NAVY NEWS, DECEMBER 2010


45


Writes of passage


Kiwis who could fl y


iwi


IN LAST year’s celebrations of all things Wafu-related, it was perhaps forgotten what a cosmopolitan force the Royal Naval Air Service and Fleet Air Arm were during their two sternest tests. Indeed, the most recent naval


aviation VC was earned not by a Brit, but by Canadian, Robert Hampton Gray.


He made the ultimate sacrifice – as did 179 Kiwis, whose stories are told in the official history, Flying Navy: New Zealanders Who Flew in the Fleet Air Arm (FAA Museum of New Zealand, NZ$60 including P&P – c.£29). David Allison’s book is not


a history of the arm he served in (he flew Corsairs in WW2 and later became curator of the New Zealand FAA Museum in Auckland) but an anthology of biographies of the fallen, from the biplane era over the Western Front to the jet age; the last man listed here was killed flying a Sea Hawk on a training mission at Lossiemouth in 1958. What is clear from the 41-year


THERE has been much written of late about the tragic expedition to fi nd a North West passage led by Capt Sir John Franklin which was never seen again by European eyes


after July 1845. The two recent books by Professor Andrew Lambert have set a new standard, but this has not deterred other writers on the subject such as William Battersby, an investment manager with a long-standing interest in this sad but fascinatingly mysterious affair. In James Fitzjames: The Mystery Man of


the Franklin


Expedition (History Press, £20 ISBN 978-0-7524-5512-9) he concentrates on the captain of Franklin’s fl agship, the sail and steam exploration vessel Erebus, whose rather exotic background the author has worked very hard to disentangle, writes Prof Eric Grove of the University of Salford. Fitzjames, as suggested by his


name, was illegitimate. His father was Sir James Gambier, son of Admiral James Gambier who had replaced Howe off New York in the American War of Independence. Gambier’s family interests obtained the 12-year-old Fitzjames a position as a Volunteer Second Class in the frigate HMS Pyramus, commanded by Fitzjames’ second cousin Capt Richard Gambier. Fitzjames’ real age and place


span covered by this volume is that Kiwis served in every theatre and that naval aviation is a hazardous business, with or without the presence of the foe. Indeed, a sizeable number of the 179 aviators died in accidents – wings snapped off, engines failed, there was bad weather, bad landings (not a few of those killed ‘bounced’ off the decks of carriers and fell over the side or smashed into a barrier – often killing deck hands in the process). No New Zealand naval aviator


earned the VC, but reading the accounts here, at least one was deserving.


Lt Cdr Ronald Richardson RNZNVR was among the Fleet Air Arm’s most experienced fliers by the summer of 1944 and was given command of the newly-formed 1840 NAS which took part in three strikes against Hitler’s last battleship, Tirpitz, in northern Norway.


Richardson possessed, said HMS Indefatigable’s captain, “extreme devotion to duty and reckless gallantry”. He hit the Tirpitz twice with 500lb bombs and, for good measure, shot up some floatplanes on the water in the Norwegian fjord.


final attack in August 1944. The 27-year-old’s Hellcat was subjected to withering flak and crashed into Tirpitz’s bridge. Both Indefatigable’s CO and the commander of 1st Cruiser Squadron, Rhoderick McGrigor – a carrier advocate – recommended Richardson for the Victoria Cross. The Honours and Awards Committee did not agree. From the safety of their committee room they decreed that the late aviator’s bravery “did not quite attain the standard” required of a VC winner. Nor even did the Kiwi earn the next-highest decoration, the DSO; it was not awarded posthumously.


of power could afford Ronald Richardson in his day was a Mention in Dispatches. Thanks to Mr Allison’s efforts (sadly he passed away not long after the book’s publication), Ronald Richardson and his ilk have belatedly received a more fitting tribute. ■ Available from Flying Navy, PO Box 31-240, Milford, North Shore, Auckland 0741, New Zealand or by contacting rla. richards@clear.net.nz


The best those in the corridors His luck ran out on the


of birth were falsifi ed in his initial records, a factor which has since created confusion about his background. The young man was immediately


thrust into the varied duties of the 19th-Century Royal Navy, carrying diplomats,


engaging


in experimental work on ship designs and deployment to Lisbon protecting British interests in the


The Grove Review


Portuguese civil confl ict between its royal sons. Fitzjames’


promoted Fitzjames to s.


Volunteer First Class rt


He spent only a shor time in this rank, however, and in his o


k, s


next ship he reverted to second-class status.


offi cer rank apparently thus ruled out, infl uence was exerted by his adopted parent and his contacts to get him appointed as a midshipman to HMS Asia and later the 120-gun St Vincent, fl agship of the Mediterranean Fleet.


