The Navy Vol_70_No_1 Jan 2008 - Navy League of Australia

HOHENFELS at high tide. (Harold Greer)her throughout the day failed and she sank early next morning.WILDENFELS and MARIENFELS were captured intact, alldemolition charges having been secured in good time, whiletwo German seamen were killed by British machine gun firein the process of lighting fires in STURMFELS. Another twowere believed to have jumped over the side never to be seenagain.18 Australian sailors fought a losing battle with risingwater in the engine room of HOHENFELS, but the salvagetugs managed to run the stricken German ship onto a mudbank before she could sink. A marathon salvage effort wasthen carried out by KANIMBLA over the next six weeks tosave the ship, KANIMBLA’s diver, Petty Officer JTHumphries RAN, winning the George Medal for bravery inthe process.19 The two Iranian gunboats, CHAHBAAZ andKARCAS, were taken without a shot along with a floatingdock. Fire fighting in the three Italian tankers was touch andgo, KANIMBLA having to go alongside BRONTE in order toget her under control.20 With so many men out of the ship inboarding parties, cooks, stewards and anyone available battledthe fires whilst two 6-inch gun crews were in action trying tostop a train escape from the town and the anti-aircraft gunsfired at high flying aircraft. They later turned out to be British,the RAF having stated any aircraft being sighted would beenemy. The Baluch troops were also landed in boats at thistime and took the town against sporadic resistance. Thereafter,until sailing for Bombay on 11 October, KANIMBLAremained in Bandar Shahpur (with the exception of a shortvisit to Abadan) and undertook a myriad of duties in charge ofthe town and salvage efforts. The final tally stood at sevenAxis merchantmen either steamed under their own power ortowed to India to add their numbers to the hard pressed Alliedmerchant fleets.21 Also the two captured gunboats eventuallycommissioned into the Royal Indian Navy along with the twotaken by YARRA.22After dark on 27 August, HMAS YARRA was seven and ahalf miles off the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas when aburning ship was sighted. HILDA had been set well alightbefore being abandoned by her crew of whom there was notrace. Fires raged in the superstructure, holds and engineroom, the bridge having also collapsed. It was too dangerousfor the Australians to take their ship alongside and asLieutenant Commander Harrington’s instructions were toremove the ship under the cover of darkness, YARRA spentthe next day in the Straits of Hormuz before tackling thediminished fires the next night. The ship was heavily damagedand taking water, but she was towed out of Bandar Abbas andmany of the fires brought under control with great difficultyby dawn on the 29th. Course was set for Karachi and theremaining fires extinguished, but HILDA slowly took onwater. This along with the weather conditions necessitated herbeing diverted to Chahbar Bay just short of the Iran / Indiaborder and anchored in shallow water on 2 September to awaitassistance. HILDA was pumped out prior to being towed toKarachi by a salvage tug while YARRA returned to Kuwait tofuel before taking over the tow of the Italian BARBARA. Thisship was then towed to Karachi ending the Australian sloop’sparticipation in COUNTENANCE.23HMAS YARRA went on to perish in the gallant yet forlorndefence of a convoy attempting to escape the fall of the DutchEast Indies on 4 March 1942. She fought to the last against nofewer than three Japanese heavy cruisers and two destroyers.24HMS KANIMBLA saw further service in South East Asianand Australian waters before paying off from the RN andconverting to an infantry landing ship. She recommissionedinto the RAN on 1 June 1943. She served until 1949 when shewas reconverted and returned to her owners.Overall, the contribution of RAN ships and personnel tothe invasion of Iran was instrumental to its success. Not onlydid HMAS YARRA neutralise enemy naval forces inKhorramshahr single handed, but topped it off with anothercaptured merchantman. Commodore Graham had thefollowing to say in regard to invaluable service provided toOperation COUNTENANCE by HMS KANIMBLA:Without a ship of great administrative endurance, a largeship’s company, spacious accommodation and a merchantvessels attributes it would have been most difficult to coordinatethe efforts of the variety of craft and personnelemployed and weld them into one harmonious strikingforce.25Graham was also most complementary in his regard for theAustralian sailors of his command. As for the port of BandarShahpur, both the British and Americans used the Trans-Iranian Railway to supply the Soviet war machine for theremainder of the conflict. Some of this material would provevital, not that the Soviets ever admitted as much, to theblunting of Hitler’s offensive deep into the USSR in 1942.261 Stewart, Richard. A. Sunrise at Abadan. New York:Praeger Publishers, 1988. p. 6-72 Dear, I.C.B, and Foot, M.R.D. (Editors). The OxfordCompanion to World War II. Oxford: Oxford University Press,2005. p 682WEISSENFELS on fire 25 August 1941. (KANIMBLA Association)8 VOL. 70 NO. 1 THE NAVY