Is there any way of finding out whic Royal Navy ships visited Hawaii during the period from 1944 to 1945?
Hi Try searching for Hawaii in Family History - Royal Navy and Naval History World War 2, 1939-1945 . Gus
Cheers Gus...did give it a try but most of the entries there quite understandably deal with December 7 1941. Tbh it would help if I approached the problem from a different direction but I am trying to find out which ships my dad may have served on during 1945 so it's a bit of a conundrum really
The only ship mentioned at the following link as being at Pearl Harbor is HMS Victorious in 1943. Pacific Ocean campaigns in World War 2
Hi, At least 2 UK ships that were involved in the repatriation of POWs from Taiwan and Japan called into Pearl Harbour in October 45, after sailing from Manila. HMS Glory and HMS Implacable on route to Vancouver. Probably more but these two for certain. Mike
Hi Popeye, Spent some time trying to find individual ships however apart from those mentioned - nothing. I came across this piece on the British Pacific Fleet however it mentions mainly the Carriers. Could be an interesting read on the difficulties they faced and how they were overcome. http://www.navy.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/Hobbs_THE_BRITISH_PACIFIC_FLEET_IN_1945.pdf Cheers Geoff
Now here's a thing. A lot of UK personnel were repatriated onboard merchant ships back to the UK. Could it be possible he went to Hawaii aboard one of them, possibly en route to Vancouver before transit across Canada to Halifax and then home?
Is their a specific ship or specific date (day, or month) your looking for. One method (and its the hard way) is to search the Admiralty War diaries for ships that went to Pearl Harbour. For example, I’ve found one ship below, HMS Ariadna, which was sent to Pearl Harbour after completing a Convoy from New York to San Diego. 28 Feb 44. This cruiser was one of the few RN ships which was loaned to the US Navy and served with the US Seventh Fleet in the Pacific during 1944. I could search more, but it would be faster if I knew what you were looking for and specifically “when”?? HMS Ariadne, British minelayer, WW2 A follow up on ARIADNE, it looks like she was operating with the US Pacific Fleet until Jan 1945
Although most ships headed to/from the Far East sailed via the Med a surprising number sailed via Panama. Some then went via Hawaii and others on a more southerly route via Fiji and New Zealand. The following in addition to Ariadne, Victorious (1943), Implacable and Glory come to mind as having passed through Pearl Harbor. Battleship Warspite in 1941/42 en route to/from Mare Is NY to repair and refit. Escort carrier Shah in Feb 1944 en route San Francisco to India via Australia ferrying aircraft. Then in late 1944 5 RN escort carriers joined the USN Carrier Transport Force Pacific to ferry aircraft between US west coast ports and various islands in the Pacific. Rajah, Ranee, Tracker, Patroller and Atheling are all reported to have passed through PH as part of this role. This work lasted until about May 1945 when they sailed back to Britain via Panama. RN Escort Carriers Home Page The cruiser HMCS Uganda in July 1945 en route to Esquimalt in Canada, having voted itself out of the war due to Canadian politics. The midget sub depot ship Breconshire in April/May 1945 looking for a role in the Pacific. While not RN manned a number of merchant ships and liners sailed via PH in 1945 carrying Tiger Force personnel. Or auxiliaries joining the BPF. You can find some histories of the latter here. BPF & EIF Fleets Home Some of the LSI forming Force X in Aug 1944 returned to the UK from Australia around April/May 1945 and may have routed via PH. I can’t access my records to check that at the moment. Edit - the destroyer Ulster also passed through PH en route home after suffering bomb damage on 1 April 1945 off the Sakishima Gunto with the BPF. Welcome to HMS Ulster! 1945 Repairs And another damaged destroyer candidate for PH might be Quilliam which collided with Indomitable in fog in late May 1945 and received such severe damage to her bow that she had to be sent home. Not immediately sure of her route.