Vincent


able to ‘run rings round’ both the Admiralty and his new Captain to obtain the position he coveted. He had emerged as a


Fitzjames himself was skilfully


determined and intelligent young man who was impatient, to say the least, with established rules when they did not suit his interests. No wonder he covered his tracks, to the confusion of later historians. Through a little more economy with the truth Fitzjames passed for mate (sub-lieutenant) and then, rather impetuously, turned down two good ships to engage in exploration – a half-baked scheme led by a rather manic Colonel Chesney to link the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean through Syria and down the Mesopotamian


With promotion to


Sartorious to


us


abilities made him valuable to Capt Sartorious who had replaced Gambier.


great linguistic


rivers to Basra. Fitzjames helped man an iron paddle steamer assembled on the Euphrates, after which it was named.


adventures,


describes well, Fitzjames returned to Britain to fi nd himself again facing a struggle with promotion to lieutenant which Chesney and the East India Company eventually wrung out of the Admiralty. Fitzjames next attended the n


g Le


G to


t Fitzjames played a key role in the coastal bom


confused but it is clear that key


cam con


being mentioned in despatches for a daring mission ashore at Beirut. Fitzjames


himself again in the First China War being quite badly wounded while fi ghting ashore.


personal fi nancial favour for the Barrow family, which acquired for him the gratitude and patronage of Sir John Barrow, Secretary to the Lords of the Admiralty.


At Singapore he also did a great later bombardments as well as distinguished


description of this campaign


des


The author’s is


a little


Levant. T


being appointed to Ganges, the


new gunnery school aboard the hulk Excellent at Portsmouth be


h before crisis


deployed in


the s


After a series of rather amazing which Battersby


both as illustrations and on the dust jacket. He looks a remarkable, attractive and intelligent man and it is thus the less surprising that his career was such a success, although it was sadly cut short. If his ambition, returning from a successful exploration of the North-West Passage overland via Russia, had been fulfi lled, Fitzjames would have been a household name. Instead he came to a sad and mysterious end. Battersby generally does Fitzjames justice although there are some problems, as touched on above. Some errors are pretty elementary, notably the author’s confusion of ‘Jacobite’, a supporter of the Stuarts, and ‘Jacobin’ a French revolutionary. Nevetheless the book is well


worth reading as an example of the career of an upwardly mobile Naval offi cer of the fi rst-half of the 19th Century. The interplay of patronage and ability is well described.


This led to his appointment to command the sloop Clio, an active and signifi cant ship, and then to an important position on the Franklin expedition, a command that miscarried and ended his promising career. We have daguerreotypes [early


forms of photograph] of Fitzjames taken just before the expedition set out and these are reproduced


Some of the judgements, notably on the First China War owe more to modern political correctness than an appreciation of the realities of the period. Also the use of serving ‘on’ rather than ‘in’ a ship grates on the modern naval ear. Nevertheless the author’s research has been prodigious and he has a real ability to make the most of his evidence. Strangely, though, there is no reference to Professor Lambert’s important work that has been in the public domain for the last year.


The book is excellently


illustrated with pictures and maps and is a worthwhile contribution to the history of the Royal Navy in the 19th Century. It reads a little like a well-written


and should appeal to a wide readership.


A sting in the tale


WHEN war came to Europe in 1939, the Royal Navy was in a state of transition from old to new.


The Fleet was a mish-mash of


vessels which had served in the Great War (the Revenge class and Queen Elizabeth-class battleships), – and those built in the 1930s to meet the growing international crisis (the King George Vs, Town- class cruisers). The destroyer fleet was no exception. There were new G and H-class ships. And there were more than five dozen V and Ws – the apotheosis of British destroyer design in the Great War. Ordered in the later stages of the Great War, some saw action, many did not – among them HMS Venomous, whose stirring story is excellently told by the late Robert Moore and John Rodgaard, who completed his friend’s magnum opus.


A Hard Fought Ship (Holywell


House, £18.99 ISBN 978-0- 9559382-0-7) is a completely updated (and copiously illustrated) edition of a book which first appeared 20 years ago. Venomous arrived on the scene


too late to fight the Germans... but not too late to fight the Bolsheviks. She was sent to the Baltic to help the Estonians shake off the yoke of Moscow.


Thereafter she spent six years on Mediterranean duties before, like most of the V&W fleet, entering reserve. With the clouds of war gathering, the destroyers were reactivated. They would prove invaluable. Having helped safely escort


the British Expeditionary Force to France in the autumn of 1939, Venomous found herself dispatched (as with many of her V&W sisters) to French shores in the spring of 1940 to evacuate the Tommies.


She was thrown into the cauldron at Boulogne, Calais and finally Dunkirk.


The backbone of the stirring tale of evacuation here is told through the account of the ship’s CO, John McBeath. It is a classic of RN understatement: he calls the evacuation a “party”, bombing by the Luftwaffe was “a bit of a dusting”. Venomous lived a kirk –


charmed life at Dunkirk – not one man aboard waswas ho


killed – and brought home 4,410 soldiers, a quarterquarter hmen.


of them Frenchmen. e


hampered the e


embarkation of the latter.


company used a universal language to urge the poilus aboard.


blows were struck,” recalled CPO Hugh McGeeney.


