H.M.S. Ajax & River Plate VeteransAssociation

NEWSLETTER

NEC QUISQUAM NISI AJAX

MARCH 2016

CONTENTS

Chairman's Remarks

Newsletter Editor's Remarks

Membership Secretary's Report

Battle of Cape Matapan 75th Anniversary – Clive Sharplin

Uncle Pat – Stuart Birrell

Captain Mackenzie - Obituary

Gordon Humpleby – Peter Danks

25th Anniversary River Plate – Vic Wilson

Eric Maycock Papers

Car Sticker & Pens – Mike Fox

Archivist Update

News from Town of Ajax – Colleen Jordan

Memories - Dave Forrest

Ireland's Own – Malcolm Collis

More Memories – John Hitchen

River Plate FAQs

2.

H.M.S. AJAX & RIVER PLATE VETERANS ASSOCIATION.

CHAIRMAN/SECRETARYPeter Danks104 Kelsey AvenueSouthbourneEmsworthHampshire PO10 8NQTel: 01243 371947pandedanks@btinternet.com

MEMBERSHIPSECRETARYMrs Judi CollisThe Bewicks, Station RoadTen Mile BankNorfolk PE38 0EUTel: 01366 377945Mobile: 07736 929641judi.collis@gmail.com

ARCHIVIST/WEBMASTER/NEWSLETTER EDITORMalcolm CollisThe Bewicks, Station RoadTen Mile Bank,Norfolk PE38 0EUTel: 01366 377945malcolm.collis@gmail.com

www.hmsajax.org

3.

COMMITTEEMEMBERJohn (Vic) Wilson9 Ashleigh AvenueEghamSurrey TW20 8LBTel: 01784 439630johnwilson170@btinternet.com

TREASURER/STANDARD BEARERAlf LarkinLime Kiln Cottage2 Easton LanePortlandDorset DT5 1BWTel: 01305 457259alflarkin@btinternet.com

CHAIRMAN'S REMARKS

I hope all our members had a most enjoyable and illness free Christmas and New Year holiday. Certainly in the South we have enjoyed a pretty mild winter but I am sure some of you will have enjoyed the winter snow.

2016 will see the Association changing its annual format and I do hope the change will enable you to get to as many of the events as possible. Holding an event in Staffordshire will allow members living in the North to join us for one of our events.

On April 9th we will be holding a Remembrance Service followed by lunch at the National Memorial Arboretum near Lichfield, with the Service around the Association Memorial starting at 1200. Lunch will then follow at 1300 in one of the marquees on site. This will provide an opportunity for those members who were unable to attend the Dedication two years ago to see the wonderful memorial which has been created next to the Falklands Islands Memorial in the Royal Navy area of the site. There will be time either before the service or after the lunch to look around the wonderful arboretum. If you have not yet been in touch with Malcolm, please do so as soon as possible as he needs to submit numbers for the lunch.

Later in the summer, Malcolm and Nigel Masters are co-ordinating the visit to Canada to mark the 40th anniversary of the frigate visit to the town.

On Saturday 1st October, the annual dinner will be held at the Royal Beach Hotel at Southsea – a very popular venue for the 75th anniversary lunch held in 2014. The AGM will be held at the hotel at 1630, with Up Spirits at 1830 and dinner at 1900. There will be a 4 course meal, with tea/coffee and mints and the cost will be £35 which will include a drink for the loyal toast. Application forms for the Dinner and Accommodation will be published with the June newsletter. Please put this date in your diary.On the 20th January, Alan Phillips and I attended a Service of Thanksgiving for the life and work of Admiral Sir Peter Charles Abbot GBE KCB, who had been Captain of the frigate, at the Portsmouth Cathedral. The service was very well attended with many senior Royal Navy Officers, past and present in attendance.

NEWSLETTER EDITOR’S REMARKSA huge thank you to all the contributors – without the material there would be no Newsletter. A plea to you all, if you have something interesting to share please put pen to paper and send it in.

The NMA event will be upon us very soon – if you haven't let me know you are coming please do so urgently as I need to book with the NMA. Herewith a copy of the email I sent out earlier:

“Dear AllRegarding the Memorial event at the National Memorial Arboretum in April and my earlier circulations on this subject. Thank you to those who did respond - the numbers are not great but we have decided to continue with the day.

The Memorial event will be held on Saturday 9th April 2016 at the NMA (Croxall Road, Alrewas, Staffordshire DE13 7AR Tele. 01283 245100 www.thenma.org.uk)The site is open from 9am until 5pm - no admission fee but £3 for the car park including disabled spaces.A memorial service will be held around The Battle of the River Plate Memorial at 1200hrs before making our way back to the Rose Room (now moved to one of the pods) for 1300hrs for luncheon (2 course). The cost will be £20.This will allow time either before or afterwards, or both, to visit the rest of the site - well worth a visit. The centre provides, at a cost, a land train (£4.50) or buggy tour (£5) and I can probably arrange a guided walking tour if there was enough interest - please let me know. The NMA also hire mobility scooters that should be pre-booked.

There are various accommodation nearby - Judi & I have booked the Friday & Saturday night at the Premier Inn Lichfield North East A38 Hotel which is attached to the Fradley Arms with bar & restaurant and is close to the NMA.

If you wish to attend please send me a cheque (Malcolm Collis The Bewicks, Station Road, Ten Mile Bank, Norfolk PE38 0EU) made payable to HMS Ajax RPVA for £20 per person or through the "donate" button on our web page.

Please let me have the following details:Attendee full nameGuests full name and relationshipAny dietary requirements for the above

Assistance to/from memorial Yes/No - a distance of approx 300 metres.I shall circulate further details nearer the timeRegards”

Numbers are so far disappointing so if you can make it please support your Association.

The congregation included the First Sea Lord, 2 Admirals of the Fleet, 8 Admirals, 40 Vice Admirals, 9 Commodores, 15 Captains and 7 Commanders, all serving or retired. Peter and Alan are top left.

2.

H.M.S. AJAX & RIVER PLATE VETERANS ASSOCIATION.

CHAIRMAN/SECRETARYPeter Danks104 Kelsey AvenueSouthbourneEmsworthHampshire PO10 8NQTel: 01243 371947pandedanks@btinternet.com

MEMBERSHIPSECRETARYMrs Judi CollisThe Bewicks, Station RoadTen Mile BankNorfolk PE38 0EUTel: 01366 377945Mobile: 07736 929641judi.collis@gmail.com

ARCHIVIST/WEBMASTER/NEWSLETTER EDITORMalcolm CollisThe Bewicks, Station RoadTen Mile Bank,Norfolk PE38 0EUTel: 01366 377945malcolm.collis@gmail.com

www.hmsajax.org

3.

COMMITTEEMEMBERJohn (Vic) Wilson9 Ashleigh AvenueEghamSurrey TW20 8LBTel: 01784 439630johnwilson170@btinternet.com

TREASURER/STANDARD BEARERAlf LarkinLime Kiln Cottage2 Easton LanePortlandDorset DT5 1BWTel: 01305 457259alflarkin@btinternet.com

CHAIRMAN'S REMARKS

I hope all our members had a most enjoyable and illness free Christmas and New Year holiday. Certainly in the South we have enjoyed a pretty mild winter but I am sure some of you will have enjoyed the winter snow.

2016 will see the Association changing its annual format and I do hope the change will enable you to get to as many of the events as possible. Holding an event in Staffordshire will allow members living in the North to join us for one of our events.

On April 9th we will be holding a Remembrance Service followed by lunch at the National Memorial Arboretum near Lichfield, with the Service around the Association Memorial starting at 1200. Lunch will then follow at 1300 in one of the marquees on site. This will provide an opportunity for those members who were unable to attend the Dedication two years ago to see the wonderful memorial which has been created next to the Falklands Islands Memorial in the Royal Navy area of the site. There will be time either before the service or after the lunch to look around the wonderful arboretum. If you have not yet been in touch with Malcolm, please do so as soon as possible as he needs to submit numbers for the lunch.

Later in the summer, Malcolm and Nigel Masters are co-ordinating the visit to Canada to mark the 40th anniversary of the frigate visit to the town.

On Saturday 1st October, the annual dinner will be held at the Royal Beach Hotel at Southsea – a very popular venue for the 75th anniversary lunch held in 2014. The AGM will be held at the hotel at 1630, with Up Spirits at 1830 and dinner at 1900. There will be a 4 course meal, with tea/coffee and mints and the cost will be £35 which will include a drink for the loyal toast. Application forms for the Dinner and Accommodation will be published with the June newsletter. Please put this date in your diary.On the 20th January, Alan Phillips and I attended a Service of Thanksgiving for the life and work of Admiral Sir Peter Charles Abbot GBE KCB, who had been Captain of the frigate, at the Portsmouth Cathedral. The service was very well attended with many senior Royal Navy Officers, past and present in attendance.

NEWSLETTER EDITOR’S REMARKSA huge thank you to all the contributors – without the material there would be no Newsletter. A plea to you all, if you have something interesting to share please put pen to paper and send it in.

The NMA event will be upon us very soon – if you haven't let me know you are coming please do so urgently as I need to book with the NMA. Herewith a copy of the email I sent out earlier:

“Dear AllRegarding the Memorial event at the National Memorial Arboretum in April and my earlier circulations on this subject. Thank you to those who did respond - the numbers are not great but we have decided to continue with the day.

The Memorial event will be held on Saturday 9th April 2016 at the NMA (Croxall Road, Alrewas, Staffordshire DE13 7AR Tele. 01283 245100 www.thenma.org.uk)The site is open from 9am until 5pm - no admission fee but £3 for the car park including disabled spaces.A memorial service will be held around The Battle of the River Plate Memorial at 1200hrs before making our way back to the Rose Room (now moved to one of the pods) for 1300hrs for luncheon (2 course). The cost will be £20.This will allow time either before or afterwards, or both, to visit the rest of the site - well worth a visit. The centre provides, at a cost, a land train (£4.50) or buggy tour (£5) and I can probably arrange a guided walking tour if there was enough interest - please let me know. The NMA also hire mobility scooters that should be pre-booked.

There are various accommodation nearby - Judi & I have booked the Friday & Saturday night at the Premier Inn Lichfield North East A38 Hotel which is attached to the Fradley Arms with bar & restaurant and is close to the NMA.

If you wish to attend please send me a cheque (Malcolm Collis The Bewicks, Station Road, Ten Mile Bank, Norfolk PE38 0EU) made payable to HMS Ajax RPVA for £20 per person or through the "donate" button on our web page.

Please let me have the following details:Attendee full nameGuests full name and relationshipAny dietary requirements for the above

Assistance to/from memorial Yes/No - a distance of approx 300 metres.I shall circulate further details nearer the timeRegards”

Numbers are so far disappointing so if you can make it please support your Association.

The congregation included the First Sea Lord, 2 Admirals of the Fleet, 8 Admirals, 40 Vice Admirals, 9 Commodores, 15 Captains and 7 Commanders, all serving or retired. Peter and Alan are top left.

4. 5.

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY'S UPDATE

Sadly I have to report upon the death of four members and one associate member. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families. Please let us know if you are aware of any member crossing the bar and we will do our best to represent the Association in order to pay our respects. This year our annual memorial service is going to be held at the NMA around our memorial on 9th April. The names of our members that have crossed the bar, since our service in October, will be read out. We hope many of you will be able to attend to pay your respects to them and all our other veterans from previous years

Crossed the Bar

Wally FreerWally was an Able Seaman on board Ajax from 1942 to 1943. He has a street named after him in the Town of Ajax, Freer Crescent. I have been sending newsletters to him and his wife Romayne by email to the Isle of Anglesey but hadn't had any contact lately. In December I came across this obituary on the internet:Defence Police Federation - Retired member Wally Freer died on 14th March 2015 and his funeral service was held on Wednesday 8th April at Park Crematorium, Aldershot, Hampshire GU12 4BP.For many years Wally served at Farnborough as a Control Room Operator and was a member of the DPF Southern Region Committee and later represented Southern Region on the Management Committee.During the Farnborough Air shows Wally helped with the welfare arrangements for the large number of officers deployed on detached duty from around the Country.Wally was a founder member of the Retired Officers Association serving as Secretary from 1989 to 1992. In retirement he moved to the Isle of Anglesey but upon being diagnosed with cancer in September 2014 he returned to the Aldershot area and passed away peacefully in a local Hospice.Wally is survived by his wife Romayne.

Kenneth and Betty ByramKenneth (Yorky), Betty and son Philip have been regular attendees at our reunions. Betty and Philip have been Associate members since before Malcolm and I became membership secretary. I reported in October that they were unable to attend due to ill health but Ken was looking forward to being mobile again in 2016 and able to join us. Sadly this was not to be; Betty passed away on September 16th and Kenneth joined her on November 20th. Ken joined the Royal Navy on 1st July 1942 and went to HMS Raleigh for training and then was drafted to Ajax on 21st September, making Leading Seaman in February 44. He served as the Quartermaster under the Officer of the Watch and he greatly enjoyed that part of his duties. He returned to Chatham in July 45 and was demobbed on 7th September 1946. His motto was

Dr George JeffersonGeorge lived with his wife Sylvia in Rotherhithe London. He served on board Ajax from 1946-47. I received his subs in January 2014 but not heard from him in 2015 – following some internet 'research' before Christmas I came across an item and have confirmed that he crossed the bar on 15th January 2014 followed by Sylvia on 16th February a month later.

Lawrence “Lawrie” William John HarperLawrie served on board Ajax from 1937-40 and so was one of our 'Plate Veterans'. Harper Hill Drive in the town of Ajax honours this. I reported at the reunion that I hadn't had any contact with him for a few years but believed him to be still with us, which was true at the time but sadly he crossed the bar on 27th November. Cliff Hoppe, Malcolm and I attended his funeral. Cliff had met up with Lawrie in 2011 and he wrote an article entitled “A Small World” for the newsletter. Lawrie told him about his two commissions on board Ajax including Matapan and Dunkirk, although my records only show the first commission leading up to The Battle of The River Plate. Cliff remembers him being amazing for his age (then 92) and really enjoyed their chat. Lawrie has three sons and lived with his namesake Lawrie and Daughter-in-law Monica. Monica said she enjoyed the newsletters. Son Neville said there is a bit of an 'enigma' about his dad's war years and he often had dark moments when he didn't want to remember those times, so very rarely spoke to his family about them. Neville has now joined us as an Associate member and has applied for his father's service history and hopes to fill in some of the gaps. When we chatted to the family after the service, Cliff was able to show one of the granddaughters a map showing Harper Hill Drive, she was unaware of our link with the Town of Ajax.

New membersWe have two new Frigate members and one Associate member to welcome aboard.

Michael Charles Barclay lives in New Deer in Aberdeenshire Scotland. He served on board the frigate from March 1975 to August 77, so is one of the 76 group that visited the Town of Ajax forty years ago. From his service record below it looks like Michael was fairly busy.HMS Ganges September - October 74HMS Mercury October 74 - March 75HMS Ajax March 75 - August 77HMS Cochrane August 77 - August 79Pitreavie FOSNI August 77 - August 79HMS Kingfisher August 79 - April 81HMS Cochrane April 81 - April 82Pitreavie FOSNI April 81 - April 82HMS Guernsey April 82 - September 83HMS Neptune - Faslane September 83 - April 85

'No ship other than Ajax'After leaving the Royal Navy, he joined The City of Bradford Police where he met his wife Betty, a fellow police officer. They married in 1960 and had two sons, Philip and Peter. Ken retired from the Police Force after 30 years of service at age 53. He then took a post with the National Health Services and worked for another 12 years before finally retiring. Byram Downs Street in Ajax was dedicated on 9th September 2010.The donations at Betty's funeral went to NARPO (Police charity) and Ken's to The HMS Ajax Association. We have received a generous cheque. Many thanks to all the Byram family. This picture of Ken and Betty was taken by Cliff Hoppe at our reunion in 2011.

