D e t a i l s   o f   W a r    S e r v i c e

1 9 3 9

September

To December

Deployed with Yangtze Flotilla. (Note: Intended transfer to Singapore for patrol and minesweeping to allow return of Fleet Minesweepers for service elsewhere was never implemented.)

1 9 4 0

January

to June

Remained for service based at Hong Kong

July to

December

Withdrawn from service at Hong Kong and transferred to Singapore

1 9 4 1

After deployment at Singapore transferred to East Indies Station.

(Note: No operational use off Burma traced.)

September 14^th 1941

Singapore

Original photos

Crew members of Scarab before the Jap attack on Pearl Harbour

December

Transferred to Persian Gulf

1 9 4 2

January

Arrived Basra, Iraq

1 9 4 3

January

Nominated for transfer to Mediterranean

April

Passage to join Mediterranean Fleet at Alexandria, Egypt

March

to

September

Gunboat attached to Persian Gulf Division - Eastern Fleet

Following the distinguished performances by Scarab's sister ship HMS Aphis in North Africa Admiral Cunningham arranged for the loan of the two Insects based in the Persian Gulf. In the closing stages of the 8^th Army's campaign in North Africa Scarab and Cockchafer on station at Basra were seconded to the Mediterranean Fleet. Early in April 1943 they were towed via Aden to Alexandria.

A month later both were refitted and rearmed. In command of Cockchafer was Lieutenant Arthur Dow RNVR (originally her First Lieutenant) and in Scarab Lieutenant Ewan Cameron, Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve. Six weeks later the Insects were ready for service and sailed for Malta.

The armament and fire control arrangements of the Insects had remained almost unchanged since World War I. No quality modern weapons, electronic control or precision instruments. To quote one of Admiral Cunningham's dispatches:

"The gunboats have primitive gunnery equipment, with old 6-inch guns having a maximum range of 12,000 yards which were out-ranged by coast defence and mobile batteries which shot with accuracy up to 19,000 yards. They also have crude wireless and signal equipment"

The little armour they had was a few steel shutters over the wheelhouse windows and a number of splinter-proof mattresses lashed around the bridge wings.

At the time of their arrival in the Mediterranean they appeared very different from the grim floating gun platforms they had been during World War I. Their armament consisted of two 6-inch guns, one 3-inch high-angle gun sited immediately before the bridge structure, a 2-ponder pom-pom at the after end of the battery deck and eight Lewis guns mounted four on each beam.

March

31^st

Transferred from Persian Gulf Division - Eastern Fleet to Mediterranean Fleet with HMS Cockchafer.

April

2^nd

25^th

Arrived Basra, Iraq, Persian Gulf

Departed Aden

North Africa and Mediterranean

May

4^th

6^th

Arrived Port Said, Egypt, departed 5^th

Arrived Alexandria, Egypt

June

9^th

Departed Alexandria

10^th

Port Said

27^th

Suez and Port Said

28^th

Alexandria

With Respect

Lest we forget

Lieutenant Ewan Cameron

Lieutenant Ewan Cameron New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve, of Christchurch, who was appointed as skipper in March 1943 died while returning to New Zealand on leave on the steamer Nellore, which was torpedoed by the Japanese in the Indian Ocean in June 1944.

He was well respected and liked by all crew members.

'Kiwi' Lemberg visited his old skipper's Mum to pay his respects on his return to New Zealand.

October

2^nd

To remain at disposal of Commander in Chief, Mediterranean to be refitted and modernised.

3^rd

Arrived Tripoli, departed on 5^th

11^th

Arrived Alexandria

June

24^th

Taken in hand for cleaning and repairs.

November

to

December

At disposal of Commander in Chief, Mediterranean.

1 9 4 4

January

10^th

Arrived Port Said, Egypt

14^th

Departed Suez

February

14^th

Departed Alexandria

29^th

Departed Port Said

March

Alexandria

April

25^th

Departed Alexandria, at sea with Convoy GUS 38 of 51 merchant vessels escorted by Aphis, Dart, Shiel, Sharpshooter, Woolborough and Primula

30^th

Arrived Malta

May

26^th

Departed Malta

June

Nominated for support of landings in South of France under US command.

