HMAS

Vampire

(I)

Vampire's crew rescuing survivors from the Italian destroyer Artigliere. Twenty-two men including, one officer, were recovered and a plain language signal sent to the Italian Admiralty advising it of the position of rafts with other survivors on board. Many of them were later rescued by their own forces.

When confirmation was received of the abandonment of Artigliere by her crew, the British cruiser HMS York was ordered to sink her by gunfire.

The destroyer, burning furiously, blew up as Vampire collected some survivors from a life raft. After fuelling at Alexandria on 15 October Vampire proceeded to sea to escort the crippled cruiser HMS Liverpool, torpedoed by aircraft south east of Crete the previous day.   

 

Ten days in Alexandria ended on 25 October when Vampire proceeded to sea with the fleet for Operation MAQ2, the passage of a Port Said to Dardanelles convoy. Operations included a sweep towards Kaso Strait by the battle fleet and the bombing of Maltazana, Stampalia, by aircraft from Eagle.

On 28 October the Italian Army invaded Greece from Albania and it followed that reinforcement of Greece and Crete with British troops would involve a further commitment for the Mediterranean Fleet, in bolstering Greek resistance on land and sea.

British reaction was immediate and on 29 October a convoy sailed from Alexandria to establish a fuelling base at Suda Bay in Crete. It comprised the net layer HMS Protector, a minesweeper, two armed boarding vessels and two fleet oilers, covered by the cruisers Coventry and Calcutta and four destroyers of the 10th Flotilla including Vampire. On arrival the destroyers maintained an anti-submarine patrol pending the laying of anti-submarine nets. By the evening of 1 November this work was completed despite enemy air attacks and the following day Vampire and Waterhen (I) sailed escorting the net layer, the armed boarding ships Chakla and Fiona and one of the fleet oilers to Alexandria.

On 4 November convoys departed Port Said and Alexandria for Greece and Crete. On 5 November the cruisers Sydney (II) and Ajax left Port Said with artillery and support troops for Suda Bay while at the same time a convoy sailed from Malta. The fleet was at sea to cover these and other movements and to meet further Mediterranean reinforcements comprising the battleship HMS Barham, the cruisers HMS Berwick and HMS Glasgow and three destroyers. Vampire, assigned as an escort to the Malta bound convoy MW3, sailed from Alexandria on 5 November and returned on 13 November with the eastbound convoy after an uneventful voyage.

The battleship HMS Barham. She was later torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean by U-331.

On 15 November the military reinforcement of Greece began with a fast convoy (Clan Macarthur, Imperial Start, Nieuw Zeeland and Johan De Witt) to Piraeus escorted by Coventry, Vampire and Waterhen (I). It arrived safely and the two Australian destroyers with Nubian in company proceeded for Alexandria the next evening carrying out an anti-submarine sweep in the Aegean and a search of the Kaso Strait en route.

Meanwhile the battle fleet was preparing to cover the passage of further Malta convoys, Operation MB9, both east and west bound. It included the first through Mediterranean convoy of merchant ships. Italian attempts to prevent its passage failed and an attack against the east bound convoy south of Sardinia led to the brief engagement with the Italian fleet off Cape Spartivento on 27 November which like Calabria developed into a chase of the fleeing Italians making at best speed for the safety of their base.

As a unit of the large British forces at sea during these operations, Vampire departed Alexandria on 23 November as part of the escort of the west bound convoy MW4 to Malta. The following day Italian torpedo aircraft attacked but so intense was the anti-aircraft fire that only one succeeded in firing its torpedo which passed harmlessly 500 yards ahead of Vendetta (I). The convoy arrived at Malta unharmed on 26 November and the same day Vampire sailed escorting the east bound NE3, which reached Alexandria on 30 November.

Vampire spent the first nine days of December boiler cleaning at Alexandria before sailing on the 10th for three days at sea with the fleet. On the previous day the British Army under General Wavell began its offensive in the Western Desert. The immediate object of the operations ashore was the destruction of enemy forces in the Nibeiwa/Twamae area followed by a northward drive to Sidi Barrani on the coast, thus isolating Maktila Camp which was then the Italians most advanced camp in Egypt. The naval role during the initial stage was to provide harassing bombardment against Maktila and Sidi Barrani and this was begun on the night of 8/9 December using the monitor HMS Terror supported by two gunboats and three destroyers.

