Japanese raiders in Indian Ocean Campaign

Japanese raiders in the Indian Ocean Campaign were converted merchant ships which would often use their comprehensive armament to cause havoc in the Indian Ocean.

Background

Nations fighting Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

during both world war

World war

A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. World wars span multiple countries on multiple continents, with battles fought in multiple theaters....

s in the 20th century devoted substantial effort to the disruption of oceanic trade

Trade

Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...

as a means of weakening the British Empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

. In late 1942, Axis

Axis Powers

The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...

activities in the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

had virtually come to an end. German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

merchant raider

Merchant raider

Merchant raiders are ships which disguise themselves as non-combatant merchant vessels, whilst actually being armed and intending to attack enemy commerce. Germany used several merchant raiders early in World War I, and again early in World War II...

s, originally disrupting the shipping lanes in these waters, had with few exceptions, been destroyed by the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

or begun the long journey home.

By virtue of their powerful battle fleets, the Imperial Japanese Navy

Imperial Japanese Navy

The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...

(IJN) had strategically planned to fight a war of fleet actions ("Guerre d'escadre"), and as a consequence delegated few resources to raiding merchant vessels ("Guerre de course"). Nonetheless, other than their successful sortie to Ceylon in April 1942, the Japanese Navy had decided to keep the pressure on the shipping lanes, primarily due to the allies' ever-growing logistical

Logistics

Logistics is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and...

strength in the war. Large and valuable tanker

Tanker (ship)

A tanker is a ship designed to transport liquids in bulk. Major types of tankship include the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, and the liquefied natural gas carrier.-Background:...

s maintained a continuous stream of oil

Oil

An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....

and other products from the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

and surrounding islands. The continuous pleas by the Germans possibly had a large influence on this decision, as the Indian Ocean was the primary area of operations in which the two axis powers had the most physical coordination with each other, in regards to re-supply and the exchange of military (naval) intelligence.

Japanese Merchant Raiders

In 1940, two passenger-cargo vessels of the Osaka Shipping Line were requisitioned for conversion to Armed Merchant Cruisers (AMC)s, in anticipation of the likely thrust southward by the Japanese. The Aikoku Maru and Hokoku Maru, under construction for the route between Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

and South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, started their rebuilds in 1941, by the time they were commissioned, they were significantly armed.

Specifications for both ships are shown below:

Original Armament

4 x 15 cm/40 caliber Vickers
Vickers
Vickers was a famous name in British engineering that existed through many companies from 1828 until 1999.-Early history:Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by the miller Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor in 1828. Naylor was a partner in the foundry Naylor &...

guns
2 x 8 cm/40 caliber
4 x 25 mm
2 x 533 mm TT
2 Kawanishi E7K2 "Alf" Type 94 reconnaissance seaplanes, each with a Mitsubishi "Zuisei 11" 870 hp engine, armed with 3 Type 92 machine gun
Type 92 machine gun
The 　was developed for aerial use for the Imperial Japanese Navy before World War II. It was the standard hand-held machine gun in multi-place IJN aircraft during the most part of the Pacific War. It proved to be seriously inadequate...

s and 120 kg of bombs

After the March 1942 Re-Armament at Kure

8 x 140 mm/50 caliber
2 x 80 mm
4 x 25 mm
4 x 533 mm TT (2x2)
2 Mitsubishi F1M
Mitsubishi F1M
-See also:-Bibliography:* Francillon, R.J. Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War. London:Putnam, 1970. ISBN 370 00033 1.* Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War, Volume Six: Floatplanes. London: Macdonald & Co., Ltd., 1962....

2 "Pete" Type 0 observation seaplanes, each with a Mitsubishi "Zuisei 13" 875 hp engine, armed with 2 fixed forward firing Type 97 machine guns, 1x flexibly mounted rearward-firing Type 92 machine gun
Type 92 machine gun
The 　was developed for aerial use for the Imperial Japanese Navy before World War II. It was the standard hand-held machine gun in multi-place IJN aircraft during the most part of the Pacific War. It proved to be seriously inadequate...

s and 120 kg of bombs

Initial Deployment

With their heavy armament, they could overpower any smaller combatant or merchant vessel, and their speed enabled them (in combination with their floatplanes) to search large areas of ocean. In service, they were organized as the 24th Special Cruiser Squadron under Rear-Admiral Moriharu Takeda. Hokaku Maru was modified to serve as Admiral Takeda's flagship with space for his staff of four officers and eighteen men.

