MAGNIFICENT SIGHT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 28 November 1945, Page 3

MAGNIFICENT SIGHT

| INDEFATIGABLE ENTERS PORT j ARRIVAL WATCHED BY THOUSANDS Wellington. Nov., 27. i Flying the flag of Vice-Admiral Sir j Philip Vian with members of her crew j lined up on the flight deck and with a j number of her Seafires, Fireflys and ' Avengers glinting in the sunlight, ' j li.M.S. Indefatigable, the largest air- : i craft carrier yet to visit Wellington, ! docked just before noon to-day. Her , i arrival was watched by thousands of j people from vantage points in the city but the crowd at the wharf was not ; | large, as the ship is not open to the i ; public until later in the week. , j Escorted by the destroyers Wizard j and Urchin in line astern, the Indel! fatigablc, which is commanded by Cap- ; I tain I. A. P. Macintyre, presented a . 1 magnificent picture as he entered the ; J Heads and made her way leisurely up the harbour, clearly defined against the surrounding hills. There was keen disappointment among that no flight of . aircraft from the carrier appeared | over the city, but the cloud ceiling was . I too low to enable aircraft to take off I with complete safety. It is hoped that i ! when the Indefatigable leaves Welling- . ! ton next week for Queen Charlotte ! j Sound the weather will enable her airI craft to appear over the city. ] The borthing of the huge carrier was i accomplished to schedule and without | event. As she approached Aotea Quay I Admiral Vian received a signal from ! Captain Enright, of the vessel Port ! Philip, which had an adjacent berthage, recalling that they had not met since | the time of the Malta convoy in 1942 in 11 which both participated. Captain En- ! right received and accepted an invitaI tion to lunch with the Admiral.

| Six New Zealanders from the Inde- , i'ajigable have received awards or have I been mentioned in dispatches in consei quence of her operations. For attacks ! on the Tirpitz Sub-Lieut., W. Percy was 1 awarded the D.F.C. and mentioned in i dispatches, as was Lieut.-Commander R. A. Richardson, who was killed. His aircraft was last seen diving towards the Tirpitz. The D.S.O. was awarded to acting Lieut.-Commander A. S. MacLeod for work during the Sakishima strikes. For service in the same operation Sub-Lieut., L. W. Holdaway received a “mention.” Awards so far announced in connection with operations ofi the Japanese homeland include two I New Zealanders —a D.S.C. for Lieuteni a J. D. Alexander and a “mention” i for Lieutenant S. G. Woodroffe. ! HAS STEAMEL 120,000 MILES The Indefatigable, one of the Royal Navy’s biggest and most modern fleet aircraft carriers will celebrate its birthday in New Zealand waters. Launched at John Brown’s Clydeside shipyard on 12th December, 1942, she was comI missioned exactly a year later. Since | then she has been operating against l he i Germans off Norway and against the [Japanese in the Indian and Pacific I oceans. She has steamed the equivalent I of five trips round the world. ' The German battleshsip Tirpitz was | the first enemy objective attacked by | the Indefatigable’s aircraft (in June ! 1944). She embarked Vice-Admiral | Vian and left for the Far East the fol- • lowing November. In January and | February she took part in a sei;ies of | air strikes against enemy held oilfields in Sumatra with other famous carriers, j the Indomitable (to which Admiral j Vian had transferred his flag), Illus- ! trious and Victorious. In one strike at . Palembang the Indefatigable was atI tacked by aircraft for the first time and j all six or seven which attempted to i bomb her were shot down. To achieve | this Seafires braved the ship’s flak and • the squadron commander, Lieut.-Corn-i mander Crossland, was awarded the : D.S.O. as a sequel. 'AT OKINAWA | Covering the southern flank of the ! American invasion at Okinawa in April, the fleet’s task was to neutralise the airfields in the Sakishima Guntoand to prevent enemy aircraft leaving there, China or Formosa to reach Okinawa. In the course of Japanese retaliation the Indefatigable became the first British ship to be hit by a Kamikaze plane (on Ist April). It crashed on the flight deck causing fires and explosions. Ten men were killed outright, four subsequently died of wounds, and 14 others were injured. But the fact that the flight deck was armoured prevented more serious damage and heavier casualties. Indeed 37 minutes after being hit the ship was flying off aircraft again. The next operation was against the Japanese homeland in July and the Indefatigable was part of the British task group which ranged off the Japanese coast with the United States task groups to attack airfields, shipping and war installations. The Indefatigable was still fighting the morning that the Japanese surrendered. The normal dawn strike had gone off to attack a seaplane base ip Tokio Bay and 12 Zekes rose to intercept, all being shot down or damaged. After the end of the war the Indefatigable’s aircraft searched for prison--er-of-war camps and dropped supplies for prisoners waiting release. In approximately 14 months of warfare the ship lost 34 aircraft on operations but 51 of the enemy were destroyed, three of them by the ship’s guns. The ship’s aircraft sank and damaged many merchant ships. PACIFIC FLEET TO BE REDUCED The British Pacific Fldet was already being reduced and would be reduced further until it reverted to a status

similar to that of the China Fleet, r~id Admiral Vian in a press interview aboard the Indefatigable as she was coming up Wellington harbour to-day. He said that two aircraft carriers had already returned home leaving seven in the Pacific, but that number would be reduced still further. Admiral Vian said that as far as he knew no arrangements had yet been made for any further major units of the British Pacific Fleet to visit the Dominion but it was possible that there might be more visits similar to the present one. He pointed out that in the past the China Fleet had confined its visits to stations such as Singapore and Hong Kong and had not included New Zealand and Australia among its calling places. Asked to comment on the likely effect on the atomic bomb on the development and use of aircraft carriers Admiral Vian replied that it was too early to gauge the effect of the bomb and no changes were being made at the present time. “We certa..»l. intend to carry on as if it wasn’t there,” he' remarked.. The Admiral expressed his pleasure at being able to visit New Zealand and said that some of the ship’s complement were in their last few months of naval service and once they returned home would probably not have another oppoi’tunity of seeing this part of the world. FOUR NEW ZEALANDERS RETURN Four New Zealanders came home in the Indefatigable' to-day. The best known perhaps is Lieutenant-Comman-der Alister Sutherland MacLeod. D.S.C. R.N.Z.N.V.R., of Manaia. Another pilot of the Indefatigable is SubLieutenant (A.) Peter Kingston, R.N.Z.N.V.R., of Napier. Lieutenant David D. Stewart, R.N., one of the ship’s officers is from Waimarama, Hawkes'Bay. Sub-Lieutenant (S.) lan Featherstone, R.N.Z.N.V.H.. of Canterbury, has served with the Indefatigable since she was commissioned in December, 1943.