PACIFIC FLEET

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21603, 4 January 1945, Page 2

PACIFIC FLEET

NEW ZEALAND SHIPS ADMIRAL’S STATEMENT NF.W SERVICE AHEAD An announcement from Sydney slaipil that Admiral Sir Bruce Eraser. Commander-in-Chief of the new British Pacific Fleet, said lie will go to the Philippines soon for talks with General MacArthur. He said the Royal Navy and the Fleet Air Arm would join with the American Navy in providing cover for assault landings and in attacking Japanese airfields. He also gave the news that ships of the Royal New Zealand Navy are in his command. Admiral Fraser's statement will ho welcomed by both quarter-dock and lower deck, of the Royal New Zealand Navy. For almost three years the majority of its cruisers, corvettes, mine-sweepers, motor launches and other vessels have had most of their active service under supreme American command, and they have been most considerately and generously treated. Increased Efficiency New Zealand ships, whether built, in the Dominion or on loan or gift from Britain, are ••standardised" with Royal Navy ships of similar-classes. They can vary greatly from American—or. for that matter, from French, Italian, German and Japanese—-ships which have been built for similar or approximately similar purposes. And this variation applies equally to many customs and practices. Because of this, the combination of ships of two countries into one squadron. licet or force can bring its own difficulties with it—for instance, in supply of shells and various stores—and when such an opportunity as the present arises to keep each force homogeneous within itself the change automatically eases many administrative and supply problems, and tends also to increase efficiency in action. .Many Notable Deeds The full story of the Royal New New Zealand Navy’s war record will not be told until after the war, but the salient points which have already been announced emphasise that for its size and resources it has done its duty even beyond the degree which was expected of it. One of its cruisers, the Achilles, was the first to win renown when, with the Exeter and Ajax, she intercepted the pocket battleship Graf Spec off the mouth of the River Plate on December 13, 193!), How the Graf Spec was brought to bay. wounded and put to flight, which later led to ignominious self-destruction, will never be forgotten by British peoples. When war broke out New Zealandhad another cruiser of the same class. H.M.S. Leander. This ship did not find the quick reward which came the way of the Achilles. For her war for a very long time was monotonous, but none the less responsible and exacting, patrol duty and convoy -duty, and it was not until February 27. 1941. that she had her first chance in action. On that date she intercepted and sank the Italian commerce raider Ramb I while operating in the Indian Ocean. Later she was sent to the Mediterranean, took part in an inconclusive action with two Vichy destroyers oil the coast of Syria, and bombarded various enemy positions which were holding up the British advance along the same coast. Later stilt the Leander joined the American forces in the South Pacific, as did the Achilles, and was employed as an escort fbr many important convoys. Both ships were damaged in different engagements while serving in the Solomons area. Auxiliary Cruiser and Minesweepers Another New Zealand ship, the former liner Motiowai. Was lilted out in Auckland as an armed merchant cruiser and spent two and a-liall' years on escort duties in the South Pacific. She had one inconclusive action against a Japanese submarine. New Zealand also fitted out a number of minesweepers for coastal patrols. Their first taste of the enemy came in the early winter of 1940 when a German raider laid mines in the Hattraki Gulf and caused the loss of the liner Niagara. One of these ships was later sunk in a minefield. After Japan entered the war the minesweepers were augmented by several corvettes sent out from England under New Zealand commanders. Two, the Kiwi and'iVloa. sank a large Japanese submarine off Guadalcanal - in January, 1943, and a third, the Ttti. helped with the sinking of another Japanese submarine in August of the same year. King's Recognition These and other successes, however, arc only highlights of more than five yetys’ service by New Zealand ships, in the Pacific, Atlantic. Mediterranean and Indian Oceans. Most of their work lias been of the unexciting and unremitting type without which communications could never be kept open and the war could never be won. The best recognition of the worth of the service rendered was given by the King in September. 1941. when he approved the proposal that the New Zealand Naval Forces should be designated as the Royal New Zealand Navy. It should be remembered that to this service belong not only the ships which New Zealand has seen—the most recent of them being the new cruiser Gambia, which came from the Eastern Fleet, and the corvettes Arabis and Arbutus—hut also all those officers and men who have served in more distant theatres with ships of the Royal Navy. They have been present, in their ones and twos, and sometimes in much larger numbers, at almost every sea engagement of the war.