19 minute read
HMNZS GAMBIA last shots of the war
HMNZS GAMBIA
A teenager’s journey to the last days of war
~ Ken Gordon
In 1944 Ken Gordon, from Gisborne, put his hand up to join the Navy at age 16. “My father was in World War One, and he put his age up to go to war, so he couldn’t really argue with me.” He was inspired by other local boys who joined the Navy, and wanted to show willing. “There was also the idea that Navy was more of a career.”
After training, Mr Gordon was posted to HMNZS GAMBIA, a Fijiclass light cruiser and the largest warship to have ever served with the Royal New Zealand Navy. She departed New Zealand in February 1945, to join one of the largest fleets ever assembled by the Royal Navy, the British Pacific Fleet. Together with the American Third Fleet, he was off to attack the islands and mainland of Japan. He was still a Seaman Boy, one of 26 in GAMBIA. “We were virtually all under training,” he says. “We were respected as boys, but we were being checked on all the time. We had to learn. The Petty Officers were brilliant, although the odd one seemed to have been brought up on a diet of acid drops. I can rattle off all their names even now.”
HMNZS GAMBIA
The Petty Officers decided what the seaman boys could handle. Mr Gordon’s position was the No. 2 position on an Oerlikon gun. But a lot of the boys were used as lookouts, he says. “They needed young eyes. We were on aircraft lookout during the day. We were placed on all the angles for a two-watch system, six hours on and six hours off.”
The crew were kept well informed. “We were never attacked by any seagoing asset. It was mainly air attack. We had the intercom going all the time, talking to us. You were fully aware of what was going on. You knew you were getting closer [to Japan].” If action stations sounded, his gun position was on the aft superstructure. “You took off, up ladders, down ladders, your feet barely touch the steps. You’re on your way, you’re flying. The siren has that way about it, like a fire engine coming up your tail. You’re pumped up. The adrenaline is really flowing. You know what to do, there’s no messing about. You don’t feel the fear. It’s on, let’s go.” You had three levels of action. Flash Green, Flash Blue, Flash Red, he says. “The intercom is talking to you all the time. Blue was stand by, and Red was go, they have identified the attack.” There was no radio contact between ships during an attack, or at any time. Aldis signalling lamps were used, or signalling flags. “You would see all these flags change, and get hoisted up, and all the other ships would put up those flags as well. It’s very, very effective.” The British and American fleets would close up when they came under air attack. “God knows how many ships, maybe 60 or 70? Can you imagine them, all firing? It’s a huge umbrella of firepower. They would do barrage firing, where the fuse settings would be high and low. It had a sandwich effect, with the plane in the middle of it, and shrapnel all around.” His position was right above GAMBIA’s four-inch aft guns, and the noise was incredible as they blasted away. It was a kamikaze attack near the Sakishima Islands that disabled destroyer HMS ULSTER, and Mr Gordon remembers GAMBIA towing the destroyer for nearly 800 miles to Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. At eight knots, for three days, it was a dangerous mission, with the ship
vulnerable to Japanese submarines. “We finally got there, and had a break for a while. The Americans there, they had loads of torpedo boats, MTBs. At night, they’d tie up to anything they could get hold of, and in the morning you’d find 50 or 60 boats tied up to GAMBIA. The Americans knew we had rum on board, and our guys would save their tots. The Americans would give you anything for a bit of grog.” They had to post shark guards all the time. “I’ve never seen so many sharks in my life. It’s something I’ve never forgotten.” One of his most profound memories was the bombardment of the ironworks at Kaimashi, Northern Honshu, on 9 August 1945. Kaimashi had been attacked a few weeks before, by the Third Fleet, and they returned with elements of the British Pacific Fleet, including GAMBIA. They made four passes across Kaimashi harbour, at an average distance of 13km. “The ships had to do at least 32 knots,” says Mr Gordon. “On board a ship, that’s incredible. The air intakes are roaring, sucking air in. The ship is trembling under that power, the vibration feels like about 12 inches. It’s absolutely incredible.” He says some ships had paravanes streaming from the bow, a device that would cut mines from their cables. “Any mines that were cut had to be shot out. You couldn’t join them there.”