On 10 December the battle fleet sailed from Alexandria (Barham, Valiant, York and Illustrious) to bombard Bardia, but were prevented from shelling the Italian positions by bad weather which also stopped a projected attack on El Adem airfield by aircraft from Illustrious. On 14 December Vampire joined the Inshore Squadron screening Terror for the following two days during the bombardment of Bardia. Shore batteries kept up a continuous fire, most of the shells falling short but both Vendetta (I) and Voyager (I) were straddled and one man was wounded in Voyager (I). At twilight on 16 December two torpedo aircraft attacked but were driven off after firing four torpedoes, one of which missed Vampire by 50 yards. On 17 December she returned to Alexandria to refuel.

The aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious at sea.

Ashore the military operations proved a complete success. Sollum and Fort Capuzzo were captured on 16 December and when Vampire rejoined the Inshore Squadron off Sollum on 18 December the Italian defence appeared to be rapidly collapsing. With the capture of Sollum the first phase ended and the role of the Navy turned temporarily from offensive action to one of supply to the British forces ashore. For the remainder of December 1940 the work of the Australian and British destroyers of the 10th Flotilla supporting the campaign in the Western Desert (Vampire, Voyager (I), Vendetta (I), Waterhen (I), Diamond and Wryneck) was confined to patrol and escort duty. On 26 December Waterhen (I) captured a schooner and on 29 December Voyager (I) intercepted a vessel engaged in transporting British prisoners of war from Bardia to Tobruk. Dainty also captured two schooners. On 20 December Vampire withdrew to escort Protector to Alexandria. While en route she stripped her starboard turbine necessitating repairs which kept her in Alexandria until 8 January 1941.

On 27 December at Alexandria, Captain (D) 10 transferred to Voyager (I) to take over duties of Senior Naval Officer (afloat) at Sollum and sailed to rejoin the Inshore Squadron supporting Terror in the bombardment of Bardia on 28 December. Vampire rejoined the Inshore Squadron on 9 January 1941; too late to witness the capture of Bardia by the Australian troops on 4 January. Off Sollum she embarked Captain Waller for passage to Alexandria where on 10 January he rejoined Stuart (I).

Defeated in the desert, the Italians were faring no better on the other side of the Mediterranean in their attempts to subjugate the Greeks. The Germans became alarmed and decided to intervene in an effort to bolster the Axis position. This they sought to accomplish by the only means available at short notice - the transfer of German air squadrons to the Mediterranean. The arrival of the Luftwaffe, particularly its dive bombers, to reinforce the Italian squadrons operating from Sicilian airfields, was a serious matter for the Mediterranean Fleet, curtailing its freedom of movement and weakening its hitherto undisputed control of the central Mediterranean.

The German pilots, trained in a harder school, soon made their presence felt and in the first encounter during the passage of Greece and Malta bound convoys sank the cruiser Southampton and severely damaged the carrier Illustrious. This was Operation EXCESS which had as its objective the passage of a convoy from Gibraltar through the Mediterranean to Greece and Malta and the simultaneous movement of fast convoys from Alexandria to Malta and east bound to Alexandria with a fourth slower convoy from Malta to Port Said. The entire movement entailed the passage of fourteen ships, but its protection employed almost the entire British naval strength, namely Force H from Gibraltar under Vice Admiral Sir James Somerville and the bulk of the Mediterranean Fleet under Admiral Cunningham.

Vampire showing the visible effects of lengthy periods at sea.

As part of these operations it was intended that Barham and Eagle (Admiral Rawlings) should join the fleet on 12 January for Operation MC6, an attack on the Italian shipping routes while the convoys were at sea. The disabling of Illustrious put an end to this plan and Admiral Rawlings' group was eventually frustrated by bad weather.

Vampire sailed on 11 January 1941 screening Barham and Eagle and detached to Piraeus after carrying out an anti-aircraft sweep of the Kaso Strait and eventually returned to Alexandria on 18 January. On 21 January she rejoined the Inshore Squadron to assist in preventing the escape of the Italian cruiser San Giorgio from Tobruk. Off Tobruk on the following day she captured the Italian schooner Diego. She remained with the Inshore Squadron until the close of January and on 27 January anchored in Tobruk harbour, the town having been captured by the British forces on 22 January. A large bronze plaque was taken as a trophy from the burnt out wreck of the San Giorgio.