HMS Victorious stopped there in 1943 while on loan to the USN. This British aircraft carrier served in the US Navy - We Are The Mighty
Minor note. Ariadne was assigned to the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA, US 7th Fleet) not the US Pacific Ocean Areas (Pacific Fleet). Different theaters of war, different commanders-SWPA under MacArthur, POA under Nimitz. SWPA also included most of the RAN and the RNZN. WHR
You will find more on Victorious’ sojourn in the Pacific, including various official reports here - Armoured Aircraft Carriers The deployment of Ariadne came about due to enquiries from the USN in Nov 1943 about offensive minelaying following some initial efforts earlier that year in the Solomon Is. It was agreed in early Jan 1944 and the ship sailed with a full load on mines on 20 Jan, arriving PH on 4 March via Azores, Bermuda and Norfolk, Virginia. There she gained an additional twin 40mm in place of a twin 20mm. Having requested her, the USN then seem to have been at a bit of a loss as to what to do with her now she was in theatre, so it was agreed to send her to join 7th Fleet via Sydney and Brisbane. On 19 June 1944 she laid 146 Mk.XVII/XVII* mines of Wewak, New Guinea. Those mines gained the title at the time of the most travelled in the world, having been loaded in Milford Haven before she left Britain. (Actually mines laid by the German raider Orion probably take that title having been laid off New Zealand in 1940). After another period of indecision about what to use her for, she laid a second minefield off Wewak on 31 Aug, having collected more mines in Australia. She then became a troop transport landing US Troops on Dinagat Is at the mouth of Leyte Gulf on 17 Oct, re-embarking them the next day when no opposition was found. Three days later she landed her whole force on the beaches at Panaon in Leyte Gulf itself, before leaving for Hollandia and so missing the Battle of Leyte Gulf. She then commanded a small Task Group to land troops on Pegun Is in the Mapia Is Group off New Guinea on 15th Nov to establish a LORAN station. Enemy opposition consisted of a strong force of 13 Japanese soldiers who committed suicide by grenade, seemingly without ever firing a shot! A couple more transport missions followed and then more indecision about her future use. Eventually on 18 Jan 1945 the Admiralty called her home to lay anti-submarine minefields in British waters. She routed home via PH and Panama arriving at Plymouth on 31 March 1945. In Jun/July 1945, all 3 surviving fast minelayers headed for the Pacific this time via the Med, arriving after hostilities had ended. Information extracted from “Very Special Ships Abdiel Class Fast Minelayers of World War 2”
In early February 1945, following work ups, HMCS Uganda sailed for the Pacific, while the second cruiser, HMCS Ontario, commissioned in April and immediately sailed to join it. In May Uganda participated in the shore bombardment of the Sakashima Islands, part of the invasion of Okinawa, but its normal role with the British Pacific Fleet was to act as an anti- aircraft guard, a duty it performed in June and July during a number of airstrikes on the Japanese home islands. HMCS Uganda’s war and NSHQ’s plans for a major Pacific force came to a somewhat ignominious end, because of the federal government’s policy that only volunteers would serve in the Pacific and that all service personnel who volunteered would receive 30 days clear leave in Canada before being sent to that theatre. This meant that, if Uganda’s ship’s company did not volunteer en masse, the ship would have to return to Canada to re-commission with an all-volunteer crew. On 28 July 1945 the vote was held in Uganda and 80 percent of its officers and seamen opted not to volunteer. This being the case, Uganda departed for Esquimalt and arrived there shortly before the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought an end to the Pacific conflict. Consequently, no Canadian warship was present in Tokyo Bay when representatives of the Japanese government unconditionally surrendered to the allied powers on board the American battleship USS Missouri.
Also October 27th 1941, as the escort for the HMT Awatea carrying Canadian troops to Hong Kong. HMCS Prince Robert carried four army officers and 106 ranks of the Royal Rifles of Canada (as well as the Regimental Mascot – a large dog). The HMT Awatea carried the rest of the Regiment along with the Winnipeg Grenadiers. Known as Force C they numbered 96 officers and 1,877 other ranks. They sailed via Honolulu and Manila where they were joined by HMS Danae. HMCS Prince Robert had helped transport Canadian soldiers to Hong Kong in 1941; in 1945, the ship's crew helped liberate many of the survivors from Japanese prisoner of war camps.
HMCS Prince Robert passed through Honolulu December 3rd 1941, without an inkling of the Japanese task force already on the way to Pearl Harbor.
Ontario went to the Med to work up between May and mid-Aug 1945 before sailing for Ceylon. She then acted as escort to a convoy, leaving end of Aug, taking 3 Commando Brigade and other units from India to Hong Kong to provide additional re-occupation forces.
ADM 187 lists the 'Pink Lists' held at Kew. The 'Pink List' was produced at regular intervals by the Admiralty Naval Staff Operations Division and lists the movement of Allied and Royal Naval Vessels. A quick glance shows amongst others: ADM 187/43 - Dec 1944 ADM 187/44 - Jan 1945 ADM 187/45 - Feb 1945 ADM 187/46 - Mar 1945 Admiralty: Naval Staff, Operations Division: Lists showing stations and movements of Allied and Royal Naval Ships (Pink Lists) | The National Archives Tim