June

15^th

Arrived Porto Vecchio - Southern Corsica, departed 16^th

16^th

Deployed with Flotilla to carry out landing on Island of Elba.

17^th

Provided naval support fire in Operation Brassard (assault on Elba) with HM River Gunboats Aphis and Cockchafer, also HM Minesweepers Rosario, Spanker, Brave and Rinaldo which cleared 40 mines in advance

The Invasion of the Island of Elba

Operation Brassard

Author's Note:

For film footage of Operation Brassard please click on the following link. (this website)

Operation Brassard -The Assault on Elba (Film)

June

17^th

H-hour 4.00 am

In October 1943, the French cleared the enemy out of Corsica which released additional bases for operations against German coastal supply lines and from Corsica an attack on Elba could be mounted. Seizure of this island was essential because German guns on Elba dominated the Allied convoy channels supplying their armies as they advanced.

The assault was to be carried out by the French 9^th Colonial Division who would be transported to the island in British and American landing craft. Supporting gunfire to be provided by the three Insects. The land forces were commanded by the French General Magnan and Rear-Admiral Thomas Troubridge was Naval Force Commander.

The Insects were to have undergone a preliminary workup in Malta but the refit of Cockchafer was so long delayed there was no time left to allow her to exercise with her sisters. The three gunboats departed from Malta on June 16^th for Porto Vecchio in Corsica where the invasion fleet for Elba was assembling. On June 16^th the ships sailed from Bastia, Northern Corsica and Porto Vecchio bound for Elba.

Allied intelligence about the island's defences proved to be hopelessly inaccurate. The garrison was expected to be formed of only 800 men mostly Poles and Czechs waiting to be evacuated to the mainland. In fact there were no less than 2,600 Germans manning powerful concrete beach defences and strong-points throughout the island supported by numerous gun batteries both fixed and mobile. Caves had been excavated in the granite cliffs flanking all likely disembarkation points mounting 88 mm guns, mortars and machine-guns.

Diversionary landings intended to mislead the enemy were mounted some three hours before the main assault went in. A group of American PT boats under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Douglas Fairbanks Jnr, U.S.N.R. simultaneously staged a noisy demonstration off Porto Ferrajo which was strongly defended. Also shock troops landed to silence the enemy batteries at Cape Enfola and on Cape Ripalti to the south-east. At the same time the smaller island of Pianosa eight miles southwest of Elba with a small German garrison would also be seized by a French landing party. Minesweepers had cleared a channel from Pianosa to Campo Bay cutting nearly 50 moored mines. Even so one British flak landing craft was sunk and a gun landing craft damaged by mine explosions.

In one of the preliminary landings 200 shock troops were put ashore 2 miles west of Campo Bay to neutralise an enemy gun battery on Cape Poro, that overlooked the main, landing beaches. The guiding motor launch was stopped in the water waiting to guide the empty landing craft back to the invasion fleet when the dark shape of a powerfully armed German F-lighter loomed up. On board was the garrison from Pianosa which the Germans had decided to evacuate. The waiting motor launch was spotted and immediately attacked with heavy and light machine guns. Fire was promptly returned and a brisk battle raged during which the Lieutenant in command of the motor launch was killed and several of her crew wounded.

(Note: The Germans called the F-lighter design Marine-fahrprahme (MFP), which means naval perambulators. The F-lighter design used a beaching craft with a very shallow draft Drawing only four feet of water these modified landing barges could get in very close to the beach. At 163 feet long they were slightly over twice the length of PT boats. In spite of their ungainly design they were capable of 10 knots with their diesel engines but what put them in a different league from normal cargo barges was their armament. Not only were they partly armoured but they were heavily armed with guns up to 75mm and 88mm size. "An MFP could hold its own with a destroyer, let alone a PT boat which had nothing more powerful than a 20mm machine gun to shoot with." (History of United States Naval Operations of World War II, Vol. IX Sicily-Salerno-Anzio, 1954, Samuel Eliot Morison at Page 189)

The F-lighter sailed on into Campo Bay where she unloaded her passengers. The Germans apparently went to bed remaining unaware that an assault on the island was imminent. Despite the interchange of fire the shock troops had scrambled ashore without interference and started off on their 2 mile trek in darkness over rugged terrain to the Cape Poro gun battery.