Likewise, arrangements for the Canada trip in August to mark the 40th anniversary of the Frigate's visit are progressing and if you are thinking of going please contact me or Nigel Masters for details of flights and the hotel deal. Debbie Steer in Ajax is putting together a fun-packed itinerary around the planned Town of Ajax events over the weekend of 26th – 28th. Again, numbers are low so please support your Association if you can.

Ajax visits Toronto 1976 (Alan Phillips)

4. 5.

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY'S UPDATE

Sadly I have to report upon the death of four members and one associate member. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families. Please let us know if you are aware of any member crossing the bar and we will do our best to represent the Association in order to pay our respects. This year our annual memorial service is going to be held at the NMA around our memorial on 9th April. The names of our members that have crossed the bar, since our service in October, will be read out. We hope many of you will be able to attend to pay your respects to them and all our other veterans from previous years

Crossed the Bar

Wally FreerWally was an Able Seaman on board Ajax from 1942 to 1943. He has a street named after him in the Town of Ajax, Freer Crescent. I have been sending newsletters to him and his wife Romayne by email to the Isle of Anglesey but hadn't had any contact lately. In December I came across this obituary on the internet:Defence Police Federation - Retired member Wally Freer died on 14th March 2015 and his funeral service was held on Wednesday 8th April at Park Crematorium, Aldershot, Hampshire GU12 4BP.For many years Wally served at Farnborough as a Control Room Operator and was a member of the DPF Southern Region Committee and later represented Southern Region on the Management Committee.During the Farnborough Air shows Wally helped with the welfare arrangements for the large number of officers deployed on detached duty from around the Country.Wally was a founder member of the Retired Officers Association serving as Secretary from 1989 to 1992. In retirement he moved to the Isle of Anglesey but upon being diagnosed with cancer in September 2014 he returned to the Aldershot area and passed away peacefully in a local Hospice.Wally is survived by his wife Romayne.

Kenneth and Betty ByramKenneth (Yorky), Betty and son Philip have been regular attendees at our reunions. Betty and Philip have been Associate members since before Malcolm and I became membership secretary. I reported in October that they were unable to attend due to ill health but Ken was looking forward to being mobile again in 2016 and able to join us. Sadly this was not to be; Betty passed away on September 16th and Kenneth joined her on November 20th. Ken joined the Royal Navy on 1st July 1942 and went to HMS Raleigh for training and then was drafted to Ajax on 21st September, making Leading Seaman in February 44. He served as the Quartermaster under the Officer of the Watch and he greatly enjoyed that part of his duties. He returned to Chatham in July 45 and was demobbed on 7th September 1946. His motto was

Dr George JeffersonGeorge lived with his wife Sylvia in Rotherhithe London. He served on board Ajax from 1946-47. I received his subs in January 2014 but not heard from him in 2015 – following some internet 'research' before Christmas I came across an item and have confirmed that he crossed the bar on 15th January 2014 followed by Sylvia on 16th February a month later.

Lawrence “Lawrie” William John HarperLawrie served on board Ajax from 1937-40 and so was one of our 'Plate Veterans'. Harper Hill Drive in the town of Ajax honours this. I reported at the reunion that I hadn't had any contact with him for a few years but believed him to be still with us, which was true at the time but sadly he crossed the bar on 27th November. Cliff Hoppe, Malcolm and I attended his funeral. Cliff had met up with Lawrie in 2011 and he wrote an article entitled “A Small World” for the newsletter. Lawrie told him about his two commissions on board Ajax including Matapan and Dunkirk, although my records only show the first commission leading up to The Battle of The River Plate. Cliff remembers him being amazing for his age (then 92) and really enjoyed their chat. Lawrie has three sons and lived with his namesake Lawrie and Daughter-in-law Monica. Monica said she enjoyed the newsletters. Son Neville said there is a bit of an 'enigma' about his dad's war years and he often had dark moments when he didn't want to remember those times, so very rarely spoke to his family about them. Neville has now joined us as an Associate member and has applied for his father's service history and hopes to fill in some of the gaps. When we chatted to the family after the service, Cliff was able to show one of the granddaughters a map showing Harper Hill Drive, she was unaware of our link with the Town of Ajax.

New membersWe have two new Frigate members and one Associate member to welcome aboard.

Michael Charles Barclay lives in New Deer in Aberdeenshire Scotland. He served on board the frigate from March 1975 to August 77, so is one of the 76 group that visited the Town of Ajax forty years ago. From his service record below it looks like Michael was fairly busy.HMS Ganges September - October 74HMS Mercury October 74 - March 75HMS Ajax March 75 - August 77HMS Cochrane August 77 - August 79Pitreavie FOSNI August 77 - August 79HMS Kingfisher August 79 - April 81HMS Cochrane April 81 - April 82Pitreavie FOSNI April 81 - April 82HMS Guernsey April 82 - September 83HMS Neptune - Faslane September 83 - April 85

'No ship other than Ajax'After leaving the Royal Navy, he joined The City of Bradford Police where he met his wife Betty, a fellow police officer. They married in 1960 and had two sons, Philip and Peter. Ken retired from the Police Force after 30 years of service at age 53. He then took a post with the National Health Services and worked for another 12 years before finally retiring. Byram Downs Street in Ajax was dedicated on 9th September 2010.The donations at Betty's funeral went to NARPO (Police charity) and Ken's to The HMS Ajax Association. We have received a generous cheque. Many thanks to all the Byram family. This picture of Ken and Betty was taken by Cliff Hoppe at our reunion in 2011.

Likewise, arrangements for the Canada trip in August to mark the 40th anniversary of the Frigate's visit are progressing and if you are thinking of going please contact me or Nigel Masters for details of flights and the hotel deal. Debbie Steer in Ajax is putting together a fun-packed itinerary around the planned Town of Ajax events over the weekend of 26th – 28th. Again, numbers are low so please support your Association if you can.

Ajax visits Toronto 1976 (Alan Phillips)

6. 7.

Wallace at Snake Pass summit

Neville John Harper son of Lawrie Harper lives near Christchurch in Dorset has joined us and we hope to see him in happier circumstances in the future.

Other News

Liz Broughton contacted us in December with the sad news that Jim Smith, long time secretary of The River Plate and Families Association, was in hospital following his back pains which revealed the cause of his problem to be cancer that has also spread elsewhere. I have had a chat with Jim; he has been home since mid-January and is quite cheerful, the hospital are investigating ways to ease his pain and he remains as positive as can be. Jim is one of our associate members and a regular attendee at our reunions. He was on the planning committee for the memorial at the NMA and it is his line drawings of the ships on the memorial. His father served in Exeter at the Plate.Liz has agreed to take on the role of secretary which I'm sure will be approved at their next reunion. Liz can be contacted by email lizzybroughton@hotmail.com Liz and her brother came to our dinner in Portsmouth for the 75th celebrations. Their father Tom Remick was Chief Yeoman of Signals on board HMS Exeter and died at the Battle.

Allan Lorriman served on board Ajax from 1943 to 46. He sent me this exciting news when he paid his subs.“I would like you to know I received the 'insignia of Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur on the 21st December. The postman delivered it to the door, when we realised it could be the medal he waited on the doorstep so he could see it.”Congratulations Allan; wear it with pride.

Note from Editor: The Order of Légion d'Honneur is the highest decoration in France and is divided into five degrees: Chevalier (Knight), Officier (Officer), Commandeur (Commander), Grand Officier (Grand Officer) and Grand Croix (Grand Cross). This honour is normally restricted to French Nationals but in 2014 the French government decided to extend it to those who took part in the D-day campaign. We circulated the application form in August 2014. It seems to have taken a while to be process but then it has taken 70 years so far! Are there any other members who have received their medal?

William MortimerI received the following notification from Howard Mortimer, one of our Associates – Congratulations. I also told him that we too are taking our grandson, also named after his great grandfather Joseph, to Ajax in August and we shall show him Collis Lane.

“My grandfather, William Mortimer served on HMS Ajax during the time of the Battle of the River Plate. On December 4th my wife gave birth to our beautiful son William Edward Mortimer. We named him so after my grandfather. When he is a few years older we intend taking him to Mortimer Crescent in Ajax, Ontario to show him the road named after his great grandfather.”

Happy Birthday to the following Members who had birthdays in this Newsletter period (December to February inc.):

Paul Byrne Frigate 1974-75 64 on 12th DecemberCliff Pantrey Frigate 1972-76 75 also on 12th DecemberNigel Harcourt Frigate 1965-67 70 on 13th DecemberDerrick Howitt Frigate 1963-65 72 on 14th DecemberRay Dowsett Frigate 1965-66 74 on 16th DecemberScot Morrison Frigate 1985 48 on 21st DecemberBasil Trott Exeter 1936-40 96 on 22nd DecemberDouglas Hadler Frigate 1966-68 78 on 23rd DecemberJerry Kirk Cruiser 1942-43 92 on 31st DecemberMichael Harte Frigate 1963-65 75 on 15th JanuaryClive Morris Frigate 1974-77 69 on 27th FebruaryAlbert Smith Cruiser 1939-41 94 also on 27th February

SUBSCRIPTIONS The annual subscription is still £10 with a family membership of £15. Many thanks to all of you who have already sent cheques, paid by bank transfer or paid using the 'subscribe' or 'donate' button on the website. The 2015-16 subs are now due and we hope you all enjoy the newsletters and get good value for you money. We are trying to make it as easy as possible for you and the various methods of parting with your money are listed below. Please ring me if you have any problems.

The Association account details for those of you wishing to set up a standing order or bank transfer:HMS Ajax & River Plate Veterans Association Account Number 24865868 Sort Code 30-99-56

Graham 'Charlie' May lives in Dukinfield in Cheshire with wife Sheila. Graham was born on 13th December 1938 so the Battle of The River Plate took place on his first birthday. He celebrated his 26th birthday on the 25th anniversary of the Battle on board the frigate on 13th December 1964. On 17th December 1963 Graham travelled on his motorbike, with his pussers greenun and kitbag strapped to the tank, from RNAS Brawdy, St Davids to join Ajax at Cammell Lairds Birkenhead at the last minute. He was a A/LRO(G) taking the place of A/LRO(G) R Ford who had been involved in a motorcycle accident. His service history shows a very busy time and my non-Naval background doesn't understand most of it – it includes Ganges, Drake, Consort, Shalford, Terror, Rothesay, Mercury and Goldcrest, all before Ajax. He left Ajax in 1965 and, in his words, went back to school while having two years of chemotherapy as he had contracted non-positive TB whilst in Ajax. He returned to sea as a radio officer in the Merchant Navy serving on MV's Wanderer, Steyning, Velardi, Kypros and MT Regent Eagle and SS Cerinthus. Graham is a Life member of the HMS Ganges Association. He still rides a motorbike, now a Honda VT750s and is a supporting member of the Armed Forces Bikers Association. We look forward to meeting Graham at the NMA on April 9th.

Graham quoted George Bernard Shaw on his email to me:

'We don't stop playing because we grow oldWe grow old because we stop playing'

Allan Lorriman wearing his insignia of Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.

6. 7.

Wallace at Snake Pass summit

Neville John Harper son of Lawrie Harper lives near Christchurch in Dorset has joined us and we hope to see him in happier circumstances in the future.

Other News

Liz Broughton contacted us in December with the sad news that Jim Smith, long time secretary of The River Plate and Families Association, was in hospital following his back pains which revealed the cause of his problem to be cancer that has also spread elsewhere. I have had a chat with Jim; he has been home since mid-January and is quite cheerful, the hospital are investigating ways to ease his pain and he remains as positive as can be. Jim is one of our associate members and a regular attendee at our reunions. He was on the planning committee for the memorial at the NMA and it is his line drawings of the ships on the memorial. His father served in Exeter at the Plate.Liz has agreed to take on the role of secretary which I'm sure will be approved at their next reunion. Liz can be contacted by email lizzybroughton@hotmail.com Liz and her brother came to our dinner in Portsmouth for the 75th celebrations. Their father Tom Remick was Chief Yeoman of Signals on board HMS Exeter and died at the Battle.

Allan Lorriman served on board Ajax from 1943 to 46. He sent me this exciting news when he paid his subs.“I would like you to know I received the 'insignia of Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur on the 21st December. The postman delivered it to the door, when we realised it could be the medal he waited on the doorstep so he could see it.”Congratulations Allan; wear it with pride.

Note from Editor: The Order of Légion d'Honneur is the highest decoration in France and is divided into five degrees: Chevalier (Knight), Officier (Officer), Commandeur (Commander), Grand Officier (Grand Officer) and Grand Croix (Grand Cross). This honour is normally restricted to French Nationals but in 2014 the French government decided to extend it to those who took part in the D-day campaign. We circulated the application form in August 2014. It seems to have taken a while to be process but then it has taken 70 years so far! Are there any other members who have received their medal?

William MortimerI received the following notification from Howard Mortimer, one of our Associates – Congratulations. I also told him that we too are taking our grandson, also named after his great grandfather Joseph, to Ajax in August and we shall show him Collis Lane.

“My grandfather, William Mortimer served on HMS Ajax during the time of the Battle of the River Plate. On December 4th my wife gave birth to our beautiful son William Edward Mortimer. We named him so after my grandfather. When he is a few years older we intend taking him to Mortimer Crescent in Ajax, Ontario to show him the road named after his great grandfather.”

Happy Birthday to the following Members who had birthdays in this Newsletter period (December to February inc.):

Paul Byrne Frigate 1974-75 64 on 12th DecemberCliff Pantrey Frigate 1972-76 75 also on 12th DecemberNigel Harcourt Frigate 1965-67 70 on 13th DecemberDerrick Howitt Frigate 1963-65 72 on 14th DecemberRay Dowsett Frigate 1965-66 74 on 16th DecemberScot Morrison Frigate 1985 48 on 21st DecemberBasil Trott Exeter 1936-40 96 on 22nd DecemberDouglas Hadler Frigate 1966-68 78 on 23rd DecemberJerry Kirk Cruiser 1942-43 92 on 31st DecemberMichael Harte Frigate 1963-65 75 on 15th JanuaryClive Morris Frigate 1974-77 69 on 27th FebruaryAlbert Smith Cruiser 1939-41 94 also on 27th February

SUBSCRIPTIONS The annual subscription is still £10 with a family membership of £15. Many thanks to all of you who have already sent cheques, paid by bank transfer or paid using the 'subscribe' or 'donate' button on the website. The 2015-16 subs are now due and we hope you all enjoy the newsletters and get good value for you money. We are trying to make it as easy as possible for you and the various methods of parting with your money are listed below. Please ring me if you have any problems.

The Association account details for those of you wishing to set up a standing order or bank transfer:HMS Ajax & River Plate Veterans Association Account Number 24865868 Sort Code 30-99-56

Graham 'Charlie' May lives in Dukinfield in Cheshire with wife Sheila. Graham was born on 13th December 1938 so the Battle of The River Plate took place on his first birthday. He celebrated his 26th birthday on the 25th anniversary of the Battle on board the frigate on 13th December 1964. On 17th December 1963 Graham travelled on his motorbike, with his pussers greenun and kitbag strapped to the tank, from RNAS Brawdy, St Davids to join Ajax at Cammell Lairds Birkenhead at the last minute. He was a A/LRO(G) taking the place of A/LRO(G) R Ford who had been involved in a motorcycle accident. His service history shows a very busy time and my non-Naval background doesn't understand most of it – it includes Ganges, Drake, Consort, Shalford, Terror, Rothesay, Mercury and Goldcrest, all before Ajax. He left Ajax in 1965 and, in his words, went back to school while having two years of chemotherapy as he had contracted non-positive TB whilst in Ajax. He returned to sea as a radio officer in the Merchant Navy serving on MV's Wanderer, Steyning, Velardi, Kypros and MT Regent Eagle and SS Cerinthus. Graham is a Life member of the HMS Ganges Association. He still rides a motorbike, now a Honda VT750s and is a supporting member of the Armed Forces Bikers Association. We look forward to meeting Graham at the NMA on April 9th.

Graham quoted George Bernard Shaw on his email to me:

'We don't stop playing because we grow oldWe grow old because we stop playing'

Allan Lorriman wearing his insignia of Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.

8. 9.

