Military dolphins seem to be a thing, but did those masters of swimmer warfare the Italians ever try it? And what might they have done with a posse of psychopathic porpoises in tow?
A point to consider ... did the Kriegsmarine not bother with gunnery trials of their main battery when working their new ships up to readiness?? They seem doomed to wait for actual combat to begin to discover that "Mein Gott ! our main radar no longer works" after the first salvo ... that mythical "superior german engineering" at work again? The same problem faced Bismarck 6 months later, but no lessons learned from Scheer's troubles?
What was the reason for graf zeppelin carrying so few aircraft? Was it similar to British carriers in that it lacked hangar size due to armor? Or some other reason?
I have been Wondering and i know it outside the period your channel covers if battleships and battlecruisers or other big Gun ship classes would have made it untill today what kind of power do you think something like a modern battleship grade Gun would have it is kind of interesting to think about considering the iowas could yeet a mid sized car up to 24 miles away but in a way it is also kind scary to think of what kind of power a modern battleship grade Gun would have It is just something ive been thinking about for a while and now I just want to say love your content and may you have a wonderful day
“Death is lighter than a feather, but duty is heavier than a mountain”. This was popularized by Robert Jordan in The Wheel of Time book series, but came originally from an 1882 Imperial rescript given to Japanese soldiers and sailors. Though they were of a different nation, the Captain and crew of the Jervis Bay understood this and shouldered it willingly. Thank you, Drach, for remembering them.
Well, the crew didn't really get a chance to decide one way or the other. When you're working below decks in the galley or shoveling coal or whatever it's not like you get any say whatsoever in what happens to you.
@@RCAvhstape They were a crew of an armed merchant escort. They knew what their job was. Just like anyone else in the military, they decided the day they raised their hand and swore the oath. They were neither misled, shanghai'd or press ganged into their service.
@@rodneyhull9764 Not a single member of the crew of the Jervis Bay was a conscript. Quit with the fake news and trying to virtue signal. Maybe spend a minute and go look at the official Jarvis Bay website for an analysis of the crew.
It's one thing to go into a fight against a peer or near peer opponent, it's another thing entirely to go into one where you know you don't stand even the faintest chance. It's also worth remembering the Swedish ship that was part of the convoy and risked going back into the killing zone to look for Jervis Bay's survivors.
Not to mention the skill and deliberate forethought to get an accurate bearing on the Jervis Bay's position, and allowing for drift, locate the survivors in the dark.
I am in awe of the bravery of the men of Jervis Bay. An old liner with outdated guns capable of roughly half the top speed of its opponent and hopelessly outmatched. They still charged headlong towards that enemy in order to give the other vessels a chance to escape. They knew the odds were not in their favor and yet they proceeded anyway.
Certainly there were heroic crew on the Jervis Bay but I can’t help but think a large number of the crew were reluctant heroes wishing they were elsewhere
@@tomdolan9761 there may have been crew who had wished they were elsewhere. But it appears that they all did their duty in an attempt to save the other ships in the convoy and their crews.
@@eduarddoornbos2409 well technically like half and half. There were plenty of able seamen on board too. Not just officers and merchant seaman. Check out list of dead. You'll see.
At Tower Hill in London there is a memorial to over 29,000 men of the Merchant navy who were lost during the Second World War. Whilst remembering those who fought in the Royal Navy let us not forget those incredibly courageous men who went to sea over and again in order to bring essential supplies to Britain so that the fight could go on and eventual victory won.
Merchant Sailors had a very high rate of fatality for the numbers who served in the U.S. Merchant Marine also. A book about WWII experience of U.S. Merchant fleet by Hubbard claimed that the rate of KIA was exceeded only by USMC Rifle Companies. Considering the slaughter of ships and crews in the opening months of the Pacific War, that number may be valid.
@@gyrene_asea4133 I can believe it too, I don't know about the States but the Merchant Navy (Marine in the US) never really received the same level of acclaim as did the Navy, and I do find that very sad.
@@tango6nf477 Same here. My dad was lucky, as an Able Bodied Seaman on a President Line cargo freighter his extended Western Pacific/Indian Ocean cruise ended in June of 1941 and he didn't sail out right away but went back to New Hampshire to help his folks for harvest. He then went to Merchant Officer's training which kept him ashore until the Fall of 1942 so he missed the U-boat's 'Happy Time'. Lucky. He got his Master's License in 1944. Skippered Tankers till 1985. Passed in 2002. RIP
Even in peace time the Merchant Navy can be a dangerous place. Going to war zones to deliver supplies, dangerous areas such as the Nigeria Delta, Persian Gulf, or many years ago Saigon, etc. The weather of course is the biggest danger.
