passage over open water was made at night and where possible vessels laid up in the day close to, or under cover of, islands. Rarely did this strategy work and the small and largely defenceless vessels fell easy prey to enemy air attacks. Most were damaged and many sunk with large numbers of casualties. Some did make landfall on a number of islands including Pompong Island (about 80 miles south of Singapore) where they escaped the wrath of their attackers.

While Dutch officials did what they could the local people, fearing reprisals by new masters, were not always helpful. After landing a tortuous trek began across mountainous terrain making for the west coast port of Padang.

The passage of Kung Woas described by LEUT Brooke may be regarded as typical:

After passing through our own minefield at first light we were soon discovered by enemy dive bombers. Kung Woalthough hit with considerable damage there was only one casualty, a Chinese stoker killed by shrapnel. With the ship’s engines irreparable and taking on water the Captain ordered abandon ship. With only two boats it would take several trips to get all personnel to some wooded islands about 5 miles distant. (Brooke 1989)

Kung Wo was able to disembark personnel on Pompong Island and afterwards found their two companions Kuala and Tien Kuang anchored close inshore. As the wreck of Kung Wowas still afloat bombers returned and sank her. They also bombed the other vessels which were set on fire and sank, suffering numerous casualties.

Those ashore on Pompong, with some supplies, were estimated at about 200 women and children, 30 to 40 civilian men and 400 from the three services, which included many with severe injuries.

On 16 February a small Dutch steamer Tandjong Pinang arrived and embarked the women and children and those who were critically injured, but it was sunk about 12 hours later with only 15 persons reaching land. The next day the irrepressible Bill Reynolds arrived in Kofoku Maru and took off a further 70 walking wounded.

Denis Russell-Roberts (Russell-Roberts 1965), an Indian Army officer and later POW in Singapore, whose wife Ruth died on Banka Island, provides an analysis of 47 vessels that escaped from Singapore. This shows nine sunk by aerial bombing, 13 sunk by ship gunfire, three scuttled, 13 captured and seven unaccounted for. Only two vessels were thought to have made their intended destinations. From Michael Pether (Pether 2018) we also know the auxiliary HMS Scott Harley safely made its destination of Tanjung Priok.

Padang

Padang was an important town serving the southwest coast of Sumatra, and the adjacent port was known as Emmahaven. By late February 1942 thousands of men, women and children were crowded here where they were prioritised for transshipment by the occasional merchantman and warships that called. There was then a further dangerous voyage through waters controlled by Japanese warships and submarines to the safety of Colombo for British, and Fremantle for the Australian, personnel.

The survivors who reached Padang had suffered greatly. They were malnourished and frightened, with morale and discipline at a low ebb. Dutch officials were appalled at their unruly behavior and could not wait to be rid of their unwelcome guests. A latter British War Ministry report described the behavior of troops as deplorable, having particular harsh words for a group of Australians, many of whom were deserters from Singapore (Weintraub 2016).

An early relief ship was the small Dutch steamer SS Rooseboom which loaded about 500 refugees, mainly British troops but some civilians. In the early hours of 1 March, while crossing the Indian Ocean, she was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-159. Only one lifeboat with a capacity for 28 persons was launched, into which 135 survivors crammed, including Brigadier Paris. A month later they were washed ashore having returned to within a hundred miles of their departure point. Only six were alive including Corporal Walter Gibson of the Argylls, who wrote of this ordeal (Gibson 2007), and we again meet the resolute Doris Lim, plus four unnamed Javanese crew.

Another vessel to escape from Singapore was SS Ban Ho Guan of about 1,700 tons with a crew of 10 and over 200 passengers including two officers and 100 other ranks from the AIF. Little is known about their escape but it appears unauthorised. The Ban Ho Guan also made Padang and was later bound for Fremantle. After sailing for one day she was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-4 with no known survivors. This tally possibly accounts for the largest number of Australian troops missing after release from Singapore.

An important ship to reach Padang was the cruiser HMS Dauntless which embarked many evacuees. On passage she met the armed merchant cruiser HMS Kedah which had sailed two days previously laden with evacuees. As Kedah’s engines could not be repaired she was towed by Dauntless and both safely reached Colombo.

Summary

The surrender of Singapore was the largest single wartime tragedy that shook the morale of Australians. This was the greatest known defeat of British forces in the distant Far East. It was also the greatest defeat of Australian forces, but much closer to home in South East Asia, our near north.

Much is known of this and the vain attempt by the Prince of Wales and Repulse to halt the Malayan invasion and, the subsequent incarceration of troops and civilians at Selarang and Changi. Much less is known about the planned escape of thousands of servicemen, civilians and women and children over the last few days leading up to the surrender. The flight from the island became a lottery with the odds stacked heavily against the escapees.

The escape from Singapore is perhaps best summarised by Lieutenant General Percival who wrote (Brooke 1989):

I regret to have to report that the flotilla of small ships and other light craft which left Singapore on the night of 13-14 February encountered a Japanese naval force in the approaches to the Banka Straits. It was attacked by light naval craft and by aircraft. Many ships and other craft were sunk or disabled and there was considerable loss of life. Others were wounded or were forced ashore and were subsequently captured.

 The final naval evacuation from Singapore in February 1942 was a tragedy of epic proportions, resulting in death and misery with few redeeming features except the eventual safety of the few survivors. With the prevailing primitive instincts of escape and survival there were few heroes, with the exceptions of LEUT Thomas Wilkinson VC of HMS Li Wo for fearlessly engaging the enemy, and the courageous Captain Bill Reynolds4with his ironically named Kofoku Maru.

References:

Bennett, Lt General Henry, Gordon,Why Singapore Fell, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1944.

Brooke, Geoffrey, Singapore’s Dunkirk, Leo Cooper, London, 1989.

Carew, Tim, The Fall of Hong Kong, Anthony Blond, London, 1960.

Gibson, Walter, The Boat – Singapore Escape, Monsoon, Singapore, 2007.

Pether, Michael, Extensive research papers & web sites,Auckland, 2018.

Moreman, Dr. John & Reid, Dr. Richard, A Bitter Fate: Australians in Malaya & Singapore, Dec 1941 – Feb 1942, Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Canberra, 2002.

Pool, Richard, Course for Disaster – From Scapa Flow to the River Kwai, Leo Cooper, London, 1987.

Roberts, Janet I., The ‘Yachties’ Australian Volunteers in the Royal Navy 1940-45, Master of Arts Thesis – University of Melbourne, October 2007.

Robinson, Stephen, False Flags – Disguised German Raiders of World War II, Exisle Publishing, Wollombi, NSW, 2016.

Russell-Roberts, Denis, Spotlight on Singapore, Times Press, Douglas, IOM, 1965.

Shaw, Ian W., On Radji Beach, Macmillan, Sydney, 2010.

Silver, Lynette R., KRAIT – The Fishing Boat that went to War, Cultured Lotus, Singapore, 2001.

Silver, Lynette R., The Heroes of Rimau, Leo Cooper, London, 1990.

Weintraub, Robert, No Better Friend: One Man, One Dog & Their Extraordinary Story of Courage & Survival in WWII, Little Brown & Company, Boston, 2016.

Notes:

1   The official history records Wah Sui sailing with 120 wounded but Moreman and Reid (2002) say six nurses and 300 wounded; those onboard say there were between 350 and 450 passengers, many of whom may not have been wounded. The ship later sailed to Colombo and served as a hospital ship in Burma. Post war she returned to Hong Kong.

2   Michael Pether’s mother (Kathleen) and her baby daughter were evacuated from Singapore on Christmas Eve 1941 and his grandmother escaped on 12 February 1942, all reaching the safety of home in New Zealand. His father and grandfather were interned. Kathleen’s brother, Jack Clark, a member of the Malay State Volunteer Forces was killed in action.

3   Charles Moses served in the British infantry during WWI. After settling in Australia he became known as a sportsman and journalist. He joined the AIF in WWII; post-war he became General Manager of the ABC and was knighted.

4   Bill Reynolds, later working for American Intelligence, was landed behind enemy lines in Malaya in November 1943. Locals revealed his presence and he was captured by the Japanese and subsequently beheaded. He was indeed a hero.

 

 

Matthew Flinders: A personal assessment

Peter Ashley (2005) perhaps encapsulates an apt description of Flinders as a person:

Driven, ambitious, sometimes arrogant and occasionally reckless, few navigators had a greater share of misfortune than Captain Matthew Flinders, yet achieved so much.

 Matthew Flinders was small in stature; the recent discovery suggests he may have been a diminutive 5 feet 3 inches (160 cm) tall, whereas the usually reliable American scholar James Decker Mack (1966) says he stood at a more respectable 5 feet 6 inches (168 cm). Mack’s perceptive pen picture describes him:

His figure was slight, but well-proportioned with a light and buoyant step. Possessed of average strength he exuded extreme energy and activity. Of pale complexion, his nose was rather aquiline, his chin a little projecting and his lips compressed. He had a noble brow, hair almost black, eyes dark brown, bright, and with a commanding expression, amounting at times to sternness. His features expressed intelligence, animation and the ability to command.

Perhaps the best likeness we are able to see is that painted by the French settler and capable amateur artist Toussaint Antoine de Chazal de Chamarel when Flinders, aged about 33, was under house arrest on the Isle de France (Mauritius). This portrait, which now hangs in the Art Gallery of South Australia, is featured on the front cover of this magazine.

Flinders was the first to circumnavigate the continent of Australia and gave the nation we know today its name, although it was not recognised in his lifetime. Monuments commemorating his exploits exist in positions of prominence in Adelaide, Melbourne, Port Lincoln and Sydney, and fittingly there is now one at Mauritius. Melbourne has a major thoroughfare and railway station named after him, old hands talk of Flinders (Flinders Naval Depot) rather than HMAS Cerberus. Adelaide honours him with a university, and an RAN ship has proudly borne his name. Until the introduction of decimal currency his likeness adorned the Commonwealth ten-shilling bank note, and later the one-dollar postage stamp. Physical features of the majestic Flinders Ranges, two Flinders Islands and the Flinders Group National Park mark his progress around the continent. Ironically a statue of him was installed at Euston Station in 2014.

Matthew Flinders Rediscovered

 Recent media reports have exciting news of the discovery of the remains of the great explorer Matthew Flinders. Fittingly, against all odds these were discovered just in time for the celebration of Australia Day 2019.