The 24th Special Cruiser Squadron departed Hiroshima Bay

Hiroshima Bay

is a bay in the Inland Sea, Japan. Administratively, the bay is divided between Hiroshima and Yamaguchi Prefectures. The bay's shore is a Ria. Its surface area is about 1,000 km², with a mean depth of 25 meters.-Municipalities:*Kure, Hiroshima...

on 15 November 1941 under radio silence and blacked out at night to arrive in a standby position at Jaluit Atoll

Jaluit Atoll

Jaluit Atoll is a large coral atoll of 91 islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is only , but it encloses a lagoon with an area of . Most of the land area is on largest islet of Jaluit . Jaluit is located...

in the Marshall Islands

Marshall Islands

The Republic of the Marshall Islands , , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. As of July 2011 the population was 67,182...

. They departed Jaluit on 26 November 1941 to patrol the sea lanes between Australia

Australia

/Samoa

Samoa

Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...

/Fiji

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

and the Panama Canal

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...

/United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The operational plan was for one ship to lie-to and drift while performing maintenance, as the other ship carried out a perimeter patrol searching for enemy shipping. The two ships would spend the hours of darkness within visual range; the ships then reversed roles the following day. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor

Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...

, the search objective changed from avoiding detection to locating enemy commerce.

Following sunset on 12 December 1941, Hokaku Maru stopped the 6,210-ton United States freighter Vincent bound for the Panama Canal from Sydney, Australia at 23 south, 118 west. The old freighter was sunk after taking her crew of 38 aboard the two raiders. The Japanese ships then left the area to avoid any response to Vincents radio SOS.

Routine searching resumed on 23 December 1941. On 31 December, an Aikoku Maru seaplane found and circled the 3275-ton United States freighter Malama bound for New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

from Honolulu with a cargo of Army Air Force trucks and aircraft engines. The seaplane was observed by Malama but was apparently lost to operational problems before returning to Aikoku Maru. The squadron commenced a search for the missing seaplane at 1810 and searched through the moonlit night. Aircraft were launched at 0700 1 January 1942 to expand the search. One of the seaplanes found Malama at 0910, circled at low altitude and ordered the ship to stop with a burst of machine gun fire. Malama began to broadcast distress messages which continued until 1415. Admiral Takeda was 130 miles away, but intercepted the distress calls and ordered the plane to return to be rearmed with bombs. Malama was scuttled by her crew at 25 south, 155 west when the aircraft returned. The squadron left the area after taking the freighter's crew of 38 aboard as prisoners.

Routine searching resumed on 8 January 1942. On 16 and 20 January the squadron intercepted extremely loud radio signals causing them to believe enemy warships were nearby. They successfully evaded detection by Admiral Halsey's Task Force 8. They replenished at Truk on 4 February 1942 and transferred the prisoners to the Oita Bay Naval Air Command on 13 February.

The squadron then entered the Kure Navy Yard where each ship received eight modern 14-cm (5.5-inch) guns to replace the four 15-cm (5.9-inch) guns of Russo-Japanese War

Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...

vintage installed the previous autumn. More modern seaplanes were embarked when the squadron deployed to the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

with the additional duty of resupplying the Japanese submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

s operating in the Mozambique Channel

Mozambique Channel

The Mozambique Channel is a portion of the Indian Ocean located between the island nation of Madagascar and southeast Africa, primarily the country of Mozambique. It was a World War II clashpoint during the Battle of Madagascar...

. Between 5 June and 13 July 1942, the submarines sank 21 ships, a total of 92,498 tons, the Hokoku Maru and Aikoku Maru added additional ships to that score. With these successes, they had sunk or captured 5 merchant ships within a year, totalling 31,303 tons. They left Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

on 5 November on their fourth sortie, under the overall command of Captain Imazato Hiroshi.

Victims of Japanese raiders

Genota (Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, 7,987 tons), captured on 9 May 1942
Elysia (British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, 6,757 tons), sunk 5 June 1942
Hauraki (New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, 7,112 tons), captured 12 July 1942

The Ondina, presumed last victim

The Ondina was a modern tanker

Tanker

- Transportation :* Tanker , a ship designed to carry bulk liquids** Chemical tanker, a type of tanker designed to transport chemicals in bulk** Oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker...

built for one of the shipping companies of Shell

Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...