A quarter of the British Merchant Mariners in WW2 became casualties. Half the British Merchant Fleet was sunk during WW2. You were safer in the infantry than a merchant mariner. (For comparison, British aircrew had a 50% mortality rate and German U-Boat crews had a 75% mortality rate).
I worked for Shaw Saville and Albion in Leadenhall Street. In one of the office corridors there was a very large oil painting of SS Jervis Bay's action with the Admiral Scheer. Captain Fogarty Fegen certainly earned his VC that day, and also the rest of his crew that failed to survive the very one sided battle. It must be a different sort of bravery that caused men to go to what was virtually certain death against an enemy.
There is a memorial to HMS Jervis Bay in Bermuda. I used to live there and my Father and I would always go to the memorial service held on the day she was destroyed, strong attendance from the Bermuda Sailor's Home; a charity for the benefit of seamen and also the local bar.
The first local casualty from the City of Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada in WWII was stoker Alexander Milton "Jimmie" Johnston who was killed in that action. A small parkette exists in the city named after that ship and a brass plaque commemorates that action and his loss.
As a boy, my dad read the story of HX 84 to me from the book Pocket Battleship. Krancke's recollections of the battle and attestation to the bravery of the Jervis Bay's captain and crew have stuck with me all these years.
Fegen: "Get me closer, I want to hit them with my six-incher." A well deserved VC for a most corageous man. Fegen had been involved in a rescue operation during WWI. He was awarded the Sea Gallantry Medal for it. He was the XO of the Royal Australian Naval College at one time. It was located in... Jervis Bay. Talk about foreshadowing. Thanks for reminding us about the AMCs and their crews, Drach.
Kennedy's son presented a BBC documentary about the Battle of North Cape. There was a grim satisfaction, tinged with sadness when he described Scharnhorst's end.
I've been waiting for this one. This is the essence of bravery in the face of impossible odds, and doing one's duty for the sake of your fellow man. Thanks, Drach.
My grandfather traveled to Australia on the jervis bay on the 1932 British Lions Rugby League tour, I've watched these vids for year's and it's the first one I've had a direct link to for certain.
of all poetry I read in school, this moved me the most THE JERVIS BAY by MICHAEL THWAITES, Lieutenant, R.N.V.R. This is the plain imperious story Of an old ship that plied her trade Obscure, and came to Hell Mouth unafraid, And fought, and perished in a burning glory. ... 7 pages later And it is cold and it is night Before the finish of the fight When the panting wolf shakes free From the bloody corpse, and he Lies like a sack, defaced and dead, And the sheep into the hills are fled And the wolf slinks to his bed. .... But now thick night was over the sea, and a wind from the west blew keen, And the hopeless waters tossed their heads where the Jervis Bay had been, And the raider was lost in the rain and the night, and low clouds hid the seas, But high above sea and storm and cloud appeared the galaxies, And the big stars called the little stars that had not dared to peep, And all the stars of heaven came out across the heaving deep, And they shone bright over the good shepherd of sheep.
While visiting Bermuda in '03, there was a museum there with a lifeboat from the Jervis Bay. It had been dropped off for repair when the ship stopped there. Alas, the ship never returned to collect the boat, and in the museum it sits until this day, a reminder of the sacrifice. Having known of this fight beforehand, it was a chilling sight.
Heroic actions of a brave crew , the admiral scheer also damaged it's one radio I believe while it was attacking Jervis bay which no doubt also helped the convoy in the longer term.
As a Chief Engineer I have told the story of HX-84 for decades. The selfless courage of the Jervis Bay, placing their duty to the convoy above their own likely survival. The resourcefulness, skill and courage of the crew of the San Demetrio, reboarding their burning vessel and managing to bring her into port. The forethought, courage and humanity of the Stureholm, to get an accurate bearing and fix on the Jervis Bay, then, manage to avoid the enemy, and allowing for all the vagaries of drift, to locate the Jervis Bay's survivors in the dark. There were many examples set for seamen that day. Thanks for sharing.
I hope that more liners get covered on the channel, they were all beautiful in their own ways, and much better to look at than the floating boxes of todays passenger ships.
One of the ships in the convoy was the San Demetrio which was damaged and abandoned by its crew. She was then reboarded by its crew the fires were put out and sailed home. The story of what happened to her saw made into a film in 1943 called San Demetrio London
This shows a common thread of brave ships and crews doing their best to protect others. God bless the ones in the past and God help the ones in the present and the future
The Captain was obviously brave to engage the enemy and give the rest of the convoy the opportunity to scatter but to continue his service with an arm ripped off. Just unbelievable what people are capable of in extreme conditions. Wow!
