J. E. MacDonnell,
Escort Ship, 1960
Dili Evacuation Convoy Escort
Australia
HMAS Wind Rode
Tribal Class Destroyer
Details as per the real ships
Note: The name does not fit the class. Also appears in several other of the authors many novels. In other entries in this thread I had identified this as a J, K & N Class Destroyer, which is my version of the non-descript term 'Fleet Destroyer' used by the author. This only applies for those entries where the author does not identify the ship as a V & W Class Destroyer. The ships true class identity is revealed in the closing pages of the 1959 novel '
The Gunner'.
HMAS Whippet
V & W Class Destroyer
Details as per the real ships.
Launched (Or Commissioned): 1918
Explicitly stated to be a member of the V & W Class by the author, in addition the ship is explicitly identified as an Australian ship in this novel.
It also appears in the novel '
Big Bill The Bastard' (1976) where it is sunk during the opening phases of Operation
Galvanic, the Tarawa invasion which took place in November 1943.
Name clash with V & W Class Destroyer
HMS Whippet which was canceled on the slips in November 1918.
United Kingdom
HMS Ambuscade (D38)
Prototype Destroyer
Real ship, history fictionally modified.
Note:
HMS Ambuscade was one of two prototype destroyers ordered by the Royal Navy in 1924 (The other was
HMS Amazon built by Thornycraft) in preparation for the resumption of destroyer construction after WWI. In real life the ship survived World War II and was scrapped in 1947. In the novel the ship is sunk during the evacuation of East Timor, after being hit by several 8inch shells from one of the Takao Class Cruisers
Holland
HNLMS Hoogstaad (ex-HMS ?)
N Class Destroyer
Details as per the real ships
Note: Author explicitly identifies it as an N Class Destroyer, but does not give the former RN identity. Probably inspired by the
HNLMS Tjerk Hiddes (G16) (Ex-HMS Nonpareil) an N Class Destroyer transferred to Holland in 1942 which took part in the Timor campaign during WWII. In the novel the ship is sunk during the evacuation of East Timor while attempting to torpedo a Takao Class Cruiser.
Japan
Task Force comprised of the following
Unnamed ships.
4 x Takao Class Cruisers (One is sunk during the course of the action described in the novel, as all real members of the class survived until 1944, with
HIJMS Takao herself surviving until post war, these are likely fictional members of the class.)
5 x destroyers, class not specified.
Plot summary: It is early 1943, a convoy of five freighters has left Dili, the capital of then Portuguese Timor escorted by four destroyers, aboard are those civilians who have elected to leave the island as superior Japanese numbers finally begin to overwhelm the stubborn unconventional warfare campaign led by Australia against their invasion. As they head for Australia and safety they encounter a powerful Japanese squadron. For Peter Bentley, commander of the escort and heir to a military tradition driven by words such as "The Hell with it! Up helm and gang into the middle of them!" (Battle of Camperdown, 1797) and "Surrender? Surrender be f****d!" (Timor Campaign 1942-1943) there is only one course of action, fight and buy time for the freighters to escape.
Notes: The novel is an unusual one, being comprised of a single extended combat action.
The backstory is probably derived from two events early in the Pacific War. The first is the 1942-1943 Timor Campaign, where Australian units used unconventional warfare tactics to tie down superior Japanese forces for almost a year and keep them from being redeployed to other theaters before being forced to evacuate.
The other is hinted at by several references to poor Japanese gunnery. The Clemson Class Destroyer
USS Edsall (DD-219), commanded by Lt Joshua Nix was recorded as missing during the chaotic aftermath of the Battle of the Java Sea. The first clue as to what had happened came in the form of a blurry photograph in a Japanese propaganda magazine showing a four stacked destroyer literally being blown out of the water by shellfire, with the ship being misidentified as the '
HMS Pope'.
Investigations postwar, including the interrogations of former IJN personel and the discovery of a 90 second film shot from the cruiser
HIJMS Tone revealed the truth behind that photograph. The
Edsall had blundered into a portion of the Kido Butai, comprising the heavy cruisers
Tone and
Chikuma and the battleships
Hiei and
Kirishima under Admiral Nagumo.
Unable to outrun them due to earlier damage,
Edsall's commander put on a virtuoso display of destroyer handling and managed to avoid everything thrown at him, while making occasional attempts to damage his pursuers. With magazines running dry, an embarrassed Admiral Nagumo called up an air strike which did sufficient damage to bring
Edsall to a stop, with a cameraman on
Tone filming
Chikuma pounding the ship to pieces at close range. Japanese witnesses reported that 'an officer', widely assumed to be Lt. Nix helped his crew abandon ship, then returned to the bridge to share his ships fate.
A few survivors were picked up, but most were left to their fate. Those few survivors were interrogated, handed off to a prison camp ashore and executed.
I've never been able to locate a copy of the full film shot from
Tone of
Edsall's sinking, but a short fragment of it was incorporated into a Japanese propaganda film, the clip is linked below.
View: https://youtu.be/qVqtvs3E3pw?si=yvslC5YpyadlqH1I
The attached cover is the computer generated one created for the 'Blue Cover' eBook reissues by Piccadilly Publishing, I really think that they should consider investing in a proper cover artist...