H.M.A.S. Pirie

¹H.M.A.S. Pirie was one of fifty six Australian Minesweepers (commonly known as corvettes) built during World War 2 in Australian shipyards as part of the Commonwealth Government's wartime shipbuilding programme.

Six months to the day after commissioning off Oro Bay (New Guinea) on the 11^th April 1943, H.M.A.S. Pirie had her baptism of fire.

She was escorting a British merchant ship SS Hanyang along the coast of New Guinea as part of operation 'Lilliput', the reinforcement, supply and development of the Buna - Gona area after its capture when a particularly determined attack by a large force of 15 Japanese dive bombers and Zeros swarmed overhead and bombed both ships; the merchant ship was hit and near-missed.

H.M.A.S. Pirie  J189

H.M.A.S. Pirie experienced six very close misses and one direct hit which struck the armoured canopy over the bridge, penetrated it, glanced off the helmsman's protective apron, struck and killed instantly the Gunnery Officer and then striking the forecastle, exploded killing six ratings and wounding four others. ²Had it not struck the bridge first, the bomb would likely had penetrated the magazine before detonating and destroying the entire ship.

Fortunately after hitting Pirie the enemy broke off the attack having lost two aircraft shot down by Pirie’s anti-aircraft fire. H.M.A.S. Pirie shepherded the merchant ship to port and landed her own wounded; then she went out to sea again, and as dusk fell the bodies of one officer and six men were committed to the deep - Lieutenant John Winston Ellershaw, Able Seamen Victor Joseph Cremer, Frederick George Delaney and John Isaac Keeling, and Ordinary Seamen Arnold Edwin Catley, Douglas Maxwell Gladman and Victor George Ross.

Aboard her this time was Chaplain-Captain Frederic Fox Bartrop, United States Army, who read the burial service. Chaplain Bartrop had been the senior United States officer aboard the merchant ship at the time of the attack, and at the earliest opportunity he visited H.M.A.S. Pirie to express gratitude for her protection and to offer assistance. Damage to H.M.A.S. Pirie's forward deck and superstructure necessitated in her returning to Australia to undergo repairs. A gaping hole had been torn in the bridge and the decking was ploughed up with raking fire from cannon and machine guns even the forward gun barrel was perforated.

Repairs were completed in May 1943 and Pirie resumed operations escorting convoys proceeding between the Australian east coast and New Guinea.  During the second half of 1944, the ship operated in the Great Barrier Reef as a minesweeper with H.M.A.S. Kalgoorlie where between them, the two ships swept up and destroyed more than 600 mines.

In November, Pirie was attached to the British Pacific Fleet's Minesweeping Flotilla.  In July 1945, the corvette was used as a convoy escort off Okinawa and Iwo Jima. Pirie was the third Australian warship to enter Japanese territorial waters during the war, entering Tokyo Bay on 31 August 1945.

 ²She remained in Tokyo Bay until mid-September and was present on Victory over Japan Day (2 September 1945), when the Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed. Pirie's wartime service is recognised by three battle honours: "Pacific 1942–45", "New Guinea 1943–44", and "Okinawa 1945".

Pirie returned to Sydney in February 1946. She was decommissioned from Royal Australian Navy service on the 5^th April, and was immediately recommissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Pirie. On the 21^st May, Pirie, along with sister ships Launceston and Gawler, sailed for Colombo for transfer into the Turkish Navy.

Sources: 

¹https://www.navy.gov.au/hmas-pirie-i

²Frame & Baker, Mutiny!

³ https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/110520316