The self-sacrifice of HMS Jervis Bay has haunted me since adolescence. I do believe it is pronounced "Jarvis Bay", BTW. This was the first thing I asked my Australian father-in-law. Nice work 👊
I can not even begin to describe the levels of respect I have for the crews of these ships. Taking on a actual *warship* , or TWO of them like Rawalpindi did in a merchantman trying to pretend to be a warship takes more guts than one can possibly imagine.
If put into those same circumstances today, we would do the same, amazing what men(I suppose women too nowadays) are capable of when ones homeland is under attack and are asked to defend their homes. We can see this in 2022 in Eastern Europe unfortunately. Definitely yes that was an awsome generation of men that answered their nation's call and knew what was at stake and didn't falter, thankfully. I agree with you totally, my Grandfather served on a Fletcher in the Pacific...
@@boompow6899 Agree 100%, when your nation and home is under attack, men(and I suppose women too nowadays) are willing to stand and fight the enemy. We can see this in 2022 in Eastern Europe, unfortunately, would be no different if they were attacking the US or UK...we would fight. That was an awesome generation though that we owe a lot for their sacrifices in World War II, my Grandfather fought on a Fletcher in the Pacific. 👍👍cheers
Jervis Bay Park in Owen Sound Ontario is named after this ship. The first person from the town killed in the war Alexander Johnson died in the action. Across the street is the Carnegie library and plaques for 3 members of the town who were recipients of the VC. Not bad for a rural Canadian backwater of less than 20,000.
@@tombogan03884 firstly it's"Beaverford", second her famous last stand is so clouded in exaggeration that no one knows for sure what even happened, it's more legend than truth now.
@@christopherjones8448 but she did stand. Rather than scatter and run, she did turn and fight. Wether for a few minutes, or a hour. She did stand, and fight.
@@phaasch I'm normally anti the woke-bashers, load ignorant dinosaurs looking to preserve an unjust system most the time.... But on this one, your right:) they would throw that baby out with the bathwater without even knowing why the ship was named that way, completely missing point it's name is honouring the crew the ship that sank.
Heroic doesn't even to begin to describe this action. My father served on the North Atlantic convoys from late '39 and was torpedoed twice with both vessels being sunk beneath him. However, the actions of both the ships mentioned - Jervis Bay and Rawalpindi - were ones he spoke about in in quieter, more serious tone. I also remember a comic strip version of Jervis Bay versus Admiral Scheer appearing in the British comic 'Victor' which to a small boys eyes seemed all the more incredible.
Ah, DC Thomson at their best! I was a subscriber too when I was a kid. Their cover story (front and back) used to be a cartoon retelling of a V.C. action.
@@douglasherron7534 It was informative stuff to a young lad at that time - I'm not sure it would be appreciated to the same degree these days. The Dundee boys certainly knew their stuff.
@@Claymore5 I loved it (and Commando comics too). Wasn't all war stories either, for example 'Tuff of the Track'. I think my folks still have my Victor & Warlord annuals in their garage. Now I'm not travelling the world I can retrieve them and indulge in some down memory road moments... Braw! (as The Broons & 'Oor Wullie would say 😄)
Armed merchant cruiser convoy escort is a rough gig. Against anything bigger and meaner than a hilfskreuzer, it's basically a suicide mission to save your convoy. And their crews cannot have been unaware of this. Astonishing bravery and dedication.
Even a Hilfskreuzer could, if well-handled, be a significant threat to an AMC. Otto Kähler (of Thor) fought off two AMCs that were both much bigger and faster than his vessel, and sank a third. As you say, the AMC crews were astonishingly brave.
@@oriontaylor That deadliness of german hilfskreuzers relied heavily on the element of surprise as happened with Kormoran vs. Sydney. And on Thor, it was somewhat superior (more accurate and fast) in gunnery against it`s british counterparts, but slower. Thor would have been doomed, if Alcantara would have settled to tailing it and calling in assistance from the ”grey funnel line”, actual RN warships, instead of a futile gunnery duel. Thor crippled it`s opponent and got away.
Auxiliary cruisers / Auxiliary gunboats are still popular today for navies that can't afford purpose-built designs. Iran, Cuba, Turkey, Bosnia and bunch of African, middle eastern and Latin American navies have a few homemade and converted auxiliary warships in service. Even the U.S and Britain too.
Never been this early for drach....oh, what a day! Thank you drach, for the almost impossible number of hours you've given us to learn, and be entertained by. Cheers!
Attacking was brilliant - long range raiders must avoid taking damage, so Scheer had to kite away, when they could've gone straight in but taken some hits that might cut it's raiding short.