, La Corona

La Corona

La Corona is an ancient Maya city in Guatemala's Petén department that was discovered in 1996 and later revealed to be the long-sought "Site Q", a prominent, undiscovered Maya city...

. She was new, relatively fast and by contemporary standards not lightly armed with a 4"/50 caliber gun on her stern and several machine guns for anti-aircraft use. Under Captain W. Horsman, she was now deployed between Fremantle

Fremantle, Western Australia

Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...

in Australia

Australia

and Abadan on the oil

Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...

-rich shores of the Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...

. On her journey to Abadan, she would only enjoy the protection of a small corvette

Corvette

A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...

. HMIS Bengal (J243)

HMIS Bengal (J243)

HMIS Bengal was a Bathurst class corvette of the Royal Indian Navy where she served during World War II.-History:HMIS Bengal was ordered from Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company, Australia for the Royal Indian Navy in 1940...

(Lt. Cdr. W.J. Wilson, RNR) was one of the RAN-type Bathurst class corvette

Bathurst class corvette

The Bathurst class corvettes were a class of general purpose vessels produced in Australia during World War II. Originally classified as minesweepers, but widely referred to as corvettes, the Bathurst class vessels fulfilled a broad anti-submarine, anti-mine, and convoy escort role.Sixty Bathurst...

/minesweepers, although she and three sister ships were allocated to the Indian Navy

Indian Navy

The Indian Navy is the naval branch of the armed forces of India. The President of India serves as the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff , usually a four-star officer in the rank of Admiral, commands the Navy...

. She only had one 3-inch gun (a 4-inch gun was not available), which made her firepower barely enough to protect the Ondina from submarines, let alone from enemy surface raiders. The two ships departed Fremantle on 5 November 1942, expecting a long but uneventful trip.

Ondinas specifications are as follows:

Armament

1 x 102 mm USN QF (4"/50 caliber gun)
some machine guns, 1 x 75 mm (12-pounder gun
12-pounder gun
12-pounder gun or 12-pdr, usually denotes a gun which fired a projectile of approximately 12 pounds.Guns of this type include:* A cannon sized for a 12 pound ball, see Naval artillery in the Age of Sail*Canon de 12 de Vallière French canon of 1732...

) she (Ondina), had an ammunition supply of only 40 shells

Sightings

On 11 November 1942 at 11:45 in the morning, naval authorities in Fremantle

Fremantle, Western Australia

received an SOS

SOS

SOS is the commonly used description for the international Morse code distress signal...

signal sent out by the Bengal, reporting that she and the Ondina were under attack by two enemy raiders

Raider (piracy)

A raider is a person who commits robbery at sea. With use of raid tactics, the raiders uses the naval strategy of attacking an opponent's commercial shipping rather than contending for command of the sea with its naval forces. The raiders destroy supplies of the enemy instead of engaging the...

, identified as being Japanese, in position 19.38° N 93.5° E. The battle started when a lookout aboard Ondina sighted an unknown vessel at about 12,000 metres, bearing 270 degrees, followed by a ship of similar size.

As no Allied ships were reported in the vicinity, they could only assume they were hostile and for some time these ships were even identified as Japanese aircraft carriers. On the Bengal, the lookouts saw the two AMCs a few minutes later. The ships both made a 90 degree turn to starboard away from the enemy in a north-north-west direction. Bengal then turned and headed straight for the enemy, hoping to buy enough time for the Ondina to escape. She opened fire at 1200 hours from 3200 metres, followed by the Ondina at 1205 from 8,000 metres. The sensible thing to do for the Ondina was to obey the order to escape, but the captain decided to stay, as his ship, armed with a 4-inch gun, was still the more powerful of the two. In addition, the Ondina could only do 12 knots versus the 21 of the Japanese ships.

The action

The Aikoku Maru (Captain Tamotsu Oishi

Tamotsu Oishi

was a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.-Biography:In Kōchi prefecture, Oishi graduated from the 48th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1920, with a ranking of 13th out of a class of 171 cadets. As a midshipman, he served on the cruiser and battleship...

) and Hokoku Maru (Captain Hiroshi Imazato

Hiroshi Imazato

Captain Hiroshi Imazato was born in Nagasaki on September 24, 1896. He graduated from the Etajima Naval College in November 1917, and then took went to the Torpedo School in Yokosuka Naval Station , and later specialized in submarines, becoming commander of the 20th Submarine Division in November...