On 1 February Vampire rejoined the battle fleet for screening duties during further convoy movements. She spent three days with the fleet before proceeding to Suda Bay to act as escort for an Alexandria bound convoy. On 8 February she rejoined the Inshore Squadron at Tobruk for Western Desert patrol and screening Terror during her transit to Benghazi. Support of the campaign ashore continued until 21 February when Vampire departed to join the 1st Battle Squadron and Eagle en route for Alexandria before proceeding to Port Said to act as part of the escort for convoy ANF16 that was bound for Greece.

Meanwhile, the German plans in the Balkans were beginning to take shape and on 1 March, Bulgaria joined the Axis powers. Britain decided to send strong military aid to Greece.

The movement of the troops and their equipment in the face of an ever increasing scale of air attack strained all the resources of the available naval strength in the Mediterranean to the utmost. Beginning on 5 March 1941 with the first movement of 'Lustre Force' as it was known and continuing until 24 April some 58,000 troops, with all their stores and fighting equipment, were transported from Egypt to Greece. The passage to Piraeus, virtually the only port available for disembarkation, led past enemy bases in the Dodecanese, from which they were able to launch attacks against the British line of communication. In spite of his advantageous strategic position they failed to halt the steady flow of men and material and excepting a few bomb splinter casualties in one ship all arrived safely. The losses sustained, six ships, were all vessels proceeding in the convoys but not part of the Lustre Force movement or vessels returning empty to Egypt.

All the Australian destroyers and HMAS Perth (I) played a part in support of the movement. Vampire, in dock at Piraeus during the early stages, sailed on 9 March escorting empty ships of convoy GA2 tor Alexandria. Before the end of the month she assisted in the safe passage of four Greece bound convoys broken by the task of embarking the ex Prime Minister of Yugoslavia from the yacht Calanthe in the Gulf of Athens for passage to Alexandria. In late March Vampire was engaged in escorting convoy AG9 to Greece.

In April Vampire continued her escort duties with the Greek convoys. On 17 April when escorting AN27, four German Junkers 88 bombers attacked; Vampire drove them off hitting one in the port engine and when only three returned twenty minutes later the missing plane was seen as evidence of her gunner's success. On 24 April Vampire sailed from Alexandria to join convoy AG14. On this, as on all the other runs, the usual air attacks developed forcing the abandonment of the damaged Scottish Prince by her crew, but urged on by the crew of Vampire and HMS Grimsby, they returned to the listing vessel and brought her safely into Suda Bay.

At this stage the Greek campaign was a lost cause and in the face of a chaotic military situation the British Government ordered an evacuation to begin. Operation DEMON began on the night of 24/25 April and it involved the use of all the light forces of the Mediterranean Fleet except the cruiser Gloucester and four destroyers of the Malta Force. Active in carrying out the rescue operations were six cruisers, nineteen destroyers and numerous small vessels. Three 'Glen' ships equipped with landing craft were also used.

In the entire operation, in which Perth (I) and all the Australian destroyers took part, 50,672 troops were evacuated, being about 80 per cent of the original forces landed in Greece. All but 500 men lost in the transport Slamat were safely landed in Suda Bay. But the operation was not accomplished without loss; Diamond and Wryneck of the 10th Flotilla were sunk as were the transports Ulster Prince and Pennland. Several ships were also damaged. Vampire's part was confined to escort duty at sea and she took no part in the evacuation.

HMAS Vampire conducting a jackstay transfer.

In May Vampire continued escort duty between Egypt and Crete until 12 May when she returned to Alexandria, from Suda Bay, escorting convoy AS30.

Australian troops about to embark in Vampire.

At this stage British military fortunes in the Western Desert had sunk to a low ebb and almost all the gains of the January offensive had been lost. Weakened by the Greek campaign the Commonwealth forces fell back when German armoured forces of General Rommel's Afrika Korps struck at the beginning of April. Benghazi fell on 3 April, Bardia on 9 April with Fort Capuzzo and Sollum also soon falling into enemy hands. On 13 April the British forces were back on the frontier of Egypt. Only the coastal city of Tobruk, held by Australian troops, held out and continued to remain a thorn in side of the Axis forces who despite their efforts failed to dislodge the defenders. The task of supplying the beleaguered garrison fell to the Navy. It was dangerous work that was to cost the Royal Australian Navy two ships, Waterhen (I) and Parramatta (I), before it ended.