I met growing up a former enlisted soldier who was wounded at Schofield barracks during the Pearl Harbor attack and received 100% disability out of the service who joined the merchant marine serving throughout the war and stayed a merchant sailor post war to retirement.
I remember my first exposure to this story being the film San Demetrio London. Seem to remember war films were standard fair for a Saturday afternoon TV in the 80s early 90s.
Then Fogarty Fegan Sets out alone to meet the battleship. Five-inch guns against eleven-inch guns. Egg-shell hull against Krupp plate. "Damme, Mr. Wilson, sir," he shouts, "We're not hearing mandolins today, somewhere south of Singapore!" This is a mad thing to do This sea-charge of the Jervis Bay, Yet a sky of dead admirals looks down From the Grand Haven, Looks down at Fogarty Fegan, Whose senile tub Steams bow-on for the battleship. From: The Jervis Bay Goes Down by Gene Fowler
It should also be remembered that a significant number of the crew weren’t really RN, they were the previous peacetime crew taken into RN service to do the same roles on the ship.
The captains and men of the Jervis Bay and the USS Johnston. All brothers from a different mother. Led by 2 captains who's VICTORIA CROSS and CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF.HONOR gleam with the brightness of the sun.
I believe Douglas Reeman's Rendezvous - South Atlantic is largely inspired by Jervis Bay's sacrifice. I say inspired as the final enemy is more like a Hipper and things go a little wild throughout the story. However it is a good read if you can suspend your disbelief a little.
The Boat and Yacht Club where I kept my 28' cabin cruiser I met an old WWII Merchant mariner. He had 2 or 3 ships shot out from under him in the North Atlantic. He longed for warmer waters and moved to the Pacific where he promptly had this new ship sunk. He was a good soul. Rest in Peace Joe.
I am just going to say some of those armed merchant captains, destroyer/destroyer escort captains who figured "Fuck it, its only a battleship, knowing they and the men they led and their ships were going to die but did what had to be done. Their sacrifice truly brings tears to my eyes.
You really need to do a video on the story of another ship in convoy HX-84, the MV San Demetrio. It was hit by 11 inch gunfire, set on fire, abandoned by it's crew, reboarded by it's own crew after they bumped into it again two nights on the trot, the fire extinguished, limped back to england on their own without charts or navigation equipment which had perished in the fire, discovered that only 200 tons of the oil aboard had burned off and got put back into service after the salvage money was sorted out. They even made a film out of the whole thing in 1943.
Don't forget the SS Beaverford. She managed to keep the Admiral Scheer occupied for upwards of four hours in what could be described as a demented game of peekaboom through the smoke laid by the rest of the fleeing convoy (Jervis Bay had managed to land a shot on the Admiral Scheers radar). Her last transmission upon turning to engage the raider is recorded as "it is our turn now. So long. The captain and crew of SS Beaverford."
Someone else, i think operations room?, also just did a video about the heroic performance of the Captain and Crew of Jarvis. I had never known it before, truly brave. Thank you for making this!
HMS Rawalpindi, HMS Jervis Bay, and Taffy 3 really put an exclamation point on Admiral Cunningham's statement: “It takes three years to build a ship; it takes three centuries to build a tradition.” The Germans and Japanese were comparative newcomers, and it showed.
@@VersusARCH There were 6 escort carriers in Taffy 3 with a capacity of 27 planes each. Quite a few of them would have been fighters, not that useful for killing battleships or cruisers. It takes time to arm the actual strike aircraft, that was a luxury they didn't have under the circumstances. The aircraft had minimal impact on the battle.
@@johnlee1297 Other Taffies sent fully armed planes as well. Kurita faced more than 2 Pearl Harbor Attack's worth of aircraft at Samar, all attacking just his ships (at Pearl many planes were attacking the airfields)..
I'd been hoping you would do this story. I remember an "On This Day" feature in The Guardian some years ago. It was a first report of the action, after the first surviving ships had straggled into Liverpool. It was clear that the seamen interviewed still hadn't come to grips with the enormity of what they'd witnessed a couple of days earlier.
Imagine beeing on that ship. Imagine beeing on that ship in command. Imagine making this kind of decisions. It´s unimaginable, alas it´s history now. RIP to this brave men.
For many years until the mid 2010s, the _Jervis Bay_ and her action against the Germans was the main event in the Naval Battle in Scarborough's Peashome Park
After losing his arm Captain Fegen sat down, upon his massive bollocks, and continued to fight. Safe to say they don't make them like that these days. What a tale.......what a man and what a crew.
Admiral Scheer: "Oh? You're approaching me? Instead of running away you're coming right to me?" Jervis Bay: "I cant beat the shit out of you without getting closer."
