RANCA NSW
HMAS PIRIE J240
Namesake: City of Port Pirie, SA
Builder: Broken Hill Co
Laid down: 19 May 1941
Launched: 3 December 1941
Commissioned: 10 October 1942
Decommissioned: 5 April 1946
Battle honours:
Pacific 1942–45
New Guinea 1943–44
Okinawa 1945
Fate: Sold to Turkish Navy
Turkey
Name: Amasra
Commissioned: 1946
Decommissioned: 26 March 1984
Displacement: 733 tons (standard),
1,025 tons (full war load)
Length: 186 ft (57 m)
Beam: 31 ft (9.4 m)
Draught: 8.5 ft (2.6 m)
Propulsion: triple expansion engine
2 shafts, 2,000 hp
Speed: 15 knots (28 km/h;
17 mph) at 1,750 hp
Complement: 85
Armament: 1 × 12-pounder gun
(later replaced
by 1 × 4-inch gun)
3 × 20 mm Oerlikons
(1 later removed)
1 × 40 mm Bofors
(installed later)
Machine guns
Depth charges
chutes and throwers
Extract from Corvette magazine
The following anecdote was sent in by Roy Vickress, signalman ex HMAS Pirie
The call: “AWAY BOARDING PARTY”
During our northward voyage after joining the British Pacific Fleet in Fremantle December 44, our new skipper, Commander Travis decided apparently, that we needed a “boarding party” trained to take possession of any Jap submarines that our intrepid Asdic and Torpedo-men crews should ‘flush from the deep’.
I was assigned as the signalman for this party and as we were to be an armed party, I was issued a Thompson sub-machine gun and instructed in its use. I didn’t have any small-arms (or large-arms for that matter) training. Along with other crew members I had my ‘baptism of fire’ when the sinking of swept mines became a bore to marksmen and lowly ‘odds and sods’ were permitted to fire indiscriminately at them with .303 rifles.
I don’t remembers who my instructor was (it may have been the Cox’n), but remembering my training. I stood right aft on the quarterdeck and fired several bursts at the target - the Pacific Ocean. Naturally I scored several ‘bulls’. At unheralded times the bosun’s pipe would shrill “away boarding party” or some like call. I would hastily don full covering clothing, gather a set of small hand flags (semaphore) and an Aldis lamp with wet cell battery power supply and sling the Thompson (probably issued from the armoury by the master-at-arms?)
Imagine now the bustle and chaos at the sea boat davits as the crew hastened to clamber up the rope ladder into the boat, the gripes being slipped and the davits being wound out. Four seamen with .303’s slung over their shoulders and carrying boxes of ammunition; the OIC with side arms and other accoutrements; the Cox’n similarly encumbered, all sought to scramble up as the boat was being swung out for the lowering. How many hands had we free to hoist ourselves up? I could have had only one. Others will probably recall their own struggle.
We stepped, fell and stumbled into the swinging lurching boat, barking our shins on thwarts and catching each others blows with the rifle butts etc. Hastily the seamen rowers locked their oars (how those on the inboard side did so, I don’t know) while the other three struggled for places aft all while the boat was being lowered.
A foot or so from the water the Cox’n gave the order to slip and the boat was dropped into the sea. The seaman on the inboard side strove frantically to push us from the hull now passing at the regulation 8 knots. While the rest of the crew concentrated on getting us under way, I was more concerned with the freeboard that seemed no more than a couple of inches.
Any decent sea would soon have us awash. But the bridge was signalling and I had to stand and deliver, i.e. reply with the Aldis lamp. Suffice to say the message was delivered and we rowed some hundreds of yards Pirie meanwhile sailing away from us. I think I was in the bow of the boat safely away from the eyes of the seamen who must have been amused at my attempts to keep my hand signal. No doubt they would have ‘assisted’ me had they been able to see me. Then again they may have been as concerned about our seaworthiness as I was.
At a signal we turned and waited as Pirie turned to pick us up. That too was a feat, attaching ourselves to the boom at the regulation 8 knots. I don’t know how it was achieved, but the boat was swung against the hull where a scramble net was placed for our disembarking. Our trials were not yet over, for the first to scramble up, had their fingers jammed between the rope net and the hull as the rest of us added our weight below.
I can only feel at this long distance that it was as well that we didn’t ‘flush’ a submarine. Perhaps my memory is a little astray, but the incident is one that has tickled my fancy at times during the last 65 years.
Extract from Corvette magazine
The Passing of an original member of the Corvette HMAS PIRIE
Robert Clarence Gillam (S/6278) on 4 April 2012.
Teacher, Professor, Academic Administrator and Artist.
Robert served on HMAS PIRIE in the South West Pacific, 1942 to 1945, as an ASDIC operator and was one of the first crew of this ship when had just turned 20 years of age. He survived the Japanese bombing of the PIRIE at Oro Bay (Buna), New Guinea, on 10 April1943, when seven crew were killed.
"Operation Lilliput” was the name given to the plan to reinforce the Buna-Gona area of PNG in anticipation of its capture and on 10 April, PIRIE left Milne Bay for Oro Bay escorting the British supply ship SS HANYAND which carried military supplies, high octane fuel, ammunition plus Australian and US military personnel.
PIRIE had a 12 pounder low angle gun on the foredeck (recovered from a WW1 Destroyer), 3 Oerlikon guns (one on each wing of the bridge and one on X-deck) with limited range, and 2 Lewis guns one on each of the Port and Starboard waists.