Matthew Flinders died in London 205 years ago on 19 July 1814 and was buried in the cemetery of St James’s Church, Hampstead Road in central London, on 23 July 1814. This old burial ground, dating from 1790, closed in 1853 and was estimated to hold the remains of tens of thousands.

The Flinders Memorial website (2014) informs us that St James’s Burial Ground, where he was interred, belonged to St James’s Church, Piccadilly. There were several very large inter-connected cemeteries in the district covering an area eastwards from Hampstead Road through St. James’s Garden and Euston Station as far as St. Pancras Station. During the mid-1800s an expansion of the railways led to the closure of several cemeteries and the remains of thousands were removed to a mass grave at Finchley.

However, his sister-in-law Isabelle, who had arranged and attended the funeral and interment of Flinders, visited the burial ground again in February 1852 and found that the entrance had changed and the grave was gone. A letter written later by his daughter, Mrs. Petrie, says:

Many years afterwards my Aunt Tyler went to look for the grave, but found the churchyard remodeled, and quantities of tombstones and graves with their contents had been carted away as rubbish, among them that of my unfortunate father, thus pursued by disaster after death as in life.

 According to later research, it appeared to be almost certain that the remains of Flinders were moved to an unmarked grave a short distance to the east, either under Euston Station (platforms 11 to 15), or under St. James’s Garden, with it is estimated thousands of others.

Flinders coffin plate

Another extension to the rail system is under way, known as the High Speed 2 rail link from Euston to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, which has called for further excavation of St James’s Park. Archaeologists were given a short window in which to conduct further research. Only a small portion of the estimated remains of bodies exhumed from St James’s have been identified, making the discovery of the remains of Flinders like looking for ‘a needle in a haystack’ according to the lead archaeologist, Helen Wass.

With so little to go on it is indeed remarkable that on 15 January 2019 a workers’ trowel hit the hard surface of the breastplate of a lead coffin. When cleaned this revealed the cursive inscription on the ornately decorated plate which read: ‘Capt. Matthew Flinders RN. Died 19 July, 1814. Aged 40 Years’.

The lead plate has helped preserve parts of the wooden coffin, although some had crumbled under the pressure and moisture of the earth. Helen Wass says: ‘underneath was a complete skeleton, though not the best preserved’. The bones of Flinders, now washed and cleaned, will be subject to forensic archaeological assessment before they are reinterred in a site yet to be determined. This should be of significant interest to many Australians.

Early Life – the Flinders Family Tree

Matthew Flinders was born in the small Lincolnshire market town of Donington on 16 March 1774. Donington lies in farming country on the flat and fertile Fen district about ten miles from the nearest sea, at the Port of Boston.

Commonwealth ten shilling note from the 1950s

Matthew was the third child of a respected country surgeon and apothecary, also named Matthew. His mother, Susannah, nee Ward, in 1771 when aged 19 gave birth out of wedlock to their first son John. John (Poor John) had a mental defect and was later committed to a lunatic asylum. On 6 May 1773 Matthew and Susannah married and after five months a daughter Elizabeth was born. Next came Matthew and afterwards John (Jackey) who died at six weeks, then a daughter Susannah, and finally another son Samuel. Most likely exhausted by childbirth, Susanna died aged 31 early in 1783 (the exact date is unknown).

Obviously a solitary life did not suit Dr. Flinders as on 2 December in the same year that his first wife died he remarried a widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Ellis, nee Weekes. Elizabeth1aged 33 was of the same age as her husband and they produced two children, sisters Hannah and Henrietta.

Education

Matthew was first educated at local schools where he excelled, and at age 12 he was sent to board in a nearby town at Reverend John Shinglar’s Grammar School at Horbling. Here he again was a good pupil studying English, Greek, Latin and mathematics. Unfortunately, he did not study French which was later to cost him dearly. When he was aged 13 his father removed him from school to assist him with his medical practice, where he was expected to succeed his father. His lessons continued, overseen by his father.

At about the time of his 15th birthday Matthew had read a then best seller, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. This deeply affected him and caused a rift with his father when he expressed a desire for a seafaring career. This was also discussed with his father’s brother whose career as a naval lieutenant was not exactly flourishing. Uncle John advised the youngster about which books on navigation and mathematics he should read if he was to pursue such a career. This was done with intent of putting the youngster off, but it had the opposite effect, encouraging scientific pursuits. This must have upset his father as he had obtained a position for his son with Joseph Dell, a surgeon and apothecary of Lincoln, at a welcome salary of ten guineas a year.

According to the custom of those times the accepted entrée of a young gentleman into the Royal Navy lay in the sponsorship of a ranking commanding officer, preferably of Captain’s rank. This system of recruitment, known as ‘the interest’, was a form of patronage used to place a child on the quarterdeck and upwards.

To sea with Captain Bligh

Fortuitously a cousin, Henrietta (Henny) Flinders, was governess to the family of Captain (later Admiral Sir) Thomas Pasley RN, then in command of HMS Scipio. A meeting between the youngster and the captain resulted in Matthew Flinders being entered as a Lieutenant’s Servant in HMS Alerton 23 October 1789. Six months later, when Pasley learned he was to take command of the 74-gun ship Bellerophon, he called for his young protégé to be posted into Scipioas an able seaman. Then a few days later he took the youngster with him to Bellerophon where he was entered into the books as a midshipman. After about eight months Flinders was transferred to another ship-of-the-line, the 64-gun HMS Dictator, for further training.

Captain Pasley, however, had other ideas and was to make a decision which would have a profound influence on the career of Flinders. His acquaintance, Captain William Bligh, recovering from his ill-fated Bounty expedition, was fitting out the sloop HMS Providence and her consort HMS Assistant (Lieutenant Nathaniel Portlock)at the behest of Sir Joseph Banks for the transfer of breadfruit trees from Tahiti to Jamaica. Pasley recommended the bright youngster to Bligh who accepted him as one of six midshipmen embarked. They sailed from Deptford on 3 August 1791. This placed Flinders amongst the top league of navigators as both Bligh and Portlock had honed their skills under the great scientific navigator, Captain James Cook.

While the breadfruit voyage was a success and led to promotions for both Bligh and Portlock, the young midshipman’s time was less fortunate. Learning from the best, Flinders had acquired skills in astronomy, cartography, and navigation but his relationship with his captain was not cordial.

Exposed to the favours of attractive and uninhibited South Sea island maidens, the young midshipman contracted venereal disease which would plague him for the remainder of his life and ultimately lead to his untimely death. As well as being a strict disciplinarian, Bligh was conscious of the need to maintain the health of his officers and men, and to curtail the spread of European diseases amongst native populations. In April 1793, before Providencereturned to Deptford in August 1793, in an unexplained incident Bligh demoted Flinders to Able Seaman. However, when taking his examination for lieutenant in January 1797, Bligh favourably reported on the conduct of Flinders and his suitability for promotion.

Back in England Flinders returned to Bellerophon and under the continued patronage of Captain Pasley, he was soon reinstated to midshipman. It was during this time that Flinders took part in the only major naval action of his career, ‘The Glorious First of June’ in a 1794 battle against the French, in which the English won a decisive victory and Pasley lost a leg, but gained a flag and a knighthood.

Flinders in the Great South Land

 This is not the place to write a voluminous history of the exploits of Flinders in Australia but some explanation of how he first came here and developed a lifelong interest in the Great South Land is necessary.

Lieutenant Henry Waterhouse was also promoted from Bellerophon to command HMS Reliance which was then being readied to transfer the second Governor of New South Wales, Captain John Hunter RN, to take up his position. With Captain Pasley’s blessing Flinders was allowed to transfer to Reliance as a Master’s Mate. Here Matthew established another association as the ship’s surgeon was a fellow Lincolnshire man, George Bass, who later married Henry Waterhouse’s sister. By now the father’s disapproval of his son’s career must have dissipated as Matthew’s younger brother Samuel Ward Flinders was  also in Reliance as a volunteer.

Trim the cat, from monument at Donington, Linconshire.

With her consort Supply, Reliance departed from Plymouth on 15 February 1795 and reached Sydney on 7 September of that year. During quiet periods in their new surroundings Matthew and his friend George Bass set about exploring the coastline and this led to their famous exploits in Tom Thumb.

Towards the end of 1796 Reliance was sent to Cape Town to secure livestock for the colony and brought back in her cargo the first merino sheep. She returned around the southern extremity of Van Diemen’s Land and arrived safely back at Port Jackson after a voyage of six months. Early in 1797 Flinders was promoted to Lieutenant and in acknowledgement of the good works in exploration conducted by Flinders and Bass both were given land grants near present day Bankstown.

On 7 October 1798 Flinders was to achieve his first command of the very small colonial sloop Norfolk which had been built on Norfolk Island. He sailed in her with Bass and a crew of eight men from Port Jackson and was able to confirm that a strait (Bass Strait) existed between the mainland and Van Diemen’s Land.

HMS Investigator

Reliance, now greatly in need of refit, returned to England in 1800 and to obtain news of his favorite topic Flinders became the focus of attention of Sir Joseph Banks. Aware that the French were preparing for a large expedition to the South Seas the Admiralty selected the 334-ton sloop Xenophonand fitted her out, renamed HMS Investigator. Sir Joseph, who was consulted on most things to do with New South Wales, was asked about a suitable commander. He recommended the 26 year-old Flinders.

Flinders now set about organising his personal life and through cousins had struck up a friendship with Miss Ann Chappelle. Ann was considered clever with a sweet temperament, she was witty with an aptitude for poetry, literature, singing and was a talented painter of flowers. Ann carried an affliction in that she was blind in one eye from smallpox lancing. Her father had been a captain in the merchant service who had died at sea. Her mother remarried the Reverend William Tyler and they had another daughter, Isabelle.

Matthew, newly promoted to Commander, and Ann married on 17 April 1801 and as Investigator was fitting out at Sheerness on the Thames, he took Ann with him to be near the ship. The intention may well have been to smuggle his wife onboard and sail with her as a passenger. When the Admiralty got wind of this the young commander was told in no uncertain terms that he would be dismissed if he was to take this course of action. Investigator sailed from Spithead on 18 July 1801 and Matthew was not to see his wife again for some nine years. The Australian author Ernestine Hill (1941) in her book My Love Must Wait portrays a fictional although exceptionally well crafted and researched story of the relationship between Matthew and Ann.