In they went. “I’ve no trouble recalling it, it’s stayed with me for most of my life. It’s the most fantastic thing I’ve
ever seen. The power of that fleet. Battleships, cruisers, destroyers. American spotter planes would call the range for us. Up 100, down 100, then ‘bang on’. It’s like watching a game. I’m trying to depict that feeling of that attack on Kaimashi, that absolute exhilaration. That feeling, of being a New Zealand ship, the white ensign on the stern mast. It was very exciting.” GAMBIA fired the last shots of that engagement. “We scarpered as fast as we could out of there. We had no air protection, we were lucky we didn’t cop a torpedo from a plane. But we had ‘chattering’ gear on the stern. They’re a series of straight bars that were hinged. As the water went through them, the noise they made was louder than our propellers. Their torpedoes were acoustic. The torpedo would go astern and miss the ship.”
That day, August 9, was the same day the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, which resulted in Japan’s unconditional surrender on August 15, 75 years ago. The signal went out to the fleet that morning. “Cease hostilities against Japan.” GAMBIA’s crew were told to get the ammunition sorted and returned to the magazines. On the quarterdeck, sailors and marines were assembled, training for an advance landing party. “I was down by the starboard four-inch gun, doing what I was supposed to be doing. This scream came out. ‘Action Stations!’”
A lone Japanese fighter had made a kamikaze run for the nearby aircraft carrier, HMNZS INDEFATIGABLE. Some reports say the fighter was initially disabled and veered towards GAMBIA. “There was nowhere to hide,” says Mr Gordon. “The firing started, shells were flying.” And then it was over. A US fighter pilot in a Corsair shot down the plane. It exploded and crashed so close to GAMBIA, wreckage fell on the deck and was later collected as souvenirs.
The pilot’s action, and the firing of GAMBIA’s guns, are believed to be the last shots of World War II.
“We weren’t expecting it. It was over as quickly as it started. You didn’t have time to think. If we had been hit we would have been goners.” The incident occurred so close to the signal to cease hostilities that the reply from GAMBIA was: “Judy 33 shot down over fleet while signal was flying. C.T.F’s instructions not obeyed.” It is also possible crewmen of GAMBIA were the first Allied personnel to set foot on Japanese soil. On August 20, Royal Marines and sailors from GAMBIA took the surrender of the Japanese Naval Base at Yokosuka. The crew were photographed with a captured flag from the base. GAMBIA would later go on to represent the Royal New Zealand Navy in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945, when the Japanese signed the instrument of surrender on board USS MISSOURI.
Mr Gordon got to step on mainland Japan for short stints of an hour or two. “We stuck together in groups. The Japanese were walking around all over the place. They were almost walking in queues. Mum in front, carrying the bags. Kids in the middle, Dad in the
back, which we thought was the wrong way around. We went into the banks, and saw they were using abacuses.” The sailors discovered that cigarettes were practically legal tender. “There’s a webbing that goes around the inside of a sailor’s cap, and we used to fill up that webbing with cigarettes and go ashore. That was big money.” Mr Gordon stayed in the Navy for eight years after the war, becoming a Petty Officer and Physical Training Instructor. He supervised Compulsory Military Training and thoroughly enjoyed working with young people. “Those three months, it really made those boys. If New Zealand introduced it again, we’d see some differences.” In civilian life he returned to Gisborne and became a winemaker, then a horticultural tutor at Tairawhiti Polytechnic.
In 1987 one of his former shipmates, Jack Stuart, tracked down the pilot of the Corsair in the United States. Commander Marshall Lloyd (retired) wrote a letter back, giving some insight into that last attack on GAMBIA:
“On August 15, 1945, the day hostilities with Japan ceased, I was attached to the USS Hancock in Air Group 6, as divisional leader flying F4V Corsairs. My division was on combat patrol for approximately four hours on the morning of August 15... we were vectored at approximately 1120 to an unidentified ‘bogie’ which I further identified as a Japanese single engine aircraft. My initial contact was in a firing overhead run and subsequent passes by my division resulted in a ‘kill’.” CDR Lloyd came to New Zealand, attending a 1988 GAMBIA reunion in
Hokitika. The town put on a parade for him and his wife.
Mr Gordon didn’t attend that reunion. “I’ve belonged to the RSA for as long as I could,” he says. “I’m coming up to 93 in a couple of months. I’ve had three strokes, lost some eyesight. I’m on a mobility scooter, that gets me around.” He says he finds it very hard to forgive the Japanese for atrocities committed during the war. He didn’t see the prisoners of war being recovered; they were generally taken to the carriers, which had better facilities. “I know there are memorials for the dropping of the bombs. But what happened to all those Australian, New Zealand, British soldiers, and all those other people killed? That sticks in my craw. One day I will get over it.”