) commenced firing at 1200 hours and soon straddled the Ondina with their cruiser-armament. The first hit on Ondina ripped off a part of the main mast, leaving only a stump. The Ondina herself had her answer ready: the third shell fired was a hit on the superstructure of Hokoku Maru, but apparently with little effect.

Content with the hit, the gun captain then ordered the gunners to concentrate their fire on the stern. Only a few moments later, a hit on the starboard torpedo mount turned the Hokoku Maru into a ball of red and yellow flames, and as the ship emerged from the smoke, she was listing heavily to starboard and simultaneously started to settle by the stern. The explosion ripped off the stern and threw her two floatplanes overboard, while massive fires raged in the superstructure.

Hokoku Maru was not built as a warship, and therefore did not have a sufficient number of watertight bulkheads. Shells toppled from their lockers as a result of the increasing list and threw sailors overboard. Men, covered with blood and suffering from burns, tried to fight the flames. Reports came in indicating large fires in the engine-room and the loss of all electricity. There was little hope of salvaging the Hokoku Maru, Captain Imazato could do nothing else than order "abandon ship".

The Aikoku Maru picked up a total of 278 survivors from a crew of 354. Captain Imazato was one of the 76 killed during the action. There were no reports of damage or casualties aboard the Aikoku Maru.

The Aikoku Maru soon avenged her sister ship, scoring several hits on Ondina, but shells and torpedoes have little effect on empty tankers, as the large number of watertight tanks keeps them afloat under the most difficult circumstances. Aikoku Maru also fired at the Bengal, which had shortened the range to about 2,200 metres. One shell from the Japanese ship hit her in the forecastle, doing little damage. Her gunners had been firing continuously at the Japanese, claiming several hits. Unfortunately, their ammunition supply was soon depleted. At 1245, her last shell had been fired and her captain decided there was little he could do for the Ondina. He steamed away at full speed, chased by gunsplashes. After laying a smokescreen, she took a hit in the stern which had no effect on her escape. The last the men aboard Bengal saw of the Ondina was her trying to evade the shells, continuously straddled by the Aikoku Maru. A shell was seen hitting her abaft the bridge. Some time later, a second explosion was seen aboard Hokoku Maru, still burning and sinking. After leaving the scene, Bengal set course for Diego Garcia

Diego Garcia

Diego Garcia is a tropical, footprint-shaped coral atoll located south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean at 7 degrees, 26 minutes south latitude. It is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory [BIOT] and is positioned at 72°23' east longitude....

, where the captain reported the Ondina and one enemy AMC sunk.

Survival

Bengals captain was right about one thing, the Hokoku Maru had indeed sunk, but after Bengal had disappeared over the horizon, Ondina was still steaming around at full speed. As a tanker, she only had a limited ammunition supply. Aikoku Maru closed the range to 3,500 metres, and scored several hits over the next few minutes, one of which was observed by the Bengal. Ondina herself only had twelve shells left, four of which she fired at the Hokoku Maru, the rest at Aikoku Maru, apparently without scoring a hit. A last attempt to escape by dumping smokebuoys overboard was unsuccessful, and the captain ordered the crew to abandon ship to avoid further bloodshed. The engines were stopped, the lifeboats lowered and a white flag was hoisted, all under continuous fire from the Aikoku Maru. A few moments later, Captain Horsman was killed by a piece of shrapnel from a shell hitting the bridge. Two lifeboats and two rafts were lowered into the water and later, another lifeboat was in the water with the remainder of the crew. Most of the crew (with the exception of officers and guncrew) were Chinese, they had been troublesome during the whole action, refusing any assistance that might help save the ship.

Aikoku Maru approached Ondina, to about 400 metres and fired two torpedoes to finish the ship off. Both left big holes in the starboard side, but did little to sink the ship itself. These tanks had been empty and the ship remained afloat on the other, undamaged tanks, despite the 30 or 35 degree list. Aikoku Maru then changed course and the Japanese gunners opened fire on the drifting lifeboats. One sailor was killed, three others were badly wounded. One of them was a young British sailor named Henry, originally assigned to the Bengal. Satisfied with the results, Aikoku Maru steamed away to pick up survivors from Hokoku Maru. The Aikoku Maru came back once more, firing a torpedo which missed the tanker. She paid scant attention to the survivors, convinced the Ondina was doomed.