Cape Leeuwin was sighted on 6 December 1801 and after undertaking surveys on the south coast they passed through Bass Strait finally reaching Port Jackson on 9 May 1802. As indicated earlier we shall not dwell here on the magnificent circumnavigation of the continent which was to win Flinders great acclaim.

With his survey largely complete Flinders was in a great hurry to return home to finalise his cartography, including new charts, and, to write a comprehensive account of his circumnavigation from his log books and notes. As well as bringing personal satisfaction, he considered that this would give him a place amongst the great navigators, possibly leading to fame and fortune.

Flinders sailed homeward as a passenger in HMS Porpoise under command of Lieutenant Robert Fowler RN. Safely stowed were his extensive documents and collection of plant specimens. On 10 August 1803 departure was made from Sydney in company with the ship Cato, Captain Park, and the Indiaman Bridgewater under Captain Palmer. As Flinders sought to prove the advantage of the route he had discovered in Investigator they sailed outside the Barrier Reef for the Torres Strait. Seven days into the voyage, in the early hours of the morning when still in darkness, the lookout sighted breakers ahead. Too late they tried to bring her about and Porpoise struck an uncharted atoll, now known as Wreck Reef. While Bridgewater cleared the reef, Cato too was wrecked. Fearing the hazards Captain Palmer decided he could not, or would not, help and continued on his voyage.

Out of the disaster came some relief as at dawn the survivors found a sandbank on which they could camp and retrieve stores and provisions from the wrecks. With a few exceptions invaluable charts and papers prepared by Flinders were salvaged. So too was his seafaring cat ‘Trim’ that had circumnavigated the globe with him.

Trim, the cat, monument at Donington, Lincolnshire

The largest of Porpoise’s six-oared cutters was salvaged and christened Hope. In her Flinders and Captain Park and fourteen of his best men set out for Port Jackson to fetch another vessel to gather the remainder. Lieutenant Fowler remained in charge on their small island with instructions to use materials from the wrecks to construct another two craft sufficient to take off the survivors should relief not come.

With her desperate party, the overcrowded Hope set sail on 26 August in good weather; two days later they sighted land, and on the fifth day went ashore (North Stradbroke Island) where they replenished their water casks. On 8 September the citizens of Sydney were surprised to find sun and salt-caked survivors from Porpoiseback amongst their midst. Governor King quickly put a rescue plan into place and the Government schooners Francis and Cumberland and the ship Rolla reached Wreck Reef on 7 October.

During the waiting period the industrious survivors had built a small decked boat which they named Resource. Those preferring to return to Sydney sailed in Resource with Francis.Those wishing to return to England sailed in Rolla, first headed for China.

Flinders, still anxious to make immediate passage to England, pestered the Governor who eventually let him have the elderly and worn-out schooner Cumberland with a crew of ten for a voyage for which she was ill prepared. Cumberland, leaking like a sieve, was obliged to put into the French colony of Isle de France (Mauritius) but unknown to them, Britain and France were again at war. His passport was made for his command of Investigator on a scientific expedition. His arrival in another ship gave the Governor, General de Caen, sufficient reason to detain his visitor. Shortly after arrival the poor manners displayed by Flinders in declining a dinner invitation from Madame de Caen was seen as an insult. His disrespect and intransigence led to him remaining under house arrest for six and a half years.

Flinders did however establish friendships with cultured members in the local society, who helped sustain him, and in turn he helped tutor their children in mathematics, and he was obliged to learn their language.

The Return and Final Chapter

Eventually on 13 June 1810 his sword was returned  and he was a free man to embark in the British ship Harriet which had been granted free passage to take British persons from the island, which was then under siege. However, few decisions in his life were straightforward and to speed his passage he requested transfer to the naval sloop Otter en route to the Cape. Here he was detained for several weeks while debriefing the Flag Officer Cape Station, and it was not until 28 August that he took passage in the cutter Olympia, arriving at Spithead on 24 October 1810. It will be recalled this was the departure point from which he had sailed full of enthusiasm in Investigator more than nine years previously.

The arrival of Flinders in England was not a triumphal return, he was prematurely aged with his health and spirit broken. Upon arrival he went to the Admiralty for talks with both the First Lord and Secretary who were pleased to announce the promotion of Flinders to Post Captain. He was then reunited with Ann who had travelled to London.

By 5 November some normality entered their lives with rooms rented at 16 King Street Soho. Friends were visited, acquaintances remade and calls made to the great, such as Sir Joseph Banks. On 23 November Matthew and Ann left London for a six-week holiday in Lincolnshire.

Immediately after this holiday Flinders set about writing his narrative of A Voyage to TerraAustralis. This task occupied him from this moment almost until his death. This immense work was produced in three volumes, plus an atlas of sixteen charts, two plates of coastal profiles, and ten of botanical drawings. Not only did Flinders write of his voyages but found time to complete an important scientific memorandum on magnetism of ships. In time this gave rise to the introduction of the ‘Flinders Bar’ which greatly improved the performance of magnetic compasses in all ships by compensating for the use of iron in their construction.

On 8 February 1812 the now Rear Admiral Bligh took Flinders to the Palace where he was presented to HRH the Duke of Clarence (later King William IV) who had asked to see some of the latest charts drawn by the great navigator. On 1 April 1812 Ann gave birth to a daughter, named Anne.

Working all day and often into the night took its toll and in December 1813 he suffered the beginnings of his last illness. By 9 March 1814 his distress from pain was such as to bring his work to a close. Matthew Flinders died on 19 July 1814, aged 40 years, four months and three days. A great man now largely forgotten.

On 23 July a funeral service was held at St James’s Chapel off Hampstead Road. Afterwards a small cortege led by Ann, supported by her brother-in-law Samuel and her sister Isabelle, proceeded to the adjacent churchyard where Matthew Flinders was laid to rest.

Notes:

1     Hannah, the sister of Elizabeth Weekes, married Lincolnshire gentleman-farmer Willingham Franklin. Their son John Franklin served as a midshipman in HMS Investigatorunder the patronage of his step-uncle Matthew Flinders. As Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin he became a famous Arctic explorer and later Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen’s Land. He died in 1843 whilst attempting to chart the Northwest Passage.

References:

Ashley, Peter, The Indomitable Captain Matthew Flinders, Royal Navy, Pierhead Press, Clanfield, Hants, 2005.

 

Baker, Sidney, J., My Own Destroyer – A Biography of Capt. Matthew Flinders, RN, Currawong Publishing, Sydney, 1962.

 

Estensen, Miriam, Matthew Flinders – The Life of Matthew Flinders, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2002.

 

Flinders, Matthew, Trim – Being the True Story of a Brave Seafaring Cat, Collins, San Francisco, 1973.

 

Hill, Ernestine, My Love Must Wait, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1941.

 

Hughes, Thea Stanley, Matthew Flinders, Movement Publications, Sydney, 1984.

 

Mack, James, D., Matthew Flinders 1774 – 1814, Nelson, Melbourne, 1966.

 

http://www.flindersmemorial.org/captain-matthew-flinders-rn/

The German Raider HSK Stier and the American Freighter SS Stephen Hopkins

Many volumes have been committed to the deadly encounter between the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German raider HSK Kormoran. Depending on which side of the fence you sit, this can be seen as the greatest single tragedy to befall the Royal Australian Navy, or a magnificent victory by the Kriegsmarine. An Australian naval audience could be expected to have considerable knowledge of the Sydney/Kormoran encounter, but know little of the similar and equally intriguing Stier/Stephen Hopkins engagement. The primary role of German auxiliary cruisers in the war at sea was to delay and paralyse Allied shipping by destroying enemy commerce. They were therefore offensive vessels whereas Allied armed merchant cruisers were defensive, with their main role the protection of merchant shipping. An auxiliary cruiser often masqueraded as a peaceful vessel well suited to a particular area, then at the last moment removing her disguise to surprise and overpower an opponent.

During WWII the Kriegsmarine commissioned ten1merchantmen as auxiliary cruisers, colloquially they were also known as commerce raiders. There were two classes: heavy cruisers and light cruisers. Kormoranwas the largest of the heavy cruisers at 8,736 grt, with a length of 164 m and maximum speed of 18 knots, manned by 401 men. She carried an armament of 6 x 150 mm, 2 x 37 mm and 5 x 30 mm guns, plus 6 x 21-inch torpedo tubes and 2 x Arado196 seaplanes.

HSK Stier

HSK Stier was a light cruiser and the last of her type to escape the blockaded Axis coastlines and gain access to the open seas and lucrative Atlantic shipping lanes. Stier was 4,778 grt, 134 m long with a maximum speed to 14 knots, with a complement of 324 men. Her armament however was similar to the much larger Kormoran and she carried 2 x Arado231 seaplanes. Stier’s major drawback was her low maximum speed and the ineffectiveness of her two small aircraft which had been designed for U-boats and could only manage a few feeble flutters in calm water.

Horst Gerlach joined the navy during WWI but had limited operational service when in early 1941 he was appointed to command the requisitioned merchant ship Schiff 23 undertaking picket duty in the Baltic. New orders were received to convert the ship into an auxiliary cruiser and she was commissioned as HSK Stieron 11 November 1941. She was named after the captain’s wife’s star sign Taurus (in German ‘bull’ is Stier). The crew was young and inexperienced and there was little time for work-up.

On 9 May 1942 Stier left the Dutch port of Rotterdam in convoy with an escort of four large torpedo boats and 16 motor gunboats. The darkened ships crept along the French coast but two hours after midnight they were discovered by patrolling Royal Navy Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs) who called for reinforcements and gave their position to the heavy gun batteries above Dover which covered the gap to the coast of France. The convoy had to contend with heavy fire from the 13.5-inch batteries and MTBs attacking from both sides with machine guns and torpedoes. Two of the escorts were sunk with considerable loss of life and one MTB was also sunk, but Stier escaped and made the fortified French port of Royan at the mouth of the River Gironde to the north of Bordeaux. She sailed from here into the Atlantic on 19 May, the last commerce raider to make this perilous voyage.

Because of her relatively slow speed Stierneeded to clear areas where convoys and escorts might be encountered so she entered the South Atlantic where single Allied ships might still be found. The poor performance of her scouting seaplanes also limited her operational range and to improve the chances of success, for a time she joined with another commerce raider HSK Michel. However, sightings were limited but after four months she could claim credit for having sunk three Allied ships including a large American tanker, Stanvac Calcutta.

