HMAS Yarra

HMAS Yarra

History
Name	HMAS Yarra U77
Owner	Royal Australian navy
Builder	Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Co Ltd, Sydney
Launched	28 Mar 1935
Completed	Jan 1936
In service	21 Jan 1936
Out of service	4 Mar 1942
Fate	Lost in action 4 Mar 1942
General characteristics
Type	Grimsby Class Sloop
Tonnage	1,500tons
Length	266 ft
Beam	36 ft
Depth	10 ft
Propulsion	Twin screw
Speed	16.5 knots

Remarks

From the time of her commissioning, up to the end of the first twelve months of World War II, Yarra (II) was employed on the Australian coast on patrol and escort duties and as a unit of the 20th Minesweeping Flotilla.

On 28 August 1940 Yarra left Australia to join the Red Sea Force of the Royal Navy. At Aden Yarra experienced her first taste of enemy action in two air raids on the night of her arrival. Thereafter she quickly entered the routine life of a Red Sea Force sloop; on patrol, escorting convoys up and down the Red Sea and maintaining a tight blockade between Africa and the Arabian coast.

On 18 Oct 1940 she sailed from Aden as part of the escort of a north bound convoy. About 11:00pm on 28 October, a few miles east of Massawa, two ships were sighted approaching from ahead at high speed. Yarra challenged, seconds before the flash of a torpedo was seen and immediately following, gunfire was heard. HMS Auckland, a Royal Navy sloop, opened fire, followed after her first salvo by Yarra. The Italians turned away, persued by British units which drove the enemy destroyer Francesco Nullo ashore on a small island off Massawa and there destroyed her with a well aimed torpedo.

In mid March 1941 Yarra left the Red Sea for Bombay where she docked and refitted until 9 April, the day after the Red Sea was declared a 'non combat zone' with the end of Italian control of Eritrea. With a pro-axis government in Iraq, Yarra escorted a troop convoy from Karachi to Basra, and on 2 May 1941 the Iraq government declared war and fired on British establishments. With British troops occupying all strategic areas in Iraq, the Iraq war was over. Yarra had participated supporting land forces in the Shatt-el-Arab and nearby water ways.

The Germaan advace in southern Russia threatened Iran (Persia) and therefore India. Britain and Russia decided to act and agreed to invade Iran in a joint operation; Russia from the northern border and Britain from the southern regions lying on the Persian Gulf. The invasion was fixed for 25 Aug 1941. The naval force available to carry out these tasks consisted of three sloops including Yarra, a small gunboat, a corvette, two armed yachts, two armed river steamers, a trawler and the Australian Armed Merchant Cruiser Kanimbla.

Yarra sank the Iranian Sloop Babrby shelling which then ignited the ammunitionon board blowing th magazine and sending the sloop to the bottom, before moving up river to engage the Persian gunboats. Following a successful engagement they were tasked with capturing an Italian 5,000 ton ship that was on fire further down the gulf. Yarra undertook early firefighting and a tow until a slvage tug arrived to take over from them. The Iranian government surrendered on 2 Sep 1941. Soon after Yarr was sent to Bombaay for a refit. before returning to the Persian Gulf until she was ordered on 26 October to proceed to the Mediterranean Station which the previous month had been extended to include the Red Sea. She reached Suez on 5 November and after some local escort duty passed through the Suez Canal. On 14 November she sailed from Port Said in company with her sister ship HMAS Parramatta for Alexandria to take up duty as an escort vessel on the 'Tobruk Ferry'.

For three weeks, until Tobruk was relieved on 8 December by the British 8th Army after a siege of 242 days, Yarra (II) was almost constantly at sea between Alexandria and the beleaguered port. The weather was often wild and the enemy always active. For the first time her crew, used to the ineffective high level Italian bombing, experienced the savage low level attack of the German Luftwaffe. Parramatta (II), victim of a U-boat was lost in the dark first hour of 27 November and Yarra (II), herself attacked by 35 aircraft including dive bombers on 7 December, was fortunate to escape with only minor damage from the hot breath of several near misses. The British sloop HMS Flamingo was not so lucky. Holed and with engines out of action she had to call on Yarra (II) to tow her into Tobruk.