War College Graduate
A Royal New Zealand Navy officer has become the first international student to top the prestigious United States Naval War College’s senior course and masters study.
Commander John Sellwood, who undertook the 11-month residential course in Newport, Rhode Island, says the achievement is still sinking in. “There’s about 250 United States students across all four services, plus other Government agencies like Homeland Security and State Department. Then there’s 58 international students from 55 countries. While all the US students do the full masters course, only a handful of international students are accepted and I was one of them.”
The Naval War College is the oldest of the War Colleges in the United States. CDR Sellwood arrived in July 2019 with his family, basing themselves in nearby Jamestown. The course involved completing a coursework masters, without a thesis, but a very busy year nonetheless with the same writing load. Part of the study involves travel to different parts of the United States, seeing a variety of American life. “One of my goals with the course was to deepen my understanding of United States government, how it views the world, and the relationships it has. You could learn some of that with study at home, but you can’t get the same experience of living and breathing another country’s culture, institutions, outlooks and history. It’s something I’ll take with me for the rest of my life.” He points out that while international students have been attending for 60 years, it has only been in recent years that they’ve been able to join the US students in the full masters programme. “My achievement has validated that approach. It’s proven that it’s not just possible, but that we can compete at the highest level.” CDR Sellwood enjoys academic writing, winning two writing prizes in addition to the overall course prize. “A big feature of the course is honing your writing to be suitable for upper reaches of government. In the final exam, I had to write a strategy paper in compressed time. To be judged to have written the best paper… for me, that encapsulated what I hoped to get out of the course, and in some ways I value that most of all.” His advice to others is to go into it with the mindset of “getting every bit of juice out of the orange. Squeeze it for all it’s worth. It’s been one of the most fantastic opportunities I’ve ever had. You might feel like you can’t do it all. But what you get out of it will be a reflection of the effort you put in and your willingness to seize opportunities. Want to exercise your academic skills? This is the place. Want to build a strong network of colleagues? Absolutely, you will get that chance.” It’s also very good quality time with the family, he says. “Even with the pandemic, it’s a time in my life I will struggle to improve on.” You would be hard-pushed to find a military education institution that offers this level and quality of experience, he says. “It’s the length of time they have been doing this. The programmes are very well defined. People doing this course can go on to be senior leaders in their field. It’s a naval war college – it’s exactly the sort of place you want to go to as a naval officer.” Sadly, the pandemic meant the prizegiving was done virtually. “My wife has a photo of me at the kitchen table with the laptop running,” he says. “As a class, we would have loved to come together. But the bonds we forged will still last our lifetimes.”
Information to swipe for
Lieutenant Commander Emma Pickering, working from home in Cambridge, can appreciate the irony. “If you can’t design a piece of technology that’s supposed to help people in remote situations, by being remote yourself, then there’s something wrong.” LTCDR Pickering is talking about her project, a Navy app that will place all the divisional and welfare information in one place. It is, effectively, the divisional handbook (NZBR 9) plus a lot of extras, all there to be sourced from a phone or tablet. She credits Sub Lieutenant Jack Walters, who came up with the original concept three years ago of a “NZ Navy app” when he was a senior rating. “We discussed the divisional handbook (NZBR 9) during a divisional officer’s seminar last year,” says LTCDR Pickering. “The old version was out of date, hard to follow, and just not a practical resource. We wanted it to make more sense, so as part of the project we re-wrote it. Then we wanted it to be accessible on a mobile device and someone said, didn’t Jack come up with something like this?” SLT Walters says the Warrant Officer of the Navy challenged him to come up with a concept, after noticing his “dabbling” with app development. He and an app developer friend put together a prototype for senior leadership to show what an “NZ Navy app” could look like. “I’m glad someone has taken up the reins and carried it on.”