Stier was now prowling the infrequently travelled waters between Cape Town and South America and had rendezvoused with the supply ship Tannenfels for provisions and to offload prisoners. On Sunday 27 September 1942, in calm seas covered by early morning fog, the two ships had stopped and were drifting with the opportunity taken to employ most of the ship’s company of Stierin cleaning marine growth from her waterline.

SS Stephen Hopkins2

SS Stephen Hopkinswas a first generation Liberty ship with an all welded hull, built by Kaiser’s Richmond, California yard, and like many of her sisters was constructed on mass production lines at incredible speed. These relatively bulky general purpose freighters, of a simple British design with reciprocating engines from a past era, could be manufactured quickly and cheaply by largely unskilled labour. With German submarines sinking Allied merchant ships at an alarming rate it was necessary to supply new hulls fast or Britain would be starved of provisions. It is perhaps coincidental that 2,710 Liberty ships were eventually built by United States shipyards, almost exactly the same number (2,780) of Allied and neutral merchant ships sunk by U-boats.

Stephen Hopkins of 8,000 grt was 135 m long and her low powered reciprocating steam engines gave a top speed of 11.5 knots. She had an armament of one 4-inch (102 mm) gun of WWI vintage at the stern, two 37 mm guns forward and two 30 caliber machine guns on either side of the bridge. Under command of her master Paul Buck she had a crew of 41 men and a surprisingly large number of 15 Naval Armed Guards3commanded by Lieutenant Junior Grade Kenneth Willett, USNR. Her youngest crew member was 18-year-old Engineering Cadet Edwin O’Hara who enjoyed volunteering to help with gun drills.

Her maiden voyage had taken her from San Francisco on the US West Coast with wartime supplies and troops for the US supply base at Bora Bora in French Polynesia, then Wellington, New Zealand and Melbourne, Australia. She next proceededtoPortLincolnwheresheloaded grain for Durban, South Africa. Here she took on sugar for Cape Town and was now sailing in ballast to Dutch Guiana (now Suriname) in northeastern South America to load bauxite for New Orleans. After this her crew could expect some well-deserved leave.

The Battle

At 0852 on Sunday 27 September 1942 the fog lifted and the two German ships and the American sighted one another at about 4,000 metres. The Stephen Hopkins had been ordered to stop but thoughts of surrender were far from her Captain’s mind. Stier and Stephen Hopkins simultaneously cleared for action, the former was handicapped in recovering her crew, and wishing to escape, the latter put her stern towards the enemy, presenting a smaller target and bringing her main armament to bear upon the enemy. The first shots were from Stier’s secondary armament which raked Hopkins’s upper deck and critically wounded the First Mate, Richard Moczkowski. With the third salvo from Stier’s main armament she found the range and started to cause havoc. But Stier also received several well directed hits from Stephen Hopkins, one to her steering gear and another in her engine room.

The forward gun crews in Stephen Hopkins also paid attention to Tannenfels, keeping her out of the action and causing slight damage. The main thrust of the action was from the 4-inch gun under the command of Cadet O’Hara which managed to get away 35 rounds with an amazing success rate of 15 hitting their target. Later this brought praise from the unfortunate Kaptain zur See Gerlach who thought he was dealing with another armed merchant cruiser. Towards the end of the action with the remainder of his gun’s crew lying dead or wounded Cadet O’Hara fired the last shots alone. A fewmoments later he was killed by a shell which exploded nearby.

The action continued for about an hour until Stephen Hopkins slid below the waves, by which time all but 19 of her crew and naval gunners were dead. Lieutenant Willett, while severely wounded, remained on the bridge with the captain coordinating the overall return of fire. Kenneth Willet was last seen trying to cut away life rafts just before the ship sank.

Copy from USN Intelligence Report into sinking of HSK Stier (Raider “J’)

Those who fell during the action included Captain Buck, First Mate Moczkowski, Lieutenant Willett and Cadet O’Hara. The survivors managed to get away in the one remaining serviceable boat. Knowing that the prevailing current would take them towards South America, with great perseverance they proceeded on an 1,800 nautical mile ordeal on a diet of mostly malted milk tablets. After 31 days the survivors, now down to 15 men, waded ashore near Barro de Itabapoana north of the then Brazilian capital of Rio de Janeiro on 28 October 1942, to be eventually given a heroes’ welcome in New York before reuniting with their families.

The damage to Stierwas severe with fire taking hold and, with the loss of all power, firefighting equipment was useless. Accordingly, the decision was made to scuttle the ship and transfer all survivors (two men had died in the battle) to Tannenfels.On 02 November 1942 they arrived at Le Verdon-sur-Mer, which is on the opposite side of the River Gironde from where they had set out less than six months before. Their reception was less than enthusiastic with a noticeable lack of medals.

Conclusion

There are many similarities between the Sydney/Kormoran encounter and those of Stier/StephenHopkins. In both cases surprise and a lack of preparedness caused the loss of the superior naval ship. Stieris the only German surface warship destroyed by an American ship in WWII, and the only cruiser ever sunk in combat by a merchantman.

The Australian arrival of this rather ugly duckling seems to have been unheralded, but she was possibly the first of the famous Liberty ships that helped changed the course of the war to sail into Australian waters. In American naval annals Stephen Hopkins is remembered with her master Captain Paul Buck, First Officer Richard Moczkowski and Cadet Edwin O’Hara posthumously awarded Distinguished Service Medals. Lieutenant Kenneth Willett was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. A destroyer and a building at the King’s Point Merchant Marine Academy (KPMMA) were later named in honour of Captain Paul Buck. A destroyer escort was named in honour of Lieutenant Kenneth Willett and a gymnasium at the KPMMA in honour of Cadet Edwin O’Hara.

Notes:

1.The lastauxiliary cruiser HSK Hansawas the captured British merchantman Glengarrywhich had been converted for commerce raiding but did not see active service in this role.

  1. SS Stephen Hopkinswas named after a prominent early colonist who became governor of Rhode Island, and was a signatory to the Declaration of Independence.

3.American Naval Armed Guards (NAG) were equivalent to the British Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships (DEMS) concept. While NAG personnel were a part of the USN most had no prior naval background and after a short one-month training course were allocated as gun crews in merchant ships. A DEMS party was usually commanded by a RN Petty Officer or Royal Marine Sergeant.

 

Scapa Flow Revisited

By Walter Burroughs

The name Scapa Flow was synonymous with naval operations in both world wars as a safe anchorage for vast fleets seeking to control access to the seaborne approaches to northern Europe. So where and what is Scapa Flow, how safe was it and, what does it have to do with Australian naval history?

Orkney Islands

The Orkney Islands lie some 10 miles (16 km) across the notorious Pentland Firth off the northeast tip of the Scottish mainland, a turbulent stretch of water where the fury of the North Atlantic meets the outpouring of the North Sea. They comprise 70 windswept but surprisingly fertile islands1of which 20 are inhabited by 23,000 hardy folk of Norse ancestry. A further 80 km north lie the slightly larger and more remote Shetland Islands. These two island groups were but stepping stones to the Vikings who, more than a thousand years past and using their powerful longships, came from Scandinavia and created a vast empire which covered all of Scotland and Ireland and much of northern England. They then went further west to the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland and reached North America more than four centuries before Christopher Columbus.

After the Norman (French) invasion of England in 1066 the Viking influence was subdued with both England and Scotland becoming independent kingdoms. However, the Orkney and Shetland islands remained under Norse control until 1468 when they were ceded to Scotland as a dowry upon the marriage of Princess Margaret of Denmark to James III of Scotland.

The Vikings called Scapa Flow Skalpafloi and it is one of the world’s largest natural harbours of about 312square kilometres, six times larger than Sydney Harbour. In its original state there were 17 passages to the sea through the chain of surrounding islands, providing good access to open water, but these were difficult to defend. The anchorage was of firm sand at a depth of between 30 and 40 metres.

Early History of the Flow

While the existence of the Flow was known to many seafarers it perhaps first came of interest to Antipodeans following the explorations of Captain Cook, specifically Cook’s third and final voyage, in which he was killed and his second in command, Lieutenant Charles Clerke, died through illness. After four years absence from their homeland, command of the expedition passed to the remaining senior officers, Lieutenant John Gore (Resolution)and Lieutenant James King (Discovery).After so many perils what could be easier for these experienced navigators than passage over the final leg from Cape Town to London in the northern summer?

They opened the English Channel in early August 1780 but were beaten back by strong easterly gales and tried in vain to find shelter on the west coast of Ireland. Neither their long lost leader Cook, who prided himself on the exactness of his navigation, nor their Lordships of the Admiralty would have been impressed when they eventually anchored off Stromness in the Orkneys, over five hundred miles (850 km) from their intended destination.

At Stromness they took on provisions and waited a month for favourable winds. Lieutenant King was sent overland to acquaint the Admiralty with the results of the expedition. One crew member died and another found time to marry a local lass. It was not until 4 October that the ships finally made the Thames and a subdued welcome.

While a prominent fishing industry developed around these islands there was little commercial interest other than by the Hudson Bay Company who used the Orkneys as a recruiting base for ships engaged in the lucrative Canadian fur trade.

Twentieth Century Development

In the early 1900s, with growing rivalry between Britain and Germany, the need for a Royal Naval fleet base covering the approaches to the North Sea and the North Atlantic was identified. After a series of fleet exercises around the northern approaches, Admirals Fisher and Jellicoe enthusiastically pursued the need for a fleet base to be developed at Scapa Flow. Work began in 1912, firstly near the main town of Kirkwall, but in October 1914 the base was moved further south to Lyness.

The Royal Navy was also conscious of the potential threat to its bases posed by sea mines. Accordingly, in 1910 the Royal Naval Reserve Trawler Section was formed to provide a nucleus of vessels and crews for minesweeping duties. As the war progressed about 1,500 fishing trawlers and a similar number of smaller drifters were brought into naval service. Of these 250 were lost, mainly to enemy mines. The tough men who manned these ships did not wear uniform and remained under control of their skippers. A skipper’s formal dress was a bowler hat and tweed jacket, which in tribute to their new role was often adorned with Navy-issue brass buttons.

