www.tinyurl.com/hmsfiji www.tinyurl.com/hmsfijiassociation _____________________________________________________________________________ \\\\\___H.M.S. FIJI ASSOCIATION___\"-._ /////~~~ we will remember them ~~~/.-' _____________________________________________________________________________ Submitted by HMS Fiji Survivor, Robin A. C. Owen R.I.P. 1923 - 2014 (scroll down for more information about Robin's passing) _____________________________________________________________________________ March 2008 ORIGINS FIJI was the first of the new Colony Class of 12,000 ton cruiser, approved in the 1937 Naval Estimates as part of a re-armament programme intended to counter the rise of Nazi Germany. She was laid down at John Browns, Clydebank on 30 March 1938, launched 31 May 1939, handed over to the Admiralty 14 May 1940. Early in April that year she was brought down river to the fleet anchorage off the Tail of the Bank, Greenock to complete Builders Acceptance and First of Class trials. Early on 5 April I and three fellow 17 year old midshipmen serving since 1 January in the battleship WARSPITE also anchored at the Tail of the Bank, were sent for by the Commander who told us we had been reappointed to FIJI and a boat would take us across in two hours. There was no time for farewells, we just went, but not before several of WARSPITE's officers and, grudgingly, some of the senior midshipmen who had hitherto regarded us juniors with customary contempt, expressed something near envy at our sudden "pier-head jump" from this veteran WW1 battleship to the newest and most modern ship in the fleet. Legally the ship still belonged to John Browns and until the handover we were officially part of the Trials Crew under the command of our new Captain, W A Benn, who we immediately liked. At present the ship was temporarily commanded by John Brown's Shipmaster who was responsible for the movement and safety of the vessel until she was accepted by the Admiralty. Until final handover the Gunroom mess was occupied by the shipbuilders' staff but in the passage outside it we were each allocated a chest of drawers and slinging billets for our hammocks. We joined the rest of the ship's officers in the Wardroom for our meals but were told to behave as guests. Catering was provided by the shipbuilder and we were astonished to be served by civilian waiters in tailcoats with a menu not seen ashore since the war started. Unlimited eggs, bacon, sausage, tomato, fresh rolls and butter for breakfast, roast beef etc for lunch. We could have drinks for the asking but the Sub of the Gunroom advised us to stick to beer or sherry. Our immediate duties were to learn every detail concerning the handling of the ship and the organisation of the crew. We were given blank builder's deck plans on which to fill in the name of every compartment. On the bridge we had to find out the name and purpose of every instrument, telephone, voice pipe and know the name and cabin of every officer. We were also to learn the names and duties of all the seaman Chief and Petty Officers and be assistant Officers of the Watch at sea or in harbour, able to pass on orders from the OOW or receive messages for him. If the captain was required on the bridge or had to be given a message, day or night, we were told how to call him in his sea cabin and wake him if necessary. During night watches we made cocoa as required by the OOW. On most days our sea trials continued, sometimes late into the night after which we fell into our hammocks oblivious to the continuous bright lights, the noise from ventilation fans and machinery and people walking about below us, sometimes banging into our hammocks. We were each allocated a hammock boy, a Boy Seaman, who took down and lashed up our hammocks and stowed them in the hammock "nettings" each morning and slung them again each night. For this service we paid him sixpence a week. More than forty years later I saw by chance the death of this boy announced in the paper as a "survivor of HMS FIJI" and got in touch with his widow Anne Gifford with whom I have had an enjoyable correspondence. Having survived the war, he eventually retired from the Navy as a Chief Petty Officer. With his wife he brought up a large family and lived into his eighties. Our sea trials continued and on 14 May the ship was accepted from John Browns, allowing us to occupy the Gunroom mess, always under the watchful eye of Sub-lieutenant Bob Smith. There were seven midshipmen and one other sub-lieutenant, Ernest Le Flufy, who was a marine engineer. Captain Benn now took full command and we began an intensive gunnery training programme with target practice off Ailsa Craig most days, interspersed with frequent boat drills involving the midshipmen who would be in charge of the boats when they were away from the ship. We also continued with our own training in signals, navigation, seamanship as well as our duties at Action Stations and the all important subject of Damage Control, i.e. what every man in the ship must do in event of action damage, or fire, flooding, collision. There were frequent drills for lowering and recovery of the boats, anchoring and weighing, towing or being towed, entering or leaving harbour. THE FALL OF FRANCE Away from the Clyde the war was going badly, just how badly we could only guess from the daily papers and news bulletins. Our captain and his senior officers no doubt had access to classified intelligence reports but these were not for our eyes. Forty seven years later, in 2008, I read Martin Gilbert's "Churchill and America",(Free Press 2005) and although FIJI is never mentioned I realised for the first time how the desperate decisions