I read this story years ago as a boy from a Reader's Digest edition of the 1970s. It is said that Admiral Krancke of the Scheer described Captain Fogarty Fegen as having the 'Nelson Touch.' He more than deserved that VC.
Appropriate that the actual Jervis Bay was for many years the site of the Royal Australian Naval College. HMAS CRESWELL. ( I was Senior entry there in 1980) We did however pronounce it "JArvis..." which as it turns out is likely incorrect (Named after Sir John Jervis... )
Hadn't heard this story before, and kind of wondered whether a single converted passenger liner could possibly occupy a warship long enough to make any difference for a convoy. I guess that with some amazing bravery and a little bit of luck, it absolutely can do just that.
Well part of what helped the convoy was shitty German designs. Much like Bismarck, Scheer's radar was destroyed by the blasts of her own guns. Which made it a lot harder to target the ships in the scattered convoy once she caught up.
She may be slow and unarmoured, but even six inch guns can do mission-kill levels of damage on any ship up to and including battleships if they ignore the threat and let her get close enough to start scoring hits. So the AMC really has to be disabled or sunk before the raider can proceed to attacking the convoy it is covering.
I first heard about Jervis Bay's last stand through the miniature game I play. (Axis & Allies War at Sea) We have a card and miniature of her and special abilities that reflect her history
The last action of Jervis Bay for me sums up the Royal Navy's attitude towards enemy engagements; A RN converted ocean liner vs a German 11" gun-armed heavy cruiser? That just makes it a fair fight. All joking aside, well deserved VC. Anyone who takes an ocean liner armed with some old 6" guns that were laying around against a full blown warship designed for merchant raiding has some balls!
"So far we haven't seen any real action, but I promise you this much: If the gods are good to us and we meet the enemy, I shall take you in as close as I possibly can." -- Capt. Fegen To the crew, shortly after taking command.
Captain Fegen and Captain Evans I think would have gotten along very well. Either that or they’d argue over who wins the award for biggest badass of a captain
Fegen every day. Evans had a destroyer, 30 knots, radar controlled guns, torpedoes, agile as only a destroyer can be. Fegen had a 15 knot cruise liner, no radar, no agility. Both had balls of steel, but one of them had a genuine fighting ship, the other had a floating palace.
Pinned post for Q&A :)
How did the development of signalling in the Royal navy go?
Is this video in response of the new Historigraph video?
Military dolphins seem to be a thing, but did those masters of swimmer warfare the Italians ever try it? And what might they have done with a posse of psychopathic porpoises in tow?
A point to consider ... did the Kriegsmarine not bother with gunnery trials of their main battery when working their new ships up to readiness?? They seem doomed to wait for actual combat to begin to discover that "Mein Gott ! our main radar no longer works" after the first salvo ... that mythical "superior german engineering" at work again? The same problem faced Bismarck 6 months later, but no lessons learned from Scheer's troubles?
What was the reason for graf zeppelin carrying so few aircraft? Was it similar to British carriers in that it lacked hangar size due to armor? Or some other reason?
I have been Wondering and i know it outside the period your channel covers if battleships and battlecruisers or other big Gun ship classes would have made it untill today what kind of power do you think something like a modern battleship grade Gun would have it is kind of interesting to think about considering the iowas could yeet a mid sized car up to 24 miles away but in a way it is also kind scary to think of what kind of power a modern battleship grade Gun would have
It is just something ive been thinking about for a while and now I just want to say love your content and may you have a wonderful day
“Death is lighter than a feather, but duty is heavier than a mountain”. This was popularized by Robert Jordan in The Wheel of Time book series, but came originally from an 1882 Imperial rescript given to Japanese soldiers and sailors. Though they were of a different nation, the Captain and crew of the Jervis Bay understood this and shouldered it willingly.
Thank you, Drach, for remembering them.
Well, the crew didn't really get a chance to decide one way or the other. When you're working below decks in the galley or shoveling coal or whatever it's not like you get any say whatsoever in what happens to you.
@@RCAvhstape They were a crew of an armed merchant escort. They knew what their job was. Just like anyone else in the military, they decided the day they raised their hand and swore the oath.
They were neither misled, shanghai'd or press ganged into their service.
@@stevewhite3424 but conscripted
@@RCAvhstape 100%. Capt f.wit gets a V.C, innocent ordinary families get an uncertain future
@@rodneyhull9764 Not a single member of the crew of the Jervis Bay was a conscript. Quit with the fake news and trying to virtue signal. Maybe spend a minute and go look at the official Jarvis Bay website for an analysis of the crew.
It's one thing to go into a fight against a peer or near peer opponent, it's another thing entirely to go into one where you know you don't stand even the faintest chance.
