大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Jan Bedford of Kent County Council Maidstone Library on behalf of Walter Hagan and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions

大象传媒 People鈥檚 War - Madginford Library Wednesday 21st July 2004

Mr Walter Hagan
I was in the Fleet Air Arm, an observer, mostly navigation as you鈥檒l imagine. When I joined the squadron it was the 854 squadron. The commanding officer was Lieutenant Commander Charles Mainprice, R.N, the East Indies fleet on H.M.S. Illustrious.

As the Illustrious was already operating from Ceylon at the time, or Sri Lanka as we call it now, we were shipped out to Colombo on an escort carrier, H.M.S. Activity, sailing by the Mediterranean Sea and Suez Canal. We were able to go ashore briefly in Alexandria and Aden, en route.

On arrival in Colombo I discovered that the battleship H.M.S. Howe was in the harbour. My brother, Sidney, was serving on the Howe as a radar operator. I was given permission to have a ship鈥檚 launch take me over to the Howe. On boarding the Howe the officer on watch had Sidney report to the quarter-deck. Having saluted me, Sidney took me down below decks to his radar room to exchange news.

The squadron was taken ashore to a naval air station at Katukurunda where our aircraft were awaiting us. By this time it was the end of October 1944. November was spent in working up to readiness to join our ship in December. We were one of four aircraft carriers in the fleet, the others being H.M.S. Victorious, Indomitable and Indefatigable, all of which had Avenger squadrons. Ours was an Avenger squadron, which is an American aircraft, torpedo dive bomber. The first few days in December were spent in working-up as a fleet. Our first operational strike was at Medan in Northern Sumatra. As our main target, an oil refinery, was obscured by bad weather, we bombed the port of Medan. The oil refinery, at Pangkalan Brandan, was successfully bombed two weeks later, an attack which our ship did not join in. The fleet returned to Trincomalee, in north-eastern Ceylon. We flew off to R.N.A.S. (Royal Naval Air Station) China Bay, which was to be our air station base whilst the fleet was in harbour.

Whilst working-up one day, we were to fly to a rocket-firing practice range off the coast of Ceylon. As we were approaching the range, I noticed a flow of fuel on our aircraft鈥檚 wing. I told Peter, the pilot, and we decided to abandon the firing practice and return to the air station. Had we fired our rockets we would have been in trouble. The fuel tank had not been firmly secured.

On 1st January 1945 during working-up again, we had our only 鈥榩rang鈥� on the deck whilst landing on the ship. Although Peter鈥檚 approach had been fine, the arrestor hook bounced over all the arrestor wires and we finished up on our nose in the crash barrier, abreast of the island. I shouted 鈥楽witches off鈥� to Peter on the intercom, to reduce the risk of fire and we scrambled out of our cockpits, down the wing and to safety on the deck. Luckily, the Avenger did not catch fire.

Later in January, the East Indies Fleet, which consisted of the four fleet carriers, two battleships, the King George V and the Howe, several cruisers and destroyers, left Trin鈥檆omalee, bound for Sydney, Australia. En route we were to carry out two strikes on targets in the south of Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies. The two targets were at Palernbang where there were large oil refineries, one at Pladjoe and the other at nearby Soengi Gerong. The object was to put these refineries out of action and so block off Japan鈥檚 remaining supplies of fuel for its fleet. Having achieved this we were to carry on to Sydney to form the British Pacific Fleet.

The first strike was at Pladjoe on the 24th January. The bomber squadrons of each of the four fleet carriers contributed two flights of aircraft. (Each squadron consisted of three flights of four aircraft.) The fighter squadrons provided escort for the bombers and aircraft to attack enemy airfields and anti-aircraft batteries.

American long-range reconnaissance aircraft had reported that there was a strong anti-aircraft gun defence and the presence of fighter aircraft from a fighter training base nearby. Unfortunately no reports had been made of a defensive balloon barrage around the refineries.

Our flight was in the first attack, together with the C.O.鈥檚 flight. We took off near the south-western coast of Sumatra and climbed to 13,000 feet to cross the mountain range to reach our target near the south-eastern tip of the island. Having crossed the range we descended to a lower level and approached the refinery.

To our surprise we saw that barrage balloons surrounded the target at a height of 6,000 feet. Our normal bombing height was 3,000 feet, pulling out of the dive at 2,500 feet. Each flight had its own individual target within the refinery. Our fighter escort contained a number of ground attack aircraft, Fairy Fireflies from H.M.S. Indomitable and H.M.S. Indefatigable. Their mission was to go in first to attack the anti-aircraft gun positions and, most importantly, to avoid hitting any oil tanks so that no smoke would hinder the bombing accuracy of the Avenger squadrons.