On the north side of the island 80 French commandos went ashore near Cape Enfola where a battery of four 6 inch guns was mounted. This battery was sited on a miniature rock of Gibraltar reached only by a narrow strip of land with precipitous sides protected with barbed wire. The commandos scaled the cliffs and charged into the battery. They put three of the guns out of action before the enemy counter-attacked in force. The invaders were eventually overwhelmed and all either killed or captured. One of the survivors managed to escape and later joined up with his own forces while another was rescued by Cockchafer two days later.

It wasn't until 3.30 am that the Germans realised a full-scale attack was about to commence. Twenty minutes later the dim shapes of the invasion fleet were spotted and challenged with a signal lamp. When this was unanswered they opened fire.

Four British rocket craft their rocket arrays giving them the look of huge floating hedgehogs fired an answering barrage of fifty-five tons each of high explosive which temporarily stunned the defences. While they were silent the assault boats went racing in to Campo Bay.

Two British naval beach commando units comprising a total of 7 officers and 59 ratings, each unit in its own landing craft headed for the German F-lighter now berthed alongside the breakwater protecting the harbour of Marina di Campo to the west of the bay. The guns of this formidable vessel could dominate the main landing beach at point-blank range. The commandos leapt onto the mole and charged aboard firing tommy-guns and hurling grenades. In minutes the ship was taken and the main body of the commandos took up defensive positions on the pier.

Then came disaster.

The Germans had heavily mined the breakwater and although the commandos had cut the demolition wires when they discovered them the charges themselves were still in position. A German battery to the east opened fire on the marina and some shells fell on the pier near the naval men. This perhaps set off the charges which blew up with a shattering roar. (Alternatively they could have been detonated by remote control). Four officers and thirty-one ratings were killed and eighteen wounded. The F-lighter itself was subsequently burnt out by German mortar fire. When daylight came more enemy guns began shelling the Campo area and the landing craft standing off the beaches.

The Insects had been pounding two coast defence batteries that were eventually silenced. They now began targeting enemy howitzer batteries under the direction of British forward observation officers. They also engaged the battery at Cape Ripalti which the shock troops had failed to quieten. This was able to dominate the assault area and so was put out of action by the Insects.

With nice precision Aphis lobbed a complete 6-inch salvo inside a house that was being used as an enemy headquarters earning almost lyrical praise from her forward observation officer. "Very successful shooting" he crooned. "Lovely work!" On board Scarab the shock and vibration of her big guns was too much for the newly installed VHF set which ceased to function. Between them the three gunboats expended some 500 rounds of 6-inch ammunition.

While the ships were pounding away at the defences the invading troops had clawed their way inland but it was tough going. The enemy mobile batteries were a major menace and had to be individually nullified by the guns of the Insects.

By evening Scarab had run out of ammunition and was ordered to return to at Maddalena, Northern Sardinia. The next morning Aphis whose magazines were also now empty followed her towing a damaged gun landing craft. Cockchafer was cruising off the east coast in support of the French advance when her lookouts reported a group of Germans on the shore. Lieutenant Dow, her commander closed in and over the Insect's loudhailer ordered them to surrender on pain of death. Intimidated by the vessel's bristling guns the Germans threw down their weapons and surrendered to steel-helmeted sailors from Cockchafer's motor-boat.

In the late afternoon of the 19^th Cockchafer too returned to the Sardinian base escorting another of gun landing craft which was no longer needed. Cockchafer had been patrolling in Rio Marina Bay in the north-east corner of Elba. Her crew had spotted an enemy truck and staff car speeding along the coast road and Dow had decided to put the road out of action to prevent the Germans using it to evacuate the island. However the enemy troops in the vehicles who were equipped with mortars and automatic weapons hastily debarked and opened fire on the gunboat scoring a number of hits.