On 13 May Vampire was assigned to the 'Tobruk Ferry Run' as the shuttle service was soon named. Two days later she sailed from Alexandria to Tobruk carrying stores and 102 troops, returning two days later with 180 wounded personnel. On 21 May she sailed again to Tobruk but returned to Alexandria a tired ship with defects mounting daily. When steaming above 16 knots severe vibration made it impossible for her to maintain the fast transit speed needed to get into and out of Tobruk under cover of darkness. It was reluctantly decided to withdraw her from the Mediterranean and send her to Singapore for an extensive refit.

On 29 May she passed through the Suez Canal en route to Singapore. On 20 June she entered Singapore Dockyard; where she remained for repairs during July - November. Commander William Moran, RAN assumed command of Vampire at Singapore on 16 October 1941. Many of her crew were also newly arrived from Australia. The refit was completed on 15 November 1941 but a collision in Keppel Harbour with the steamer Perak delayed operational readiness until late November; with her final trials ending on the 26th. On this day Vampire sailed for Sarawak in Borneo, transporting the General Officer Commanding Malaya, General Percival, and some of his staff. On 1 December she was back in Singapore. The battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse arrived in Singapore on 2 December and when the latter sailed for Darwin, Vampire sailed as her escort but after 24 hours at sea the ships were recalled.

Some of the 180 wounded that were evacuated from Tobruk by HMAS Vampire in May 1941.

In the middle watch on December 8th at Singapore Naval Base, many of us saw our first air attack when Japan commenced hostilities.

In the afternoon of 8 December 1941 Vampire sailed from Singapore escorting Prince of Wales and Repulse on their ill fated attempt to disrupt the Japanese invasion of Malaya. Following the sinking of both capital ships by Japanese torpedo aircraft, Vampire and HM Ships Express and Electra, three of the escorting destroyers, rescued 132 officers and 1949 ratings out of a total complement of 2921 in both ships. Vampire landed nine officers, 215 ratings and one civilian war correspondent at Singapore.

The British battleship HMS Prince of Wales departing Singapore.

Throughout the remainder of December Vampire was kept busy escorting inward and outward convoys to Singapore and giving protection to HMS Teviot Bank during mine laying operations in the South China Sea.

The first three weeks of January 1942 saw Vampire continuing to escort shipping in and out of Singapore and Batavia. On 24 January she arrived at Singapore as part of the escort of a troop convoy of six ships. The next two days were spent at the naval base. On 26 January she was ordered to proceed with the destroyer HMS Thanet to attack Japanese transports reported to be lying off Endau some 80 miles north of Singapore. The Japanese ships had arrived that day and comprised in fact two transports escorted by the light cruiser Sendai, destroyers of the 3rd Destroyer Squadron and some smaller craft.

Vampire and Thanet sailed on the afternoon of 26 January and arrived off Endau after moonset shortly before 2:00am the following morning. With Vampire leading, at 15 knots, the two ships steamed into what was a veritable hornet's nest. In addition to the cruiser Sendai, there were six destroyers (Hatsuyuki, Shirayuki, Fubuki, Yogiri, Asagiri and Amagiri) covering the transports.

At 2:37am the dim shape of what Commander Moran took to be a destroyer appeared on Vampire's starboard bow. Seeking the transports he continued in towards Endau and soon sighted a second 'destroyer' 'right ahead and close.' Vampire swung to port and fired two torpedoes without result. This ship, which was in fact a minesweeper patrolling outside the anchorage, sighted Vampire and gave the alarm. The two Allied destroyers continued their course towards Endau until shortly after 3:00am and when not sighting the expected concentration they turned south east and increased to best speed.

At 3:18am their luck ran out. A destroyer appeared on Vampire's port bow and she fired her remaining torpedo. Again she missed while Thanet altering course to starboard fired all her torpedoes but they too sped harmlessly past the target. The Japanese destroyer opened fire and the cruiser Sendai joined in the confused melee that followed. Hopelessly outnumbered Vampire and Thanet retired south east by east at top speed, returning the Japanese fire in the unequal engagement.

Thanet was hit and at about 4:00am and great clouds of black smoke were soon emanating from the stricken vessel. Moran tried to cover her withdrawal under a smoke screen but she was doomed and was last seen from Vampire stopped and listing heavily to starboard. She sank shortly afterwards at about 4:15am on 27 January. Vampire, unscathed, made good her escape and entered Singapore Harbour at 10:00am that morning. The night action off Endau brought Vampire's service in the Malayan theatre almost to a close.