At 1220 hrs on 10 April 1943, action stations were sounded as information was received of a Japanese attack on Oro Bay. At 1235, a signalman sighted 22 Val dive-bombers and 6 Zeros approaching from astern. A single plane detached itself from the others and flew low over the ships without attacking. Then 2 Zeros strafed PIRIE and one was shot down. The bombers attacked HANYAND, hitting it twice, putting its steering out of action, killing 1 crew and wounding 6.
The attackers then concentrated on PIRIE and attacked in pairs, one from each side. Crew were sprayed with water from the explosions of near misses and shrapnel from the strafing guns wounded some of them. A single Val bomber then attacked from the starboard quarter. One bomb penetrated the armoured bridge canopy, deflected off the helmsman's station, killed the gunnery officer, then struck the foredeck plating and detonated. The bomb killed six members of the twelve pounder gun's crew and seriously wounded the gun layer. Had it not struck the bridge first, the bomb would likely have penetrated the magazine and destroyed the entire ship.
Japanese propaganda, describing the corvette as a destroyer, reported that she had been destroyed. As the ASDIC operator, Robert was on the bridge of PIRIE close to the point of arrival of this bomb and he suffered permanent hearing loss for the rest of his life. The Val continued the attack until chased off by a US Lightning. The time was 1253.
A doctor from Oro Bay came to attend to the wounded and a US Army Chaplain from SS HANYAND consigned the dead to the 'deep'. The chaplain later recommended that the ship and her company receive bravery honours.
Pirie proceeded under escort to Maryborough for repairs which were completed in May 1943 and PIRIE resumed operations escorting convoys.
On 31 August 1945 HMAS PIRIE proudly led the Aussie 4 corvettes into Tokyo Harbour at the Japanese surrender. She had steamed a total of 117,230 miles (188,664 kms) since commissioning in October 1942.
Peter Gillam (Son)
We are happy to pass on an extract of the “HMAS Pirie Association newsletter 118 March 2014” which we received from Ron Vickress ex Pirie.
Old Shipmates & Convoy Partners,
As we are approaching the anniversary of the Oro Bay action, I thought it pertinent to include a report that none of you are likely to have seen, to wit. Lt Com Mills's report on that action.
Dated 13th April, 1943, it is addressed to NOIC Milne Bay, and begins with a paragraph about the voyage from Milne to Oro Bay, and continues "the passage was uneventful until the convoy arrived at a position approx. 12 miles from Oro Bay.
"Pirie's R/T set was tuned to fighter wave, and at approx. 1205 on Sunday, the 11th April, Dobodura was heard to report the presence of enemy aircraft in the vicinity. Further reports indicated that some, at least, of the enemy were over Porlock Harbour and were proceeding towards Oro Bay. I made a signal; to 'Hanyang', 'Attack by enemy aircraft maybe expected', and at 1220, Pirie went to action stations.
At about 1235, enemy aircraft were sighted in the vicinity and about five minutes later the attack developed, the first attacking aircraft appearing to concentrate on Hanyang. When the enemy aircraft were sighted Pirie immediately took avoiding action by commencing a wide irregular zigzag at approx. 14 ½ knots, course being altered so that Pirie would remain in the vicinity of the Hanyang without closing her sufficiently to make the two ships a common target.
One of the first aircraft to attack was engaged by AA fire from Pirie and Hanyang, but succeeded in pressing home the attack and dropping a bomb which struck Hanyang on the starboard side of the upper deck towards the after end of the mid-ships superstructure. I was later informed that this bomb had penetrated into the coal bunker where it exploded, but it does not appear that the ship was holed by this bomb, which did however disable her steering gear. Hanyang then proceeded to steam in circles at her best speed, and it was at this time - a minute or so after the first hit on Hanyang - that the first attack on Pirie developed.
This resulted in a near-miss astern, and a near miss off the port bow. The attacking plane was engaged by the port Lewis gun, and Nos 2 & 3 (after) Oerlikon, and as it disappeared in the direction of the convoy, I was informed that black smoke was seen to come from the 'plane. This 'plane passed over Hanyang and dived into the sea.
Immediately after this attack Pirie was steaming on opposite course to Hanyang and about four cables distance from her, when I observed two dive-bombers attack Hanyang from ahead, along her centre line. It appeared that the bombs from both these aircraft near-missed, and it was one of these near-misses, I believed, which exploded on Hanyang’s port side and holed her abreast her reserve coal bunker. Hanyang subsequently reported that she was making water in No 4 hold, but that it was under control, and this I understand was the result of the near miss which I had observed.
Immediately following this at 1251, I received a report that a 'plane was about to attack us from the starboard quarter. Looking up I saw a twin-engine aircraft in a power dive at an angle of about 45 degrees and at a height of between 500 and 1,000 feet, coming straight at Pirie fine on my starboard quarter, immediately following that, a bomb struck the centre of the bullet-proof canopy over Pirie's bridge, and I believe a second near-missed on the port bow.
The bomb which struck the bridge penetrated the bullet-proof canopy, glanced off the sloping top of the fore side of the bullet-proof apron at the steering position, struck and instantly killed my Gunnery Officer, Lieutenant JW Ellershaw, RANVR, passed out through the fore-side of the bridge, carrying away the starboard soft-iron sphere and the de-gaussing correction coil on the starboard compass. The bomb then struck the upper-deck at the foot of the mid-ships ventilator, and there exploded, killing six members of the forecastle twelve-pounder gun's crew and seriously wounding the gun-layer.
Extract from Corvette Magazine July 1990
HMAS Pirie Association - National re-Union
Gallipoli Club Sydney, 19 Oct 1990 11.30 am drinks and luncheon