Below deck the Cockchafer's shipwright who was off duty was reading a book when it was suddenly dashed from his fingers. When he picked it up he found a German machine-gun bullet embedded in its pages. The bullet had penetrated the ship's side plating and the book had saved his life. The title was (ironically) "No Arms, No Armour".

Meanwhile half-a-dozen rounds of 6 inch gunfire at point blank range silenced the German fire. But the exchange had been spotted by an enemy battery in Piombino, (Tuscany, Italy between the Ligurian Sea and Tyrrhenian Sea), on the mainland. Although they had been unable to help their comrades trapped on Elba the German gunners knew the little British warship was within range. When Dow saw the tall geysers of water cast up by the enemy's first salvo he instantly realised their danger and rang down for full speed. With unnerving accuracy the enemy shells from the mainland crept closer to the hurrying Insect.

Somewhat to Dow's annoyance Captain Reid of the Royal Artillery who acted as the gunboat's bombardment liaison officer lounged unperturbed in a corner of the wheelhouse timing the enemy salvos on his stopwatch. "They're firing at extreme range, old boy" he said calmly. "It's practically impossible to hit so small a target with three-gun salvos."

"Well, I'm getting out of here, quick. One hit or even a near miss is all this old tub needs to send her to the bottom" rejoined Lieutenant Dow. At that moment came a loud crash from aft and Dow paled.

It was not a hit. The captain of Cockchafer's after 6 inch gun exasperated at the German's persistence had elevated his gun to maximum and fired a shell in reply. Dow recorded it as being excellent for line but about 5 miles short. Soon after the Insect was safely out of range.

There was little more to do. By 11.00 am the remnants of the enemy garrison had surrendered. The Germans had lost more than 500 killed and over 1,800 taken prisoner. French casualties numbered 400 dead and 600 wounded. The Royal Navy lost 65 officers and men killed and 58 wounded. Only a handful of the enemy managed to escape to the mainland under cover of darkness. This included the German commander.

An interview with Douglas Fairbanks Jnr.

In his real life role as a naval officer in World War II

Excerpt from interview with Douglas Fairbanks Jnr:

SPECIAL OPERATIONS GROUP

Lieutenant Commander Douglas Fairbanks Jnr.

United States Navy Reserve

WWII Were you involved that June in the D-Day landings at Normandy?

Fairbanks: No, but I did take part in a smaller invasion in the Mediterranean that month - the tiny island of Elba, where Napoleon had spent his first exile. At 6 am on June 17, 1944, a Free French Bataillon de Choc was to land on the island's south coast. Four hours earlier however, I was to lead a group of PT boats to the north in hopes of diverting German forces toward us. After our commandos landed and signalled us we began firing, smoke-laying, rocket launching and blaring pre-recorded sound effects. The Germans responded with tracers and 140mm guns, but fortunately their fire was inaccurate. One German we found in a little sort of cement hut was chained to his machine gun. His superiors were afraid he'd run away. He stopped shooting but he couldn't get away from his gun and he was afraid we'd shoot him. He was a little butcher from Hamburg and he was terrified, poor fellow. But he managed to hang a dirty, white handkerchief to the muzzle of his gun and he survived

July

23^rd

On July 23^rd His Majesty the King visited Naples and inspected British and Commonwealth troops and units of the Mediterranean Fleet. The hard-fighting little Insects whose active life had begun in his father's long reign were not invited to take part.

Even before the conclusion of Operation Brassard the Cockchafer's defects had again become apparent. Her operational speed dropped from 14.5 to 9 knots. This was not only due to her superannuated engines and boilers but also her worn out propeller shafts and propellers themselves. By this late date there were no spare fittings available for the Insects. The Admiralty had intended to scrap these long-lived little ships before the war when the new Dragonfly class became available. Spares still in store at Hong Kong and Shanghai were transferred to Singapore when the gunboats left China but had either been destroyed or were in Japanese hands. To keep the Insects running was a case of "make do and mend".

