The Last Action.

HMS INDOMITABLE   12th AUGUST 1945 to 30th SEPTEMBER 1945

When the Japanese Emperor had surrendered on 15^th August the Senior British Government Official in Stanley Prison Camp in Hong Kong was Franklin Gimson. He had been the Colonial Secretary prior to the war. He went straight to the Commandant of the Camp and told him that he would be taking over the administration of Hong Kong and asked that they be provided with suitable accommodation from which to run the colony. He also demanded that Japanese troops continue to keep order there. The Commandant agreed. By 23^rd official word reached Gimson via Hong Kong Guerrilla forces that the UK Government also wanted him to set up a government there. He got the old Chief Justice still in the camp to swear him in. He was therefore Governor of Hong Kong before The BPF arrived in Hong Kong.

On 27^th August the Fleet left Subic Bay and now the Task Group 111.2 consisted of aircraft carriers Indomitable and Vengeance, cruisers Euryalus, Swiftsure, Black Prince, and RCN A/A cruiser Prince Robert, destroyers Kempenfelt, Ursa, Quadrant and Whirlwind. There were eight RAN corvettes, Mildura, Castlemaine, Bathurst, Broome, Freemantle, Strahan, Wagga and Stawell.  There was the 8^th Submarine Flotilla and depot ship Maidstone. There were several minesweepers of the Australian Navy that were to clear the channels ahead of the main force. When they arrived at a position off the Islands they were also met by the battleship Anson and aircraft carrier Vengeance. The Fleet waited about twelve miles off shore, around Kam Tan Island, for the minesweepers to clear the channels. At this time boats brought out representatives of the Imperial Japanese Army to discuss the peaceful handover of power to the British Fleet.

At 1200 on 30^th August 1945 the Fleet assembled and as word had been received of possible suicide attacks by explosive motor boats, all the ships were at Action Station and commenced their passage into Hong Kong Harbour. Some motor boats were spotted crossing the channel and as the entire fleet were in an extremely vulnerable position the Admiral ordered the aircraft from Indomitable and Vengeance to fly off and intercept. The Avenger torpedo bombers and Hellcat fighters bombed and strafed the boats and their base on Lamma Island and most of the boats were destroyed and several Japanese were killed two weeks after the surrender of the Japanese forces.

  

Dad has a copy of a signal from the Commander of the Task Group 111.2, Rear Admiral Harcourt, at 1510Z on 30^th August, stating that;

  

2.   ‘A large number of suicide boats were observed in Picnic Bay. Three of these were seen to leave the bay and attacked by aircraft with score of one sunk, one beached and one returned to harbour. These boats were then well bombed and most of them are now ashore.

3.  Venerable is remaining at sea for the present and keeping continuous air patrol over Hong Kong.

4.  Japanese appear quite docile and Chinese populace are beginning to handle them rather roughly. Japanese state they have no mail from Japan for six months.

5.  Am meeting Japanese Commander tomorrow to discuss arrangements for maintaining law and order and eventual surrender.

6.  Gimson and Administration Council appear to have the situation well in hand except for the ability to maintain law and order and the shortage of supplies. Japanese are still endeavouring to remove food and other stores but this is being stopped.

7.  This afternoon I visited all the Prisoner of War and Internment camps and also British Hospitals. We received a tumultuous welcome and it was magnificent to see the high state of morale despite the obvious effects of malnutrition. Altogether a most moving afternoon.

8.  Hope to start transference of patients to Hospital Ship Oxfordshire tomorrow.’

The Explosive Motor Boats EMB’s were called Shinyo by the Japanese which meant ‘Sea Quake’. They were suicide boats in essence. The first few were built of steel but in 1944 the shortage of materials meant they were all wooden from then. The Type 1 was an 18m single man boat. They were capable of 23kts, which is not that fast and the speed reduced to 18kts when the warhead was loaded in the bow. The idea was that they directed the boat to the target and either jumped at the last minute or drove it straight in to the target.

Shinyo Type 1 Explosive Motor Boat (EMB).

The Type 5 boat was two man and fitted with twin automobile engines and 13.2 heavy machine guns and RT radio. They were used as command vessels. Both Type 1 and 5 were fitted with two 120mm rockets. These were intended to increase the speed of the boat on the final run in and to give some power if the main engine(s) should fail. Approximately 6200 were constructed. Most were retained for use in the defence of the homeland but of those sent abroad most went to the Philippines and Okinawa. The ‘pilots’ were mainly flying cadets about 17 years old. As the war had progressed there were no aircraft for them to fly so 400 of them were transferred. They were given the choice to train for conventional torpedo boats, special attack boats (Shinyo’s) or to be suicide frogmen. About 150 chose to train for the Shinyo. The official three month course for them started in October/November 1944. The Imperial Japanese Navy hoped that a success rate of 10% was a good target. In effect they did not achieve close to this rate. They claimed a handful of landing craft sunk and damaged and no major assets were lost to them.

Type 5 Shinyo EMB.