With most of the navy relying on coal, as soon as ships arrived at Scapa coaling ship was undertaken, a process that continued day and night without stop until completed many hours later. With the potential submarine threat colliers were also used to screen the capital ships making them less vulnerable to attack.

Wooden wharves and a slipway for smaller vessels were constructed at Lyness on the island of Hoy in 1916 and a naval base grew, with stocks of coal and oil, stores and administrative support. A cemetery was dedicated as a resting place for those who lost their lives in these waters, which eventually included 18 German sailors and six Australians.

Boom defence measures were put in place, manned by a number of drifters which also supported the warships when in harbour. Block ships were sunk to restrict access to the numerous channels and one of the first of these was SS Aorangi. In mid-1914 Aorangi had been chartered by the RAN from the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand as a supply vessel which accompanied the Australian fleet when capturing German New Guinea. She was then sold to the Admiralty who took her to Devonport for refit, but being found beyond economic repair she was taken to Scapa Flow and scuttled as a block ship in August 1915.

After the capture of German New Guinea and the chase for von Spee across the Pacific, HMAS Australia joined the pride of the fleet, the fast and powerful battlecruiser squadron, on 17 February 1915. While they were part of the Grand Fleet which was based at Scapa Flow, the battlecruisers were held further south at Rosyth, a naval dockyard across the Forth from Edinburgh. Rear Admiral Sir David Beatty flew his flag in HMS Lion, other ships of the squadron were Australia and HM Ships Indefatigable, Indomitable, Invincible, Princess Royal, Queen Mary and New Zealand.

HMAS Australia in line ahead in reduced visibility passing under the Firth of Forth Bridge AWM

The main concerns were not German capital ships, which they were keen to engage, but the unknowns of mines and submarines and also Zeppelins, which acted as lookouts and could drop not very accurate bombs from height, beyond the range of anti-aircraft fire. As a defence against submarine attacks the squadron usually entered and left harbour after dark at high speed and with dimmed navigational lights. Patrols and exercises with the squadron and the Grand Fleet resulted in Australiamaking frequent calls to the Flow and being anchored there for days at a time. The lack of facilities at the Flow meant that this was a dreary and monotonous location when compared to Rosyth with the not far distant beckoning lights of Edinburgh.

On 22 April 1916 the Fleet was in the North Sea searching for suspected enemy ships and proceeding in thick weather on a zig-zag course at 20 knots. At about 15.45 Australiarammed New Zealand,not once but twice, suffered extensive damage to her stem and was holed on her starboard side. While New Zealandescaped with slight damage which was repaired locally, Australiamade the sad and slow journey back to Rosyth. Here it was ascertained she needed docking and was sent to Devonport for repairs. By the time she reappeared at the Flow, most of the capital ships were at Jutland. It is noteworthy that her near-sisters Indefatigable,Invincibleand Queen Maryexploded and sank at Jutland with huge losses of life2.

In August 1916 the light cruisers HMA Ships Melbourneand Sydneywere transferred to the Grand Fleet and in October joined the Second Light Cruiser Squadron, also based at Rosyth but they too spent considerable time in the Flow.

Unfortunately, there is a series of naval tragedies associated with Scapa Flow. Immediately after Jutland the cruiser HMSHampshirewas sent to the Flow to embark Field Marshall Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War and his staff and take them on a secret mission to meet the Czar, with the aim of securing greater Russian support to the war effort. On 05 June 1916 Hampshire,with two escorting destroyers, sailed into strong winds and made for the western side of Orkney to provide better shelter for her escorts. As the gale increased the escorts, who could not maintain station, were dismissed, and the cruiser continued alone. That evening when about two miles off the coast she struck a mine that had been laid days earlier by U-475. She quickly sank and of her 735 crew and 14 passengers only 12 crew survived; Lord Kitchener’s body was not recovered.

Last known photograph of Field Marshall Lord Kitchener about to join HMS Hampshre

Australians were involved in the loss of the battleship HMS Vanguard which suffered a massive internal explosion on the night of 9 July 1917 caused, it is believed, by incorrectly stowing faulty cordite charges. Sydney was the nearest ship and her boats were first on the scene when they rescued the only two men to survive. Unfortunately, two of Sydney’s own crew were on board the battleship in cells and they both died. Like most of the 843 men who were lost in this disaster they have ‘no known grave but the sea’.

Owing to the lack of entertainment the Admiralty requisitioned two merchantmen, SS Gourko and SS Borodino, which were stationed at the Flow, their mission being to bring cheer to the fleet and act as floating canteens, amenities and entertainment centres. On the night of 9 July 1917 a number of Vanguard’s officers had been invited to a concert party being hosted by Gourko.Amongst those attending were the ship’s Gunnery Officer Commander Wilfred Custance and Midshipman Reginald Nichols who had recently joined Vanguard. As these officers were not aboard Vanguard at the time of the explosion they were not listed amongst the survivors, which is of later interest to the history of the RAN3,4.

Fate of the German Fleet

One of the conditions of the Armistice included the surrender of the German Navy, requiring the fleet to disarm and proceed to Britain for internment, with steaming crews only. The melancholy surrender of the German High Seas Fleet began on 20 November 2018 when 150 submarines began arriving at Harwich. This was followed the next day by 74 surface ships of the once mighty fleet which, with an RN cruiser HMS Cardiff in the van, steamed into the Firth of Forth through the Allied Fleets arranged in two columns.

Britain was determined to put on as spectacular a display of its superiority as possible. Apart from the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet, there were detachments from other stations, an American Battle Squadron and a French Flotilla, in total comprising 240 ships. After anchoring in the Forth arrangements were made for the German ships to proceed in small flotillas to Scapa Flow. Reminiscent of the Sydney/Emden battle of 1914, and now with replacement players with similar names, in one of their final wartime acts Sydney escorted the captured German cruiser Emden into a safe anchorage in the Flow.

Fearing that his ships were to be humiliatingly divided up between the victorious Allies, their Commander-in-Chief Admiral Ludwig von Reuter devised a plan of frustration. On Sunday 21 June 1919, with good weather prevailing, the guarding ships of Vice Admiral Fremantle’s 1st Battle Squadron was taken to sea for exercises. Temporarily free of his guards, von Reuter gave a pre-arranged signal that resulted in 52 of his 74 ships being scuttled by their crews under the unsuspecting noses of their captors.

Second World War

With war clouds looming in 1937, work began on once more making the Flow available as a major fleet base. Large underground fuel storage tanks were constructed plus torpedo and ammunition depots. This was also the beginning of more sustainable personnel facilities for accommodation and recreation such as a hospital, cinema, theatre, several churches and a NAAFI5. By 1940 over 12,000 military and civilian personnel were stationed here and they were later joined by much needed female company with up to 1,500 WRNS arriving at the new base now known as HMS Proserpine.

Before the outbreak of war Britain negotiated with Norway for the lease of much needed merchant ships from its fleet, which included a large number of tankers. While Norway was neutral an agreement was reached. On 9 April 1940, possibly to the surprise of the Allies, Germany carried out a seaborne invasion of Norway. By the time the Home Fleet at Scapa was in a position to respond Germany had control of the Norwegian seaboard and air space. The Norwegian campaign was over within a matter of weeks.

When Russia entered the war on the Allied side in mid-1941 the most direct route for providing them with essential supplies was around the north of Norway to Murmansk and Archangel. In winter months with only a few hours of daylight, physical elements of snow and ice were the greatest danger but in the summer with almost perpetual daylight it became a suicide run. Convoys were constantly shadowed by reconnaissance planes and then attacked around the clock by enemy aircraft, submarines and surface vessels. The Home Fleet based at Scapa had the responsibility for protecting these convoys. The losses of ships, equipment and men from these convoys in 1942 was sickening, but gradually from the next year, improvements were made in the Allies favour with telling blows being made on the enemy forces.

From the outbreak of war ships of the RAN integrated with the RN in aid of the mother country. After work-up at Scapa Flow the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia patrolled with the Home Fleet in Atlantic and Arctic waters. She later sailed for north-west Africa to help neutralise the French naval base at Dakar and then refitted at Liverpool before returning home to the Pacific in 1941.

Just after a month following the declaration of war the German Navy gained a significant moral victory over the Royal Navy when one of its submarines U-47,vskilfully navigated by her captain Gunther Prien, penetrated the defences of Scapa Flow. Here she found the old dreadnought HMS Royal Oakvat anchor.

We have already met Reginald Nichols, the midshipman who had an extremely lucky escape attending a concert party when his ship Vanguard exploded and sank at the Flow in 1917. Now twenty-two years later Commander Nichols is Executive Officer of Royal Oak and asleep in his cabin when awoken a little after 1.00 am by an explosion near the bow of his ship. An initial investigation assumed the cause to be an explosion in the Inflammable Store near the Cable Locker, but thirteen minutes later came three more sickening thuds on the starboard side, all lights wen out and the ship took a severe list. There was now no doubt that they had been torpedoed. With no power it was impossible to lower the larger boats and because of the increasing list not many of the smaller boats could be lowered. Just eight minutes after the last torpedo struck Royal Oakcapsized and sank.

She took most of her ship’s company with her and 833 men perished, many no-more than boys straight out of training. However, over 370 were saved from the water by the drifter Daisy II and the seaplane carrier HMS Pegasus. Amongst those found clinging to a life raft was Commander Nichols. Another to be saved from the icy water was an exchange officer, LCDR Frederick Cook, RAN6.

Also at the Flow was another elderly battlewagon Iron Duke, which had been flagship of the Grand Fleet in WWI. Only days after the Royal Oakdisaster, on 17 October 1939, while serving as depot and harbour defence ship, Iron Duke was badly damaged by Luftwaffe Ju 88 dive bombers and run aground to avoid sinking. She was again attacked by enemy bombers and suffered further damage. As a result of these two disasters the Fleet was temporarily removed from the Flow until defences were improved.

The propaganda value was of immense value to the enemy and Prien became a national hero. These setbacks resulted in an early visit from Prime Minister Winston Churchill who demanded a number of rapid improvements to the defences known as ‘Churchill Barriers’ where causeways were constructed between islands to further restrict the number of entry points into the Flow. These ‘Barriers’ were largely built by 1,200 Italian prisoners of war. Their legacy is remembered in a wonderful chapel built from Nissen huts and scrounged bits and pieces. Improved fortifications with anti-aircraft batteries were also installed around the perimeter of the anchorage. The barriers and the chapel still stand and are important tourist destinations.