At Alexandria on 9 December Yarra (II)'s Mediterranean service came to an end. War had broken out in the Pacific. A few days later she sailed for Colombo and thence to Batavia. In January 1942 she began escort duties from Sunda Strait to Singapore as a unit of the China Force representing the British naval forces in the Malaya-Java theatre under the command of Captain John A Collins RAN, Commodore Commanding China Force.

At this period the 'debacle of Singapore' lay in the future. Troops and supplies were still reinforcing Britain's Far East bastion in the face of a rapid Japanese advance and an ever increasing volume of attack from the air. By the end of January the Japanese Army was threatening Singapore and during the night of 30/31 January the British withdrew from Malaya, breached the causeway connecting the Island of Singapore and retired into their supposedly impregnable fortress.

On 3 February a large convoy of nine ships entered Sunda Strait escorted by two British cruisers and a destroyer, a Dutch cruiser, an Indian sloop and the Australian ships HMAS Vampire (I) and Yarra (II). After clearing the Strait the convoy split, five ships escorted by the cruiser HMS Danae, HMIS Sutlej and Yarra (II) for Singapore, the remainder for Batavia. All ships were crammed with troops and equipment.

Hitherto no convoy had attempted to enter Singapore during daylight hours but this one in two groups arrived off its destination in the forenoon of 5 February. So far, in spite of some sporadic attacks en route, the ships were undamaged but now the Japanese struck fiercely in a series of dive bombing and machine gunning attacks. The 17,000 ton transports Felix Roussel and Empress of Asia were both hit and set on fire. Felix Roussel quickly got the flames under control, but Empress of Asia was soon blazing amidships with her load of troops crowded at either end of the stricken ship. Yarra (II), though repeatedly attacked, fought the enemy off and in exchange for minor damage shot down one aircraft for certain with two 'probables'.

Commander Harrington, aware of the makings of a great disaster on board the burning troopship, and while the attacks were still continuing, nudged Yarra (II) to the doomed ship's stern and lowering boats, floats and rafts began the work of rescue. In all Yarra (II) took 1804 men from the after part of the liner, which was cut off by flames from the fore part, before casting off. By then recorded Harrington "I was becoming a little dubious of the stability of Yarra (II) and on getting clear gave orders for all hands to sit." Meanwhile the Indian ship Sutlej and the Australian corvettes HMAS Bendigo (I) and HMAS Wollongong (I) had been busy rescuing smaller numbers, Wollongong (I) going alongside the bow to take off the last survivors, the Master and his Chief Engineer. The ship and all her stores were a total loss. It was the last convoy into Singapore.

From 8 to 10 February Yarra (II) was engaged in towing HMAS Vendetta from Palembang in Sumatra to Batavia, having taken over the tow from HMT St Just. Vendetta (I), immobilised in Singapore dock when war in the Pacific broke out, was towed to Melbourne. When Vendetta (I) left Batavia on 17 February under tow of the Ping Wo, Yarra (II), as escort, accompanied her until 24 February when she was relieved by HMAS Adelaide (I

On 11 February 1942, at Batavia, Commander Harrington handed over command of Yarra (II) to Lieutenant Commander Robert W Rankin RAN. From then onwards the Australian sloop continued her escort duties as the allied campaign in Java drew towards its inevitable end, out matched in the air and at sea, it was a lost cause from the outset and when the Battle of the Java Sea on 27/28 February 1942 finally ended all hope of stemming the Japanese tide of victory, there was nothing left to do except withdraw the remnants of the Allied naval forces to safety.

On 27 February 1942 orders were issued to clear all remaining British auxiliary craft from Batavia. About midnight Yarra (II) and the Indian sloop HMIS Jumna sailed escorting a convoy for Tjilatjap. There was an early mishap when the tanker War Sirdar ran aground and had to be abandoned. Later, after Yarra (II) had brought her remaining charges safely through Sunda Strait, another tanker, British Judge, was torpedoed but remained afloat and was able to make slow progress some distance astern, escorted by Wollongong (I).

