HMAS Parramatta (II)

The RAN’s second Parramatta was laid down at Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney on 9 November 1938. The Grimsby-class sloop was launched by Mrs Evora Francis Street, the wife of the Federal Minister for Defence on 10 June, 1939. As the slip was required by another hull, Parramatta (II) was, unusually, launched prior to her engines being installed.

HMAS Parramatta commissioned at Sydney on 8 April 1940 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Jefferson H Walker MVO RAN, a 39-year-old officer who had entered the Royal Australian Naval College in 1915 at the age of 13½ years, Parramatta was his first command.

Following a brief period exercising with the 20th Minesweeping Flotilla, Parramatta sailed from Fremantle on 29 June 1940 en route to the Red Sea where it reported for duty to the Senior Officer, Red Sea Force, at the end of July. Except for a visit to Bombay in December 1940, Parramatta spent the next nine months in one of the world’s most torrid zones escorting, patrolling and minesweeping. It was monotonous work in the worst possible conditions (Second World War Australian warships were not air-conditioned) and relieved only by occasional futile Italian air attacks against the convoys under escort.

In April 1941 Parramatta took part in the British operations against Italian Eritrea, East Africa. One of its last tasks for the Red Sea Force was towing the cruiser HMS Capetown from Eritrea to Port Sudan after the cruiser had been torpedoed by an Italian ‘E’ Boat (small, fast torpedo and gun vessels) during the night of 7/8 April 1941.

In May 1941 Parramatta transferred to the control of the Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Station, beginning with three weeks based on Port Tewfik at the head of the Gulf of Suez. On 3 June Parramatta reached Alexandria where Walker commented that after “months of monotony in the Red Sea”, he was pleased that his “rather young and developing Ship’s company” would be stimulated by contact with the battle-scarred Mediterranean Fleet. Soon afterwards Parramatta was assigned to duty on escort in support of the campaign in Libya (Western Desert). The sloop sailed from Alexandria on its first run to the battle area on 15 June carrying a Naval Port Party to Mersa Matruh.

After dark on 22 June 1941 Parramatta left Alexandria on its first run to beleaguered Tobruk, escorting, in company with the sloop HMS Auckland, the small steamer Pass Of Balmaha carrying a cargo of badly need petrol. The warships were to leave Pass Of Balmaha off Tobruk and wait to seaward while it discharged its cargo and then escort the steamer back to Alexandria.

The Tobruk Ferry, HMA Ships Parramatta, Waterhen and Vendetta, June 1941. Painting by Phil Belbin courtesy of the Naval Heritage Collection.

Steaming close inshore to gain the benefit of land-based fighter protection, the ships made slow but steady progress. For 36 hours there was no sign of the enemy but, at 8:40am on the second day out, a single reconnaissance plane was sighted high up a few miles westward. Half an hour later the first of three fruitless attacks developed, the last from a single aircraft at 1:45pm. Then at 5:30pm Parramatta received a warning from Auckland. Scanning the sky, Walker sighted three formations, each of 16 dive-bombers manoeuvring to attack.

As the aircraft worked round to dive out of the blazing westerly sun, both ships opened the heaviest barrage they could muster. The bombers came in, diving in twos and threes. Tall fountains of water rising from the sea marked near miss after near miss. Then Auckland was hit in the stern. It disappeared from view in a cloud of thick brown smoke, only to emerge, out of control but guns still firing, and heading straight for Parramatta, which had to swing away to avoid a collision. Walker wrote that as Auckland passed “I saw that she was an utter wreck abaft the mainmast, with no stern visible.” After fifteen minutes the last of the bombers was droning eastwards. Miraculously both Parramatta and the petrol carrier had escaped damage. Auckland had stopped. Listing heavily to port, its crew began to abandon ship. Walker closed in to rescue the crew. Suddenly, an internal explosion lifted the stricken ship “slowly and steadily about six or seven feet into the air. Her back broke with a pronounced fold down the starboard side.” Auckland rolled quietly over and sank.

At 6:30pm the enemy returned, machine gunning Auckland’s survivors as they drifted in boats and skiffs, on rafts or in the water in their lifebelts. Parramatta was forced to withdraw to gain sea room until darkness fell. For two hours the bombers kept coming. According to Walker, “there seemed always one formation [...] diving in succession, one moving forward into position and one splitting off and coming in at 45 degrees.” The attack ceased at 8:25pm, the enemy having failed to sink either Parramatta or Pass Of Balmaha. In the deepening dusk of the Mediterranean night, Walker turned Parramatta towards the scene of Auckland’s loss. There it was joined by the Australian destroyers HMA Ships Waterhen (I) and Vendetta (I). While the destroyers circled, Parramatta picked up 164 survivors before setting out for Alexandria. Pass Of Balmaha, damaged in the bunkers, was towed to Tobruk by Waterhen with Vendetta as escort.

After cleaning ship and making good some minor damage, Parramatta resumed escort duty to Tobruk. En route to Mersa Matruh on 27 June it was attacked by a submarine. Fortunately, although the enemy’s aim was good, the torpedo ran too deep and passed harmlessly beneath Parramatta. From Mersa Matruh, the Australian sloop picked up Pass Of Balmaha off Tobruk and on 30 June again entered Alexandria Harbour where it remained until 18 July, making good some defects. Thereafter, until the end of the month, Parramatta operated as one of the escort vessels covering the reinforcement of the British forces in Cyprus.

HMAS Parramatta (II) wearing its wartime disruptive camouflage pattern paint.