On 28 January 1942 she sailed in company with HMAS Yarra (II), escorting a convoy to Sunda Strait. On 30 January her position as escort was taken over by HMS Sutlej and she proceeded to Batavia. She sailed on 1 February as part of the escort to the American transports Westpoint and Manhattan through Sunda Strait, returning to Batavia on 3 February. Two days later on 5 February she sailed escorting two merchant ships for Colombo where on 11 February Vampire joined the East Indies Station.

Vampire undertaking a light-line transfer at sea.

The remainder of February was spent on escort duties and screening the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes. At the close of the month her War Diary recorded that Vampire had been underway on 69 out of 83 days since the outbreak of the Pacific War. In March 1942 Vampire continued operating from Ceylon as a part of the British Eastern Fleet.

At the beginning of April 1942 the overwhelming success of Japanese operations on land and at sea made it abundantly clear to the British naval command that Ceylon was untenable as a base for operations. The enemy had complete control of the Bay of Bengal and was in a position to control the waters south and south west of Colombo. On 28 March 1942 Admiral Somerville, Commander-in-Chief, Eastern Fleet, received warning of a pending air attack on Ceylon on or about 1 April. He decided to concentrate his Fleet which comprised five battleships (Warspite, Resolution, Ramillies, Royal Sovereign and Revenge); three aircraft carriers (Indomitable, Formidable and Hermes); six cruisers (Cornwall, Emerald, Enterprise, Caledon, Dragon and Dorsetshire); and fourteen destroyers, including Vampire, on the night of 31 March in a position from which he could launch an air attack during the night.

For three days and three nights the fleet operated south of Ceylon without anything happening so that in the evening on 2 April, with the old R Class battleships running short of water, Admiral Somerville shaped course for Addu Atoll, the then British operational base in the Maldive Islands. Before doing so, however, he detached the cruisers Dorsetshire and Cornwall to Colombo and Hermes and Vampire, to Trincomalee to prepare for impending operations against the Vichy French in Madagascar.

Meanwhile, powerful Japanese forces under the command of Vice Admiral Nagumo had sailed from Starling Bay in the Celebes on 26 March to attack Ceylon. It comprised five fast carriers (Akagi, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku and Zuikaku); four battleships (Karishima, Hiyei, Haruna and Kongo); and was supported by two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser and eleven destroyers. The entire group was fuelled at sea by six fleet tankers. Late in the afternoon of 4 April a patrolling Catalina flying boat sighted Nagumo's force but was shot down before it could report its strength. The Eastern Fleet put to sea but far too late to intervene in Nagumo's plan to attack on the morning of Easter Sunday, 5 April 1942.

In Colombo the Deputy Commander-in-Chief began to clear the harbour of shipping and ordered Dorsetshire and Cornwall to sea. Both were intercepted by Japanese aircraft and sunk in less than fifteen minutes. Hermes and Vampire were ordered to get clear of Trincomalee, before an expected follow up attack developed on the port, sailing on the night of 8/9 April and proceeding southward. The next morning, 9 April, 54 bombers from Nagumo's carriers inflicted severe damage on the dockyard and airfields. With the raid over Hermes and Vampire set course to return to Trincomalee.

At 10:35am on 9 April, off Batticaloa, Ceylon, enemy aircraft were sighted from Hermes on the starboard quarter diving out of the sun at about 10,000 feet. Hermes opened fire with every gun that would bear (she was carrying no aircraft) but in the face of the skillful and relentless Japanese dive bomber attack she was helpless. The end came suddenly twenty minutes later and she went down with one 4-inch gun still firing.

Immediately the carrier vanished the dive bombers turned their attention to Vampire. Attacked by at least 15 enemy aircraft the destroyer fought back shooting down one of the Japanese aircraft, and damaging others, before she was hit by several bombs and broke in half; sinking in less than ten minutes. Nineteen officers and 288 ratings in Hermes were killed and in Vampire Commander Moran and eight ratings were killed or died of wounds. Some 600 men were rescued by the hospital ship Vita, others were picked up by local fishing vessels and a few men were even able to swim ashore.

Further reading

• 'Scrap Iron Destroyers: The Story of HMA Ships Stuart, Vampire, Vendetta, Voyager' and Waterhen by LJ Lind and A Payne - published by the Naval Historical Society of Australia, Garden Island, 1976.
• Commander William Thomas Alldis Moran - http://seapower.navy.gov.au/biography/commander-william-thomas-alldis-moran.