With lockdowns occurring and people at home more, the need for accessible information while away from work has become greater than ever. The first lockdown prompted an assessment of NZDF communications, with the question being asked: what avenues are there for people who don’t have access to NZDF intranet? “While you’re at home, what if you or one of your division has a problem?” says LTCDR Pickering. “Who do you call? What’s their phone number? What if you have a question about leave entitlements when you are on leave? It’s about having that information right there and then.” The project, which started under project manager Lieutenant Commander Fiona Evans, began at the end of 2019. At this point, all the content is with a technology company, who have produced the prototype app for review. The next stage is the “look” of the app, based on NZDF visual guidelines. “Security protocols and accreditation is the next stage – a lot of hoops to jump through, but everyone has been incredibly supportive of what we are trying to achieve,” says LTCDR Pickering. The goal is to go live with the app just before everyone goes on Christmas leave this year. “At first, it will just be accessible to Navy personnel. Then, to nominated family members, to give them some ability to get information on Navy life.” And if anyone downloaded the app from the App Store, they would be able to see basic Navy info similar to that on the Navy website. The app has the potential to grow as an information powerhouse for other branches of the Navy, but LTCDR Pickering and her team want to consolidate what they have. “If it gets too big, we won’t get a product. At this stage, this is for divisional information. We want it out there, live. It’s something we can show people, show them what can be achieved.” It will get bigger and better in time, she says.
The New Navy Mobile App It’s got everything except a name!
Everything you ever wanted to know about your Navy – fleet, ranks, career management, promotions, disciplinary procedures, performance management, honours and awards, personal admin, uniform, dress and bearing, support services and a whole lot more – will shortly all be in one place. All within easy reach on your mobile. But the one thing it doesn’t have is a name. And that’s where you come in.
We’re looking for a short, sharp and punchy name. Something that says what it is and what it offers. A name that we can wrap a design around and then put it up on the App Store for download.
If you’ve got a name that you think’s a winner, we want to see it.
There’s no prize. Just the quiet satisfaction you’ll get knowing your name has been judged the best.
Simply email navytoday@nzdf. mil.nz by 15 October 2020 with your app name, your name and contact details.
Open to all NZDF personnel as well as members of the public.
From Australia, with love
They might be made in Australia, but Sophie Going’s new rank slides pack just as much punch.
Lieutenant Going received an acting promotion to Lieutenant Commander in July while posted as a warfare officer on board Australia’s largest vessel, Landing Helicopter Dock HMAS CANBERRA.
But initially, it seemed the promotion would have to be deferred, as the delivery of her New Zealand rank slides missed the ship’s departure from Darwin as part of a two-month Regional Defence Deployment. But CANBERRA’s Commanding Officer, Captain Terry Morrison, says the ship managed to adapt a pair of Royal Australian Navy rank slides, right down to the ‘New Zealand’ below the two-and-a-half rank stripes. However, CAPT Morrison couldn’t resist pointing they had “Australian Made” embroidered on the underside. “They will be a unique possession that Sophie can keep to remind her of her great time in Australia,” he said. He advised RNZN of a suitable port to post the New Zealand rank slides, but hoped the Aussie ones would remain her favourite.
He promoted LT Going on 12 July as the ship was passing through the Sunda Strait in Indonesia, with Krakatoa in the distance. She will retain that rank only for her posting in CANBERRA.
While on her way back to Australia, CANBERRA made the news last month with the rescue of three crew members of a wrecked skiff on Pikelot Island in Micronesia. The crew had marked a gigantic SOS on the beach, which was spotted by aircraft during a search.
Facing Forward
The Navy, as a service, has arguably a greater historical and modern complexity than Army or Air Force when it comes to uniforms.
One subtle complication is the right way and wrong way to position rank slides. Personnel with a rank that involves a single anchor in its symbol (Leading Hands, Chief Petty Officers, Chaplains) will be issued with two different slides, one being a mirror version of the other. They are positioned on the shoulders so the top loop of the cable/chain is facing forward and the bottom loop is leading aft. Due to symmetry of the doubleanchor design, Petty Officers are immune to the issue. Warrant Officers display the Royal Coat of Arms and this can only be displayed in one format. Able Ratings have a nonsymmetrical figure-of-eight knot, but as it is not an anchor, there is no issue on which side they’re placed. Owing to the words ‘New Zealand’ below the rank symbol, it is not possible to get the figure-of-eight – or any of the ranks – upside down. Officers (with two exceptions) are issued with mirrored rank slides. The stripe with the loop starts at the back and runs ‘forward’, passing over then under and finishing at the front. Getting this around the wrong way means you are “going astern”, or going backward. Again, because of symmetry, both midshipmen and commodores are happily immune to this complication.
Above: Chief of Navy RADM David Proctor checks as LTCDR Karl Weston is promoted to Commander, with CDR Weston's son Tom handling one of the rank slide changes.
Rank Slides
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4
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Chaplain Commander
Commodore
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5
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Leading Hand Midshipman Petty Officer
