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Letter: Hospital ships

Dear Editor

As always, lots of interest in the September edition but one item has caught my attention.

In the article about the hospital ships, on page 43 you show a photo of an aircraft attacking an IJN sub-chaser. The aircraft is identified as a USAAF Liberator. The Liberator was a 4-engined heavy bomber while, although the picture is a little unclear, the aircraft is clearly twin-engined, twin-taiied and almost certainly a Hudson and thus most likely RAAF.

Sorry to nit-pick but the review is usually so precise that I couldn’t help myself!

Thanks for your excellent work in producing such an excellent periodical covering an otherwise much neglected part of our national history.

Regards

Martin Rathbone

 

Martin

Thank you for your recent email and of course you are correct the aircraft illustrated is not a Liberator but neither is it a Hudson.

The original photo comes with the following inscription: B-25 aircraft of the 345thBombardment Group, US 500thBombardment Squadron attacking Japanese sub chaser Ch-39 off Three Island Harbor, New Hanover, New Ireland 16 Feb 1944. Looking closely at this photo there appears to be a bomb in flight between the aircraft and the ship’s mast.

The 345thBombardment Group was activated between 8 September 1942 and 19 December 1945. This Group together with its squadrons of B-25 Mitchell medium bombers were used extensively in the New Guinea campaign and most likely operated from the Dobodura Airfield Complex in what is now known as Girua Airport serving the township of Popondetta in the Oro province of PNG. These aircraft were modified with extra fuel tanks to increase their range and with extra 0.50 caliber machine guns installed in the nose of the aircraft.

From Japanese records we learn that on the morning of 16 February 1944 sub chaser CH-39 was escorting the 5,700 ton cargo ship Sanko Maru which was towing a HA-52 Type B midget submarine when they were attacked by B-25 bombers. These aircraft bombed, strafed and sank CH-39and Sanko Maruand damaged the midget submarine. On the same afternoon another flight of B-25’s found the remains of CH-39on a reef and abandoned but the midget submarine was still on the surface which they bombed, strafed and sank. Japanese records indicate that the midget was scuttled by her crew after the raid. A total of 14 Japanese were killed in this action with the survivors being taken to their small base at New Hanover.

From the Melbourne based FRUMEL operation we now know that by this time Japanese naval codes had been broken and the Allies were able to gain advance information on enemy ship movements.

We trust this explanation covers off on our previous errors and we shall publish it as a Letter to the Editor in the next edition of our magazine.

Kindest regards

Walter Burroughs

Editor – Naval Historical Review

 

 

Letter: Villers Bretonneux Museum – Garden Island Dockyard crest

Dear Editor,

Some years ago when I was serving in the office of the Naval Historical Society a letter was received with a copy of a photograph of a Garden Island Dockyard crest taken at the Villers Bretonneux Museum. The question was how did it get there? We had no idea so the topic lapsed.

Recently a previous General Manager of Garden Island Dockyard, Rear Admiral Nigel Berlyn, contacted me by telephone with a query about the time when we were both on the Island in the mid-1980s. As matter of passing interest I mentioned the above photographic query and the Admiral told me that during his time as General Manager a group of former French naval personnel from the Villers Bretonneux district had visited the Dockyard when he had presented them with a Naval Dockyard crest. Presumably in older age one of this group donated the crest to the museum.

Should the crest still be on display this explanation might be of interest to Australian visitors.

Kind regards

Norman Rivett

 

By Editor: Have any members who may have recently visited this museum noticed the GID crest?

 

Letter: What’s in a Name – Cumberlege

A few emails have been received from learned members regarding the spelling of a family name used in the June 2018 edition of this magazine on Rear Admiral Claude Lionel Cumberiege and his influence on the RAN. There are a number of spellings to this ancient name which appears to derive from the parish of Cumberbatch in Cheshire, England.

Bowing to the superior knowledge of the informants and, thanking them for their contribution, your Editor agrees that the spelling Cumberlege as used in the Dictionary of Australian Biography should have been used throughout this article. Well spotted to all concerned.

