"THE SMALL SHIPS"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 56, 4 September 1944, Page 4

"THE SMALL SHIPS"

NEW ZEALAND FLOTILLA

COMMANDER'S ADDRESS

«.IntE?, ducin S his Ulk wit" the hope that these rather random remarks on so??°. i .of th« perhaps lesser-known activities of your own small ships of the New Zealand Navy may be of inCommander A. D. Holden. 0.8. E., R.D., R.N.Z.N.R., in an address last night marking the advent of Navy Week in support of the Victory Loan caippajsn, summarised the work of the 45th Flotilla, which he has commanded smce its formation. The first job was the training of officers and men, said Commander Holden. Then cam,e the opportunity of turning some or the training into practical service when, in 1940, a German raider laid mines off the New Zealand coast and the flotilla * was called upon to locate and destroy the mines. One small ship was lost in these operations. The flotilla also played its part m connection with the salvage of gold from the Niagara, the only merchant victim of the raider's mines. With the entry of Japan into the war the flotilla was given wider scope further afield and its activities extended to anti-submarine and other duties in the Fiji area. FIRST CONTACT WITH ENEMY. The offensive taken by the marines at Guadalcanal in August, 1942," gave tne flotilla the opportunity to move west and north and to its first real contact with the' Japanese. There followed ' rather hectic days and nights,! with a non-stop variety of patrol, escort, and- an assortment, of special missions,' Discomforts of heat, shortage of sleep, and anxiety as to' the source of supply of the many things that were needed were- amply repaid by the consideration and support given to the flotilla by the United States Command, under which it. operated. Commander Holden' touched upon uhe action fought by the Kiwi and the Moa, which resulted in the destruction of a Japanese submarine off Guadalcanal, and expressed the hope that the landmark,.consisting of the remains of the submarine, high and dry near Gape Esperance, would be a perpetual reminder that the New Zealand Flotilla Had done its job as requh-ed. He spoke also of the almost nightly displays given by the Japanese in those daysj by sending their destroyers in force down to the north-western end of Guadalcanal in an effort to aid their shore, forces. "They were collectively known as the Tokio Express," said Commander Holden, "and its approach was frequently a cause of some concern to us in view of our much slower speed and inferior fire power. The signal of warning employed was the use of a rather self-evident/but always effective, word, 'Scramm.' Incidentally, the first warning quite often came as" a direct result of the splendid, work of parried out by our ■ R-n-^ A.^ F -' t he Hudson Boys, 1 as we called them." Other jobs included preventing supplies jettisoned by the "Express" from rea,cl! m S the shore, and enemy barge and boat interception and destruction. Commander Holden traced the movements of the flotilla with the Allied forces north and west through the Solomons and the variety of experiences that had come their way. Speaking of special missions off Bougainville he remarked, "We have good reason to believe that we were responsible for making some Japanese into 'good' ones, as Admiral Halsey calls them meaning dead ones." The Tui had helped to square the earlier loss of the Moa in a heavy air attack by bringing a very large Japanese submarine to the surface,' where it was an easy target for aircraft "The receding tide of war has given us an extension of our activities almost to the Equator, and our hope is that eventually the R.N.Z.N. will be represented when patrol off Tokio is required," said Commander Holden. He spoke warmly of the work of the smaller vessels, the Fairmiles,- along the supply lines, and of the-New Zealand base in the Solomons. He also reminded his listeners that off the coast of New Zealand the routine searched for mines, and anti-submarine .patrols, went on with all their deadly monotony, not always in kind weather. That very necessary work did not have the recompense of probable contact with the enemy, and he felt that the people doing it were quite often forgotten when people were thinking of' the Navy's work in wartime. It was just as vital as any more spectacular job, the. lot of more fortunate people in the Navy..