Meanwhile, the men in the lifeboats had given the deceased a seaman's burial and then exchanged thoughts about what to do next. The first officer

Chief Mate

A Chief Mate or Chief Officer, usually also synonymous with the First Mate or First Officer , is a licensed member and head of the deck department of a merchant ship...

, Rehwinkel, wanted to return to the tanker, but only one man in the guncrew was willing to go with him. Most of the others were convinced the Ondina was about to go down. Not without trouble, Rehwinkel managed to assemble a small number of men and returned to the ship, where counterflooding reduced the list. Inspection revealed that her engines were also still intact. Small fires were extinghuished and the last crew members in the lifeboats were taken aboard after they were convinced there was no danger of sinking. Now the long leg back to Fremantle began. The lifeboats were patched up as well as possible, in case the Aikoku Maru came back.

Return

The British

United Kingdom

sailor Henry was in very bad shape. He had a crushed leg and after two days the first officer was forced to send out an uncoded signal for help. Uncoded, because the codebooks had all been thrown overboard when "abandon ship" was ordered. This unexpected signal caused a shock in Colombo

Colombo

Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...

, as the Ondina was reported sunk and logically, the British suspected a Japanese trick. A request went out from Fremantle to report her position.

Wary of a trap, the Ondina did not reply. Without medical attention for her wounded, the Ondina steamed towards Fremantle. On the 17th an Australian PBY Catalina

PBY Catalina

The Consolidated PBY Catalina was an American flying boat of the 1930s and 1940s produced by Consolidated Aircraft. It was one of the most widely used multi-role aircraft of World War II. PBYs served with every branch of the United States Armed Forces and in the air forces and navies of many other...

flying-boat was sighted, about 200 miles (370 km) northwest of Fremantle. The lookouts had reported a ship some time earlier and the Catalina was asked if that ship could provide much needed help. The unknown vessel proved to be a hospital ship where doctors immediately began a series of blood transfusions which succeeded in saving Henry's life.

On 18 November, the Ondina entered Fremantle after a journey only a few ships had experienced and even fewer had survived. The corvette Bengal had entered Diego Garcia the day before. Ondina remained in Australia as a depot ship until 1943, when she was finally repaired. Both Bengal and Ondina survived the war.

Aftermath

One question that remains concerning this action is, who fired the fatal shot that resulted in the destruction of the Hokoku Maru? It is not clear, as both the Ondina and Bengal claimed to have scored the vital hit so this mystery may never be solved. The Japanese themselves thought it was the Ondina. According to them, her shell hit the starboard torpedo launcher, causing the torpedo to explode. At the time, the Bengal was given the credit, which was used by the British as propaganda in India, where they were struggling to keep control of the local population.

In retrospect, this battle was not only a tactical success for the Allies

Allies

In everyday English usage, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them...

, it also had strategic implications. The loss of the Hokoku Maru led to the abandoning of 'raider warfare' by the IJN, who did not (with one exception), try to break the lifeline again.

Ondina was given a rare Dutch distinction, the "Koninklijke Vermelding by Dagorder", issued on 9 July 1948. Captain W. Horsman became "Ridder in de Militaire Willemsorde der 4de Klasse" posthumously and was Mentioned in Dispatches, while gunner Hammond received the "Distinguished Service Medal and the Bronzen Kruis". The captain of the Bengal, Lieutenant-Commander Wilson, received the "Distinguished Service Order

Distinguished Service Order

The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...

", while others of his crew were also decorated.

Aikoku Maru became a high-speed transport and was sunk in February 1944 during Operation Hailstone

Operation Hailstone

Operation Hailstone was a massive naval air and surface attack launched on February 17–18, 1944, during World War II by the United States Navy against the Japanese naval and air base at Truk in the Caroline Islands, a pre-war Japanese territory.-Background:Truk was a major Japanese logistical base...

, the bombardment by American aircraft of the Japanese base at Truk (South Pacific Mandate

South Pacific Mandate

The was the Japanese League of Nations mandate consisting of several groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean which came under the administration of Japan after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I.-Early history:Under the terms of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, after the start of World...

).

The wreck is still very popular with divers.

Background

Japanese Merchant Raiders

Original Armament

After the March 1942 Re-Armament at Kure

Initial Deployment

Victims of Japanese raiders

The Ondina, presumed last victim

Armament

Sightings

The action

Survival

Return

Aftermath

See also