On the 30th August Sub Lieutenant Awamura of the 35^th Special Attack Shinyo Squadron based on Lamma Island set out from there to the travel to the Imperial Japanese Navy HQ to inform them that all the warheads had been removed form the EMB’s. The only transport available was one of the attack boats, minus it explosives. He was spotted crossing the channel and this sparked the alert. The Sub Lieutenant’s boat was destroyed and the base was put out of action for good.

 Type 1 Shinyo EMB’s in Picnic Bay Lamma Island 1945.

War is over, for some.

HMS INDOMITABLE            12^th AUGUST 45    to    30^th SEPTEMBER 45

Indomitable was an aircraft carrier built by Vickers Armstrong in Barrow in Furness. She was supposed to be the fourth of the ‘Invincible Class’ but she was heightened by 14’ to fit in another hanger deck. The flight deck was also lengthened. This along with other changes allowed her to carry 56 planes. She retained the 3” armour plate on the flight deck. She was launched 26-Mar-40 and completed and commissioned 10-Oct-41. She was 754’ (230m) long. 95.5’ (29.2m) beam and 29’ (8.8m) depth. She was driven by Parsons geared steam turbines supplied with steam by 6 boilers and turning three shafts and propellers with 111000 shaft horse power. This gave her a speed of 30.5kts. She had a complement of 1392 that was increased to 2100.

HMS Indomitable 21-Nov-41. Norfolk ship yard USA for repair.

She was well armed by the end of the war with 16 x 4.5”, 48 x 2lb’ers, 36 x 20mm and various other calibre anti aircraft guns. During the final stage of the war she had American Hellcat and Avenger aircraft squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm aboard.

Dad had seen her during Operation Ironclad, the invasion of Madagascar, and Operation Pedestal, the resupply of Malta (The Ohio convoy). During this operation she was hit by bombs with several near misses. Although still operational she was sent to the USA for repair. On completion she was back in company with Dad at Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. How ever she was bombed and torpedoed and again withdrew to the USA for repair.

Following this she was moved to the Eastern Fleet and based in Sri Lanka. After the end of the war in Europe, for political reasons, Britain was keen to participate in the war against Japan. The Americans were a bit resentful, as by now they were the senior partner in the Allies and most definitely in the Pacific. There was friction in the US Navy too as some felt that they had done the hard miles all but alone and now Britain was trying to get in at the kill. However it was agreed that the British Pacific Fleet (BPF) would be created early in 1944. After several years of hard fighting Britain was not able to supply all the ships required herself so heavy demands was placed on the Empire and other Allies to help. Australia was engaged in heavily supporting the American effort and again much effort was expended to convince them to supply bases and logistics to support the BPF. A further problem was that British equipment was not largely equivalent to US standards and as the US Navy were pretty well stretched with their supply lines anyway the BFP had to ensure they could supply their own equipment using their own ships. In the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean the British Navy had utilised bases for resupply. The distances involved in the Pacific meant that this was not practical so the Fleet Train came into being. Around fifty merchant Navy ships were able to keep the Navy supplied with all they required through out the remainder of the war.

HMS Indomitable leaving Captain Cook Drydock Sydney 18th July 1945.

Eventually the BPF was taken under control of Admiral Nimitz as Task force 57. Their first task was Operation Iceberg, the landings on Okinawa, which began 26^th March 1945. Here the Indomitable’s aircraft attacked airbases on the islands in the chain, shipping, and provided airborne cover for the fleet of vessels. During this operation many kamikaze attacks occurred and most of the larger ships were hit at least once. The American carriers were rendered useless following a successful attack as they had wooden flight decks. With their armoured flight decks the British carriers, although hit, never had to leave the line and were ready for flight operations with in three hours. They were directed to attack Japanese bases on Formosa (Taiwan) to try to stem the flow of attacks and these raids were very successful. During Operation Iceberg the BPF had been on operations for 32 days which had been the longest continuous period on operations since the days of sail. Indomitable was hit three times by kamikaze attacks. One crashed on the deck at a shallow angle and luckily slid right over the side. Indomitable was also involved in a collision with destroyer HMS Quilliam in fog. Quilliam was quite badly damaged and took no further part in the war. In June Indomitable was replaced by Implacable and sailed to Sydney to make good repairs. The effort of the BPF at Okinawa had won the respect of the US Navy and if the invasion of Japan had taken place a greater understanding between the fleets would have been guaranteed. As it was they had overcome the difficulties of different codes, methods, tactics etc to become an effective unit of the US 5^th Fleet.

HMS Indomitable following kamikaze attack 1^st April 1945 off Okinawa. The vessel was back in action in 1 hour. (Identification may indicate that this was actually HMS Formidable).

Indomitable was relieved by HMS Implacable in June and returned to Sydney for repairs. On completion she remained in Sydney through out as the plans for the invasion of the Japanese mainland were finalised. Dad joined Indomitable six days after the ‘Little Boy’ atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima on 6^th August, and only three days after the ‘Fat Man’ bomb had been dropped on Nagasaki on 9^th August. On 15^th August the Emperor of Japan made a broadcast announcing the unconditional surrender of Japan. The same day the American control of the Indomitable and other members of the task force were relinquished and passed back to Britain.  She immediately sailed to Subic Bay in the Philippines along with aircraft carrier Venerable, cruisers Euryalus and Swiftsure and 3 destroyers. Other ships were arriving and plans were being drawn up for the re-occupation of Hong Kong. 