The N-class Destroyers

At the commencement of WWII the RAN was gifted five N-class destroyers which were then building in British yards. The history of these ships, HMA Ships Napier, Nepal, Nestor, Nizama nd Norman, all followed a similar pattern. After trials and workups, all proceeded to Scapa Flow where they joined the Home Fleet for duties involving escorting convoys across the North Atlantic. But within months these ships were diverted to the Mediterranean or Eastern Fleets. They all worked hard and had an eventful war but Nestorwas lost after being badly damaged by enemy aircraft near Crete in June 1942.

Napiercommissioned at Clydebank on 28 November 1940 and with barely enough time for workup, her first important task on 15 January 1941, was to transport Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Mrs Churchill from Thurso (Scrabster) to the new battleship HMS King George Vanchored at Scapa Flow. Here they farewelled Lord Halifax on his departure in that ship for the vital position of Ambassador to the still neutral United States.

Three of these ships were to spend more time in northern waters. Nestor sailed with three other destroyers to 72 degrees north to intercept a German weather ship and return with invaluable code books which went to Bletchley Park7.Nepal was part of a dummy convoy sent north to act as a diversion to enemy forces, drawing them away from the real convoy taking essential supplies to the Russian front. Finally, when the intended RN ship suffered engine failure the brand new and fast RAN destroyer Norman proceeded to Iceland to embark Sir Walter Citrine8and a Trade Union Delegation (shades of Lord Kitchener) and successfully took them to, and brought them back, from Russia.

The last RAN ship to have any involvement at Scapa Flow is thought to have been HMAS Shropshire. Following the loss of HMAS Canberra in the Battle of Savo Island the British Government approved the transfer of HMS Shropshire as a replacement. The cruiser was refitted at Chatham under the command of Commander David Harries, RAN, who supervised the refit, her change of crew and transfer to the RAN. Following his arrival Captain John Collins, CB, RAN, assumed command and commissioned her as HMAS Shropshire on 20 April 1943. The new Australian warship departed for Scapa Flow on 1 July for workup and left the Flow on 13 August, arriving at Fremantle on 24 September 1943.

By 1944 the fortunes of war were beginning to turn in favour of the Allies and as the focus of attention shifted from the North Atlantic the importance of Scapa Flow began to decline, with ships moving further south. Shortly after the war’s end the base was placed in care and maintenance and it finally closed in 1957. Afterwards the majority of the buildings were demolished or sold at auction. However, there is sufficient left behind to remind discerning visitors of important war-time operations, especially to the small but impressive Scapa Flow Visitor Centre and Museum which is housed in one of the former oil-pumping stations of the Lyness Naval Base.

Scapa Flow was home to the Grand Fleet in the First World War and the Home Fleet in the Second. In between it became the final resting place of the German high seas Fleet. To this generation it is just a name in history. However, this bleak and mysterious place is something legends are made of and possibly records more recent naval history than any other place on our globe.

Post-War Developments

The post-war prosperity of the Orkneys was much improved with the discovery of North Sea oil, resulting in oil and gas terminals being established at Scapa Flow, and maintenance facilities for this important industry operating from these islands. Of later year’s tourism has also become important and great ships once again ply these waters as part of a growing cruise industry.

Notes:

1   Orcadians have a quaint definition of what constitutes an island. A parcel of land which is isolated by water must be large enough to grow sufficient grass to keep one sheep for one year, anything less than this is a skerry.

2   The battlecruisers Indefatigable, Invincible andQueen Mary were all casualties at the Battle of Jutland. Significant design faults were demonstrated when these ships exploded after enemy projectiles penetrated their decks and entered their magazines with disastrous losses of life and only a handful of survivors.

3   On 22 April 1938 Wilfred Custance was appointed Rear Admiral Commanding HM Australian Squadron. Due to ill health this popular officer was obliged to relinquish his command on the eve of the outbreak of WWII. Invalided home in the transport SS Orontes, taking Australian air crew for training in England, he died at sea and was buried off Aden.

4   Commander Reginald Nichols, RN, was lent to the RAN in 1940 as Director of Plans and later as a captain as Deputy Chief of Naval Staff and finally as Commanding Officer HMAS Cerberus.His older brother Charles Godfrey Nichols, DSO, MVO, RN, was a highly regarded captain of HMAS Shropshire.

5   NAAFI – Navy, Army & Air Force Institutes providing canteen and recreational establishments for Service personnel.

6   LCDR Frederick Cook served on exchange with the RN until 1942 when he returned home to establish the commando training base at Port Stephens (HMAS Assault) and later as Captain F Cook, DSC, RAN he received several commands during an outstanding career.

 

HDML 1321 and what she represents

Java is heaven, Burma is hell but you never come back alive from New Guinea – Japanese wartime saying

An eagle-eyed member of our Society drew attention to this short news story appearing in his local paper, the Northern Territory News, dated 3 November 2016.

News that the historic Rushcutter may be left to rot on the bottom of Darwin harbour is saddening to say the least. The boat, formerly known as HDML 1321, is an integral part of not just the Territory’s past but the nation’s. Its history is remarkable. Built with Huon pine before the Second World War [she was built in 1943 – Ed.], it played a crucial part in Australia’s battles with the Japanese.

It provided vital support for missions around New Guinea, including a mission which involved launching four folding kayaks with eight Z Special commandos into the Bismarck Sea. Documentaries have been made about the audacious mission and the HDML 1321 played a key role. Ironically, it was also involved in a recent plot by alleged “wannabe” Australian terrorists to use it to get to Syria.

For years it worked as a harbour defence vessel in Sydney and was renamed the HMAS Rushcutter before being sold to private owners.

The boat’s links with the extreme sacrifice made by our army and navy deem it worthy to be held in pristine condition in a museum or the Australian War Memorial — not at the bottom of the ocean. The only thing keeping this boat from re-emerging is money. The owners need $50,000 to raise it but seem unable to pay that amount. They are asking the Port’s owners, Landbridge, to fork out for the salvage mission but the Australian War Memorial should also not stand idly by and let a piece of Australian history disappear.

In its time, the boat provided valuable reconnaissance information which helped save Australian lives. It is time to return the favour to this historic old boat and pull it from its watery grave.

Motor Launches and Harbour Defence Motor Launches

With the emergence of WWII the Royal Australian Navy was desperately short of patrol craft resulting in the introduction the British ‘Fairmile B’ Motor Launches (MLs). They were designed by car manufacturer and Royal Naval Volunteer Officer, Noel Macklin, who lived in Fairmile, near Cobham in Surrey.

Twenty launches were prefabricated in the United Kingdom for assembly at the Green Point shipyard on the Parramatta River. A further fifteen vessels were built by local boat-builders Lars Halvorsen at Ryde in Sydney and Norman Wright at Bulimba in Brisbane. These craft were augmented by a further twenty-eight similar but smaller vessels known as Harbour Defence Motor Launches (HDMLs). Most were supplied from American (16) and British (3) boat-builders and shipped as deck cargo, but nine boats were constructed in Australia by various local yards.

The first of the motor launches to arrive was HDML 1074 which had previously briefly seen service with the Royal Navy. She was shipped out in MV Port Auckland and commissioned into the RAN on 7 October 1942 under the command of Lieutenant Norman Grieve, RANVR. HDML 1074 and her two English sisters retained their RN pennant number while serving in the RAN. Grieve joined the RAN under the Dominion Yachtsman Scheme and after initial training in England was posted to the 6th Motor Launch Flotilla serving against the enemy in the North Sea where he received a commendation for bravery. Because of his wartime experience he was brought back home to take command of the first RAN ship of this type.

In his memoir A Merciful Journey young Sub Lieutenant Marsden Hordern, when at Brisbane in ML 814, provides an account of what life must have been like in these small vessels, he wrote:

One day HDML 1074 arrived from Port Moresby under the command of Lieutenant Norman Grieve, RANVR; she had seen hard service in New Guinea, had crossed the Coral Sea in bad weather, and was salt-stained, leaking badly, and everything below deck – dirty clothes, wet oilskins and bedding – smelt of sweat and mildew. Her crew – half-naked, with flowing unkempt hair and beards – looked like a bunch of pirates. To my impressionable eye they had an enviable buccaneering aura, and from that time I cherished a vision of achieving such a swashbuckling image.

 Marsden Hordern, one of the few remaining stalwarts from this era, went on to have a successful career in command of ML 1347, says he was in awe of the older and experienced Norman Grieve, whom he later came to know quite well. MLs were small and uncomfortable, where even hardened sailors could not always avoid sea sickness. In rough weather cooking was impossible and working in the engine room almost unbearable. Despite all these hardships they were well built, and when well led, their young crews were generally a happy bunch with pride in their small ships.

The first motor launch to be constructed in Australia was HDML 1321 (she also had the distinction of being the last in RAN service) which was built largely of Huon pine by Purdon & Featherstone in Hobart. She was laid down on 24 July 1942 and commissioned on 11 November 1943 under the command of the now experienced Lieutenant Norman Grieve, RANVR. His First Lieutenant in his new command was Sub Lieutenant Ambrose E (Ernie) Palmer, RANVR.

HDML 1321 building in Hobart 1943.  RAN image

After commissioning, HDML 1321 proceeded to Williamstown, Victoria, before continuing passage via Sydney, Brisbane and Townsville to Milne Bay, New Guinea, arriving there on 1 February 1944. Here she was placed under the operational control of the Supervising Intelligence Officer North Eastern Area with orders to conduct special wireless telegraphy intelligence work and support Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB) personnel and Australian Coastwatchers operating behind enemy lines. The vessel had been especially modified for clandestine work and her appearance was visibly different to others of her class. The most striking feature was her bridge superstructure which was extended aft, making her look more like an island trader.