being made by Churchill and his government were shaping the policies of the Admiralty and the destiny of our ship and of course ourselves. By the end of April, Denmark and Norway were overrun by the German armies and on 10 May, four days before the Admiralty formally accepted FIJI from John Browns, Germany invaded Holland and Belgium and the retreat of the British and French armies to the Channel ports began. Chamberlain resigned, Churchill became Prime Minister and assured Roosevelt that even if Britain were invaded we would continue the war alone if necessary. It began to dawn on us just what that might mean. It was rumoured that as we were unfit to fight and had not yet embarked any ammunition beyond that needed for trial firings, the ship would be sent to an overseas station for several weeks to work up and train. Until then we would be a liability, unable to defend ourselves except by using our high speed. That at least had been successfully demonstrated and would shortly be used in earnest. On May 19, writing to Roosevelt on the concerns he had expressed to Lord Lothian the British Ambassador about Britain's ability to withstand a German invasion, Churchill told him that if this happened and went badly, members of his administration might "go down". If his own Cabinet Ministers "were finished, others might come in to parley amid the ruins" and Roosevelt should "not be blind to the fact that their last bargaining counter would be the Fleet." He excused himself for "putting this nightmare bluntly" to the President. When the Canadian Prime Minister suggested that, "if Britain were defeated the Royal Navy could be transferred to Canada", Churchill cautioned him and Lothian not to allow Americans to "view too complacently the prospect of getting the British Fleet and guardianship of the British Empire minus Great Britain". On 9 June Churchill again warned Roosevelt via the ambassador that he should not entertain "any complacent assumption on the United States' part that they will pick up the debris of the British Empire by their present policy" i.e. continued neutrality. On the contrary, he continued "they run the terrible risk that their sea power will be completely over-matched and that (our) islands and naval bases would be claimed by the Nazis to (threaten) the United States. Finally, "if we go down Hitler has a very good chance of conquering the world." ESCAPE TO THE WEST By the end of May our trials programme was almost complete, every day lighters carrying ammunition, food, stores and fuel were brought by tugs. A message was broadcast that the final post would close next day and there would be no further shore leave in Greenock. On the evening of 4 June, my eighteenth birthday, with the ship darkened, we steamed fast down the Clyde and out into the Atlantic. The Captain broadcast a summary of the war situation and told us we were going to Bermuda to complete our work-up before returning to join the fleet in the defence of Britain. Probably not even he knew the true gravity of the situation. He did not mention Canada but the rumour was out. On the day that Churchill had sent his desperate warning to Roosevel, we prepared to enter harbour in Bermuda. The following day Italy entered the war and consequently all Italian merchant shipping in international waters became liable to examination and seizure. Our Bermuda programme was temporarily abandoned and FIJI was sent instead to join the West Indies Squadron at Gun Cay in the Bahamas. This was a temporary refuelling base for the interception of enemy merchant shipping leaving or making for US ports in Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. Over the next few days we stopped a number of vessels and sometimes I was put in charge of the motor boat taking the Boarding Officer and his armed guards. The weather was hot, the sea flat calm and there were few problems. I believe none of the vessels we stopped were suspicious and after a few days we returned to Bermuda to continue the work-up, but not for long. As part of the Franco German Armistice, France had agreed to transfer the French Fleet to German control, a potentially disastrous consequence for Britain. With Roosevelt's tacit agreement but not divulged at the time, Churchill ordered the C-in-C Mediterranean Fleet to attempt a peaceful transfer of the major part of it from the French naval port of Oran to neutral ports. If by 3 July, negotiation had failed, and it did, he was to attack and destroy the French ships, our erstwhile allies. This "melancholy action" shook the world, including the French West Indian Colony of Martinique where a number of powerful French ships had been stranded by the armistice. FIJI received instructions to sail at once for Fort Royal. We were to reinforce British diplomatic attempts to procure the "neutralising" or surrender of these ships including an old transport aircraft carrier loaded with American planes purchased by France but not yet delivered. She was accompanied by the cruiser F.S. Montcalm, one of the newest and most powerful in the French Navy, and smaller vessels. Initial exchanges were reasonably cordial. Captain Benn called on the French admiral and a number of French officers visited us in return. Being midshipman of the Captain's boat I was to bring them off from shore and the Commander told me I was to greet them in French and "show every courtesy". An officer who was a French speaker gave me a hurried tutorial but on arrival at the landing place, one of the visitors, hearing my stilted attempt at courtesy, replied in perfect English. After a day or two however these courtesies ended and we hurriedly left harbour, at Action