Letter: HDML 1321 Update

Dear Walter

I have been following your articles and updates on 1321 with interest, and think you may have a use for this informative paper cutting, recently uncovered in one of my old books. I believe it is 1321 during her ‘transformation’ from a Seaward Defence Boat (SDB) to HMAS Rushcutter.

She is shown being moved from the small boat hardstand, which was located on the northwest dockside (now West Dock Wall) to the harbour. This picture is taken from the SMH dated 16 September 1955.

HDML1321 would have had repairs to her ‘woodwork’ undertaken up the river at Woodley’s or similar yard, whilst GID would complete the shafting, props, engines etc., which would have been removed prior to transit.

Best regards

Leyland Wilkinson

Grafton, NSW

By Editor: See NHR March 2017 for further details regarding HDML 1321. It appears that at least two HDMLs were refitted in Sydney in the early 1950s. HDML 1325which transited to Darwin becoming a tender to HMAS Melville in 1953 and HDML 1321which subsequently was transferred to the RANR as a training vessel in 1956.

The fully loaded weight of an HDML was about 60 tons therefore when the crane lift was made at GID the vessel without stores and machinery would have been considerably lighter.

Suspended from a crane, a 65-ton harbour defence motor launch makes a 100-yard airborne trip for refloating at Garden Island yesterday. The launch was stripped at Garden Island and will be refitted at another dockyard for the Royal Australian Navy.

 

Letter: The Kangaroo Symbol on HMA Ships

The picture of the commissioning of HMAS Hobart on the front cover of the December 2017 edition of the Naval Historical Review – particularly that of the red kangaroo symbol affixed to the superstructure – has prompted me to write with a possible explanation of how and when this symbol originated.

Early in 1958, and just prior to a nine month tour of duty with the Far East Strategic Reserve, a Leading Signalman in HMAS Voyager took an Australian penny over to a workshop on Garden Island Dockyard in Sydney and asked his contacts there if a template of a kangaroo could be cut based on the design on the coin.

At that time HMA Ships at sea flew the British White Ensign and carried no other symbols which identified them as Australian. To rectify this – particularly when carrying out RAS with United Navy vessels – the Leading Signalman came up with the idea (supported I believe by the Yeoman of Signals) that a discrete red kangaroo be painted on the back of the 10 inch signal lamps on both sides of the flag deck. These lamps could then be turned around during RAS with our American cousins to show the jumping marsupial – so declaring, to all who saw it, that we were Australians.

It worked a treat and Voyager found within a short time other HMA Ships adopted the practice – some even wanting to borrow our template to paint the back of their signal lamps. When later asked what prompted him to think of this the Leading Signalman, a WW11 veteran (like many of the senior ratings at the time) said:  “He wanted to make sure the first Australian Daring class destroyer to be allotted duty in the FESR carried something that clearly identified her as Australian and the kangaroo design on the penny fitted the bill.”

I played a very modest part in all of this because at the time I was an Ordinary Signalman serving in my first sea draft and, along with other duties assigned, mostly of a manual nature, I was responsible for drawing the paint from the ship’s paint locker and painting the kangaroos!

Gavin Ryan  – Perth, WA

By Editor: In checking our archives our archives the Journal of the Australian Naval Institute Headmarkdated December 2013 contains a story on the First Red Roo. In summary this says in the 1950s the RAN converted four of its five Q-class destroyers to Type 15 fast anti-submarine frigates. HMAS Queenboroughcompleted her conversion in 1954 and the following year undertook a global circumnavigation.

While in British waters she operated with an RN squadron which used the Red Hand of Ulster as a funnel emblem. To retain a visible Australian identity, Queenboroughalso displayed her own red kangaroo. This remains the first known use of the red kangaroo on the funnel of an HMA Ship. By the 1980s the insignia had been adopted across the RAN’s major surface fleet.

ML 802 in New Guinea 1945 – AWM

Looking back even further a photograph is found in the AWM collection (078677) of Able Seaman John Conway keeping watch aboard ML 802 during amphibious operations off New Guinea dated 28 January 1945. Fairmiles were known for their harsh living conditions which resulted in a degree of latitude being given to the dress and appearance of both men and boats. In this instance in the background a solid kangaroo motif (colour unknown) is attached to the vessel. The mystery continues.

 

 

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