It's also worth remembering the Swedish ship that was part of the convoy and risked going back into the killing zone to look for Jervis Bay's survivors.
The Sturholm returned to pick up survivors & take them back to Halifax. She went down with all hands on her next voyage.
"Uncommon Valor was a common virtue"
Chester W. Nimitz
Not to mention the skill and deliberate forethought to get an accurate bearing on the Jervis Bay's position, and allowing for drift, locate the survivors in the dark.
I am in awe of the bravery of the men of Jervis Bay. An old liner with outdated guns capable of roughly half the top speed of its opponent and hopelessly outmatched. They still charged headlong towards that enemy in order to give the other vessels a chance to escape. They knew the odds were not in their favor and yet they proceeded anyway.
Certainly there were heroic crew on the Jervis Bay but I can’t help but think a large number of the crew were reluctant heroes wishing they were elsewhere
@@tomdolan9761 there may have been crew who had wished they were elsewhere. But it appears that they all did their duty in an attempt to save the other ships in the convoy and their crews.
A sacrifice to save the lives of others. One I can respect. -_-7
Sacrificed themselves to buy the ships they were escorting time to get away... RIP to these brave men
their job
@@BenState is only one reply to such callousness-
id ie to see you do it- would it be just "the job" then?
@@BenState these were merchant seamen, not royal navy except for some officers
@@BenState Easy to say from behind the safety of a keyboard.
@@eduarddoornbos2409 well technically like half and half. There were plenty of able seamen on board too. Not just officers and merchant seaman. Check out list of dead. You'll see.
At Tower Hill in London there is a memorial to over 29,000 men of the Merchant navy who were lost during the Second World War. Whilst remembering those who fought in the Royal Navy let us not forget those incredibly courageous men who went to sea over and again in order to bring essential supplies to Britain so that the fight could go on and eventual victory won.
Merchant Sailors had a very high rate of fatality for the numbers who served in the U.S. Merchant Marine also. A book about WWII experience of U.S. Merchant fleet by Hubbard claimed that the rate of KIA was exceeded only by USMC Rifle Companies. Considering the slaughter of ships and crews in the opening months of the Pacific War, that number may be valid.
@@gyrene_asea4133 I can believe it too, I don't know about the States but the Merchant Navy (Marine in the US) never really received the same level of acclaim as did the Navy, and I do find that very sad.
@@tango6nf477 Same here. My dad was lucky, as an Able Bodied Seaman on a President Line cargo freighter his extended Western Pacific/Indian Ocean cruise ended in June of 1941 and he didn't sail out right away but went back to New Hampshire to help his folks for harvest. He then went to Merchant Officer's training which kept him ashore until the Fall of 1942 so he missed the U-boat's 'Happy Time'. Lucky. He got his Master's License in 1944. Skippered Tankers till 1985. Passed in 2002. RIP
Even in peace time the Merchant Navy can be a dangerous place. Going to war zones to deliver supplies, dangerous areas such as the Nigeria Delta, Persian Gulf, or many years ago Saigon, etc. The weather of course is the biggest danger.
A quarter of the British Merchant Mariners in WW2 became casualties.
Half the British Merchant Fleet was sunk during WW2.
You were safer in the infantry than a merchant mariner.
(For comparison, British aircrew had a 50% mortality rate and German U-Boat crews had a 75% mortality rate).
I was told about the Jervis Bay as a child in the 70's. 14 of the crew were from my home town of Wick, Scotland. Half of them survived.
'Tis but a scratch! - Captain Edward 'One Arm' Fegen
I worked for Shaw Saville and Albion in Leadenhall Street. In one of the office corridors there was a very large oil painting of SS Jervis Bay's action with the Admiral Scheer.
Captain Fogarty Fegen certainly earned his VC that day, and also the rest of his crew that failed to survive the very one sided battle.
It must be a different sort of bravery that caused men to go to what was virtually certain death against an enemy.
There is a memorial to HMS Jervis Bay in Bermuda. I used to live there and my Father and I would always go to the memorial service held on the day she was destroyed, strong attendance from the Bermuda Sailor's Home; a charity for the benefit of seamen and also the local bar.
The first local casualty from the City of Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada in WWII was stoker Alexander Milton "Jimmie" Johnston who was killed in that action. A small parkette exists in the city named after that ship and a brass plaque commemorates that action and his loss.
Shout out to Owen Sound! I did not know this and will look for it next time I'm through. Thank you!
As a boy, my dad read the story of HX 84 to me from the book Pocket Battleship. Krancke's recollections of the battle and attestation to the bravery of the Jervis Bay's captain and crew have stuck with me all these years.