The 75th Anniversary - HMS AJAX and the Battle of Cape Matapan:28th – 29th March 1941By Clive Sharplin (Associate Member)

“To a maritime Empire at war it is control of the sea routes on which all else depends.”Rear Admiral R. K. Dickson D.S.O. R.N. 1798-1898Chief of Naval Information

The sea fight of the Second World War known as the “Battle of Matapan” was actually the second of that name to occur in naval history. The first occurred on 19th July 1717 when a mixed force of fifty-seven ships and galleys, Spanish, Portuguese, Venetian and Papal were attacked off Cape Matapan by a Turkish squadron of about the same size. After a fierce fight with losses on both sides the Turks withdrew.

The ship HMS Ajax was a Leander Class light cruiser, the seventh ship to bear the name, relatively young having been launched in 1934, first commissioned in 1935. Displacing 9,563tons fully laden, her main armament consisted of 8 x

6”guns mounted in pairs over four turrets with 8 x 21 “ torpedo tubes in two quadruple mountings, steam turbine driven, with a wartime crew of 680.After participating in the first major sea battle of the second World War, the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939 and defeating the German battleship Admiral Graf Spee she returned to Chatham Dockyard for a 7 month long repair and refit during which my Father, Bob, joined her on 10th February 1940 as a Petty Officer Mechanician, he was to be a crew member for more` than a year until September 1941 when he was drafted to the battleship Valiant, thus enduring one of the Royal Navy's most hostile periods. Ajax emerged back into the fleet on September 30th1940 being deployed to the 7th Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean. The major refit items included the most visually obvious, her single pole masts converted to tripods with the fitting of Type 279 radar, the 46ft aircraft catapult and seafox aircraft was replaced by a 56ft one with a walrus* aircraft and zarebas to the secondary armaments 4” Guns. Since 31st January 1941 Ajax had been mainly involved with Operation LUSTRE, escorting convoys or actively transporting the troops from Suda Bay to Greece. (*Editor's Note - can any of our members from that time shed any light on what planes Ajax flew as there is some debate on this point?)

So 224 years later in March 1941the Mediterranean had been named Mare Nostrum(Our Sea) by Italy's

fascist leader Benito Mussolini in his bizarre claim that it was Italy's Mare Nostrum but it was far from being Italy's or for that matter the Royal Navy's, being most bitterly contested by both. That three year-longcontest is now viewed, with the benefit of hindsight, by some naval historians and strategists as being prolonged and as critical as was the battle of the Atlantic and just as fundamental to the Allies winning World War 2 and Ajax was usually in the thick of it.

In March 1941 the Royal Navy's Mediterranean fleet was in a situation of having added to its normal duties the final onerous stages of transporting 60,000 British, Australian and New Zealand troops and their material from Alexandria to Greece to bolster the Greek army's resistance to an expected German invasion to rescue the Italian's embarrassingly failed invasion of Greece whose invading army had been pushed back into Albania by the Greek army. The eventual German entry to this theatre of war with their formidable air superiority greatly increased the bitterness and ferocity of the entire conflict as well as completely changing its strategic directions and management. The Italians were still licking their wounds from the Royal Navy's previous brushes with their own Regia Marina (their navy) over the previous nine months. Then starting in July 1940 intelligence gained by each side lead them to issue fleet orders that was to bring their respective navies into conflict on July 19 at what became known as the Battle of Cape Spado, this transpired to be the matinée to the Battle of Matapan which was itself decisive in setting the future course of the war. The Italian Supermarina (Italian Naval Headquarters) dispatched Admiral Ferdinando Casardi, with the 2nd Division to sail from its base at Tripoli on July 7th to enter the Aegean Sea via the Antikithera Strait northwest of Crete to search for and destroy a suspected British convoy of small Tankers leaving Romania transiting into Greek waters, his ships were spotted the next day by British aircraft. The British meanwhile had their own warships sweeping along the same route for enemy submarines in the path of a different convoy under their escort en-route from Port Said to Greece. The Australian light cruiser Sydney with the British 2nd destroyer flotilla comprising Ilex (Flag), Hasty, Hero, and Hyperion were found cruising independently forty miles to the nor-noreast in the gulf of Athens. Following both sides initially making different manoeuvres and course changes a gunfight started before they settled into a stern chase at 32 knots with the British in pursuit of the Italians who fired spasmodically at the British ships but their poor gunnery failed to inflict any hits upon their pursuers whereas the Sydney scored a critical shell hit on the Bartolomeo Colleoni taking out two of her boilers and the main steam line bringing the Italian to a dead stop whereupon she was quickly sunk by three torpedoes from the British destroyers Ilex and Hyperion. Sydney also got two hits on the Bande Nere, one on the bow the other destroying her seaplanes' hanger. Sydney had to then withdraw due to a lack of ammunition having expended 1300 shells in the space of two hours with only ten left for her forward turrets The Bande Nere eventually made it back to port in Benghazi minus 545 of her crew including her wounded captain who were picked up by Ilex, Hyperion and Hasty, of whom 121 later died.

There had also been the much earlier brilliant audacious air attack in November 1940 on the Italian Taranto naval base when aircraft from the carrier Illustrious halved the Regia Marina's strength in one blow by sinking the battleships Italia, Conti di Cavour with the Caio Dulio being severely disabled in the bow, the cruiser Trento damaged and two destroyers damaged by near misses. As a result the Italians had promptly withdrawn the rest of their fleet north to Naples. The price paid by the Royal Navy at Taranto was astonishing, just one aircraft lost with its crew of three who were captured by the Italians. (It has since been widely claimed that the Japanese used this action as their stimulus, model and template in attacking the U.S Navy's base at Pearl Harbour on 7th December 1941in declaring war on the USA).This added insult to the injury the Italians had been given from a thrashing by the Greeks following what Mussolini thought would be a walk in the park and he needed the Germans to help rescue his Greek campaign from being a total disaster.

The Taranto attack had a profound effect on the naval strategical situation in the Mediterranean as well as providing heartily welcomed news back in a hard pressed Britain. It placed a lust for revenge by the Regia Marina, as together with increasing pressure from the German High Command who for months were becoming more insistent that their Italian partners implement a more aggressive strategy to restore the situation in the Mediterranean forcing the Super marina to take action, they developed Operation Gaudo. The Supermarina, usually reluctant to risk its capital ships but anxious to demonstrate to the arrogant Germans what its Regina Marina was made of, assigned to Operation Gaudo the new 45,000 ton 9 x 15-inch gun battleship Vittorio Veneto, six of its seven 8-inch 10,000 ton heavy cruisers, Trieste, Trento, Bolzano, Zara, Fiume and Pola, two light 6-inch cruisers Duca degli Abruzzi and Garibaldi plus 17

.

Cheques & Postal Orders made payable to - HMS Ajax & River Plate Veterans Association and posted to Membership Secretary: The Bewicks, Station Road, Ten Mile Bank, Norfolk PE38 0EU(In both cases abbreviate the” River Plate Veterans Association” portion to RPVA if space is tight.)

The subscribe and donate buttons are at the bottom of the joining page on the website enabling you to pay by PayPal or credit/debit card – see http://www.hmsajax.org/#/joining/4560949163 'Subscribe' sets up an annual payment of £10 or £15 and ‘donate’ is a one off payment of whatever you like.

By the time you get this newsletter Spring will be nearly with us and I hope the new season will help to make us all feel better – chatting to several of you 'struggling on' was a common theme. Many of you have been poorly during the winter with stays in hospital. Best wishes to you all. I hope that some of you will be able to join us for our memorial service (1200) and lunch (1300) at the NMA on Saturday 9th April, we look forward to seeing you there with your family. Please phone or email me if you need any more details.Judi Collis

8. 9.

The 75th Anniversary - HMS AJAX and the Battle of Cape Matapan:28th – 29th March 1941By Clive Sharplin (Associate Member)

“To a maritime Empire at war it is control of the sea routes on which all else depends.”Rear Admiral R. K. Dickson D.S.O. R.N. 1798-1898Chief of Naval Information

The sea fight of the Second World War known as the “Battle of Matapan” was actually the second of that name to occur in naval history. The first occurred on 19th July 1717 when a mixed force of fifty-seven ships and galleys, Spanish, Portuguese, Venetian and Papal were attacked off Cape Matapan by a Turkish squadron of about the same size. After a fierce fight with losses on both sides the Turks withdrew.

The ship HMS Ajax was a Leander Class light cruiser, the seventh ship to bear the name, relatively young having been launched in 1934, first commissioned in 1935. Displacing 9,563tons fully laden, her main armament consisted of 8 x

6”guns mounted in pairs over four turrets with 8 x 21 “ torpedo tubes in two quadruple mountings, steam turbine driven, with a wartime crew of 680.After participating in the first major sea battle of the second World War, the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939 and defeating the German battleship Admiral Graf Spee she returned to Chatham Dockyard for a 7 month long repair and refit during which my Father, Bob, joined her on 10th February 1940 as a Petty Officer Mechanician, he was to be a crew member for more` than a year until September 1941 when he was drafted to the battleship Valiant, thus enduring one of the Royal Navy's most hostile periods. Ajax emerged back into the fleet on September 30th1940 being deployed to the 7th Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean. The major refit items included the most visually obvious, her single pole masts converted to tripods with the fitting of Type 279 radar, the 46ft aircraft catapult and seafox aircraft was replaced by a 56ft one with a walrus* aircraft and zarebas to the secondary armaments 4” Guns. Since 31st January 1941 Ajax had been mainly involved with Operation LUSTRE, escorting convoys or actively transporting the troops from Suda Bay to Greece. (*Editor's Note - can any of our members from that time shed any light on what planes Ajax flew as there is some debate on this point?)

So 224 years later in March 1941the Mediterranean had been named Mare Nostrum(Our Sea) by Italy's

fascist leader Benito Mussolini in his bizarre claim that it was Italy's Mare Nostrum but it was far from being Italy's or for that matter the Royal Navy's, being most bitterly contested by both. That three year-longcontest is now viewed, with the benefit of hindsight, by some naval historians and strategists as being prolonged and as critical as was the battle of the Atlantic and just as fundamental to the Allies winning World War 2 and Ajax was usually in the thick of it.

In March 1941 the Royal Navy's Mediterranean fleet was in a situation of having added to its normal duties the final onerous stages of transporting 60,000 British, Australian and New Zealand troops and their material from Alexandria to Greece to bolster the Greek army's resistance to an expected German invasion to rescue the Italian's embarrassingly failed invasion of Greece whose invading army had been pushed back into Albania by the Greek army. The eventual German entry to this theatre of war with their formidable air superiority greatly increased the bitterness and ferocity of the entire conflict as well as completely changing its strategic directions and management. The Italians were still licking their wounds from the Royal Navy's previous brushes with their own Regia Marina (their navy) over the previous nine months. Then starting in July 1940 intelligence gained by each side lead them to issue fleet orders that was to bring their respective navies into conflict on July 19 at what became known as the Battle of Cape Spado, this transpired to be the matinée to the Battle of Matapan which was itself decisive in setting the future course of the war. The Italian Supermarina (Italian Naval Headquarters) dispatched Admiral Ferdinando Casardi, with the 2nd Division to sail from its base at Tripoli on July 7th to enter the Aegean Sea via the Antikithera Strait northwest of Crete to search for and destroy a suspected British convoy of small Tankers leaving Romania transiting into Greek waters, his ships were spotted the next day by British aircraft. The British meanwhile had their own warships sweeping along the same route for enemy submarines in the path of a different convoy under their escort en-route from Port Said to Greece. The Australian light cruiser Sydney with the British 2nd destroyer flotilla comprising Ilex (Flag), Hasty, Hero, and Hyperion were found cruising independently forty miles to the nor-noreast in the gulf of Athens. Following both sides initially making different manoeuvres and course changes a gunfight started before they settled into a stern chase at 32 knots with the British in pursuit of the Italians who fired spasmodically at the British ships but their poor gunnery failed to inflict any hits upon their pursuers whereas the Sydney scored a critical shell hit on the Bartolomeo Colleoni taking out two of her boilers and the main steam line bringing the Italian to a dead stop whereupon she was quickly sunk by three torpedoes from the British destroyers Ilex and Hyperion. Sydney also got two hits on the Bande Nere, one on the bow the other destroying her seaplanes' hanger. Sydney had to then withdraw due to a lack of ammunition having expended 1300 shells in the space of two hours with only ten left for her forward turrets The Bande Nere eventually made it back to port in Benghazi minus 545 of her crew including her wounded captain who were picked up by Ilex, Hyperion and Hasty, of whom 121 later died.

There had also been the much earlier brilliant audacious air attack in November 1940 on the Italian Taranto naval base when aircraft from the carrier Illustrious halved the Regia Marina's strength in one blow by sinking the battleships Italia, Conti di Cavour with the Caio Dulio being severely disabled in the bow, the cruiser Trento damaged and two destroyers damaged by near misses. As a result the Italians had promptly withdrawn the rest of their fleet north to Naples. The price paid by the Royal Navy at Taranto was astonishing, just one aircraft lost with its crew of three who were captured by the Italians. (It has since been widely claimed that the Japanese used this action as their stimulus, model and template in attacking the U.S Navy's base at Pearl Harbour on 7th December 1941in declaring war on the USA).This added insult to the injury the Italians had been given from a thrashing by the Greeks following what Mussolini thought would be a walk in the park and he needed the Germans to help rescue his Greek campaign from being a total disaster.

The Taranto attack had a profound effect on the naval strategical situation in the Mediterranean as well as providing heartily welcomed news back in a hard pressed Britain. It placed a lust for revenge by the Regia Marina, as together with increasing pressure from the German High Command who for months were becoming more insistent that their Italian partners implement a more aggressive strategy to restore the situation in the Mediterranean forcing the Super marina to take action, they developed Operation Gaudo. The Supermarina, usually reluctant to risk its capital ships but anxious to demonstrate to the arrogant Germans what its Regina Marina was made of, assigned to Operation Gaudo the new 45,000 ton 9 x 15-inch gun battleship Vittorio Veneto, six of its seven 8-inch 10,000 ton heavy cruisers, Trieste, Trento, Bolzano, Zara, Fiume and Pola, two light 6-inch cruisers Duca degli Abruzzi and Garibaldi plus 17

.

Cheques & Postal Orders made payable to - HMS Ajax & River Plate Veterans Association and posted to Membership Secretary: The Bewicks, Station Road, Ten Mile Bank, Norfolk PE38 0EU(In both cases abbreviate the” River Plate Veterans Association” portion to RPVA if space is tight.)

The subscribe and donate buttons are at the bottom of the joining page on the website enabling you to pay by PayPal or credit/debit card – see http://www.hmsajax.org/#/joining/4560949163 'Subscribe' sets up an annual payment of £10 or £15 and ‘donate’ is a one off payment of whatever you like.

By the time you get this newsletter Spring will be nearly with us and I hope the new season will help to make us all feel better – chatting to several of you 'struggling on' was a common theme. Many of you have been poorly during the winter with stays in hospital. Best wishes to you all. I hope that some of you will be able to join us for our memorial service (1200) and lunch (1300) at the NMA on Saturday 9th April, we look forward to seeing you there with your family. Please phone or email me if you need any more details.Judi Collis

10. 11.

Destroyers. Gaudo tasked the Commander-in-Chief Admiral Angelo Iachino to take the bulk of his remaining surface forces to sea to engage the British, the plan being to patrol the waters around Crete to seek out and destroy allied convoys, their escorts and any other ships they might discover. Iachino was concerned that the operation depended upon German and/or Italian air support which he could only request through Supermarina. Experience told him that this was invariably futile as co-operation between the different arms of the Italian armed forces was non-existent. He was however heartened by intelligence received from the Germans which indicated that the British Mediterranean fleet possessed only one operational battleship and no aircraft carriers. The intelligence however was completely wrong, three British battleships, Warspite, Barham, Valiant and an aircraft carrier, Formidable were in fact safely in Alexandria harbour at full battle readiness. The aircraft carrier Illustrious had been bombed and badly damaged on 16th January in Malta's Valletta Harbour but replaced by the Formidable, a scenario at that time not then discovered by the Germans.