Shortly after arriving in New Guinea Lieutenant Grieve was posted ashore and Palmer assumed command of 1321. Ernie Palmer, now promoted Lieutenant, would not disappoint. The son of an ‘old soldier’ turned planter in the Solomon Islands, he had a wealth of local knowledge and had established himself as a trader, recruiter and diver. On first enlisting for wartime service Palmer had joined the Army and had served as a commando in small ships before transferring to the RAN. Sub Lieutenant Russel Smith joined as the First Lieutenant and his reflections provide an insight into his commanding officer and the nature of work involved:

Our captain was one of our country’s unsung heroes. He was totally fearless, leading his young charges with marvellous wisdom and skill. The vessel was unique in that it had been seconded to the AIB and we were allocated the duty of servicing the famous coastwatchers, taking in their food and equipment, bringing out their sick and so on. To do this we operated the whole time amongst the occupied islands in enemy waters. The Japanese used powerful barges and they were a constant hazard as they were armed with a 20 mm twin-barrelled pom-pom on a two-man mounting and were very accurate and dangerous. To counter the enemy menace, and with the help of our American friends, we armed our vessel in an unorthodox way. We added two automatic 37 mm cannons plus four 0.5-inch heavy machine guns to back up our 40 mm Bofors, 20 mm Oerlikon and four rapid fire .303 machine guns.

 Model maker and HDML aficionado, Roger Pearson, has been most helpful in providing background on these vessels.

The Guns of Muschu

Throughout 1944 HDML 1321 operated from Milne Bay and landed at isolated settlements on the Huon Peninsula between Lae and Madang. In April 1945, Z-Special Unit used 1321 in a mission, codenamed Operation COPPER. At Aitape she embarked eight operatives and their four Folboats (folding kayaks), taking them into enemy territory for a night landing on the island of Muschu near enemy-occupied Wewak. Muschu and Kairiru are adjacent islands lying off Cape Wom to the north of Wewak. Kairiru, the larger island, extends about 13 kms from east to west and 5 kms from north to south; it is mountainous with fertile volcanic soil. Its smaller sister Muschu is relatively flat and with many swamps is less fertile.

There were reports of two 140 mm (5.5-inch) naval guns on Muschu Island which had sufficient range to compromise planned Allied landings for the invasion of Wewak. The purpose of the mission was therefore to carry out reconnaissance of enemy strength on the islands, identify gun positions and, if possible, take a prisoner for further interrogation. Muschu and Kairiru were occupied by the Japanese in January 1942. St John’s Mission on Kairiru was requisitioned as naval headquarters with a nearby seaplane base, submarine and barge depot; at its peak it was occupied by 3,000 mainly naval personnel. In March 1944 the headquarters was severely damaged by American bombing. Caves, and many tunnels which were excavated, provided shelter from bombing attacks.

Map of Kairiru and Muschu Islands

Japanese forces operating out of Wewak were able to maintain supplies by using barges. This traffic was harassed by USN PT Boats, which in turn were attacked by enemy gun positions on Kairiru where it was believed there were at least two 75 mm gun batteries. These had been subjected to American bombing and bombardment by RAN ships, seemingly without success.

The insertion took place on the night of 11 April but it did not go according to plan. Although the eight operatives were successfully disembarked from 1321, their boats were swept south by strong currents. Three of the Folboats capsized after being caught in a shore break, losing a radio, two Sten-guns and a paddle. In spite of this setback, the group made it ashore, setting out immersed equipment – including their remaining radios – to dry, and then resting before continuing their mission. The following morning they encountered numerous unmanned defensive positions, including several heavy machine-guns which they dismantled and tossed into the sea. They then struck inland encountering a lone enemy soldier who was successfully captured, bound and gagged.

Although the Australian’s fortunes appeared to have changed for the better, the return trek to their temporary base camp proved otherwise. A wrong turn was taken and a Japanese patrol sighted. Taking cover in the jungle the patrol passed by but their captive was able to remove his gag calling out to his countrymen. The Z Unit were then forced to shoot their prisoner and engage the advancing enemy before breaking contact and retreating into the jungle.

Informal photograph of HDML 1321 with LSEA A Clayton, Stoker Jack Sevenoaks SBLT Russell Smith AB G Aitken and Sapper Mick Dennis           Ron Reynolds image

After regrouping and resting for a period they made their way back to their temporary base but observed the enemy waiting in ambush. A Japanese patrol had found the lost paddle washed ashore and were alerted to the landing of Australian commandos. After an intensive search the Folboats, hidden in undergrowth, were discovered, and then an ambush was set for the returning commandos.

At night the unit moved to a cliff overlooking the pre-determined rendezvous point for recovery by 1321. Without radios and their torches unusable (they were not waterproof and had been soaked on landing), they were unable to signal 1321 which frustratingly could be clearly heard cruising close inshore. In later testimony Lieutenant Palmer says they returned to the rendezvous for the next five nights searching for the commandos but with no evidence of survivors 1321 was ordered to return to base.

 The Log Rafts

At daybreak the survivors decided to construct a log raft with which they hoped would be sighted by the searching 1321 or reconnaissance aircraft. That night all eight men put to sea in their crude craft. Again they were caught in steep surf and the raft broke up, with all eight men being swept back ashore. All except one lost their weapons and packs. With the situation now becoming desperate a vote was taken on the best plan of escape. Four voted to try again but this time using individual logs, while the other four decided to go to the western end of the island, the shortest distance from the mainland, and attempt to swim the strait.

More recent computer generated calculations of the tidal drift for the period in question indicates that those on rafts may have been swept towards nearby Kairiru Island. After enlisting the help of ‘Missing in Action Australia’ a private expedition was organised to Kairiru in July 2010 by the late LTCOL Jim Bourke, AM, MG. From this expedition the fate of the men was determined and the location of two bodies found. The Australian Government War Casualties Unit then exhumed the remains of two men, which with the aid of forensic evidence and documentation in Government archives, indentified these as Corporal Spencer Walklate and Private Ronald Eagleton. The two were alive when washed ashore where they were captured and beheaded. Their remains were finally laid to rest with full military honours at the Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery on 16 June 2014. Their old comrade Mick Dennis attended this service and nearly a year later, on 09 November 2015 at age 96, this grand old veteran died peacefully in his sleep.

The other two on log rafts, Lieutenants Alan Gubbay and Thomas Barnes were believed to have drowned and their bodies later washed ashore on Kairiru Island. These were found by natives and buried. The Bourke expedition, after questioning locals, determined that the bodies had been removed by an Australian Army unit in June 1946 and were buried in the Lae War Cemetery as ‘Soldiers known only to God’. They were later identified by DNA analysis and their graves marked accordingly.

 The Swimmers

On 14 April the remaining four men set out on foot, returning to their equipment cache where a radio was retrieved. They then headed for higher ground to set up the radio and hopefully make contact with the HDML. When approaching bomb craters where fresh water might be found, they ran into a Japanese patrol. In an exchange of fire two Japanese and three Australians (Sergeant Malcolm Weber and Signallers Michael Hagger and John Chandler) were killed. Sapper Edgar Thomas (Mick) Dennis then escaped into the jungle.  Alone, he continued on to Cape Samein killing another enemy soldier and destroying a heavy machine-gun on the way. After dusk on 17 April Dennis, who was a champion swimmer and wrestler (his sister Clare Dennis was an Olympic gold medallist swimmer), put to sea on a self made improvised surf board and drifted and swam for about ten hours to the mainland, some 5 km distant, landing in darkness at about 0400 the following morning. He was recovered by a patrol on the banks of the Hawain River on the afternoon of 20 April, nearly ten days after the initial insertion. In recognition of his actions, Dennis was later awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field.

Insert photo: Informal photograph of HDML 1321 with L/SEA A Clayton, Stoker Jack Sevenoaks, SBLT Rusel Smith, AB G Aitken & Sapper Mick Dennis   –  Ron Reynolds

With news of Dennis’s survival two other MLs, 804 and 427, were immediately dispatched to search for any other survivors who may have escaped from Muschu, but this proved fruitless.

Sapper Mick Dennis wrote of his experiences in a diary which eventually passed to his nephew, Don Dennis, a retired Australian Army officer who had served in Vietnam. From this and interviews with his uncle, Don Dennis wrote of these events in The Guns of Muschu, published in 2006. Don Dennis has been most helpful in vetting much of the material used in this article.

The Naval Unit that Vanished in the Jungle

In January 1942 a young Japanese doctor who had just graduated was enlisted into the Imperial Japanese Navy as a Surgeon Sub Lieutenant. His name was Tetsuo Watanabe and luckily for posterity he also maintained a diary, and even more remarkably, because of his wartime experiences, this document survived. Many years later in 1982 this small volume was published in Japanese and, in 1995, was translated into English as The Naval Unit that Vanished in the Jungle. From this we are to gain a first-hand account of the Muschu venture, seen through Japanese eyes.

Watanabe was the last naval doctor to be posted to New Guinea, arriving from Rabaul by submarine I-181 in December 1943 at the Japanese base of Sio, strategically placed on the Huon Peninsula about half-way between Lae and Madang. He had been posted to the 82nd Naval Garrison which had landed in this area with 7,000 men in June 1942. His introduction was to a meeting of the headquarters group which was held in a cave. As the garrison was in danger of being cut off without the possibility of future supplies, he was told of the planned withdrawal from the area and, as they could not take sick or weak troops, his job was to select those fit enough for the trek northwards. On 23 December those of the 82nd Naval Garrison classified as fit were underway, traversing the inhospitable terrain of mountains, ravines, rain forests and swamps.

This was part of an overall push by the 18th Imperial Japanese Army to relocate to better positions further northward in New Guinea. Many died from starvation, disease and insanity, killing themselves or asking to be killed. They had to divide into small platoons to reduce the risk of further losses from constant air attacks. Exhausted, with depleted numbers, the survivors reached the relative safety of Madang on 18 February 1944, where they had their first decent meal in over two months. After recuperation the force was again on the move before Madang fell to the Allies in April and in early May they reached their next and final stronghold of Wewak1.

We were surprised to see a nice road made by the Army’s Road Construction Unit. But Wewak airfield on the left hand side was a frightful spectacle. It was totally destroyed by bombardment. Similarly countless remains of our ships were lying in the harbour. The night march of 30 kms was not so tiring, as it was cool and the road was good. We slept in native huts at Cape Wom.

When they had started off from Sio some four months earlier the Unit to which Tetsuo Watanabe was attached comprised 200 men. When they reached the end of their march at Cape Wom this was down to just three survivors – Lieutenant Kakiuchi, Petty Officer Wada and Dr Watanabe. The remainder, with thousands of others, had just vanished into the jungle. From Cape Wom they were transferred to a naval base on Kairiru Island lying a few miles offshore.