After a spell in Maddalena - Northern Sardinia, Cockchafer went down to Malta for another patching up. Aphis and Scarab remained behind periodically providing heavy gun support to light forces engaged in attacking enemy supply ships between Porto Fino and the river Arno

July

Joined Western Task Force and attached to Special Operations Group (SOG) at Ajaccio, Corsica.

August

Joined HM River Gunboat Aphis, HMS Antwerp, HMS Stuart Prince, four Motor Launches and 12 US Navy PT Boats to form the eastern section of SOG. (Note: HMS Antwerp was deployed for Air-Sea Rescue and HMS Ulster Prince for Fighter Direction duties. The SOG was deployed to create a diversion to suggest landings were to be made between Genoa and the Spanish border.

5^th

Departed Malta

7^th

Arrived Ajaccio, Corsica

14^th

Departed Ajaccio with SOG except for the PT Boats which joined later. Air cover was provided to prevent enemy air interference.

15^th

Carried out bombardments with SOG between Antibes and Var River.

(Note: Simulation operations carried out to provide an indication of a large assault force were a complete success. Radio countermeasures were used to divert attention from the bombardment ships.)

17^th

Participated in Operation DRAGOON (Allied landings on South Coast, France)

Took part in second diversionary operation off La Ciotat, bombarded Baie de Ciotat (15 miles E of Marseilles) with HM River Gunboat Aphis and US Destroyer Endicott

Returned to Assault area.

18^th

After retirement from La Ciotat engaged Nazi corvettes UJ6082 and UJ 6083 with HMS Aphis and later USS Endicott.

Both German vessels were sunk and 210 survivors taken prisoner. (See eye-witness account below - Douglas Fairbanks Jnr)

Released from DRAGOON and resumed duty with Mediterranean Fleet

September

to December 

Deployed in Adriatic in support of shore operations, based at Ancona

The Allied Invasion of Southern France

Operation Dragoon:

(The Other D-Day)

August

September

15^th

Once the Allied forces had succeeded in breaking out of the Normandy bridgehead, General Eisenhower required the assault in the south, planned at the same time as 'Overlord' to be staged. Codenamed 'Dragoon' the aim of the operation was to land the US 7^th and French 1^st armies in southern France to capture Toulon and Marseilles, then turn north and drive up the Rhone valley. The initial landings were to be made at St. Raphael, St. Maxime and St. Tropez.

Enemy forces consisted of the German 19^th Army (8 infantry divisions, 1 panzer division and 1,500 aircraft plus 70 German warships including a number of U-boats based between Toulon and Spezia. The whole length of the coastline was well defended with underwater obstacles, guns, pillboxes, machine gun emplacements, beach obstructions and mines - both anti-boat and shallow water.

Note: Royal Navy Ships were under overall command of Vice Admiral H Kent Hewett, US Navy and Admiral Cunningham C-in-C Royal Navy.

Between mid-June 1944 and the end of July more than a division a week and huge stocks of vehicles, equipment and supplies, were withdrawn from U.S. Fifth Army in Italy to train and stage for Operation Dragoon. Final approval for Dragoon came on 11 August 1944, and the landings took place 15 August, between Toulon and Cannes on the French Riviera, preceded by a parachute drop inland, behind the German lines, and commando raids. Over 900 ships and 1300 landing craft were utilised, covered by a huge air fleet of 1300 British, American, and French bombers. Over ninety-four thousand troops went ashore on the 15th, composed of three U.S. divisions (3rd, 36th, 45th) supported by French and British units. Eleven thousand vehicles were also landed on the first day. They were followed several days later by U.S. VI Corps HQ, U.S. 7th Army HQ, French First Army, and French I and II Corps, all operating under the command of Lt. General Alexander M Patch's Seventh U.S. Army.