On 23rdMarch Cunningham received an Ultra signal from the Admiralty. Ultra was a name to disguise signals that had originated from Britain's most secret code breaking establishment at Bletchley Park where the Italian Enigma naval code had only just been broken, alerting him to an Italian naval operation commencing in three days' time. On the 25th a further Ultra signal advised the interception of another Italian signal giving one days' notice to their fleet commanders.

Ajax had already made her name known to the Italians in a previous action in October 1940 when together with the Cruiser Malaya, the veteran battleship Ramillies, the aircraft carrier Eagle and a screen of eight destroyers had completed escorting convoy MF4 to Alexandria with supplies from Libya, when in a position some 110 miles east of Malta at 0200 on the 12th of October three Italian destroyers were sighted, identified as Ariel, Artigliere and Arione. Ajax opened fire hitting the Ariel at 4,000 yard range- she literally exploded then sank with great loss of life. Next Ajax fired on the Arione and sank her. The Italian destroyer Artigliere fired on Ajax disabling one of her gun turrets and her radar but gunfire from Ajax soon silenced her. By this time two other Italian destroyers had arrived on the scene that no doubt imbued with the lesson hard won that starting anything with the Royal Navy was very difficult to successfully finish, the two together with Artigliere withdrew behind a smoke screen. The York later sank Artigliere, Ajax lost two officers and ten ratings with twenty injured while the Italians lost 200 dead plus the three destroyers. Later that same day Ajax when south of Malta was challenged by an Italian destroyer and two torpedo boats, Ajax responded quickly with gunfire promptly securing a hat trick by sinking all three!

The Royal Navy's Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean, Admiral Sir Andrew B Cunningham was on record in early March as believing that something significant was about to happen. The German attack on Greece was expected at any time, there could be further attacks on his convoys to Greece, possibly a landing in Cyrenaica, an all-out attack on Malta or even the Italian fleet could finally come out to fight, or any combination of these threats.

On the 24th March Ajax was escorting yet another convoy to Piraeus from Alexandria in company with sister ship Orion flying the flag of the squadron commander Vice-Admiral Pridham-Wippell, with the cruisers Gloucester and Ajax's frequent companion the Australian Perth.

Like thoroughbred chess players each side started to make their moves.

On the night of the 26th Operation Gaudo commenced as Admiral Iachino left Naples on his flagship, the battleship Vittorio Veneto with a screening force of four destroyers, his first objective to rendezvous with three separate cruiser divisions in the Strait of Messina. The 8th Division from Brindisi consisting of two light cruisers generally thought to be two of their best under Vice-Admiral A Legnani, both with 10 x 6-inch guns, the Garibaldi and Abruzzi with two destroyers. From Taranto the 1st Division commanded by Admiral Carlo Cattaneo with the heavy cruisers, Pola, Zara and Fiume with four destroyers, lastly from Messina the 3rd Division under Admiral Luigi Sansonetti, with the heavy cruisers Trieste, Trento and Bolzano with three destroyers. On the 27th to hide his receipt of the Ultra signals Cunningham ordered three flying boats from Malta to seek out any Italian units, if found to show themselves such that the Italians would believe it was the flying boats that had “discovered” them putting to sea. One flying boat was successful in reporting an Italian force of three cruisers and a destroyer80 miles east of the south-east corner of Sicily steering roughly in the direction of Crete. At 1900 that evening Cunningham in Warspite

, took his 1st Battleship Squadron to sea together with Barham, Valiant and the carrier Formidable screened by the 10thdestroyer flotilla comprising, Jervis, Janus, Nubian, and Mohawk from the14th destroyer flotilla Greyhound, Griffin, and the Australian Stuart and from the 2ndDestroyer Flotilla Hotspur, and Havock.

Vice Admiral Pridham-Wippell was ordered to be in a position south-west off Gavdo Island by 0630 on the 28thwith his squadron (the cruisers Orion, Ajax, Gloucester and Perth) plus the remaining destroyers from the 2nd Flotilla Ilex, Hasty, Hereward and Vendetta to join Cunningham's Battle Squadron. Pridham-Wippell squadron was found by an Italian Ro.43 reconnaissance aircraft on the morning of the 28th and reported to Iachino who ordered Sansonetti and Cattaneo to attack the British force. Having lost the element of surprise, Iachino received revised orders from Rome instructing him to concentrate his forces south of Crete then sweep north towards Cape Matapan.

At 0650 on March 28th, one of Iachino's reconnaissance planes spotted the British cruiser force. Seeking a cheap victory, the Italian admiral dispatched Sansonetti's division to deal with Pridham-Wippell, while he followed with the remainder of the fleet. Sansonetti spotted the British at 0800 and opened fire on HMS Gloucester twelve minutes later. Taking evasive action, Pridham-Wippell ships began laying smoke and turned to race towards Cunningham's approaching battleships hoping to draw the Italians towards Cunningham's Battleships. Falling into the trap the Italians failed to score any major hits on the bait due to their poor gunnery. At 0850 realizing that Sansonetti was moving away from the fleet and into the range of British air cover, Iachino ordered him to break off and turn northwest. Turning, Pridham-Wippell’s ships followed at a safe distance. Annoyed at the boldness of the British commander, Iachino developed a plan to catch the British ships between his two squadrons. Around 1055 the trap was sprung as Vittorio Veneto came into range and opened fire on Pridham-Wippell. Realising his mistake the British commander ordered his ships to flee at high speed.

As the light cruisers departed, six Fairey Albacore torpedo bombers from Formidable arrived on the scene and made an ineffective attack on Vittorio Veneto, though the attack was initially thought to be a failure it did buy time for Pridham-Wippell to make good his escape as they scored a hit on Vittorio Veneto causing heavy damage which slowed her speed down considerably. Not wishing to press his luck, Iachino broke off the pursuit at 1220 and turned for home. Enduring nuisance attacks from British aircraft based on Crete, Iachino’s ships failed to immediately notice the second flight of torpedo bombers from Formidable when they arrived around 1510. Re-forming his fleet to protect his flagship, Iachino sent his light cruisers home. At 1925 shortly after dark, a final British air strike assaulted the Italian formation and crippled Pola bringing her to an immediate stop. With the cruiser dead in the water and unaware of Cunningham's approach, Iachino detached Cattaneo’s division to protect the ship whilst the rest of the fleet continued northwest.

Utilizing radar, which the Italians lacked, Cunningham undetected approached the stricken Pola and the heavy cruisers Zara and Fiume. Highly skilled at night fighting the British closed to 3,500 yards and opened fire. Taken by surprise, Zara and Fiume were quickly destroyed by the battleships' broadsides delivering approximately one ton of splintering metal into each ship with every salvo. In less than ten minutes of fighting, two heavy cruisers were sunk along with two destroyers. Taking possession of the crippled Pola by having the destroyer Jervis go alongside to take off her crew by putting a brow out to the Pola's quarterdeck which was found to be crowded by her crew who were in a state of utter confusion with all discipline and order completely broken down, many being drunk from breaking into the officers wine store, Cunningham abandoned his initial intention of towing Pola to Alexandria and instead had it sunk by torpedoes after first removing the crew. The ocean's surface became littered with Italian survivors from the two cruisers and two destroyers, the British ships rescued some 900. During the rescue process that afternoon the ships were heavily attacked by eight German J.U.88's who failed to hit any ship. Considering it unwise to delay longer the British force reluctantly withdrew leaving some hundreds of Italians still in the water, but Cunningham had a plain language signal made to Rome alerting them to the number of their survivors with their exact position and a promise not to interfere with any Italian rescue efforts. The Italians sent out the hospital ship Gradisca which next day picked up another 160 survivors.

Thus the Battle of Cape Matapan was a decisive victory for the Royal Navy and gave it control of the eastern Mediterranean until the fall of Crete in June. In the battle the British lost three airmen (the crew of one torpedo bomber), while the Italians lost three heavy cruisers, 2 destroyers and over 2,400 dead. Also,

10. 11.

Destroyers. Gaudo tasked the Commander-in-Chief Admiral Angelo Iachino to take the bulk of his remaining surface forces to sea to engage the British, the plan being to patrol the waters around Crete to seek out and destroy allied convoys, their escorts and any other ships they might discover. Iachino was concerned that the operation depended upon German and/or Italian air support which he could only request through Supermarina. Experience told him that this was invariably futile as co-operation between the different arms of the Italian armed forces was non-existent. He was however heartened by intelligence received from the Germans which indicated that the British Mediterranean fleet possessed only one operational battleship and no aircraft carriers. The intelligence however was completely wrong, three British battleships, Warspite, Barham, Valiant and an aircraft carrier, Formidable were in fact safely in Alexandria harbour at full battle readiness. The aircraft carrier Illustrious had been bombed and badly damaged on 16th January in Malta's Valletta Harbour but replaced by the Formidable, a scenario at that time not then discovered by the Germans.

On 23rdMarch Cunningham received an Ultra signal from the Admiralty. Ultra was a name to disguise signals that had originated from Britain's most secret code breaking establishment at Bletchley Park where the Italian Enigma naval code had only just been broken, alerting him to an Italian naval operation commencing in three days' time. On the 25th a further Ultra signal advised the interception of another Italian signal giving one days' notice to their fleet commanders.

Ajax had already made her name known to the Italians in a previous action in October 1940 when together with the Cruiser Malaya, the veteran battleship Ramillies, the aircraft carrier Eagle and a screen of eight destroyers had completed escorting convoy MF4 to Alexandria with supplies from Libya, when in a position some 110 miles east of Malta at 0200 on the 12th of October three Italian destroyers were sighted, identified as Ariel, Artigliere and Arione. Ajax opened fire hitting the Ariel at 4,000 yard range- she literally exploded then sank with great loss of life. Next Ajax fired on the Arione and sank her. The Italian destroyer Artigliere fired on Ajax disabling one of her gun turrets and her radar but gunfire from Ajax soon silenced her. By this time two other Italian destroyers had arrived on the scene that no doubt imbued with the lesson hard won that starting anything with the Royal Navy was very difficult to successfully finish, the two together with Artigliere withdrew behind a smoke screen. The York later sank Artigliere, Ajax lost two officers and ten ratings with twenty injured while the Italians lost 200 dead plus the three destroyers. Later that same day Ajax when south of Malta was challenged by an Italian destroyer and two torpedo boats, Ajax responded quickly with gunfire promptly securing a hat trick by sinking all three!

The Royal Navy's Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean, Admiral Sir Andrew B Cunningham was on record in early March as believing that something significant was about to happen. The German attack on Greece was expected at any time, there could be further attacks on his convoys to Greece, possibly a landing in Cyrenaica, an all-out attack on Malta or even the Italian fleet could finally come out to fight, or any combination of these threats.

On the 24th March Ajax was escorting yet another convoy to Piraeus from Alexandria in company with sister ship Orion flying the flag of the squadron commander Vice-Admiral Pridham-Wippell, with the cruisers Gloucester and Ajax's frequent companion the Australian Perth.

Like thoroughbred chess players each side started to make their moves.

On the night of the 26th Operation Gaudo commenced as Admiral Iachino left Naples on his flagship, the battleship Vittorio Veneto with a screening force of four destroyers, his first objective to rendezvous with three separate cruiser divisions in the Strait of Messina. The 8th Division from Brindisi consisting of two light cruisers generally thought to be two of their best under Vice-Admiral A Legnani, both with 10 x 6-inch guns, the Garibaldi and Abruzzi with two destroyers. From Taranto the 1st Division commanded by Admiral Carlo Cattaneo with the heavy cruisers, Pola, Zara and Fiume with four destroyers, lastly from Messina the 3rd Division under Admiral Luigi Sansonetti, with the heavy cruisers Trieste, Trento and Bolzano with three destroyers. On the 27th to hide his receipt of the Ultra signals Cunningham ordered three flying boats from Malta to seek out any Italian units, if found to show themselves such that the Italians would believe it was the flying boats that had “discovered” them putting to sea. One flying boat was successful in reporting an Italian force of three cruisers and a destroyer80 miles east of the south-east corner of Sicily steering roughly in the direction of Crete. At 1900 that evening Cunningham in Warspite

, took his 1st Battleship Squadron to sea together with Barham, Valiant and the carrier Formidable screened by the 10thdestroyer flotilla comprising, Jervis, Janus, Nubian, and Mohawk from the14th destroyer flotilla Greyhound, Griffin, and the Australian Stuart and from the 2ndDestroyer Flotilla Hotspur, and Havock.

Vice Admiral Pridham-Wippell was ordered to be in a position south-west off Gavdo Island by 0630 on the 28thwith his squadron (the cruisers Orion, Ajax, Gloucester and Perth) plus the remaining destroyers from the 2nd Flotilla Ilex, Hasty, Hereward and Vendetta to join Cunningham's Battle Squadron. Pridham-Wippell squadron was found by an Italian Ro.43 reconnaissance aircraft on the morning of the 28th and reported to Iachino who ordered Sansonetti and Cattaneo to attack the British force. Having lost the element of surprise, Iachino received revised orders from Rome instructing him to concentrate his forces south of Crete then sweep north towards Cape Matapan.

At 0650 on March 28th, one of Iachino's reconnaissance planes spotted the British cruiser force. Seeking a cheap victory, the Italian admiral dispatched Sansonetti's division to deal with Pridham-Wippell, while he followed with the remainder of the fleet. Sansonetti spotted the British at 0800 and opened fire on HMS Gloucester twelve minutes later. Taking evasive action, Pridham-Wippell ships began laying smoke and turned to race towards Cunningham's approaching battleships hoping to draw the Italians towards Cunningham's Battleships. Falling into the trap the Italians failed to score any major hits on the bait due to their poor gunnery. At 0850 realizing that Sansonetti was moving away from the fleet and into the range of British air cover, Iachino ordered him to break off and turn northwest. Turning, Pridham-Wippell’s ships followed at a safe distance. Annoyed at the boldness of the British commander, Iachino developed a plan to catch the British ships between his two squadrons. Around 1055 the trap was sprung as Vittorio Veneto came into range and opened fire on Pridham-Wippell. Realising his mistake the British commander ordered his ships to flee at high speed.

As the light cruisers departed, six Fairey Albacore torpedo bombers from Formidable arrived on the scene and made an ineffective attack on Vittorio Veneto, though the attack was initially thought to be a failure it did buy time for Pridham-Wippell to make good his escape as they scored a hit on Vittorio Veneto causing heavy damage which slowed her speed down considerably. Not wishing to press his luck, Iachino broke off the pursuit at 1220 and turned for home. Enduring nuisance attacks from British aircraft based on Crete, Iachino’s ships failed to immediately notice the second flight of torpedo bombers from Formidable when they arrived around 1510. Re-forming his fleet to protect his flagship, Iachino sent his light cruisers home. At 1925 shortly after dark, a final British air strike assaulted the Italian formation and crippled Pola bringing her to an immediate stop. With the cruiser dead in the water and unaware of Cunningham's approach, Iachino detached Cattaneo’s division to protect the ship whilst the rest of the fleet continued northwest.

Utilizing radar, which the Italians lacked, Cunningham undetected approached the stricken Pola and the heavy cruisers Zara and Fiume. Highly skilled at night fighting the British closed to 3,500 yards and opened fire. Taken by surprise, Zara and Fiume were quickly destroyed by the battleships' broadsides delivering approximately one ton of splintering metal into each ship with every salvo. In less than ten minutes of fighting, two heavy cruisers were sunk along with two destroyers. Taking possession of the crippled Pola by having the destroyer Jervis go alongside to take off her crew by putting a brow out to the Pola's quarterdeck which was found to be crowded by her crew who were in a state of utter confusion with all discipline and order completely broken down, many being drunk from breaking into the officers wine store, Cunningham abandoned his initial intention of towing Pola to Alexandria and instead had it sunk by torpedoes after first removing the crew. The ocean's surface became littered with Italian survivors from the two cruisers and two destroyers, the British ships rescued some 900. During the rescue process that afternoon the ships were heavily attacked by eight German J.U.88's who failed to hit any ship. Considering it unwise to delay longer the British force reluctantly withdrew leaving some hundreds of Italians still in the water, but Cunningham had a plain language signal made to Rome alerting them to the number of their survivors with their exact position and a promise not to interfere with any Italian rescue efforts. The Italians sent out the hospital ship Gradisca which next day picked up another 160 survivors.