Fegen: "Get me closer, I want to hit them with my six-incher."
A well deserved VC for a most corageous man. Fegen had been involved in a rescue operation during WWI. He was awarded the Sea Gallantry Medal for it. He was the XO of the Royal Australian Naval College at one time. It was located in... Jervis Bay. Talk about foreshadowing.
Thanks for reminding us about the AMCs and their crews, Drach.
The cold courage this action called for (and that of Kennedy in Rawalpindi) was of the highest order.
Kennedy's son presented a BBC documentary about the Battle of North Cape. There was a grim satisfaction, tinged with sadness when he described Scharnhorst's end.
I've been waiting for this one. This is the essence of bravery in the face of impossible odds, and doing one's duty for the sake of your fellow man. Thanks, Drach.
My grandfather traveled to Australia on the jervis bay on the 1932 British Lions Rugby League tour, I've watched these vids for year's and it's the first one I've had a direct link to for certain.
of all poetry I read in school, this moved me the most
THE JERVIS BAY by MICHAEL THWAITES, Lieutenant, R.N.V.R.
This is the plain imperious story
Of an old ship that plied her trade
Obscure, and came to Hell Mouth unafraid,
And fought, and perished in a burning glory.
... 7 pages later
And it is cold and it is night
Before the finish of the fight
When the panting wolf shakes free
From the bloody corpse, and he
Lies like a sack, defaced and dead,
And the sheep into the hills are fled
And the wolf slinks to his bed.
....
But now thick night was over the sea, and a wind from the west blew keen,
And the hopeless waters tossed their heads where the Jervis Bay had been,
And the raider was lost in the rain and the night, and low clouds hid the seas,
But high above sea and storm and cloud appeared the galaxies,
And the big stars called the little stars that had not dared to peep,
And all the stars of heaven came out across the heaving deep,
And they shone bright over the good shepherd of sheep.
While visiting Bermuda in '03, there was a museum there with a lifeboat from the Jervis Bay. It had been dropped off for repair when the ship stopped there. Alas, the ship never returned to collect the boat, and in the museum it sits until this day, a reminder of the sacrifice. Having known of this fight beforehand, it was a chilling sight.
Heroic actions of a brave crew , the admiral scheer also damaged it's one radio I believe while it was attacking Jervis bay which no doubt also helped the convoy in the longer term.
As a Chief Engineer I have told the story of HX-84 for decades.
The selfless courage of the Jervis Bay, placing their duty to the convoy above their own likely survival.
The resourcefulness, skill and courage of the crew of the San Demetrio, reboarding their burning vessel
and managing to bring her into port.
The forethought, courage and humanity of the Stureholm, to get an accurate bearing and fix on the Jervis Bay,
then, manage to avoid the enemy, and allowing for all the vagaries of drift, to locate the Jervis Bay's
survivors in the dark.
There were many examples set for seamen that day.
Thanks for sharing.
Always find this account and that of Rawalpindi quite chilling. Brave men.
I hope that more liners get covered on the channel, they were all beautiful in their own ways, and much better to look at than the floating boxes of todays passenger ships.
One of the ships in the convoy was the San Demetrio which was damaged and abandoned by its crew. She was then reboarded by its crew the fires were put out and sailed home. The story of what happened to her saw made into a film in 1943 called San Demetrio London
This shows a common thread of brave ships and crews doing their best to protect others. God bless the ones in the past and God help the ones in the present and the future
The ultimate Leroy Jenkins play.....courage of the highest order. Salute to the men of the Jervis Bay.
Bless the Captain and his men. They did their duty and saved many lives. Like the Johnston, they are still guarding and on watch, forever.
The Captain was obviously brave to engage the enemy and give the rest of the convoy the opportunity to scatter but to continue his service with an arm ripped off. Just unbelievable what people are capable of in extreme conditions. Wow!
I first read about this in Alistair Maclean’s anthology - whose name I vaguely recall was The Lonely Sea. It also had the Rawalpindi in it.
Have the same book in paperback and it's a fantastic read. Both the historical recounts and the short stories like The Dileas.
Many thanks to yiou for reminding me of Alstair Maclean; I read many of his novels years ago; I will have to look this one up.
The self-sacrifice of HMS Jervis Bay has haunted me since adolescence. I do believe it is pronounced "Jarvis Bay", BTW. This was the first thing I asked my Australian father-in-law. Nice work 👊
And that it what you call pure bravery.
Much of the crew were also merchant seamen "upgraded" to naval service ... and they fought like lions!
It’s people like this that makes COURAGE into a small and too weak a word . God bless .
