- Author
- Captain Peter Hore, RN
- Subjects
- Biographies and personal histories, RAN operations, Ship histories and stories, WWII operations, History - WW2
- Tags
- RAN Ships
- HMAS Sydney II
- Publication
- December 2006 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
They were five days and five nights in the lifeboat. On the fifth day Jansen, who was in the bows, saw clouds and shouted to von Malapert that must these indicate land. Von Malapert answer was: ‘Shut up, Jansen, you’ll only make the people crazier than they are already.’
On the evening of Monday 24, after five days in an open boat, they saw cliffs about 50 metres high, which plunged straight into the sea behind a reef, where the waves broke heavily. There was no way through and so von Malapert allowed the lifeboat to drift north in the current.
At first light, von Malapert saw a brilliant white beach on the far side of a wide lagoon. There were enormous turtles swimming around the boat and, making out the tracks of the turtles up the beach, he reckoned that where these huge beasts could land, so could he, and he decided to risk the outlying rocks.
After the boat grounded in the shallow water, the crew spontaneously jumped over the side and dragged the boat so far up the beach that von Malapert thought it would never go to sea again. He made a speech urging his crew to give thanks to God for their deliverance, and to pray for their comrades who could still be at sea. If interrogated, they were only obliged to give name and address. In case they were in any doubt, he himself was going to say: ‘Malapert, and my parents live in Darmstadt, in Germany.’
A little later an aeroplane flew overhead and von Malapert ordered everyone to form a circle and to hold ropes across the diameter of the circle. The aeroplane then flew along the beach waggling its wings and before it departed, dropped a carton of Lucky Strike cigarettes; this was his favourite brand. A sailor produced a still-working lighter, lit a cigarette and gave it to von Malapert.
As far as von Malapert is concerned, his proudest achievement was in bringing the survivors in their lifeboat safely to land, and the first drag on the cigarette was like being awarded, not the Iron Cross, but the Red Cross.