Thus the Battle of Cape Matapan was a decisive victory for the Royal Navy and gave it control of the eastern Mediterranean until the fall of Crete in June. In the battle the British lost three airmen (the crew of one torpedo bomber), while the Italians lost three heavy cruisers, 2 destroyers and over 2,400 dead. Also,

12. 13.

UNCLE PAT

In some ways this is a strange story to put in the newsletter. My Uncle Pat wasn't on the Ajax, or even in the Royal Navy for that matter but please bear with me.

Pat passed away last year and my father, Don Birrell, spoke at his funeral. Having been friends since their teenage years and remaining close all their lives, it hit my father badly when Pat 'Crossed the Bar'. The eulogy included some events in their lives around the end of the War which I hadn't heard before.

Pat was a year older than my father and was called up in 1944. He had always wanted to join the Navy and put this down as his preference. However, they obviously needed squaddies at the time and so the Army it was. The 8th Army to be precise and Pat went off to Italy and North Africa.

When he came home on leave, Pat impressed upon my father that the Navy was the one to join, "make sure that you put it down when they call you up". I don't think that Dad was unduly bothered which service he got put in but, in 1945, he took Pat's advice and duly put 'Navy' as his preference. Unlike Pat, he got his wish and, after training was completed, was posted as Stoker Mechanic on the Ajax. So the first connection was that Pat played a big part in the sequence of events that lead to my father ending up on the Ajax and thus in the Veterans Association.

HMS Ajax was part of the Mediterranean Fleet at this time and so Pat and my father were in the same geographical area. However, bearing in mind the numbers of servicemen at the time, the chances of meeting up were remote, leave never coincided and they didn't see each other for a long while.

Sometime in 1946, Ajax was moored up in Port Said and when my father found out that Pat's Regiment was in a holding camp nearby, he somehow managed to get him out on a 48 hour pass. In between the 'usual' shore leave activities, Dad gave Pat a guided tour of the Ajax.

The final connection with Ajax came was when my father was de-mobbed.

Pat was being sent home and was on a troop ship bound for England. It stopped off at Malta to pick up some sailors, including some from the Ajax. By an amazing co-incidence, Dad was among them. The Army was already billeted up top, presumably on the basis that there was less chance of them suffering from sea sickness above decks, so when the sailors came on board, they were sent down below in the bows.

When Pat heard that some sailors from the Ajax were on board, he asked if Don Birrell was among them. Imagine his surprise to find out he was! He went down to find my father and they met again in the bowels of the ship taking them home and back to civilian life. Pat got his gear, went down to where the sailors were billeted and Dad opened the bottle of ‘Pussers’ he had got for my grandfather. Needless to say, the rum never made it back to London.

Pat stayed below decks with the Ajax lads for the whole voyage, they found him a hammock and many more bottles were emptied. For those few weeks, Pat got his wish; he was ‘in’ the Navy.

RIP Uncle Pat.

Stuart Birrell (Associate Member)

Obituary: Rear-Admiral John MackenzieOctober 3rd 1929 – November 26th 2015

Captain HMS Ajax December 3rd 1974 – July 14th 1976

Rear-Admiral John Mackenzie

Admiral John Mackenzie, who has died aged 86, commanded a great number and variety of ships in the post-war period and then for more than a decade directed the Atlantic Salmon Trust.

Mackenzie was a “salt horse”, a naval officer who had acquired no specialist qualification, but was a seaman to his fingertips during a career in which his principled, traditional and comfortingly old-fashioned attitudes were tempered with good humour. But he never felt inhibited from speaking his mind.

His first command was a motor-launch, ML 6011, in the Royal Navy Rhine Flotilla in 1950-51, and he went on to command 10 ships, from a coal-fired boom defence vessel to minesweepers, frigates, a guided-missile destroyer, a cruiser and an aircraft carrier.

Wherever he served, whether in trials, training or operations, Mackenzie was patient, firm but always fair, and his guidance and support to his junior officers was exemplary.

Mackenzie also enjoyed good living, and among the many preparations of the ship for sea he insisted to the wardroom wine caterer “the whisky must be Grouse”.

Among later appointments, he served with distinction as the Commander Sea Training (1961-63), when he led an uncompromising operational team at the naval work-up base at Portland. As a successful captain of the 8th Frigate Squadron and in command of the frigate Ajax (1975-76) he participated in a round-the-world deployment, and he commanded the aircraft carrier Hermes (1979-80).

On promotion to rear-admiral in 1981 he became the Flag Officer Gibraltar where his popular tenure included the period of intense activity when ships were passing through during and after the Falklands War. He was awarded the CB in 1983.

David John Mackenzie – always known as John – was born at Huntingtower, Perth, on October 3 1929 and was educated at Cargilfield School, Edinburgh. He entered the Navy in 1943.

the Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto had been badly damaged in the fighting. After the night engagement, Cunningham, against the advice of his officers, continued his pursuit of the Italians, but was forced to turn back when German bombers appeared overhead. An unmitigated naval disaster for the Regina Marina, the battle of Cape Matapan effectively broke its back such that apart from the Italian Charioteers and their manned torpedoes, never sought fleet action again, the next time it emerged in any force at all was only to surrender to the Royal Navy in 1943.

ooooooooooooo

Author's comment:- In researching the records and the accounts of those present at these periods they read like the exploits of a modern day “Hornblower” (C S Forester) or his current equivalent “Sir Thomas Kidd” (Julian Stockwyn)

12. 13.

UNCLE PAT

In some ways this is a strange story to put in the newsletter. My Uncle Pat wasn't on the Ajax, or even in the Royal Navy for that matter but please bear with me.

Pat passed away last year and my father, Don Birrell, spoke at his funeral. Having been friends since their teenage years and remaining close all their lives, it hit my father badly when Pat 'Crossed the Bar'. The eulogy included some events in their lives around the end of the War which I hadn't heard before.

Pat was a year older than my father and was called up in 1944. He had always wanted to join the Navy and put this down as his preference. However, they obviously needed squaddies at the time and so the Army it was. The 8th Army to be precise and Pat went off to Italy and North Africa.

When he came home on leave, Pat impressed upon my father that the Navy was the one to join, "make sure that you put it down when they call you up". I don't think that Dad was unduly bothered which service he got put in but, in 1945, he took Pat's advice and duly put 'Navy' as his preference. Unlike Pat, he got his wish and, after training was completed, was posted as Stoker Mechanic on the Ajax. So the first connection was that Pat played a big part in the sequence of events that lead to my father ending up on the Ajax and thus in the Veterans Association.

HMS Ajax was part of the Mediterranean Fleet at this time and so Pat and my father were in the same geographical area. However, bearing in mind the numbers of servicemen at the time, the chances of meeting up were remote, leave never coincided and they didn't see each other for a long while.

Sometime in 1946, Ajax was moored up in Port Said and when my father found out that Pat's Regiment was in a holding camp nearby, he somehow managed to get him out on a 48 hour pass. In between the 'usual' shore leave activities, Dad gave Pat a guided tour of the Ajax.

The final connection with Ajax came was when my father was de-mobbed.

Pat was being sent home and was on a troop ship bound for England. It stopped off at Malta to pick up some sailors, including some from the Ajax. By an amazing co-incidence, Dad was among them. The Army was already billeted up top, presumably on the basis that there was less chance of them suffering from sea sickness above decks, so when the sailors came on board, they were sent down below in the bows.

When Pat heard that some sailors from the Ajax were on board, he asked if Don Birrell was among them. Imagine his surprise to find out he was! He went down to find my father and they met again in the bowels of the ship taking them home and back to civilian life. Pat got his gear, went down to where the sailors were billeted and Dad opened the bottle of ‘Pussers’ he had got for my grandfather. Needless to say, the rum never made it back to London.

Pat stayed below decks with the Ajax lads for the whole voyage, they found him a hammock and many more bottles were emptied. For those few weeks, Pat got his wish; he was ‘in’ the Navy.

RIP Uncle Pat.

Stuart Birrell (Associate Member)

Obituary: Rear-Admiral John MackenzieOctober 3rd 1929 – November 26th 2015

Captain HMS Ajax December 3rd 1974 – July 14th 1976

Rear-Admiral John Mackenzie

Admiral John Mackenzie, who has died aged 86, commanded a great number and variety of ships in the post-war period and then for more than a decade directed the Atlantic Salmon Trust.

Mackenzie was a “salt horse”, a naval officer who had acquired no specialist qualification, but was a seaman to his fingertips during a career in which his principled, traditional and comfortingly old-fashioned attitudes were tempered with good humour. But he never felt inhibited from speaking his mind.

His first command was a motor-launch, ML 6011, in the Royal Navy Rhine Flotilla in 1950-51, and he went on to command 10 ships, from a coal-fired boom defence vessel to minesweepers, frigates, a guided-missile destroyer, a cruiser and an aircraft carrier.

Wherever he served, whether in trials, training or operations, Mackenzie was patient, firm but always fair, and his guidance and support to his junior officers was exemplary.

Mackenzie also enjoyed good living, and among the many preparations of the ship for sea he insisted to the wardroom wine caterer “the whisky must be Grouse”.

Among later appointments, he served with distinction as the Commander Sea Training (1961-63), when he led an uncompromising operational team at the naval work-up base at Portland. As a successful captain of the 8th Frigate Squadron and in command of the frigate Ajax (1975-76) he participated in a round-the-world deployment, and he commanded the aircraft carrier Hermes (1979-80).

On promotion to rear-admiral in 1981 he became the Flag Officer Gibraltar where his popular tenure included the period of intense activity when ships were passing through during and after the Falklands War. He was awarded the CB in 1983.

David John Mackenzie – always known as John – was born at Huntingtower, Perth, on October 3 1929 and was educated at Cargilfield School, Edinburgh. He entered the Navy in 1943.

the Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto had been badly damaged in the fighting. After the night engagement, Cunningham, against the advice of his officers, continued his pursuit of the Italians, but was forced to turn back when German bombers appeared overhead. An unmitigated naval disaster for the Regina Marina, the battle of Cape Matapan effectively broke its back such that apart from the Italian Charioteers and their manned torpedoes, never sought fleet action again, the next time it emerged in any force at all was only to surrender to the Royal Navy in 1943.

ooooooooooooo

Author's comment:- In researching the records and the accounts of those present at these periods they read like the exploits of a modern day “Hornblower” (C S Forester) or his current equivalent “Sir Thomas Kidd” (Julian Stockwyn)

14. 15.

GORDON HUMPLEBY by Peter DanksThe attached article of the career of Gordon Humpleby came as a result of his reading about the Association in the Navy News. He served in the last commission of the frigate before she was broken up for scrap. When paying off, the S h i p ' s C o m p a n y w e r e presented with a tankard and a hip flask' for a tot, or two. Gordon's picture together with the two items are attached and he is keen that they be presented to the Mayor's Office in Ajax for display with other mementoes from the ship. Malcolm has offered to take them when he visits in August.

Some of our members will find some of the terminology mentioned very familiar; no doubt the description of life at HMS GANGES brought memories, some good and some not so good, to those of you who went there to start your career. John Garrard can vouch for some of it as he was an instructor there. It is interesting to note that Gordon and I served in two ships at the same time and it was only when I went to collect the items on February 9th that we learnt this. I was in HMS MAIDSTONE from October '63 to January '65 and was also in HMS TAMAR the accommodation base in Hong Kong, during the time Gordon was in HMS SHERATON. What a small world it is!

Gordon Humpleby CPO Seaman (Spec) D062772M

Born 27 June 1946 in Shackleton, North Yorkshire; a small village of 17 houses and 4 farms. I have 3 brothers and 1 sister. When the village school closed in July 1958, we were third of the 15 pupils. One teacher taught the whole range of 5-15 year old children. I completed my school at the new Secondary Modern School in Malton 12 miles away.

I joined the Royal Navy on 12th September 1961 at HMS GANGES. It was a bit harsh at times but you only remember the good times! I was in Drake 39 mess short covered way for a while then we moved to Drake 37 Mess, bottom of the short covered way – the first mess to be modernised with proper wash hand basins; also showers and toilets which we were allowed to use. The original mess had a long black slate slab with several yellow plastic bowls and three pairs of taps, a highly polished single brass shower and single toilet (both kept for rounds only).

After GANGES I was drafted to HMS CAMBRIDGE, the Gunnery School and firing range at Wembury Point, just outside Plymouth, to await a sea draft.

I was drafted to HMS LONDONDERRY on 2nd October 1962. We commissioned at Portsmouth and were the last ship to commission marching as a Ship's Company from Victory Barracks, along Lion Terrace, almost opposite the Barrack Gates, right along Park Road towards the HMS VERNON gates, then right along the Hard and into the Dockyard via the main gates to South Railway Jetty for the commissioning ceremony – this was to be HMS LONDONDERRY's 2nd commission. I got to know the ship during a quick trip to Gibraltar and back to Portland for work up which finished in time for Christmas leave. I spent from February '63 to February '64 in the West Indies before leaving the ship in November '64.

From November '64 to November '66, I served in HMS MAIDSTONE at Faslane – a big difference as this was a Depot Ship for the 3rd Submarine Squadron which included HMS DREADNOUGHT, the Royal Navy's first nuclear submarine. We did manage a couple of foreign visits though – to Rotterdam and Gibraltar; quite a trip at 13 knots flat out with a following wind!!

I got married in November '65.

In November '66 I served in HMS ALBION, as a Commando Carrier, until November '68. We stood by on a 'Secret Destination' off Nigeria for the Biafra Civil War for six weeks; unseen by anyone, with a full Commando, including artillery, on board. After a brief return to the UK we had 15 months out in the Far East including taking the last British Serviceman off Aden.

I flew back to UK and after going to sea initially as a Junior Seaman, I was ashore at last as a Leading Seaman. I underwent a QA2 gunnery course at HMS EXCELLENT and then in February '70 received a draft to HMS SHERATON, part of the 6th Mine Counter Measures Squadron based in Hong Kong. This was a married accompanied draft, although the ship spent a fair time away at Okinawa, mine hunting for the Americans (twice), and had visits to the Philippines, Singapore, Malaya, Borneo and endless patrols around Hong Kong

and the New Territories.

A short draft to the Captain Weapon Trials team in HMS EXCELLENT in April '72 and in October that year I flew to Gibraltar to pick up HMS DUNDAS, out of refit, for delivery to Chatham Standby Squadron. While there the decision was taken to commission her for the Portland Squadron. I left the ship on the day the work-up finished in April '73 and went back to HMS EXCELLENT for a QR1(A) course as I was now a Petty Officer.

HMS EASTBOURNE, an artificers training ship, was my next draft from May '74 for 2 years; the ship was based at Rosyth (this was an 'early out-of-turn draft' for a Pompey ship, as Drafty said I got half of what I wanted and went back early to sea). The ship was supposed to be day running, but didn't always do this as we also provided Navigation Officers training and spent a lot of time around the Western Isles although we did get an assisted maintenance period (AMP) in Malta.

Shore time returned in November 76 as an Instructor at the Frazer Gunnery range in Portsmouth.

In September '78 I then joined HMS ANTRIM for three years, and spent a fair amount of time around the UK and Europe; but this period also included a 7 months deployment to the Far East in 1980. I didn't work as a Seaman , but was in the Weapons Electrical Department working on the 4.5” turret; 20mm AA guns, 3” chaff launchers and small arms. In June '81 I was rated Chief Petty Officer.

From September '81 to May '83, I was now a CPO Sea (Spec) instructing NBCD at the Phoenix NBCD School in Portsmouth. (NBCD = Nuclear Bacterial Chemical Defence). I then spent a year on the NBCD staff at Portland as a sea rider 'wrecker'.