The operation was a phenomenal success. Within two weeks the Allies had captured 57,000 prisoners and opened the major ports of Toulon and Marseilles at a cost of less than 7,000 casualties. Dragoon forces then advanced nearly 400 miles north up the Rhone River Valley toward Lyon and Dijon, capturing Lyon on 3 September. In less than 1 month, on 11 September, they linked up with Patton's Third Army west of Dijon, creating a solid wall of Allied forces stretching from Antwerp, Holland to the Swiss border. Four days later, Dragoon forces were reorganized into the 6th Army Group, under the command of Lt. Gen. Jacob L Devers, reinforcing Eisenhower's force in Europe to three full army groups.

Aftermath and Analysis of Dragoon

Operation Dragoon was an outstanding success. The Allies annihilated Hitler's 19th Army, captured over 100.000 German prisoners, liberated the southern two thirds of France and linked up with the Normandy invasion forces, all within thirty days. Until the port of Antwerp was opened in November 1944, the ports of southern France ere the source of more than one-third of Allied supplies in Europe.

2,250 Allied ships and craft were assembled in Naples, Taranto, Oran, Palermo and Malta to take part. From British, Canadian, American, French, Polish and Greek navies they included 5 battleships and 9 aircraft-carriers under Vice-Admiral Kent Hewitt, US Navy.

In order to mislead the enemy as to the actual landing areas an elaborate scheme of deception had been prepared including both Aphis and Scarab. This was Special Operations Group known as Task Force 80.4

interview WITH Douglas Fairbanks Jnr ( continued )

WWII: What was your role in the Allied invasion of southern France?

Fairbanks: The Americans were to land at three places simultaneously, Saint-Tropez, Saint- Maxime and Saint-Raphael - on the morning of August 15. Prior to that, my BJ unit was to stage its largest diversion since its inception - two big mock invasions, one to the right and one to the left of the actual beachhead. I was to command the operation from HMS Aphis, an old British Yangtze River gunboat. She and her sister ship, HMS Scarab, each mounted a 6-inch gun as its principal weapon. We also had 12 American PT-boats, some air-sea rescue craft (ASRCs) and some amphibious raiding craft called MLs (motor launches). We were also afforded backup firepower from the destroyer USS Endicott, commanded by Lt. Cmdr. John D. Bulkeley, who had already won the Medal of Honour for commanding the PT-boat squadron that evacuated General MacArthur, his family and staff from the Philippines in 1942. For the first stage of our operation, we landed a group of French commandos, called the Groupe Navale d'Assaut, at La Pointe des Deux Fre`res, between Cannes and Nice -the first Free French troops to return to mainland France. 

WWII: What diversionary tactics were you able to then bring into play?

Fairbanks: Our small craft broadcast lots of meaningless radio chatter while a single airplane was dropping tinfoil that somehow gave the German radar the impression of an imminent major air attack. At the same time, aircraft dropped 300 dummy paratroopers in the hills near Toulon. They were inflatable dummies that I'd invented myself. They could be packed into a small-size carton, and when released, they would blow up into a full-size man. Some were on a smaller scale, so that they would look like they were farther away, in the far distance. They were also booby-trapped, so that when Germans came up to take a closer look at and inspect them, they'd blow up at a touch. Dirty trick, wasn't it? 

Some information shows evidence of controversy and substantial differences from other sources. See excerpt below re battle with Capriolo and Kemid Allah

Lieutenant Commander Douglas Fairbanks Jnr, USNR Commander of the Special Operations Group's Eastern Diversionary Unit (Specialist in Diversion) aboard Scarab's sister ship Aphis when both she and Scarab were involved in a battle with two German Corvettes. USS Endicott was called to assist and arrived (as Fairbanks relates) when the action had already more or less been concluded. (The US version tells a different story.) Please refer to the above references and USS Endicott site on Google.

* * * * * *

Further excerpt from interview with Douglas Fairbanks Jnr.

WWII: While you engaged in this diversion, I think you got a surprise of your own, didn't you?