At 11:00am on 2 March, Yarra (II) and Jumna with their convoy, now consisting of the depot ship Aanking, the tanker Francol and a Motor Minesweeper, hove to off Tjilatjap. A signal from Commodore Collins ashore warned them not to enter harbour and ordered Yarra (II) to make for Fremantle escorting the convoy and Jumna to proceed to Colombo. Time was short and already powerful Japanese naval forces were abroad in the Indian Ocean south of Sunda Strait.

Yarra (II) and her convoy made steady progress throughout the night of 2-3 March. Except for a faintly discerned shadowing aircraft sighted in the evening, there was no sign of the enemy. On the morning of 3 March, two lifeboats were sighted from which Yarra (II) took a number of exhausted survivors of the Dutch ship Parigi, sunk by the Japanese two days earlier. For the remainder of the day, however, the surrounding ocean was empty of friend or foe. But it was a deceptive emptiness, for away to the south west over the concealing horizon a powerful enemy cruiser force was sweeping the Indian Ocean seeking the remnants of Allied naval power in the Dutch East Indies. Already several ships, including the British destroyer HMS Stronghold, had fallen victim.

At 6:30am on 4 March 1942, as the sun rose in a "glorious splash of colour", the lookout in Yarra (II) sighted the topmasts of Admiral Kondo's heavy cruisers Atago, Takao and Maya to the north north east. The Australian sloop's luck had failed and the clanging alarm rattles echoing through the ship sounded a harsh death knell to all hope of reaching Australia.

Immediately Lieutenant Commander Rankin made an enemy report, ordered the ships of the convoy to scatter and placing his ship between them and the enemy, laid smoke while preparing to engage ships mounting each ten 8-inch guns with his three 4-inch guns. Against such fire power, superior range and speed the task was hopeless, yet Yarra (II) fought and kept on fighting as one by one the four ships were smashed and sunk.

Anking, carrying many Royal Australian Navy personnel, was first to go. Overwhelmed by many hits she sank in less than ten minutes. Yarra (II) was then on fire and listing heavily to port but still shooting. The Motor Minesweeper was on fire and not long afterwards sank under a hail of close range pom-pom fire from one of the cruisers. The tanker Francol took more punishment and still remained afloat but at last about 7:30 am she could take no more and sank in a welter of flame and great billowing clouds of smoke.

Leading Seaman Ron 'Buck' Taylor. Leading Seaman Ron 'Buck' Taylor. Memorial window, Garden Island Chapel Memorial window, Garden Island Chapel. Yarra (II), shattered by numerous hits, was last to go. Soon after 8:00am, Rankin ordered "Abandon Ship" minutes before he was killed when an 8-inch salvo hit the bridge. Leading Seaman Taylor manning the last remaining gun kept on firing until he too was killed and Yarra (II), except for the crackling flames and the shouts of men, at last fell silent. Her end after close range shelling by two destroyers was watched by 34 survivors on two rafts. All except the Dutch captain of the Parigi were ratings.

When Yarra (II) sank, the Japanese made off to the north north east after picking up one boat load of survivors from Francol. Left scattered over a wide area of sea were a collection of boats, rafts and floats. Towards evening a passing Dutch vessel, the Tawali, rescued 57 officers and men from Anking but failed to sight in spite of their frantic signals fourteen men on two Carley floats from Motor Minesweeper No 51.

For the next two and a half days more of these men drifted about on their flimsy craft, scorched by day and frozen by night until at 2:00pm on 7 March 1942 they were picked up by the Dutch steamer Tjimanoek.

On 9 Mar 1942, 13 of the sloop's ratings were picked up by the Dutch submarine K11. Of Yarra's total complement of 151, 138 including the Captain and all officers were killed in the action or died subsequently on the rafts.

Honours

Libya 1940-41 East Indies 1940-44

Crew

• William Henry Knox 20 Sep 1936 - 16 Feb 1937