HMS AJAX was my next draft from May '84 to May '85 and this included Falklands Island patrol from July – December. After Christmas, plans were being laid for us to visit Ajax in Canada but a change of Captain, Captain P Abbot to Captain Trinder, thwarted that as he thought we would be better off escorting the Royal Yacht for the Prince of Wales and Princess Diana's tour of Italy. The Royal Yacht's crew were very good at what they did but we had to second guess them and hope for the best. We had some good runs ashore though, finishing off with a week or so in Alicante before returning to Plymouth for paying off for scrap. Ajax at Venice

From July '85 to December '85 I was t h e F a l k l a n d s Islands' boat Chief at Navy Point Stanley – didn't even have to r e q u a l i f y f o r Falkland extra pay. Then back home in January '86 until May '86 at HMS VERNON briefly b e f o r e E V T ( E d u c a t i o n a l Voluntary Training) i n P e r s o n n e l Management, prior to release at HMS NELSON.

14. 15.

GORDON HUMPLEBY by Peter DanksThe attached article of the career of Gordon Humpleby came as a result of his reading about the Association in the Navy News. He served in the last commission of the frigate before she was broken up for scrap. When paying off, the S h i p ' s C o m p a n y w e r e presented with a tankard and a hip flask' for a tot, or two. Gordon's picture together with the two items are attached and he is keen that they be presented to the Mayor's Office in Ajax for display with other mementoes from the ship. Malcolm has offered to take them when he visits in August.

Some of our members will find some of the terminology mentioned very familiar; no doubt the description of life at HMS GANGES brought memories, some good and some not so good, to those of you who went there to start your career. John Garrard can vouch for some of it as he was an instructor there. It is interesting to note that Gordon and I served in two ships at the same time and it was only when I went to collect the items on February 9th that we learnt this. I was in HMS MAIDSTONE from October '63 to January '65 and was also in HMS TAMAR the accommodation base in Hong Kong, during the time Gordon was in HMS SHERATON. What a small world it is!

Gordon Humpleby CPO Seaman (Spec) D062772M

Born 27 June 1946 in Shackleton, North Yorkshire; a small village of 17 houses and 4 farms. I have 3 brothers and 1 sister. When the village school closed in July 1958, we were third of the 15 pupils. One teacher taught the whole range of 5-15 year old children. I completed my school at the new Secondary Modern School in Malton 12 miles away.

I joined the Royal Navy on 12th September 1961 at HMS GANGES. It was a bit harsh at times but you only remember the good times! I was in Drake 39 mess short covered way for a while then we moved to Drake 37 Mess, bottom of the short covered way – the first mess to be modernised with proper wash hand basins; also showers and toilets which we were allowed to use. The original mess had a long black slate slab with several yellow plastic bowls and three pairs of taps, a highly polished single brass shower and single toilet (both kept for rounds only).

After GANGES I was drafted to HMS CAMBRIDGE, the Gunnery School and firing range at Wembury Point, just outside Plymouth, to await a sea draft.

I was drafted to HMS LONDONDERRY on 2nd October 1962. We commissioned at Portsmouth and were the last ship to commission marching as a Ship's Company from Victory Barracks, along Lion Terrace, almost opposite the Barrack Gates, right along Park Road towards the HMS VERNON gates, then right along the Hard and into the Dockyard via the main gates to South Railway Jetty for the commissioning ceremony – this was to be HMS LONDONDERRY's 2nd commission. I got to know the ship during a quick trip to Gibraltar and back to Portland for work up which finished in time for Christmas leave. I spent from February '63 to February '64 in the West Indies before leaving the ship in November '64.

From November '64 to November '66, I served in HMS MAIDSTONE at Faslane – a big difference as this was a Depot Ship for the 3rd Submarine Squadron which included HMS DREADNOUGHT, the Royal Navy's first nuclear submarine. We did manage a couple of foreign visits though – to Rotterdam and Gibraltar; quite a trip at 13 knots flat out with a following wind!!

I got married in November '65.

In November '66 I served in HMS ALBION, as a Commando Carrier, until November '68. We stood by on a 'Secret Destination' off Nigeria for the Biafra Civil War for six weeks; unseen by anyone, with a full Commando, including artillery, on board. After a brief return to the UK we had 15 months out in the Far East including taking the last British Serviceman off Aden.

I flew back to UK and after going to sea initially as a Junior Seaman, I was ashore at last as a Leading Seaman. I underwent a QA2 gunnery course at HMS EXCELLENT and then in February '70 received a draft to HMS SHERATON, part of the 6th Mine Counter Measures Squadron based in Hong Kong. This was a married accompanied draft, although the ship spent a fair time away at Okinawa, mine hunting for the Americans (twice), and had visits to the Philippines, Singapore, Malaya, Borneo and endless patrols around Hong Kong

and the New Territories.

A short draft to the Captain Weapon Trials team in HMS EXCELLENT in April '72 and in October that year I flew to Gibraltar to pick up HMS DUNDAS, out of refit, for delivery to Chatham Standby Squadron. While there the decision was taken to commission her for the Portland Squadron. I left the ship on the day the work-up finished in April '73 and went back to HMS EXCELLENT for a QR1(A) course as I was now a Petty Officer.

HMS EASTBOURNE, an artificers training ship, was my next draft from May '74 for 2 years; the ship was based at Rosyth (this was an 'early out-of-turn draft' for a Pompey ship, as Drafty said I got half of what I wanted and went back early to sea). The ship was supposed to be day running, but didn't always do this as we also provided Navigation Officers training and spent a lot of time around the Western Isles although we did get an assisted maintenance period (AMP) in Malta.

Shore time returned in November 76 as an Instructor at the Frazer Gunnery range in Portsmouth.

In September '78 I then joined HMS ANTRIM for three years, and spent a fair amount of time around the UK and Europe; but this period also included a 7 months deployment to the Far East in 1980. I didn't work as a Seaman , but was in the Weapons Electrical Department working on the 4.5” turret; 20mm AA guns, 3” chaff launchers and small arms. In June '81 I was rated Chief Petty Officer.

From September '81 to May '83, I was now a CPO Sea (Spec) instructing NBCD at the Phoenix NBCD School in Portsmouth. (NBCD = Nuclear Bacterial Chemical Defence). I then spent a year on the NBCD staff at Portland as a sea rider 'wrecker'.

HMS AJAX was my next draft from May '84 to May '85 and this included Falklands Island patrol from July – December. After Christmas, plans were being laid for us to visit Ajax in Canada but a change of Captain, Captain P Abbot to Captain Trinder, thwarted that as he thought we would be better off escorting the Royal Yacht for the Prince of Wales and Princess Diana's tour of Italy. The Royal Yacht's crew were very good at what they did but we had to second guess them and hope for the best. We had some good runs ashore though, finishing off with a week or so in Alicante before returning to Plymouth for paying off for scrap. Ajax at Venice

From July '85 to December '85 I was t h e F a l k l a n d s Islands' boat Chief at Navy Point Stanley – didn't even have to r e q u a l i f y f o r Falkland extra pay. Then back home in January '86 until May '86 at HMS VERNON briefly b e f o r e E V T ( E d u c a t i o n a l Voluntary Training) i n P e r s o n n e l Management, prior to release at HMS NELSON.

16. 17.

How the Frigate Ajax commemorated the 25th anniversary of The Battle of the River Plate.

Vic Wilson, who served in the first commission of the Frigate Ajax 1963 – 65, has sent in an extract from Keesing's Record of World Events Volume 11 Page 20591 (well done Vic) covering the Indonesian military build-up in Borneo entitled Naval Operations against Infiltrators.

“On the same night (December 13 1964) the 2,900 ton British frigate H.M.S. Ajax opened fire with her main armament against six fast-moving vessels in the Straits of Malacca which were heading at high speed for the shore and had been spotted on the frigate's radar. The vessels turned back towards Sumatra without returning fire; from their appearance they seemed to be Russian-built.

(Editor's Note – see New Member report on Charlie May who was also there)

ERIC WILLIAM MAYCOCKEric William Maycock had been in Ajax from 1945 onwards and his son Paul Maycock contacted the Association after going through his father's belongings offering us a signed Christmas 1947 menu and other items. I am grateful to Paul for thinking of us. Should bring back memories for some? I had to Google Buntings (signalmen) and Sparkers (Wireless operators)!

CAR STICKERS and PENSMike Fox has commissioned this splendid car sticker that will publicise the Association. Members are encouraged to purchase one, or more, at the excellent price of £2.50 each. This can be done either by using the donate button on the website or by sending a cheque to Judi Collis made payable to HMS Ajax RPVA. Mike has also produced the below pen to mark the 40th anniversary of the Frigate visit to Canada – these too are £2.50 and if you would like one please use the above process method. Thanks Mike.

ARCHIVIST UPDATE

INFORMATION SOUGHT ON FORMER AJAX CREW MEMBERSA fairly quiet Newsletter period in terms of enquiries with just a few coming in; as always, I would be very pleased to receive information on the following:

THOMAS (TOMMY) HUNTJim Hunt is seeking information about his father Thomas (Tommy) Hunt who was a radar operator in Ajax. He joined Ajax sometime after the River Plate through to 1945. I was able to point him in the right direction to obtain his service record. Later Jim's daughter, Sarah, contacted me and she is now in the process of copying me a number of photographs.

GEORGE ROSSKeith Innes is after information about a first cousin of his, the late George Ross. He was born in Aberdeen around about 1922 and is firmly believed to have served on board Ajax at the time of The Battle of the River Plate. I have no record of George but again pointed Keith to obtaining his service record.

PETER NORMAN HENRY MULLINSMarguerite Sherry is trying to find out anything about her father Peter Mullins. She knows he was in Ajax at the time of the River Plate but has little information about what he did during the rest of the War. I have him listed as being at the Battle but no other information and again I could only offer the service record route. When her father died he was given a Royal Navy burial at sea off Portsmouth. I do not know when this was but it would have been after the War as he is not listed on the Commonwealth War Graves site

PHOTOGRAPHSIn addition to the photographs of Tommy Hunt being sent from France I have also been contacted by someone in Sweden offering photographs of his father. I am very happy to receive Ajax related material for the archives as I believe it is very important to preserve Association history for future generations.

2016 Anniversaries2016 will see two significant Ajax Cruiser 75th anniversaries; the Battle of Matapan on 28th March and The Battle for Crete latter on and I am very grateful to Clive Sharplin for doing an article on Matapan in this Newsletter and for Crete in the June one.And of course we have the 40th anniversary of the frigate's visit to Canada in August – more on that nearer the time.

Tommy Hunt

16. 17.

How the Frigate Ajax commemorated the 25th anniversary of The Battle of the River Plate.

Vic Wilson, who served in the first commission of the Frigate Ajax 1963 – 65, has sent in an extract from Keesing's Record of World Events Volume 11 Page 20591 (well done Vic) covering the Indonesian military build-up in Borneo entitled Naval Operations against Infiltrators.

“On the same night (December 13 1964) the 2,900 ton British frigate H.M.S. Ajax opened fire with her main armament against six fast-moving vessels in the Straits of Malacca which were heading at high speed for the shore and had been spotted on the frigate's radar. The vessels turned back towards Sumatra without returning fire; from their appearance they seemed to be Russian-built.

(Editor's Note – see New Member report on Charlie May who was also there)

ERIC WILLIAM MAYCOCKEric William Maycock had been in Ajax from 1945 onwards and his son Paul Maycock contacted the Association after going through his father's belongings offering us a signed Christmas 1947 menu and other items. I am grateful to Paul for thinking of us. Should bring back memories for some? I had to Google Buntings (signalmen) and Sparkers (Wireless operators)!

CAR STICKERS and PENSMike Fox has commissioned this splendid car sticker that will publicise the Association. Members are encouraged to purchase one, or more, at the excellent price of £2.50 each. This can be done either by using the donate button on the website or by sending a cheque to Judi Collis made payable to HMS Ajax RPVA. Mike has also produced the below pen to mark the 40th anniversary of the Frigate visit to Canada – these too are £2.50 and if you would like one please use the above process method. Thanks Mike.

ARCHIVIST UPDATE

INFORMATION SOUGHT ON FORMER AJAX CREW MEMBERSA fairly quiet Newsletter period in terms of enquiries with just a few coming in; as always, I would be very pleased to receive information on the following:

THOMAS (TOMMY) HUNTJim Hunt is seeking information about his father Thomas (Tommy) Hunt who was a radar operator in Ajax. He joined Ajax sometime after the River Plate through to 1945. I was able to point him in the right direction to obtain his service record. Later Jim's daughter, Sarah, contacted me and she is now in the process of copying me a number of photographs.

GEORGE ROSSKeith Innes is after information about a first cousin of his, the late George Ross. He was born in Aberdeen around about 1922 and is firmly believed to have served on board Ajax at the time of The Battle of the River Plate. I have no record of George but again pointed Keith to obtaining his service record.

PETER NORMAN HENRY MULLINSMarguerite Sherry is trying to find out anything about her father Peter Mullins. She knows he was in Ajax at the time of the River Plate but has little information about what he did during the rest of the War. I have him listed as being at the Battle but no other information and again I could only offer the service record route. When her father died he was given a Royal Navy burial at sea off Portsmouth. I do not know when this was but it would have been after the War as he is not listed on the Commonwealth War Graves site

PHOTOGRAPHSIn addition to the photographs of Tommy Hunt being sent from France I have also been contacted by someone in Sweden offering photographs of his father. I am very happy to receive Ajax related material for the archives as I believe it is very important to preserve Association history for future generations.

2016 Anniversaries2016 will see two significant Ajax Cruiser 75th anniversaries; the Battle of Matapan on 28th March and The Battle for Crete latter on and I am very grateful to Clive Sharplin for doing an article on Matapan in this Newsletter and for Crete in the June one.And of course we have the 40th anniversary of the frigate's visit to Canada in August – more on that nearer the time.

Tommy Hunt

18. 19.

NEWS FROM THE TOWN OF AJAX - Colleen JordanAjax Bomb Girls Committee UpdateWe are thrilled to announce that at our Defence Industries Limited (DIL) 75th Anniversary kick-off event on February 12, 2016 our Member of Parliament Mark Holland announced that we will receive $232,000 in federal funding to commission a monument in honour of the thousands of women war workers at DIL and across Canada. This will be the first statue of its kind in Canada to acknowledge the crucial contributions that women made towards the success of the Allies. Combined with the $170,000 raised from individual and corporate contributions, we now have the funding to allow us to begin the process of making the dream of a monument a reality.The recording of the DIL 75th Anniversary event can be viewed at www.ajax.ca/DIL. The event featured dramatic retellings, rare video footage of DIL, Q & A with former DIL employee Louise Johnson and the federal funding announcement.

Article from Dave (Woody) Forrest – HMS AJAX (1966-68 Commission)

th rdI was serving in HMS AJAX 114, Leander Class frigate, leader of the 24 Escort Group, 3 commission 1966-68.

As a young man I had, at that time, little knowledge of the serious conflict that was going on in Aden and we only knew of the fact as the ship neared Aden in 1967 when our Captain, G A De G Kitchen, informed us over the tannoy of the situation and the force and problems we could encounter there.

After docking and AMP (Assisted Maintenance Period) we were due to sail with HMS EAGLE on rd

23 October to form part of the Task Force to be stationed off Aden during the withdrawal of British Forces from the Colony. A fit of 'Ajax tantrums' (air conditioning) delayed us a little while before we eventually set off in pursuit of the second largest E. But it could not be the simple way. When we were around 200 miles west of Sumatra we heard the sad news that an RAF Shackleton of 205 squadron had crashed into the sea about 400 miles south east of us. A dash at 28 knots brought us to the scene at first light the following morning. We observed life jackets, paperwork and even a wheel etc floating around – a terrible sight to observe. We were homed in by our Wasp helicopter and other RAF aircraft.

We picked up 3 survivors and the bodies of 2 other crew members. After searching all day without further success we again set off at high speed because one of the survivors was badly injured and we had to get him to hospital as soon as possible. We transferred all survivors and bodies to the frigate HMAS YARRA the following morning and again turned westward.

We met up with HM Ships EAGLE, FEARLESS and INTREPID to cover the withdrawal from Aden of British troops, families etc – quite an experience.