Unfortunately, some tanks were hit and smoke was rising as the bombing squadrons approached above 6,000 feet. Three of the bombing squadrons were instructed by their C.O.s to bomb from above the balloons and did so, to avoid the danger of balloon cables. Our C.O, being a regular R.N. Officer, not a Reserve, 鈥渨avy navy鈥� Officer, decided that we should go down through the balloons and bomb from our usual height of 3,000 feet. This we did and, by the grace of God, we all managed to avoid the balloon cables, a task made more difficult by the smoke rising from the damaged oil tanks. In our own case, we bombed and pulled out of the dive. As we did so, I saw a balloon dead ahead and above and just had time to tell the pilot to go hard astarboard to avoid the cable. On pulling out of the dive we flew to a rendezvous area to form up for our flight back across the island.

A spell of cloudy weather delayed our second strike, that on the Soengi Gerong Refinery. The fleet cruised away for a few days and returned to the flying-off area when the cloud lifted. This time the third flight in the Squadron accompanied the C.O.鈥檚 flight, so we were not involved. The same procedures were carried out by the bomber squadrons. Unfortunately, our C.O.鈥檚 luck ran out. His and his wingman鈥檚 aircraft both hit a balloon cable. Each aircraft had a wing torn off and plunged into the target area. All six crew members lost their lives. The net result of our attacks was that the oil supplies were successfully destroyed, unfortunately at the cost of the loss of 43 aircraft and many of the crews.

We were to learn after the war that nine of the pilots who were shot down over the island were captured by the Japanese and taken to Changi Jail in Singapore, where they were held prisoner until the end of the war. These nine were vilified by the Japanese as they had helped destroy their remaining oil supplies. When the Japanese surrendered, these nine were taken down to the beach, beheaded and their bodies were thrown into the ocean. The captain responsible for these executions was himself tried and executed when Singapore was re-occupied. In 1992 a memorial at the Changi Jail Museum was unveiled to these nine, three of whom were from the Illustrious. In August 1993, on our round the world trip, Myra and I went to Changi Jail and saw the memorial.

Having accomplished our mission, the fleet sailed on to Australia, calling in briefly to Freemantle in Western Australia, before sailing on round the south coast to Sydney, where we arrived in February, 1945. The carrier squadrons flew off to the R.N. Air Station at Nowra, in New South Wales, south of Sydney. Here we were joined by replacement aircrew and a new C.O., Lieutenant Commander Freddie Nottingham, R.N.V.R., a South African.

The British Pacific Fleet, which we formed, was to work alongside the American fleet which was involved in recapturing various islands from the Japanese, with the final objective of invading Japan to complete the defeat of Japan. We were labelled as Task Force 57. The American fleet was Task Force 58. The American Admiral Nimitz was the Supreme Commander. Admiral Bruce Fraser was our fleet commander and the officer in charge of the Aircraft Carrier Squadron was Admiral Vian.

The remainder of February was spent in working up at Nowra before the fleet sailed to Ulithi, a Pacific island, where the American fleet was based while preparing to launch attacks on Okinawa, north of the Philippines, which was one of the islands leading up to the home islands of Japan itself. The Illustrious had a problem with the centre propeller shaft, which had restricted her speed since she was badly damaged in the Mediterranean by German Stukas. She had been repaired in America, but she still had this problem. Because of this problem, instead of sailing north with the fleet, the Illustrious was put into a newly opened dry dock in Sydney. Following the repair, which was not completely successful, a few days later we sailed north with two destroyer escorts to a mobile naval air base in the Admiralty Islands, north of New Guinea, en route to Ulithi.
Whilst in the Admiralty Islands we swam from the side of the ship, the only time we did this. A group of us also spent an afternoon swimming from a sandy beach. As we were lying on the beach we saw a group of American naval officers approaching, carrying crates of beer. By this time we were feeling rather thirsty and were envious, as we had no liquor supplies with us. Suddenly, in the midst of this group, I recognised Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Duke, whom I had spent a week with in Miami in America the previous year, as I was en route home from the West Indies to the U.K. Naturally I went over to him to renew our friendship AND to sample the cargo they were carrying. The other squadron boys were rather envious! In return for his hospitality, I invited him to come aboard the Illustrious the next day. He was serving on an American naval supply ship, anchored in the bay. U.S. naval ships did not have alcoholic drinks onboard. So the next day I was able to entertain him in a ship where alcoholic drinks were available. At the end of an enjoyable evening in the wardroom I poured him back into his liberty boat which returned him to his ship.