Fairbanks: That's right. At 5:40 a.m., we were just retiring when one of our air-sea rescue craft, ASRC-21 reported an enemy hull on the horizon, and that she herself was under fire. I sent a PT-boat ahead and rushed to her aid as fast as those gunboats could go - only about 10 knots - while reporting the situation to Admiral Hewitt's headquarters ship, Catoctin, and radioing Endicott to come to our assistance. At 6:10, we opened fire on the enemy ships which turned out to be two corvettes: Unterseebootjager-6083, which had formerly been the Italian Capriolo, and Kemid Allah, a former Egyptian khedivial yacht that had been purchased by the Germans and converted into a warship with two radar-controlled 88mm guns. Commanded by Lt. Cmdr. Hermann Pollenz, they had just left Toulon and were en route to Marseilles when they ran into us.

WWII: What did you do?

Fairbanks: Not much. Besides learning very quickly that we were outclassed by the enemy, I learned from my gunnery officer that our guns were overheated and would need a few minutes before they'd be fit to fire again. I ordered our Motor Launches to screen us as best they could, and we circled around in the smoke while the enemy's accurate gunfire straddled us ever closer. The radar of both gunboats was shot away, but we fired back with our small anti-aircraft guns.

WWII: In the heat of action, I suppose your fear had been overcome by the need to fight and to survive?

Fairbanks: No. Indeed, I was still terrified. I had a way of disguising it- somewhat- with a forced show of good spirits. Usually, only I knew that my light-hearted banter was my own private form of hysteria. I'd also deliberately drop my helmet, my binoculars and whatever other objects I could on the deck in order to have an excuse for ducking the next salvo of flying metal.

Fortunately, Aphis' skipper was as calm as if he were on a peaceful exercise. Although damaged, the two gunboats had not taken any casualties thus far. At last the gunnery officer announced that our 6-inch guns were cool enough to use again. Then, when we emerged through a thin spot in the smoke screen, we found ourselves at right angles across the bows of the oncoming Germans - "crossing the enemy's T."

It was a classic manoeuvre accomplished through sheer luck. I don't recall whether or not I gave the order, but in any case, Aphis fired a point-blank salvo without the benefit of any targeting device, and by golly, we scored a direct hit on the UJ-6083, while Scarab scored a damaging near miss. UJ-6083 began to list, while Kemid Allah seemed to hesitate.

WWII: Didn't the destroyer Endicott arrive to help you out?

Fairbanks: Yes, but it was really all over by that time. Admiral Bulkeley and I didn't always agree on what happened. But as I recall, Endicott arrived in time to strike Kemid Allah a mortal blow. Kemid Allah's ammunition began to explode, and she went down at 7:09. After launching two torpedoes at Endicott, which missed, UJ-6083 finally sank at 8:30. Endicott rescued 169 German survivors, while Aphis and Scarab picked up another 41.

German survivors about to be picked up.

Photo taken from Scarab.

(Courtesy Blondie Thomas)

WWII: Did the Germans have anything to say about the action?

Fairbanks: They were too scared to talk. They were mostly kids, who had been taught by their Nazi propaganda that we were going to torture them and pull their fingernails out all sorts of things. They were just scared to death.

I witnessed one exceptional incident during the rescue. As you may know, when an officer is coming aboard a naval ship he is supposed to salute the quarterdeck first thing. Well, as a German lieutenant commander was being pulled aboard, he gave a "Heil Hitler" to the quarterdeck. So our chief petty officer (CPO) stuck his foot in the German's middle and pushed him overboard. The CPO then called down in his richest cockney: "Naow, none of that there 'ere! You come back up and do it proper-like-or back in you bloody well go again!"

WWII: The German obeyed?

Fairbanks: Yes, he did. He was furious, but he gave the proper naval salute. 

Source: www.Military.com

http://www.military.com/Content/MoreContent?file=PRdoug and http://www.military.com/Content/MoreContent?file=PRdoug2

1 9 4 5

January

Deployed in Malta.

to June

Nominated for service with British Pacific Fleet against Japan

July

Took passage to join Fleet at British Forward Base in Manus, Admiralty Islands

August

Diverted to Singapore after VJ Day whilst on passage.