By this time Watanabe had developed severe malaria, jaundice and hepatitis and must have had some retinal detachment or haemorrhage in the right eye, as he lost sight in that eye. Watanabe was as well cared for by fellow surgeons as the circumstances permitted and gradually began to show signs of recovery. The Chief Surgeon at Kairiru requested Dr Watanabe’s return to Japan on the last submarine to call at the island on 27 May 1944, but this request was refused. Eventually, and now with one eye, Watanabe returned to his duties and again began treating patients.

In September 1944 the unit was moved and consolidated on the nearby Muschu Island. From here they could see American and Australian troops relaxing on the beach across the water on the mainland near Cape Wom. Although the Japanese on the islands were constantly bombed, their camouflaged and fortified camps were not located and no men were lost in these raids. With ever decreasing food supplies their greatest fear was dying of starvation.

There was only one case of direct contact between the opposing forces when eight Australians from Z Force landed on Muschu Island on 11 April 1945. In that operation (according to Japanese records) three Australians and three Japanese were killed and four other Australians drowned. Dr Watanabe treated the wounds of two injured Japanese soldiers who were shot during this incident, one of whom died and the other survived.

Rear Admiral Sato boards ML 805      AWM image

After news on 15 August 1945 that the Japanese Emperor had ordered the surrender of his forces and that the war was over, intelligence was received suggesting the garrison on Kairiru and Muschu Islands might be induced to surrender. Accordingly two RAN ships, MLs 805 and 809 circled these islands flying white flags from their mastheads and using a captured Japanese prisoner to broadcast surrender messages. This continued without results, and then suddenly on 17 August 1945, a small group of Japanese ventured onto a beach carrying a white flag. ML 805 lowered a boat with an Australian Army Intelligence Officer and an interpreter and a meeting was held on the beach. This was the first formal contact made during the war between Allied and Japanese forces in the South-West Pacific. As a result the Japanese garrison, comprising the 27th Naval Base Force, which was in radio contact with the overall commander of their forces on mainland New Guinea, Lieutenant General Adachi, was given permission to conclude a surrender agreement. On 10 September 1945 ML 805, with Major General Horace Robertson, Commander of the Australian 6th Division, embarked, proceeded to Kairiru Island where Rear Admiral Sato Shiro boarded and formally surrendered the approximately 800 mainly naval forces under his command on Muschu and Kairiru Islands.

Lieutenant General Hatazo Adachi later surrendered himself to the Australian command. He was flown to Wewak on 13 September 1945 where a formal surrender ceremony was conducted at Cape Wom after which he handed his sword to Major General Robertson. The surrender document was signed using the wardroom table taken from ML 805 which had been used for a similar purpose three days earlier. This historic table is now in the Australian War Memorial. Some fighting continued, as it took another two weeks for news to finally filter through to Japanese forces hiding in jungle retreats. MLs 805 and 809 were despatched to the Sepik River to advise natives and Japanese of the surrender. They proceeded on a remarkable feat of navigation, steaming 212 miles upstream encountering many Japanese living on friendly terms with villagers; many of the soldiers were sick and no resistance was offered.

After the surrender Muschu Island was used to detain Japanese POWs from the entire Wewak area. Many were sick and weak from disease. Of the estimated 11,000 to 12,000 prisoners held on the island less than 10,000 survived to return to Japan, but all survivors were repatriated by March 1946. In the Australian official war history it is estimated that more than 1,000 Japanese prisoners died during the march to, or on, Muschu Island because of malnutrition. This was not helped by a lack of food and medical supplies then available to both Australians and Japanese.

HMAS Rushcutter (HDML 1321) in Clarence River near Grafton 1965  RAN image

Marsden Hordern, then in command of ML 1347, visited Muschu Island a number of times when it was used as a prison camp as his ship was involved in ferrying POWs from the Sepik region to Muschu. He notes the Japanese had built a temporary hospital, a long thatched palm structure, with open sides built of local wood. Conditions in the hospital were horrific with many dead and dying, and burial parties constantly at work.

On 26 November 1945 the cruiser HMAS Shropshire was embarking Australian troops from Wewak for their return home. By coincidence on the same day, ML 1347 had the unusual task of leading the former Japanese cruiser Kashima to an anchorage off Muschu where she embarked 1,100 prisoners for return home. She made another voyage to Muschu on 8 January 1946, embarking an unspecified number of prisoners for a similar return to Japan. Kashima, which had been a flagship involved in the capture of New Guinea, was one of the few major Japanese naval ships afloat at the end of the war; with her armament removed she was converted into a transport and over the course of a year repatriated about 6,000 Japanese troops from around the Pacific to their homeland.

In 1969 a Japanese mission visited Kairiru Island and with the assistance of local people located and exhumed a large number of the remains of Japanese servicemen who had died here during and post WWII. The remains were cremated in accordance with Shinto faith ritual and the ashes returned to Japan. A small memorial was also built on the island.

A Canadian, Robert (Bob) Henderson, who lived in the Wewak area for three years, wrote of his interest in an article titled Beautiful Muschu Island – Japanese Hell. From stories told by locals he says Japanese POWs were left on the island with virtually no provisions; many perished before the survivors were repatriated some months later. He also notes that a landslide in 1976 revealed a cave where the remains of more Japanese were discovered. These remains were later cremated by Japanese authorities and the ashes returned to their homeland.

What next for HDML 1321

HDML 1321 continued to serve in New Guinea throughout the remainder of 1945, punctuated by brief visits to Townsville and Brisbane. She was next lent to the Northern Territory Administration until 1951. Upon return to Sydney she was attached to the naval base HMAS Rushcutter, reclassified as a Seaward Defence Motor Launch (SDML 1321), used for RANR and Naval Cadet training. In common with other attached vessel in 1953 she assumed the name of her parent establishment, confusingly also becoming HMAS Rushcutter. She decommissioned in 1970 and in August 1971 was sold for $14,200 to private owners who converted her into a cruise launch named MV Rushcutter.

In 2006 Rushcutter was purchased by the eccentric mother and daughter team of devoted maritime enthusiasts, Wendy and Tracey Geddes. They took her to Nhulunbuy, NT where she was painstakingly refurbished over three years at a cost of about $150,000 as a cruise and dive craft. In her new role she was based at Darwin.

A survey of the 73 year old vessel was carried out in early 2016 revealing the hull to be in excellent condition and the original two American-made six cylinder Buda-Lanova (later generations know these as Allis-Chalmers) diesel engines still functioning, although one was slightly down on power due to wear of the original cylinder liners.

Thinking of retirement, in 2016 the Geddes put their baby up for sale. In April a small group of prospective buyers travelled to Darwin to inspect the boat. Apparently these were ISIS sympathisers who were trying to find a suitable vessel to travel to the Middle East. As the Federal Police got wind of this the sale fell through.

Finally came the tragic accidental sinking of Rushcutter at her moorings in Darwin’s small boat anchorage on 19 October 2016. She was subsequently raised a month later on 20 November. Now needing much more love and attention which her owners cannot afford, her fate is uncertain. Would not this historic vessel, the last of her type in Australia, make an important contribution to a maritime museum?

In a Parliamentary speech on 22 November 2016, Luke Gosling, the Federal Member for Solomon (Darwin metropolitan area) addressed the need for the restoration of this important historic vessel. He thanked the Darwin Port Authority and Bhagwan Marine for helping refloat Rushcutter and for the assistance of the Paspaley Pearl Group in providing hard-standing for potential restoration. He also thanked local volunteers including Ambrose Palmer, son of her former captain.

Our latest information (February 2017) is that the Geddes family have generously sold HDML 1321 to a Darwin based committee ‘Save Motor Launch 1321 Inc.’ for the princely sum of $2. It should have been $1 but no one could produce a $1 coin at the time of the transaction. The committee, chaired by Vikki McLeod, who is an Army reservist engineer and on the board of the Darwin Military Museum (DMM), aims to carry out the difficult task of recovering and restoring the ship to her wartime condition and then putting her on display at the DMM.

Notes:

  1. There are difficulties in estimating the total number of Japanese forces fighting on the mainland of New Guinea over the period of the conflict. After the war Major General Kane Yoshiwara, General Adachi’s chief-of-staff, gave the maximum strength of the 18th IJA as 105,000, which had shrunk to 54,000 by March 1944. Many more perished during the final retreat towards Wewak, leaving about 13,000 at the time when General Adachi surrendered his forces. General Adachi, an honourable man who accepted responsibility, before taking his own life, wrote: “During the past three years operations more than 100,000 youthful and promising officers and men were lost and most died of malnutrition”.

 References

Dennis, Don, Guns of Muschu –Eight Men went in – only one Returned. Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 2006.

Dexter, David, Australia in the War of 1939-1945, Series One: Army, Volume VI – The New Guinea Offensive. Canberra, Australian War Memorial, 1961.

Evans, Peter & Thompson, Richard (Eds.), Fairmile Ships of the Royal Australian Navy, Volumes I & II. Sydney, Australian Military History Publishers, 2005.

Gill, Hermon G., Australia in the War of 1939-1945, Series Two: Navy, Volume II – Royal Australian Navy 1942-1945. Canberra, Australian War Memorial, 1968.

Henderson, Robert, Beautiful Muschu Island – Japanese Hell, viewed 23 December 2016, http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1573388-Beautiful-Muschu-Japanese-Hell.

History of HDML 1321, Seapower Centre, Canberra, viewed 08 December 2016, http://www.navy.gov.au/hdml-1321.

Hordern, Marsden, A Merciful Journey – Reflections of a World War II Patrol Boat Man. Melbourne, Miegunyah Press, 2005.

Johnston, Vanessa, Remembering the War in New Guinea – Summary of the Experiences of Naval Surgeon Tetsuo Watanabe. Canberra, Australian War Memorial, viewed 08 December 2016, http://ajrp.awm.gov.au/AJRP/remember.nsf.

Report of Proceedings HDML 1321 and ML 805 August/September 1945. Canberra, Australian War Memorial.

Watanabe, Tetsuo, The Naval Land Unit that Vanished in the Jungle, first published in Japanese 1982 with English translation by Hiromitsu Iwamoto. Canberra, Tabletop Press, 1995.

Watters, David, Stitches in Time – Two Centuries of Surgery in Papua New Guinea. Sydney, Alibris Corporation, 2011.

Worledge, G. Ron (Ed.), Contact – HMAS Rushcutter & Australia’s Submarine Hunters 1939-1946. Sydney, The Anti-Submarine Warfare Officers’ Association, 1994.

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