Hug


Dunkirk was slight, but one blast had apparently split a cask of rum in the spirit store. It was a sufficient excuse for McBeath to order Splice the Mainbrace. After duties in home waters,


Damage to Venomous at


s at bl


“A few ugh


The ship’s e


of the ship’s a


e


Language bar ierbarriers the


ome


he nervously shouted “Churchill” and gave the sailors the V sign – V for Victory that is. One month later and Venomous


was in the Mediterranean, first supporting the Malta convoys, then the invasion of North Africa – Operation Torch. In support of Torch, Venomous


was sailing with the depot ship HMS Hecla and HMS Marne on the night of November 11-12 1942 when U515, commanded by U-boat ace Werner Henke, struck. Hecla


was


HMS the nigh


when w b


the U-boat, which loosed a torpedo


North Atlantic convoy escorts, a run to Russia shepherding PQ15. Even though it was May 1942 when the Kola convoy ploughed through the Arctic, it was icy enough on the destroyer’s open bridge for a cup of cocoa to cool in a minute “and the dregs in the cup would freeze solid after about five minutes,” one junior officer lamented. Things weren’t much better in the Russian port of Polyarny, north of Murmansk. Soviet hospitality extended to black bread, yak meat, and a film show. A Russian sentry was placed at the foot of the gangway to prevent the Brits going abroad. He was bribed with some scraps from the mess; to show his gratitude,


30ft). The destroyer responded with a series of depth charges; sadly none damaged their quarry. Instead, Henke compounded Hecla’s misery, torpedoes in hull.


all into her dying


crew, as described here, are as stirring as they are harrowing. Some men resigned themselves to their fate on her forecastle, singing Abide With Me and the naval hymn. Others sought to save themselves, leaping into the Mediterranean in the hope of clinging on to a Carley float – but there were too many men in the water and too few floats. More


rescued, many picked up by Venomous.


sailors died. One of the destroyer’s crew was haunted by “the cries and curses of those who had to be left behind, a horrible sound.” It is such accounts which make A Hard Fought Ship a must-read.


Just


550 men were short


of than 280 The final moments of Hecla’s sending five pedo (it missed by a good


At this point Venomous struckst uck back, charging at the U-b


her st At t


in to rescue survivors – only for H her stern off. At


Crecy disaster 30 years earlier, M earlier,l in to rescue


Cr


of the Hogue-Aboukir- recy dis


to of


atally wounded by torpedoes; in echoes f the H


orpe fa fat Marne moved


only for Henke to blow te


was


It is an exemplary ship biography where a detailed narrative of the destroyer’s exploits are brought to life by a wealth of first-hand accounts.


The ship spent the final months


of WW2 as a target vessel in home waters, before being dispatched to Kristiansand in Norway to assist with the surrender and transition to peace in May 1945. The ship’s company feared a possibly hostile reception from the Germans – merchant ships in harbour still flew the Swastika. Such fears were soon assuaged. A tatty Union Flag flew on a factory chimney, while on the water a flotilla of small craft, some crewed by children barely nine or ten, welcomed the liberators of the ‘Wanamoos’. It was a fittingly upbeat ending to a hard-worked ship. Two months later Venomous was paid off and subsequently sold for breaking up.


She had been, AB James Eaton remembered, “a very happy ship and I am very proud to have served in her. I would do the same again if I could – good old Venomous.”


SECONDHAND NAVAL & MARITIME BOOKS BOUGHT & SOLD. Send for a copy of our free monthly catalogue. Books bought for cash. Gerald Lee Maritime Books. PO Box 259, Bexhill-on-Sea TN39 3DF. Tel: 01424 218007. Email: enquiries@leemaritimebooks.com


HP BOOKFINDERS: Established professional service locating out of print titles on all subjects. No obligation or SAE required. Contact: Mosslaird, Brig O’ Turk, Callander, FK17 8HT Telephone/Fax: (01877) 376377 martin@hp-bookfinders.co.uk www.hp-bookfinders.co.uk


Apocalypse (out) now


DIEHARD historians will probably baulk at the idea, but the colourised history of WW2, Apocalypse, which has just fi nished screening on Channel 4, breathes fresh life into the subject. This six-hour series (DVD £19.99 Blu-Ray £29.99) is a mix of authentic WW2 colour fi lm with B&W footage which has been colourised – and done very well indeed. Apocalypse is not without


its fl aws. The commentary is lacklustre (although there are some good fi rst-person accounts), the war at sea is somewhat sidelined and as it hails from across the Channel it is very Francocentric (the laughable Saar offensive of 1939 receives more attention than the fall of Poland or Norway...). Still, the colourisation is a


winner; there are some haunting images of the aftermath of battle – all the more poignant because they’re no longer monochrome. ■ We have five copies of Apocalypse to give away courtesy of Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment. To win tell us the name of the director of Apocalypse Now. Entries must reach us by mid-


day on Monday January 17 2010. Send your answer – including


‘whodunnit’


your contact details – to apocalypse@navynews.co.uk or Apocalypse Competition, Navy News, Leviathan Block, HMS Nelson, Portsmouth, PO1 3HH.


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