 

In September Parramatta operated as duty sloop at Attaka in the Suez Canal zone where, said Walker, “it was intended that my presence should inspire confidence in the crews of American merchant ships loaded with military stores.” October was spent in the Gulf of Suez on survey work, a duty with which Walker was well acquainted, having served in the survey ship HMAS Geranium as a young lieutenant in 1923 to 1924.

At dawn on 18 November 1941 the British Eighth Army under General Auckinleck launched its long-planned offensive in Libya. The value of the Australian 9th Division's tenaciously held toehold at Tobruk, supplied entirely by the Navy, was immediately demonstrated. Tobruk was an invaluable feeder port for reinforcements and supplies for the army advance. A few hours after the British Army began to move, HMA Ships Yarra (II) and Parramatta left Alexandria escorting a slow convoy to Tobruk. It arrived without loss, in spite of enemy air and submarine attacks. Their charges delivered safely, the two Australian sloops were back in Alexandria on 23 November. Meanwhile, fierce assaults by the Tobruk garrison against the besieging enemy had reduced their ammunition to a dangerously low level. To relieve the situation Parramatta and the destroyer HMS Avon Vale sailed from Alexandria on 25 November escorting the deeply laden ammunition ship SS Hanne to Tobruk.

About midnight on 26 November the three ships were about 25 miles north of Bardia, off the Libyan coast. It was pitch dark and raining with a heavy sea. Hanne was confused as to its route into Tobruk and Walker closed to hail by megaphone. Half an hour later, the two ships slowly steamed alongside each other at about three knots. Avon Vale was lost in the encircling blackness, but the darkness had not prevented the commanding officer of U-559 tracking the convoy. He had spotted it nearly two hours earlier when the ships had been silhouetted by a flash of lightning.

 

Left: AB William George Barron. Centre: AB William George Blaydon. Right: AB John Richard Streeter. Each was lost when Parramatta (II) was torpedoed and sunk by U-559 in the Mediterranean.

Biding its time, the U-boat quietly stalked its prey and manoeuvred into a favourable position. At 12 minutes past midnight and at a range of 2200 yards, U-559 fired a spread of three torpedoes at what its commanding officer described as a "merchant ship behind which a small vessel was visible.” All three torpedoes missed. Disappointed and puzzled by his failure the captain of U-559 closed in. “I cannot wait”, he wrote, “because the convoy is just off the Tobruk approach route.” He recorded that at 12:45am on 27 November, “I fired a single torpedo at a range of 1500 metres using the same estimations. The target is a destroyer with one funnel. Hit! Two explosions one after the other. The destroyer breaks up and sinks. Shortly afterwards another heavy explosion. Probably her depth charges. I make off towards the south east.” 

U-559’s torpedo hit Parramatta amidships. There were two almost simultaneous explosions, the second probably in the magazine. The sloop was torn apart, all lighting failed and Walker, standing on the bridge, had time only to order “abandon ship” before Parramatta rolled rapidly to starboard and sank.

 

Other ratings listed as "missing" included, left, Ordinary Seaman Lyall James Smith; centre, Cook Michael Sofoulis; right, Stoker Henry Arthur Apps.

Only those on deck had a chance to escape. About 30, including two officers, clung to an Oropesa float among a mass of debris. They could hear shouts close by in the darkness. Some distance off a vague black shape was visible. Two seamen decided to take a chance and swim towards it. After three quarters of a mile and near exhaustion they were picked up at 3:05am by what turned out to be Avon Vale. The destroyer had by then already plucked nineteen survivors from the wreckage-strewn sea. Although Avon Vale searched a wide area, no other survivors were found and the destroyer found no trace of the Oropesa float nor any of its human cargo. Three other survivors reached the Libyan coast unaided, making in all 24 survivors. A total of 108 lost their lives, including all the officers.

Ordinary Seaman, Harold Moss, the last surviving veteran of the sinking, recalled later in life the moment his ship was torpedoed:

When the ship was hit, it blew me over the [mess deck] table into the ship’s side. I some how knew it was a torpedo and had to get out. Near that mess was a ladder going up behind the funnel and I was up there like a flash, right opposite me, as I got on the deck was the whaler and I thought I will get into that and as the ship wet down I would float of, silly me forgot that it was all tied down and as the ship turned over I was washed out. I was not a strong swimmer, but a good dog paddler and luck again was with me, there was a Carley raft right next to me, I got in and helped the other guys in. I was sitting on top of the raft on the rope handles and it was mighty uncomfortable, also, I had my hands gripped around that rope because it was a bit rough and cold too. When the Avon Vale came alongside they yelled out “you have two minutes to get up the net!” Everybody went except me. I couldn't get my hands off the rope, they were clenched tight around it, so I yelled out “I need help” and someone came down the net, undid my hands and threw me over his shoulder and took me up on the deck. I was covered in fuel oil and had a couple of scratches on me. The Doc cleaned me up, gave me a tot of something and they wrapped a blanket around me and took me away.

 

Former shipmates Bill Wood, Harold Moss and Ted Fryer, circa 1940.

An expression of sympathy and admiration for the gallant sloop from the Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean to the Australian Naval Board. Parramatta's loss closely followed that of the cruiser HMAS Sydney (II) with all hands, making November 1941 one of the darkest months in RAN history.

In a twist to this story, U-559, the U-boat responsible for sinking Parramatta, was itself sunk on 30 October 1942 by ships of the Royal Navy (RN). After being depth charged for 16 hours, and with a cracked pressure hull, it surfaced and her crew abandoned her. Three British seaman then boarded the sinking vessel seizing its Enigma coding machine and code books. Two of the RN seaman were lost when the U-boat sank, but their sacrifice enabled the Allies to break and read the German naval signal traffic, saving the lives of countless other Allied seaman.