Stations, to patrol off the entrance and await events. If any of the ships attempted to leave, we believed we would be instructed to engage them and for several more days the stalemate continued. Then quite suddenly it was all over. The patrol was called off, the French ships remained rusting in port for the rest of the war and their crews were either repatriated to France or allowed to remain in Martinique. Five years later the American aircraft were taken out to sea and pushed overboard. By early August, FIJI was back at the Tail of the Bank giving leave before setting out on our next war operation, code name Operation Menace, escorting a Free French Expeditionary Force to Dakar. On 1 September 1940, about 200 miles into the Atlantic, FIJI was torpedoed by a German U-Boat. Despite serious damage and the loss of five men killed in the boiler room, she was able to return to Glasgow for repairs under her own steam. It had been an eventful five months. Robin Owen Cockenzie March 2008 _____________________________________________________________________________ June 20, 2011 UPDATE Robin Owen wrote 19 June 2011 to Norman Lewis: "Well! It all happened ! Amazing ! The school lies deep in the Glasgow suburbs and the weather as drab as I remembered it often was. With the shipyards and heavy industry gone, there was none of the old fog that used to linger along the Clyde valley. Our Holy Redeemer Primary School has about 300 pupils and 15 staff, housed in a very old fashioned concrete single story building that looks about due for rebuilding. But inside, things could not have been more different. The Head Teacher Margaret Reilly received us most warmly , saying how honoured they all felt at my being there to share such a memorable occasion with the school. In the Assembly Hall we were introduced to the Lord Provost of Clydebank whose father had been Leadingg Seaman Agnew in the ship. Many other guests were evidently connected in some way, some as shipbuilders at John Brown's Yard which was close to the site of the present school. Also present was Michael Gregory, H.M. Lord-Lieutenant of Dumbartonshire. He is a retired Rear Admiral and a former submariner. Dressed in his ceremonial uniform, he obviously made quite an impression on the children as he explained who he was and what he did to represent the Queen on important national occasions, such as this one. I was also introduced and managed, on the spur of the moment, to cobble together what I hoped were a few appropriate remarks, like how fortunate and grateful I felt to be there on such a totally unexpected occasion. We were served tea and cakes and there followed a programme by the children to illustrate the life of the ship in sketches, songs, dance and music. All the performers had made his or her own hat, many having a sailor's cap complete with gold HMS Fiji cap badge. The story began with the laying down of the ship in March 1938 and her launch (by the Countess Spencer, future grandmother of Diana Princess of Wales) on 31 May 1939, the arrival of the crew, with Captain W.G.Benn played by a small girl. Then came the war and the Battle for Crete and loss of the ship, complete with sounds of gunfire, the roar of aircraft engines, the scream of bombs and explosions as they struck the ship. The players ducked behind whatever protection they could find, just as we had done 70 years ago. I was glad not to be asked to join them on the floor! Finally there came the Captain's order to Abandon Ship and the eventual rescue of the survivors. They then sang some of the old WW2 Vera Lynn songs, there was a guitar recital and two very able young tap dancers. It was hard to believe all this had been prepared in a few weeks but obviously the staff of the school and above all the very dynamic head teacher had made almost anything seem possible. Amazing ! The original of the carved wooden plaque had been re-polished for the occasion and hangs in a prominent place in the school with a good potted history of the ship near it. I was presented with a mounted and framed copy of the HMSFA Certificate and it will hang beside my desk. Later I was invited to plant an apple tree close to the school front door. By now it was raining harder than ever, the site of the tree a muddy patch with a paving stone for me to stand on. Thankfully the tree was already in the ground but I was able to pose beside it with a shiny new spade, the thoughtfully provided umbrella being whisked away at the last moment." -End of message to Norman Lewis- Please Note: Copy & Paste the following URL into your Browser's Location Box to read an article (June 22, 2011) from the Clydebank Post about the above mentioned event. http://www.angelfire.com/ri/georgev/clydebankarticle.jpg _________________________________________________________________________________ Update: August 15, 2014 R. I. P. ROBIN OWEN Subject: Robin Owen Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 09:30:35 +0100 From: Robin Owen To: Norm CC: Charles Owen Dear Norm, It is with great sadness I have to tell you that Robin died yesterday evening at around 7.00 p.m. During his last days he was not really conscious of what was happening, and he died very peacefully. He will leave a big gap in our lives. I know he valued your friendship and support even from a great distance, and I too am very appreciative of your concern. We plan a small family cremation service and there will be a larger memorial event in about 6 weeks' time. I will keep you informed of those arrangements. Please let me know how you are doing yourself, With best wishes, Charles Owen _________________________________________________________________________________