World War II Database

Contributor: Morgan Bell

ww2dbaseHMAS Waterhen was part of the Scrap Iron Flotilla, she had been given the nick"name "The Chook" by the seamen of the RAN. She departed Mersa Matruh on the afternoon of 29 June 1941 on her thirteenth run between Mersa Matruh and Tobruk, with a British destroyer from the 20th Destroyer Division, HMS Defender. Chook's thirteenth run of this particular section of the Tobruk Ferry service was to have attached to it all the misfortune superstitious men believe to follow that number. Her motto was "Always Ready", but was she ready for disaster? She embarked approximately seventy troops and fifty tons of stores at Mersa Matruh, Defender was similarly loaded. Waterhen's commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Swain, ordered the Chook's crew to observe normal precautions for putting to sea upon departing. The asdic sweeps were searching for marauding submarines, lookouts were posted to scan the skies, as both senior commanders aboard these ships were wary of facing Axis opposition to any run of the Tobruk Ferry service. Despite the precautions, this would be the Chook's last run on the Tobruk Ferry. On 29 June, when the ships were off Sollum, a squadron of fifteen Stukas were spotted flying in formation in the direction of the destroyers. Two groups of five dive bombers broke off from their formation to pounce upon the ships at 1945 (7:45pm). Jericho trumpets screaming a song of terror, the German aircraft dived upon their prey, as the warship's guns barked in defiance of the intruders, but they could do little else but wait to see the damaged caused by the planes' deadly payload. The first bomb dropped in this encounter was aimed at Defender, however it missed, causing no damage to its intended target. The bombs aimed at Waterhen likewise missed, but the cluster of bombs exploded in the water, damaging and jolting the Chook, she began listing to port, and the officers inspected the death and damage aboard the Chook. The stores Waterhen had been carrying to Tobruk had been jolted from their place of rest and now haphazardly painted the inside of the hull. Only one fatality was accounted for among Waterhen's crew in the ordeal so far, a naval rating had been struck by a can of peaches that the violent seizures that had shook the ship after the nearby explosion had transformed into a dangerous missile. Lieutenant-Commander Swain ordered the crew to abandon ship. Defender picked up survivors of the Chook's crew and the troops Waterhen was carrying, and moved away from the sinking ship. Defender's captain spent a few moments of soul-searching considering if the sinking Waterhen might be towed to port, and her hull spared. However, it was evident that Waterhen was lost, and on 30 June the Chook was consigned beneath the waves. Her captain, true to the old adage of a leader showing bravery in poor circumstances, went down with the ship. After firing a few shells at an enemy submarine observing Waterhen's watery grave, Defender set a course for Alexandria, dropping off the survivors from Waterhen that the British destroyer had picked up. Andrew Cunningham reported to the Admiralty that HMAS Waterhen had been paid off from that day. Three weeks later, the destroyer's loss was first reported in Australian newspapers. She was the first RAN ship to be sunk by enemy action during the Second World War. This was not the only time during her service during her service in the Mediterranean where Waterhen faced aerial attack, there were other attacks previously that did not result in mortal wounds to the ship. Waterhen and Vendetta were targeted by dive bombers in Tobruk harbour on 14 April 1941, but neither ship was damaged. As the ships of the Scrap Iron Flotilla were on loan from the Royal Navy, the RAN faced the unforeseen consequences of the loss of a vessel on loan during a war. HMAS Waterhen was not the only Australian ship lost during the Tobruk Ferry, on 27 November 1941 the RAN sloop, HMAS Parramatta, was sunk by U-559 off Tobruk.

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Waterhen Operational Timeline

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