Shortly after this we sailed off towards Ulithi. Our route took us through a maze of coral islands named the Louisard Archipelago. After two or three days of very cloudy weather we were approaching the archipelago. It so happened that, this particular morning, it was our aircraft鈥檚 turn to go on anti-submarine patrol ahead of the ship and its two destroyer escorts.

The 鈥楥ommander Ops鈥�, Commander Smallwood, briefed me in the Operations Room on the Bridge. He told me that the ship鈥檚 navigation officer had been unable to take a star or sun sight for two days and had been unable to check the accuracy of his navigation. We were approaching dangerous waters so he needed to be able to check that we were where we thought we were and plan our course to avoid reefs and small islands. In the course of our patrol I was asked to find and identify one of the islands. On return to the ship I would be able to confirm the ship鈥檚 position. We found the island in question. Having done this I then had to plot back the ship鈥檚 position in relation to my navigation to the island.

For the remainder of the flight I had to keep two plots on my chart, one in relation to the ship鈥檚 positioning given to me by Commander Ops. and the other in relation to the geographical position of the island 鈥� a complicated process. When we landed on, having found the ship, I reported my positioning of the ship on the chart in the Ops. Room. The next day the weather cleared and the ship鈥檚 navigator was able to get his astro-nav. sights. When I next reported to the Ops. Room, I breathed a sigh of relief when Commander Ops. told me that my positioning of the ship had been very accurate.

On reaching Ulithi we were astonished to see the strength of the U.S. Navy. There were rows of aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers. We were rather tiny, by comparison.

Towards the end of March, 1945, the combined fleet comprising Task Force 58 (U.S. Navy) and Task Force 57 (R.N.) left Ulithi and headed for Okinawa, where the Americans were going to land. Our part was to raid airfields on the chain of islands known as the Sakashima Gunto, south of Okinawa, so that they could not be used as bases for kamikaze aircraft attacking the invasion fleet, or indeed our own fleet. We also attacked targets in the north of Formosa (now known as Taiwan).

It was not only American fleet which was the target for the kamikazes. Task Force 57 aircraft carriers were targeted, understandably, I suppose, as we were keeping the kamikaze airfields under attack. During one of the raids on kamikaze airfields our new C.O. was shot down. He bailed out successfully, but his observer and air gunner did not. He landed in a bay near one of the islands, was picked up by an American rescue submarine and taken to the Task Force 58 flagship. He scrambled up the ladder to the deck where he was greeted by Admiral Nimitz, who greeted him and told him, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e doing a grand job fellahs!鈥�

The Illustrious was attacked on one particular occasion. The kamikaze鈥檚 tactics were to dive into the flight deck where the bomb they were carrying would explode and put the carrier out of action. This tactic was particularly effective against the American fleet carriers, which had wooden decks, which permitted the damage to enter the lower decks and create mayhem, after putting the flight deck itself out of action. British carriers, however, had armoured decks which prevented serious damage in most cases, unless the kamikaze pilot was 鈥榣ucky enough鈥� to find the forward or after lift shafts, which transported aircraft to and from the hangar deck, to find those open.

The aircraft which was diving on to our deck on this particular occasion was hit by our anti-aircraft guns, which diverted its dive slightly, enough for its wing to hit the bridge in passing and dive into the sea alongside the island. It exploded in the water and remains of the aircraft were blown onto the flight deck, plus the pilot鈥檚 skull, which was kept by the medical officer. Years later I met the medical officer who was working at the Ophthalmic Hospital in Maidstone. I asked him what had happened to the skull. He told me that he had given it to the C.O. of one of our fighter squadrons on the ship.

Other of our fleet carriers were hit by kamikazes, but, because of their armoured decks, damage was usually not critical. These occasions proved to us what an American Naval Officer had told us earlier in Ceylon. He had said to us that when a kamikaze hit an American carrier it was back to Pearl Harbour or the U.S.A. for six months鈥� repair. But, if a kamikaze hit a Limey carrier, it was a case of 鈥楧eck Party: man your brooms and sweep it over the side!鈥�

Following this period of operations the fleet retired to Leyte in the Philippines. Whilst we were there, H.M.S. Formidable arrived from the U.K. to join the fleet. As the Illustrious was still not capable of full speed because of its centre shaft problem, it was decided that Formidable should replace Illustrious for the next series of operations. Accordingly we sailed south for Australia, escorted by two destroyers. We later discovered that the first lieutenant on one of the destroyers, H.M.S. Whelp, was Philip Mountbatten, now Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Queen Elizabeth II, our present Queen.

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