Pacific Bound.

HMS BEACONSFIELD    1^st July 1944   to   11^th August 1945

HMS Beaconsfield is the RN shore establishment in Port Melbourne, Australia. Dad had been sent to fight the Pacific war!! His papers say that his is ‘addl for displ. by VA.(Q) BPF’ I understand this to mean that he was on the books of HMS Beaconsfield for dispersal by the Vice Admiral (Q) that was the designation for Vice Admiral J.W. Rivett-Carnac who was responsible for the enter logistical support of the British Pacific Fleet ashore and afloat. He was based in Melbourne and I think this is just an order to get Dad to the Pacific Fleet and once there it would be decided where he was to end up.

Percy Porter had written in the photograph album of Dad’s war time exploits that he had sailed on the RMS Mauretania. I found this very difficult to confirm as in July 1945 the European war was over and a fast ship such as Mauretania would be sailing independently and so not in convoy records. I finally discovered a memoir of a Naval Petty Officer sailing on her. I had a date and could therefore track her down more easily. Dad must have still been on the South Coast with the Support Squadron and I can’t find anything to show that he had leave. His posting was starting on 1^st July and the Mauretania sailed from Liverpool on 3^rd July.

RMS Mauretania in early 1939.

RMS Mauretania was launched 28^th July 1938 at Cammell Laird’s Birkenhead for the Cunard White Star Line and was the first ship of the amalgamated company. She was completed in May 1939. She was 35674 gross tons and 19654 net tons, length 739ft (235m) and beam 89ft (27m). She had 2 sets of Parson’s steam turbines, 42000 shaft horse power, driving two propellers and a service speed of 23kts (max. 26kts).She was designed for 1360 passengers and 810 crew.

She only managed three round trips to New York before the War intervened. She was painted grey and fitted with 2 x 3” and 1 x 6” guns and then sailed to New York to be out of harms way. She was laid up there with the liners Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary and the French Normandie. She was there for three months when she started her trooping working. In April she was in Sydney NSW and had further alterations carried out to increase the capacity of her passenger numbers and make better protective armaments with 2 x 6”, 3 x 12lb guns, 3 x 40mm and 22 x 20mm Anti Aircraft guns along with 2 rocket launchers. Throughout the war she traveled over 540,000 miles and carried over 340,000 troops. In one round the world trip she covered 28622 miles in 82 days.

Sleeping on RMS Mauretania

Officers dining RMS Mauretania 

On 3^rd July 1945 they did sail independently as she had done for much of the war as vessel over 14.5kts were thought fast enough to be able to avoid danger. Now we know that the Allies were able to read German Naval signals it seems that they would be fairly certain that they would be able to give fast important ships sufficient warning for their speed to move them clear of danger. The memoir I found was from a Kenneth Tratthen, a RN Petty Officer Engine Room Artificer who was going out to join the BPF. The majority of the passengers were Australian and New Zealand released from German POW camps and troops. There were also a small number of wives and children, mainly of New Zealand RAF blokes.

The first stop was the Panama Canal, and they passed through Cristobal on 12^th July, and then headed to Pearl Harbour for provisions. To get to their berth they had to pass very close to the sunken battleship Oklahoma with a thousand bodies still in her following being sunk by the Japanese. They arrived on 25^th July. After taking stores etc they left on 27^th July, however 186 people missed the ship. When they arrived in Wellington they were all there waiting for them as the Americans had flown them over. I wonder what the repercussions were though.

They arrived in Wellington on 4^th August at 0900 to be met by a rapturous civic reception with military band and all the waiting loved ones. There were a few tears shed though for those that would not return. They left on 7^th August and headed for Sydney. They had to anchor outside the harbour briefly on arrival on the 8^th August to allow the boom to be opened. A launch came out with the CinC of Australian Army aboard. He tried to make a speech by loud speaker whilst alongside but was drowned out by the boos. He had a military band with him and they also soon gave up playing as they were pelted by hundreds of coins thrown by the troops! When they finally passed through the Harbour every horn and whistle was sounding. Once fast alongside the disembarking troops were bussed to the cricket ground where radio announcements had been directing all the locals to go as well. The soldiers greeting was equally as rapturous as in Wellington. PO Tratthen also disembarked and was sent to HMS  Golden Hind. HMS Golden Hind was an accounting base and transit barracks in bell tents on Warwick Road Race Course. The Officers were housed in the Grand stand. Dad may well have been here for a short time as his accounting base was Beaconsfield in Melbourne. He is down as leaving the books for HMS Beaconsfield on 11^th August 1945. The atom bomb Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima on 6^th August and Fat Man on Nagasaki on 9^th August! Mum tells me that Dad recounted that he spent the passage playing one type of cards in the morning and another in the afternoon, each time with a stilton cheese in the middle of the table that they just helped themselves to.

Mauretania in Sydney Harbour 19^th August 1945.

(She left for Liverpool, via South Africa 22^nd August 1945)