It may be of interest to know that AJAX 114 was making history in that we were the last unaccompanied foreign-service commission ship. When the AJAX got home in March, she had been away from the UK for 4 years – quite a long time for a 'modern' warship.

Ireland's Own – by Editor

In November Judi received a letter from Limerick in Ireland from a gentleman Des Ryan who had seen a two page article in a weekly magazine called “Ireland's Own” about the Battle of the River Plate (reproduced here). This reminded him that 35 years ago he had recorded a radio documentary about the Battle. Following the magazine article he undertook a bit of research and realised that there were a few veterans still living in England. He wrote to me asking if it would be possible to get an autograph from one of them. This set me thinking. The Association doesn't have all their autographs either, so I drafted out a “certificate” on headed note paper and sent two copies off to all the veterans requesting their signatures; one for our records and one for Mr Ryan. I took a while but by the end of January I was able to send him autographs from the two Exeter veterans, Jim London & Basil Trott and three of the Ajax veterans, John Garrard, Frank Burton and Albert Smith.

I received a reply from him in which he states he was over-whelmed and over-joyed at our response and was stunned when he opened the letter, hoping for one but getting five. He generously sent us a donation and also arranged for a copy of the article to be sent to me as I was struggling to find it.

I would like to thank the veterans for their cooperation – you have now entered a little piece of Irish history.

Pat Bayly Sculpture UnveilingThe unveiling of the bust sculpture of Pat Bayly, the first Mayor of Ajax will be on April 10, 2016. During World War II, Pat Bayly was put in charge of Camp X which was established by the British and Canadian governments and was dedicated to supporting covert operations, spying, communications and other related activities. Mr. Bayly and his crew were responsible directly and indirectly for many Allied accomplishments and victories. After the war, Pat Bayly established his own electrical engineering firm and located it in one of the vacated war time buildings in Ajax. He was elected as the first Mayor of Ajax in 1955.The bust sculpture of Pat Bayly will be installed at Pat Bayly square - the new public square to be located at Bayly Street and Harwood Avenue in Ajax. The square is the cornerstone of a new downtown vision for Ajax. The monument to Canadian women war workers will also be installed at Pat Bayly Square. This new square will provide an excellent opportunity for residents and visitors to the town to learn about the town's unique history.

40th Anniversary Visit 8th HMS Ajax Frigate - Aug. 26 to 28thIn August of this year, Ajax will be welcoming visitors to commemorate the 1976 visit of the 8th HMS Frigate. The Town is very excited that some of the original crew members will be making the trip to participate in the events. On August 28, 1976, over 250 crew members were given the Freedom of the Town and marched down Harwood Ave. A reenactment of the momentous occasion is also being planned during the visit. Further details will be forthcoming.

18. 19.

NEWS FROM THE TOWN OF AJAX - Colleen JordanAjax Bomb Girls Committee UpdateWe are thrilled to announce that at our Defence Industries Limited (DIL) 75th Anniversary kick-off event on February 12, 2016 our Member of Parliament Mark Holland announced that we will receive $232,000 in federal funding to commission a monument in honour of the thousands of women war workers at DIL and across Canada. This will be the first statue of its kind in Canada to acknowledge the crucial contributions that women made towards the success of the Allies. Combined with the $170,000 raised from individual and corporate contributions, we now have the funding to allow us to begin the process of making the dream of a monument a reality.The recording of the DIL 75th Anniversary event can be viewed at www.ajax.ca/DIL. The event featured dramatic retellings, rare video footage of DIL, Q & A with former DIL employee Louise Johnson and the federal funding announcement.

Article from Dave (Woody) Forrest – HMS AJAX (1966-68 Commission)

th rdI was serving in HMS AJAX 114, Leander Class frigate, leader of the 24 Escort Group, 3 commission 1966-68.

As a young man I had, at that time, little knowledge of the serious conflict that was going on in Aden and we only knew of the fact as the ship neared Aden in 1967 when our Captain, G A De G Kitchen, informed us over the tannoy of the situation and the force and problems we could encounter there.

After docking and AMP (Assisted Maintenance Period) we were due to sail with HMS EAGLE on rd

23 October to form part of the Task Force to be stationed off Aden during the withdrawal of British Forces from the Colony. A fit of 'Ajax tantrums' (air conditioning) delayed us a little while before we eventually set off in pursuit of the second largest E. But it could not be the simple way. When we were around 200 miles west of Sumatra we heard the sad news that an RAF Shackleton of 205 squadron had crashed into the sea about 400 miles south east of us. A dash at 28 knots brought us to the scene at first light the following morning. We observed life jackets, paperwork and even a wheel etc floating around – a terrible sight to observe. We were homed in by our Wasp helicopter and other RAF aircraft.

We picked up 3 survivors and the bodies of 2 other crew members. After searching all day without further success we again set off at high speed because one of the survivors was badly injured and we had to get him to hospital as soon as possible. We transferred all survivors and bodies to the frigate HMAS YARRA the following morning and again turned westward.

We met up with HM Ships EAGLE, FEARLESS and INTREPID to cover the withdrawal from Aden of British troops, families etc – quite an experience.

It may be of interest to know that AJAX 114 was making history in that we were the last unaccompanied foreign-service commission ship. When the AJAX got home in March, she had been away from the UK for 4 years – quite a long time for a 'modern' warship.

Ireland's Own – by Editor

In November Judi received a letter from Limerick in Ireland from a gentleman Des Ryan who had seen a two page article in a weekly magazine called “Ireland's Own” about the Battle of the River Plate (reproduced here). This reminded him that 35 years ago he had recorded a radio documentary about the Battle. Following the magazine article he undertook a bit of research and realised that there were a few veterans still living in England. He wrote to me asking if it would be possible to get an autograph from one of them. This set me thinking. The Association doesn't have all their autographs either, so I drafted out a “certificate” on headed note paper and sent two copies off to all the veterans requesting their signatures; one for our records and one for Mr Ryan. I took a while but by the end of January I was able to send him autographs from the two Exeter veterans, Jim London & Basil Trott and three of the Ajax veterans, John Garrard, Frank Burton and Albert Smith.

I received a reply from him in which he states he was over-whelmed and over-joyed at our response and was stunned when he opened the letter, hoping for one but getting five. He generously sent us a donation and also arranged for a copy of the article to be sent to me as I was struggling to find it.

I would like to thank the veterans for their cooperation – you have now entered a little piece of Irish history.

Pat Bayly Sculpture UnveilingThe unveiling of the bust sculpture of Pat Bayly, the first Mayor of Ajax will be on April 10, 2016. During World War II, Pat Bayly was put in charge of Camp X which was established by the British and Canadian governments and was dedicated to supporting covert operations, spying, communications and other related activities. Mr. Bayly and his crew were responsible directly and indirectly for many Allied accomplishments and victories. After the war, Pat Bayly established his own electrical engineering firm and located it in one of the vacated war time buildings in Ajax. He was elected as the first Mayor of Ajax in 1955.The bust sculpture of Pat Bayly will be installed at Pat Bayly square - the new public square to be located at Bayly Street and Harwood Avenue in Ajax. The square is the cornerstone of a new downtown vision for Ajax. The monument to Canadian women war workers will also be installed at Pat Bayly Square. This new square will provide an excellent opportunity for residents and visitors to the town to learn about the town's unique history.

40th Anniversary Visit 8th HMS Ajax Frigate - Aug. 26 to 28thIn August of this year, Ajax will be welcoming visitors to commemorate the 1976 visit of the 8th HMS Frigate. The Town is very excited that some of the original crew members will be making the trip to participate in the events. On August 28, 1976, over 250 crew members were given the Freedom of the Town and marched down Harwood Ave. A reenactment of the momentous occasion is also being planned during the visit. Further details will be forthcoming.

20. 21.

N THE South Atlantic, on the 13th December, 1939, the Ifamed Battle of the River

Plate took place. This battle was between three British cruisers and the famous German heavy cruiser - Admiral Graf Spee. Between the beginning of the war in September to this present time, the Admiral Graf Spee had operated in merchant sea lanes and sank nine ships totalling 50,089 gross register tons (GRT).

In the ensuing battle Admiral Graf Spee inflicted heavy damage on the British ships, but she too was damaged, and was forced to put into port at Montevideo in Uruguay.

Then, in one of the most remarkable incidents of WW2, the Captain of the Admiral Graf Spee, Hans Langsdorff, convinced by false reports of superior British naval forces approaching his ship, made the decision to take the mighty vessel out to sea to be scuttled. Thereby ending the Admiral Graf Spee's reign upon the seas.

Not surprisingly in the thick of that great battle, and sailing in the three British heavy cruisers was a host of Irishmen. Working in one of those Royal Navy cruisers, the HMS Exeter, (pennant number 68), was

Ireland’s Own

ROLE OF THE IRISH IN WW2 by CON MCGRATH

Stoker 1st ClassPATRICK

SHAUGHNESSYof Galway: a

survivor of theepic Battle of the

River Plate

a native of Galway City centre - one Patrick Shaughnessy.

VERY SOON after this battle, the ‘Connacht Tribune' dated January 27, 1940, reported on their local hero's participation in the action, an action which had made headlines across the world. The report read:

BAPTISM OF FIRE - GALWAY YOUTH IN NAVAL BATTLE

EARTHQUAKE RESCUE WORK.The rescue of victims of a

terrible Chilean earthquake, an enjoyable time at the New York World's

Fair, where he was member of a bodyguard for the King and Queen of England on the occasion of their visit, and, more recently, active service in the biggest sea battle fought in the present war, are some of the experiences of 23-years-old Patrick Shaughnessy, St. Brendan's-avenue, Wood Quay, Galway.

Mr. Patrick Shaughnessy, formerly a pupil at St. Brendan's national school, Wood Quay, Galway, was a bus conductor in Galway prior to leaving for England about three years ago. He is now first-class stoker on H.M.S. Exeter, the 8,000 ton cruiser which, with the smaller cruiser, Ajax and Achilles, crippled the 10,000-ton German pocket battleship, Graf Spee, in mid-December and drove her limping into the port of Montevideo, from which she steamed a few days later to be scuttled by her own crew. Stoker Shaughnessy joined the British Navy about two years ago, and after spending a time on the training ship, H.M.S. Drake, was transferred to the Exeter.

Shortly after joining the Exeter this vessel went on a cruise off South America. She put in at a South American port to rescue hundreds of injured and wounded victims of the terrible earthquake in Chile. Later the cruiser paid a visit to the United States and the officers and crew were given an opportunity to see the World's Fair. Here Stoker

A Richard Willis painting of HMS Exeter Engaging The Graf Spree at The Battle Of The River Plate. In the boiler room of this vessel was Stoker Patrick Shaughnessy of Galway City, working hard putting out fires while several hits of shrapnel struck the starboard side.

Shaughnessy met many Galway people, some of them citizens of the United States.

He visited Galway for a month's leave last August, but was recalled after three days owing to the threatening situation in Europe. The weeks rolled by and war broke out but no news was heard from him. Then came the story of the battle off Montevideo and his parents became anxious when it was learned that the Exeter had suffered heavy damage in the battle. Their fears were, however, allayed shortly after when his sister, Mrs. J. Glynn, Courthouse Square, Galway, received a wire from him informing her that he was fit and well and had received no injury in his first baptism of fire. He is still with his ship "at an unknown station."

HE ABOVE good news, Twhich was also printed in 'The Connacht Sentinel; saw Mr. Shaughnessy receive many congratulatory messages.

Soon the brave Stoker was home again in Galway, "looking fit and well," the local papers reported, "he is determined to enjoy a well-earned holiday?'

Fortunately the same papers managed to catch up with Stoker Shaughnessy and interview him about his role in this famous battle. We are more fortunate still that Mr. Shaughnessy willingly shared his exciting narrative with the papers, detaining his role in the battle and more.

Mr. Shaughnessy of course had sad moments to recall such as "MY BEST PAL WAS KILLED" referring to his friend from Wexford Town.

This interview was printed in the 'Connacht Sentinel' and the 'Connacht Tribune' dated Saturday, 9th March, 1940; from which the following text is taken:

GALWAY MAN'SEXPERIENCESLAST OF THE GRAF SPEE."Ten stokers lost their lives

when an 11-inch shell tore through the side of the ship into the torpedo men's mess, exploded, and set fire to the flats.' I was sleeping below decks when the 'action' signal sounded, and as I ran with others to put out the fire there were several hits of

Admiral Graf Spee shortly after her scuttling

shrapnel along the starboard side which killed two more stokers, one of whom was my best pal. It was a horrifying sight to see the passages littered with dead and wounded, and I pray to God that I shall never experience the like again:

This graphic description of the scenes below deck after the 8,000-ton British cruiser, H.M.S. Exeter, had gone into action against the 10,000 ton German Pocket, battleship, Admiral Graf Spee, in mid-December in the biggest sea battle fought in the present war, was given to a "Connacht Tribune" reporter when he interviewed Patrick Shaughnessy, St. Brendan's Avenue, Galway, a first-class stoker on the Exeter, who arrived home on Saturday on a month's leave.

Here is the story as he told it: Ours was the first boat to encounter the Graf Spee, and when she was first sighted she was mistaken for her sister-ship, the Admiral Von Sheer.

I know nothing of the activity which followed up on deck, for I was sleeping below, but I had a rude awakening when that first 11-inch shell tore through the ship's side on the deck above where I was. It went right through the torpedo men's mess and exploded in the Chief (Engine Room Artificers] E.R.A.'s "flat". It exploded, starting a fire, and when the "action" signal sounded I made my way immediately to my action station.

The passages through which I passed were littered with dead

and wounded. After getting to my station I was ordered to go with some others to where the fire was, and as I proceeded there, there were several hits of shrapnel on the starboard side, which killed a P.O. (petty officer] and a stoker. The latter was Paddy O'Leary, of Distillery-st., Wexford, who had joined up with me - and who was my best pal.

We soon had the fire under control, and I then returned to my action station. It was awful for us, for we had little or no idea what was really happening because we were below decks all the time. The bombardment continued for a long time, and the terrible suspense made it a nerve-wracking experience: Eventually—it seemed like hours to me-1 heard somebody upon deck shouting. She is retiring."

Two smaller British cruisers, the Ajax and the Achilles, had joined in the fight, and the Graf Spee was sent limping into the port of Montevideo, from which she steamed a few days later only to be scuttled by her own crew.

On our arrival at a home port a month later we were given a great reception as we paraded through the streets, and we were then entertained to dinner by the Lord Mayor.

10 If any reader has any further information Concerning Stoker Patrick Shaughnessy. his friend Stoker Patrick J. O'Leary. of Distillery Street, Wexford, or other veterans of the Battle of the River Plate, this writer would be most interested in hearing from you.

20. 21.

N THE South Atlantic, on the 13th December, 1939, the Ifamed Battle of the River

Plate took place. This battle was between three British cruisers and the famous German heavy cruiser - Admiral Graf Spee. Between the beginning of the war in September to this present time, the Admiral Graf Spee had operated in merchant sea lanes and sank nine ships totalling 50,089 gross register tons (GRT).

In the ensuing battle Admiral Graf Spee inflicted heavy damage on the British ships, but she too was damaged, and was forced to put into port at Montevideo in Uruguay.

Then, in one of the most remarkable incidents of WW2, the Captain of the Admiral Graf Spee, Hans Langsdorff, convinced by false reports of superior British naval forces approaching his ship, made the decision to take the mighty vessel out to sea to be scuttled. Thereby ending the Admiral Graf Spee's reign upon the seas.

Not surprisingly in the thick of that great battle, and sailing in the three British heavy cruisers was a host of Irishmen. Working in one of those Royal Navy cruisers, the HMS Exeter, (pennant number 68), was

Ireland’s Own

ROLE OF THE IRISH IN WW2 by CON MCGRATH

Stoker 1st ClassPATRICK

SHAUGHNESSYof Galway: a

survivor of theepic Battle of the

River Plate

a native of Galway City centre - one Patrick Shaughnessy.

