www.tinyurl.com/hmsfiji www.tinyurl.com/hmsfijiassociation _____________________________________________________________________________ \\\\\___H.M.S. FIJI ASSOCIATION___\"-._ /////~~~ we will remember them ~~~/.-' _____________________________________________________________________________ H.M.S. FIJI. A survivors tale - John Edward Beesley _____________________________________________________________________________ To realise the various factors that took place prior to, and contributed to, the disaster that finally overtook us, one must commence this story on the evening of the preceeding day, Wednesday 21st of May, when as was our usual routine, we were in company with the ‘Gloucester’ and two destroyers, the ‘Kingston’ and the ‘Kandahar’, detached from the main fleet and assigned to the job of patrolling the stretch of water lying to the west of Crete and separating the island from the mainland of Greece, namely the Kithemar channel. At about 3am on Thursday morning, we received orders to proceed to Heraklion (which we did) but on arrival there we found no sign of the other detachment which should (according to schedule) have been present. We at once headed westward in order to join up again with the main fleet with the coming of daylight. It was during this trip that we were subjected to what was to be the first of an almost continuos series of dive bombing attacks, this taking place about 5am. It was then we adopted the tactics we were to employ throughout the whole course of that memorable day. The ship was held on a steady course until the plane (or as was usually the case) or planes were actually in their dive and then the wheel was put ‘hard over’, this manoeuvre combined with the barrage we were able to put up, enabled us to survive attack after attack and bomb after bomb. We had one near miss during these early attacks which left its mark (or rather quite a number of marks) on the port side. At about 10am, we joined up with the main fleet once again and almost at once the whole fleet was attacked by a strong force of high level bombers, but although during this attack scores of bombs were dropped we came through unscathed. Shortly after this, a signal was received from the ‘Carlisle’ (a cruiser) saying she had been hit and the two destroyers were sent back to render what assistance they could. The ‘Carlisle’ still being in those dangerous waters between the islands. The ‘Carlisle’ managed to get out safely but one of the destroyers (the ‘Greyhound’) received a direct hit and sank very quickly. The ‘Gloucester’ and ourselves with the two accompanying destroyers mentioned previously, were sent in to try and save as many as possible. The two destroyers were engaged in picking up the survivors whilst the ‘Gloucester’ and ourselves were were doing our best to protect the destroyers from the bombing which continued unabated. By now too, our ammunition supply was becoming very low and it was obvious that we would soon have to withdraw. At this time we were quite close to land and it was possible to see the bombers landing and others taking off to continue the assault. Not a pleasant sight, I can assure you! Then, in one tragic moment whilst turning to starboard, the ‘Gloucester’ was hit a couple of times and it was plain to see she was in a sinking condition (being on fire in two places and with a heavy list to port). Our ammunition was now, to all intents and purposes, as good as exhausted and we were reduced to a stage in which we were firing practise shells, smoke shells, in fact anything. So after throwing over several of our ‘Carley’ floats and rafts for the ‘Gloucester’s crew who had taken to the water and wirelessing the shore base in Suda Bay to send rescue for them, we decided to withdraw still accompanied by our two destroyers. By now we had had several near misses and a direct hit which put one gun out of action (killing and injuring the guns crew). The attacks were maintained and the sky seemed filled with planes coming at us from all angles. This went on for what seemed like hours on end but I suppose it could n’t have been for more than two hours after the ‘Gloucester’s sinking that we ourselves suffered the same fate. We had been successfully avoiding the efforts of ‘Jerry’ to register a real hit on us but when the sky became overcast and low clouds appeared, these conditions hampered us a lot as we were unable to spot the planes until they were right overhead. And that was the way it happened, a Stuka dropped literally out of the clouds and before we could swerve clear, we received a hit on the port side which penetrated to ‘A’ boiler room and seriously impaired the efficiency of the ship’s engines. We also shipped quite a quantity of water and this gave us a list to port of about 25 degrees. We still, however, continued to make headway for sometime but finally the list increased to around 30 degrees, our engines finished and our sole effective armament consisted of one ‘Pompom’ which was missing on one barrel. By now, most of those who had been down below were assembled on the upper starboard side and although ‘abandon’ had not been given, we all knew that the next attack would find us an easy target. One plane appeared but passed over without dropping anything, but then there came a big three engine bomber. What it was I do not know, but it was certainly not a Stuka, of whom we had seen many that day. He came down, comparably low (our sole pompom blazing away with its curious uneven note!) and then came down three tumbling shapes which grew larger every moment, everyone watching with fascinated eyes. By some kind of miracle of fate, all three hit on the port side which was deserted. What would have been the result if they had hit the starboard side where everyone was congregated is a possibility I refuse to think about! The poor old ‘Fiji’ gave a sickening lurch, the list increasing to about 40 degrees and then it was pretty obvious she was not going to remain right side up very much longer. So, over the side we all went. This was about 7.30pm in the evening which means that apart from the short interval during the morning, we were being attacked from the air for over 14 hours. We had a bad moment or two in the water when the two destroyers after picking up a few lads departed rather hurriedly. But considering they also were right out of ammunition and ‘Jerry’ was at them once again, one could not expect more. With the coming of darkness, however, they returned and three of us who had survived the three or four hours immersion were soon on board and feeling a lot better with the help of steaming cups of cocoa and warm blankets to wrap ourselves in. The end of a good story by John Edward Beesley who proudly served on H.M.S. Fiji _____________________________________________________________________________ Addendum On John Edward Beesley's certificate of service, it shows his substative rating as Ord Tel. After Fiji's demise, he served on HMS Kestrel, then HMS Mercury, Stuart Prince, finishing his service in the Navy at Victory 3. He was discharged on the 27th December 1945. Michael Alexander Email: malex35@btinternet.com _____________________________________________________________________________