VERY SOON after this battle, the ‘Connacht Tribune' dated January 27, 1940, reported on their local hero's participation in the action, an action which had made headlines across the world. The report read:

BAPTISM OF FIRE - GALWAY YOUTH IN NAVAL BATTLE

EARTHQUAKE RESCUE WORK.The rescue of victims of a

terrible Chilean earthquake, an enjoyable time at the New York World's

Fair, where he was member of a bodyguard for the King and Queen of England on the occasion of their visit, and, more recently, active service in the biggest sea battle fought in the present war, are some of the experiences of 23-years-old Patrick Shaughnessy, St. Brendan's-avenue, Wood Quay, Galway.

Mr. Patrick Shaughnessy, formerly a pupil at St. Brendan's national school, Wood Quay, Galway, was a bus conductor in Galway prior to leaving for England about three years ago. He is now first-class stoker on H.M.S. Exeter, the 8,000 ton cruiser which, with the smaller cruiser, Ajax and Achilles, crippled the 10,000-ton German pocket battleship, Graf Spee, in mid-December and drove her limping into the port of Montevideo, from which she steamed a few days later to be scuttled by her own crew. Stoker Shaughnessy joined the British Navy about two years ago, and after spending a time on the training ship, H.M.S. Drake, was transferred to the Exeter.

Shortly after joining the Exeter this vessel went on a cruise off South America. She put in at a South American port to rescue hundreds of injured and wounded victims of the terrible earthquake in Chile. Later the cruiser paid a visit to the United States and the officers and crew were given an opportunity to see the World's Fair. Here Stoker

A Richard Willis painting of HMS Exeter Engaging The Graf Spree at The Battle Of The River Plate. In the boiler room of this vessel was Stoker Patrick Shaughnessy of Galway City, working hard putting out fires while several hits of shrapnel struck the starboard side.

Shaughnessy met many Galway people, some of them citizens of the United States.

He visited Galway for a month's leave last August, but was recalled after three days owing to the threatening situation in Europe. The weeks rolled by and war broke out but no news was heard from him. Then came the story of the battle off Montevideo and his parents became anxious when it was learned that the Exeter had suffered heavy damage in the battle. Their fears were, however, allayed shortly after when his sister, Mrs. J. Glynn, Courthouse Square, Galway, received a wire from him informing her that he was fit and well and had received no injury in his first baptism of fire. He is still with his ship "at an unknown station."

HE ABOVE good news, Twhich was also printed in 'The Connacht Sentinel; saw Mr. Shaughnessy receive many congratulatory messages.

Soon the brave Stoker was home again in Galway, "looking fit and well," the local papers reported, "he is determined to enjoy a well-earned holiday?'

Fortunately the same papers managed to catch up with Stoker Shaughnessy and interview him about his role in this famous battle. We are more fortunate still that Mr. Shaughnessy willingly shared his exciting narrative with the papers, detaining his role in the battle and more.

Mr. Shaughnessy of course had sad moments to recall such as "MY BEST PAL WAS KILLED" referring to his friend from Wexford Town.

This interview was printed in the 'Connacht Sentinel' and the 'Connacht Tribune' dated Saturday, 9th March, 1940; from which the following text is taken:

GALWAY MAN'SEXPERIENCESLAST OF THE GRAF SPEE."Ten stokers lost their lives

when an 11-inch shell tore through the side of the ship into the torpedo men's mess, exploded, and set fire to the flats.' I was sleeping below decks when the 'action' signal sounded, and as I ran with others to put out the fire there were several hits of

Admiral Graf Spee shortly after her scuttling

shrapnel along the starboard side which killed two more stokers, one of whom was my best pal. It was a horrifying sight to see the passages littered with dead and wounded, and I pray to God that I shall never experience the like again:

This graphic description of the scenes below deck after the 8,000-ton British cruiser, H.M.S. Exeter, had gone into action against the 10,000 ton German Pocket, battleship, Admiral Graf Spee, in mid-December in the biggest sea battle fought in the present war, was given to a "Connacht Tribune" reporter when he interviewed Patrick Shaughnessy, St. Brendan's Avenue, Galway, a first-class stoker on the Exeter, who arrived home on Saturday on a month's leave.

Here is the story as he told it: Ours was the first boat to encounter the Graf Spee, and when she was first sighted she was mistaken for her sister-ship, the Admiral Von Sheer.

I know nothing of the activity which followed up on deck, for I was sleeping below, but I had a rude awakening when that first 11-inch shell tore through the ship's side on the deck above where I was. It went right through the torpedo men's mess and exploded in the Chief (Engine Room Artificers] E.R.A.'s "flat". It exploded, starting a fire, and when the "action" signal sounded I made my way immediately to my action station.

The passages through which I passed were littered with dead

and wounded. After getting to my station I was ordered to go with some others to where the fire was, and as I proceeded there, there were several hits of shrapnel on the starboard side, which killed a P.O. (petty officer] and a stoker. The latter was Paddy O'Leary, of Distillery-st., Wexford, who had joined up with me - and who was my best pal.

We soon had the fire under control, and I then returned to my action station. It was awful for us, for we had little or no idea what was really happening because we were below decks all the time. The bombardment continued for a long time, and the terrible suspense made it a nerve-wracking experience: Eventually—it seemed like hours to me-1 heard somebody upon deck shouting. She is retiring."

Two smaller British cruisers, the Ajax and the Achilles, had joined in the fight, and the Graf Spee was sent limping into the port of Montevideo, from which she steamed a few days later only to be scuttled by her own crew.

On our arrival at a home port a month later we were given a great reception as we paraded through the streets, and we were then entertained to dinner by the Lord Mayor.

10 If any reader has any further information Concerning Stoker Patrick Shaughnessy. his friend Stoker Patrick J. O'Leary. of Distillery Street, Wexford, or other veterans of the Battle of the River Plate, this writer would be most interested in hearing from you.

22. 23.

The continued memories of John Hitchen Ajax 1942-43

My introduction to the Navy started with a letter from their Lordships saying, in effect, Dear John please report to the navy squad at Liverpool Street station on 13th July 1944. With other conscripts I boarded a train for Ipswich and from there by lorry to HMS Ganges at Shotley. We were then given a kitbag which we filled with two of everything (only one housewife) and then directed to a long building which we called a ‘mess’ and with the help of others put on this strange new uniform. And so began life for O.S. c/jx350584. The engagement was for hostilities only and in fact lasted until 21st July 1946 with only about one month being engaged in what one might term hostilities, and which has been very well documented. In these circumstances I wondered if it might be of interest if I set out a few of my memories of the rest of the time.

At Ganges there was the PT and square bashing every day but I do remember a talk about the Lewis gun; we had to strip it and put it together again. I never saw another Lewis gun, not even in Dads Army. I remember a talk on swinging the lead, we stood on a high platform and swung a long rope with a lead weight on the bottom into which was supposed to be some tallow. In Nelson's day this was used to take soundings but I think it went out of fashion shortly after. But anyone who went to Ganges will remember the mast. Jerry Kirk has already given his experience of it – mine was a little different as I thought I had a head for heights. I watched others climb to the very top and sit on the button, one even stood on the button and semaphored, rumour had it he was a fisherman and came from Newfoundland. Anyway I thought I would have a go myself and successfully reached the button; it was then I made the mistake of looking down!!! After what seemed like hours I summoned up the courage to ease myself off the button and climb down the rest of the way and resolved never to do anything like that again - what must it have been like in the days of sail to have been pressed ganged!

I do not remember being issued with a hammock but clearly we were as we were given instructions on how to sling it, lash up and stow it. With it and my kitbag, our party arrived at HMS Pembroke at Chatham Barracks. I think I was sent to Anson mess but nights were spent in the tunnel in case of air-raids but as far as I remember there was nothing serious while I was there. During the day we joined various working parties. One I remember was to escort prisoners to the pusser’s store to get kitted out according to KR and AR*. One got some idea of the length of their term according to the number of bars of soap they had to carry back! With another party I went to the diving school in the docks. At that time divers still used the old suits with the big helmet and it was the duty of the working party to help with the air pump. Even though the water was not very deep nevertheless it was quite hard work when the diver was at the bottom. One advantage of being on that party was that divers were given extra milk and if they did not want it all we could finish it - milk being rationed at that time, remember?

To be continued at Scapa Flow if anyone is interested – Bellringer?

(* Editor's Note - Had to phone John on this one! KR and AR stands for King's Rules and Admiralty Regulations!)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS – RIVER PLATE

Herewith the next tranche of FAQs from the website – space precludes the full set and more will appear in the next issue.

FAQ 16 Damage to HMS Exeter.

· The two forward 'A' and 'B' 8 inch-turrets were out of action after direct hits.

· The aft 8 inch 'Y'-turret was firing only one gun in local control and ceased firing at 0729 due to loss of electrical power.

· The bridge, wheelhouse and transmitting station and main armament directorwere out of action.

· There were fires raging throughout the ship.

· The telephone communications throughout the ship and wireless transmission to the other ships had broken down.

· There was 650 tons of sea water on board, the ship was 3 feet down by the bows and had a list of 10 degrees to starboard.

· 66 crew members were dead out of a complement of 630. Captain Bell was among the wounded.

· However since the engine room was undamaged and the ship was steaming at about 18 knots, Captain Bell even considered trying to ram Graf Spee.

FAQ 17 Damage to HMS Ajax.

· Both aft 6-in turrets were put out of action at about 0730 following an 11 inch shell hit that killed or wounded 10 of 'X'-turret's crew.

FAQ 18 Damage to HMS Achilles.

· In its elevated position the director control tower was peppered by splinters from an 11 inch near-miss. This killed or wounded half of the gun director's crew but the gunnery officer, Lieutenant Washbourne, himself wounded, quickly cleared away the casualties, obtained replacements and got his armament back into action. On the bridge Captain Parry was wounded.

FAQ 19 Could Graf Spee could not divide the fire from its two 11 inch guns and engage two targets simultaneously?

Since there was only one system for controlling the main armament fire control data this was not possible. This was one of the economies made to the pocket battleship design to save both money and weight.

22. 23.

The continued memories of John Hitchen Ajax 1942-43

My introduction to the Navy started with a letter from their Lordships saying, in effect, Dear John please report to the navy squad at Liverpool Street station on 13th July 1944. With other conscripts I boarded a train for Ipswich and from there by lorry to HMS Ganges at Shotley. We were then given a kitbag which we filled with two of everything (only one housewife) and then directed to a long building which we called a ‘mess’ and with the help of others put on this strange new uniform. And so began life for O.S. c/jx350584. The engagement was for hostilities only and in fact lasted until 21st July 1946 with only about one month being engaged in what one might term hostilities, and which has been very well documented. In these circumstances I wondered if it might be of interest if I set out a few of my memories of the rest of the time.

At Ganges there was the PT and square bashing every day but I do remember a talk about the Lewis gun; we had to strip it and put it together again. I never saw another Lewis gun, not even in Dads Army. I remember a talk on swinging the lead, we stood on a high platform and swung a long rope with a lead weight on the bottom into which was supposed to be some tallow. In Nelson's day this was used to take soundings but I think it went out of fashion shortly after. But anyone who went to Ganges will remember the mast. Jerry Kirk has already given his experience of it – mine was a little different as I thought I had a head for heights. I watched others climb to the very top and sit on the button, one even stood on the button and semaphored, rumour had it he was a fisherman and came from Newfoundland. Anyway I thought I would have a go myself and successfully reached the button; it was then I made the mistake of looking down!!! After what seemed like hours I summoned up the courage to ease myself off the button and climb down the rest of the way and resolved never to do anything like that again - what must it have been like in the days of sail to have been pressed ganged!

I do not remember being issued with a hammock but clearly we were as we were given instructions on how to sling it, lash up and stow it. With it and my kitbag, our party arrived at HMS Pembroke at Chatham Barracks. I think I was sent to Anson mess but nights were spent in the tunnel in case of air-raids but as far as I remember there was nothing serious while I was there. During the day we joined various working parties. One I remember was to escort prisoners to the pusser’s store to get kitted out according to KR and AR*. One got some idea of the length of their term according to the number of bars of soap they had to carry back! With another party I went to the diving school in the docks. At that time divers still used the old suits with the big helmet and it was the duty of the working party to help with the air pump. Even though the water was not very deep nevertheless it was quite hard work when the diver was at the bottom. One advantage of being on that party was that divers were given extra milk and if they did not want it all we could finish it - milk being rationed at that time, remember?

To be continued at Scapa Flow if anyone is interested – Bellringer?

(* Editor's Note - Had to phone John on this one! KR and AR stands for King's Rules and Admiralty Regulations!)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS – RIVER PLATE

Herewith the next tranche of FAQs from the website – space precludes the full set and more will appear in the next issue.

FAQ 16 Damage to HMS Exeter.

· The two forward 'A' and 'B' 8 inch-turrets were out of action after direct hits.

· The aft 8 inch 'Y'-turret was firing only one gun in local control and ceased firing at 0729 due to loss of electrical power.

· The bridge, wheelhouse and transmitting station and main armament directorwere out of action.

· There were fires raging throughout the ship.

· The telephone communications throughout the ship and wireless transmission to the other ships had broken down.

· There was 650 tons of sea water on board, the ship was 3 feet down by the bows and had a list of 10 degrees to starboard.

· 66 crew members were dead out of a complement of 630. Captain Bell was among the wounded.

· However since the engine room was undamaged and the ship was steaming at about 18 knots, Captain Bell even considered trying to ram Graf Spee.

FAQ 17 Damage to HMS Ajax.

· Both aft 6-in turrets were put out of action at about 0730 following an 11 inch shell hit that killed or wounded 10 of 'X'-turret's crew.

FAQ 18 Damage to HMS Achilles.

· In its elevated position the director control tower was peppered by splinters from an 11 inch near-miss. This killed or wounded half of the gun director's crew but the gunnery officer, Lieutenant Washbourne, himself wounded, quickly cleared away the casualties, obtained replacements and got his armament back into action. On the bridge Captain Parry was wounded.

FAQ 19 Could Graf Spee could not divide the fire from its two 11 inch guns and engage two targets simultaneously?

Since there was only one system for controlling the main armament fire control data this was not possible. This was one of the economies made to the pocket battleship design to save both money and weight.

FAQ 20 Ships' capabilities remaining after the action:

· Graf Spee; one 5.9” gun destroyed, unable to launch torpedo attacks. She was short of ammunition for further prolonged fighting. Out of 186 11-in shells remaining, 170 were armour-piercing, best designed for use against heavy armoured ships and were liable to pass straight through lightly armoured ships such as Ajax and Achilles without exploding.

· HMS Exeter; all guns out of action.

· HMS Ajax; four out of eight 6-in guns not working (at one point only 3 guns were working but this was fixed).

· HMS Achilles; all guns working.

FAQ 21 What happened in the battle after Exeter was ordered to withdraw?

At 0636 Graf Spee reversed her course and turned to the west behind smoke, allowing her a final opportunity to engage Exeter. After that she never turned back to face the British ships but continue to head west.

The light cruisers, who had now worked up to full speed, closed on Graf Spee, firing all sixteen of their 6 inch guns at the rate of 8 or 9 rounds per minute per gun. At 0715 Ajax was straddled by Graf Spee's 11 inch guns which brought her mainmast down but otherwise did no serious damage.

By 0725the light cruisers had closed to within the very close range of four nautical miles from Graf Spee. Harwood was concerned about ammunition expenditureand decided to open the range and shadow until nightfall when he would make a torpedo attack.

Ajax fired a salvo of torpedoes to deter Graf Spee from following as she turned away. At aboutthe same time Graf Spee achieved an 11 inch hit on Ajax which put her two after-turrets out of action. Instead of taking this opportunity to turn back on her pursuers and regain the initiative, Graf Spee continued westward towards Montevideo with the two cruisers turning again to pursue her. There were sporadic exchanges of fire between the two forces during Graf Spee's retreat but neither side achieved a hit. Graf Spee entered Montevideo harbour just before midnight.

24.

TAKE THE VOYAGE

On board HMS Ajax at the Battle for Crete

www.hmsajaxatcrete.com.au

email: onboard@hmsajaxatcrete.com.au