I can not even begin to describe the levels of respect I have for the crews of these ships. Taking on a actual *warship* , or TWO of them like Rawalpindi did in a merchantman trying to pretend to be a warship takes more guts than one can possibly imagine.
insanely courageous people back then
Those people still exist but we haven't had a war that required a self sacrifice in a navel actions
If put into those same circumstances today, we would do the same, amazing what men(I suppose women too nowadays) are capable of when ones homeland is under attack and are asked to defend their homes. We can see this in 2022 in Eastern Europe unfortunately. Definitely yes that was an awsome generation of men that answered their nation's call and knew what was at stake and didn't falter, thankfully. I agree with you totally, my Grandfather served on a Fletcher in the Pacific...
@@boompow6899 Agree 100%, when your nation and home is under attack, men(and I suppose women too nowadays) are willing to stand and fight the enemy. We can see this in 2022 in Eastern Europe, unfortunately, would be no different if they were attacking the US or UK...we would fight. That was an awesome generation though that we owe a lot for their sacrifices in World War II, my Grandfather fought on a Fletcher in the Pacific. 👍👍cheers
indeed there is an ample supply of such people in Ukraine currently
There's a reason why the Victoria Cross is rarely awarded.
Jervis Bay Park in Owen Sound Ontario is named after this ship. The first person from the town killed in the war Alexander Johnson died in the action.
Across the street is the Carnegie library and plaques for 3 members of the town who were recipients of the VC.
Not bad for a rural Canadian backwater of less than 20,000.
Thank you, Drachinifel I have been hoping for so long for you to do the HMS Jervis Bay.
She Saved 30ships out of 37 not bad
Google SS Beaverton . It wasn't all Jervis Bay. (And my source is one of the Dry Docks, so you KNOW I'm right. LOL)
@@tombogan03884 firstly it's"Beaverford", second her famous last stand is so clouded in exaggeration that no one knows for sure what even happened, it's more legend than truth now.
@@christopherjones8448 but she did stand. Rather than scatter and run, she did turn and fight. Wether for a few minutes, or a hour. She did stand, and fight.
What an honorable, brave Captain and crew. Thank you for telling the story of their last action.
At the end of this video I was left with no option but to stand and salute the Captain and crew of HMS Jarvis Bay, heroes all
Great story to remember those who sacrificed everything when they didn’t have a chance themselves
HMS Jervis Bay.
HMS Glowworm.
This are names that should be in permanent commission. To me it is inexcusable that they are not.
Rawalpindi as well
@@keefymckeefface8330 Agreed, but would probably get branded as "colonialist" or something, by those who have nothing better to do with their time.
@@phaasch I'm normally anti the woke-bashers, load ignorant dinosaurs looking to preserve an unjust system most the time....
But on this one, your right:) they would throw that baby out with the bathwater without even knowing why the ship was named that way, completely missing point it's name is honouring the crew the ship that sank.
Agreed 😞
@@phaasch I say to hell with them and recommission an old Leander class Frigate as Rawalpindi.
That degree of courage is humbling.
Genuine shivers from this one. That is some conspicuous gallantry right there!
"This is a fight from which survival cannot be expected: we will do what damage we can."
Heroic doesn't even to begin to describe this action. My father served on the North Atlantic convoys from late '39 and was torpedoed twice with both vessels being sunk beneath him. However, the actions of both the ships mentioned - Jervis Bay and Rawalpindi - were ones he spoke about in in quieter, more serious tone. I also remember a comic strip version of Jervis Bay versus Admiral Scheer appearing in the British comic 'Victor' which to a small boys eyes seemed all the more incredible.
Ah, DC Thomson at their best! I was a subscriber too when I was a kid. Their cover story (front and back) used to be a cartoon retelling of a V.C. action.
@@douglasherron7534 It was informative stuff to a young lad at that time - I'm not sure it would be appreciated to the same degree these days. The Dundee boys certainly knew their stuff.
@@Claymore5 I loved it (and Commando comics too). Wasn't all war stories either, for example 'Tuff of the Track'.
I think my folks still have my Victor & Warlord annuals in their garage. Now I'm not travelling the world I can retrieve them and indulge in some down memory road moments... Braw! (as The Broons & 'Oor Wullie would say 😄)
Heroism in the darkest of times...excellent Guide, thank you.
The RAN kept her name alive with two vessels postwar. Her motto "Strive Valiantly" was very apt.
Some names need to be kept in permanent commission
Armed merchant cruiser convoy escort is a rough gig. Against anything bigger and meaner than a hilfskreuzer, it's basically a suicide mission to save your convoy. And their crews cannot have been unaware of this. Astonishing bravery and dedication.
Even a Hilfskreuzer could, if well-handled, be a significant threat to an AMC. Otto Kähler (of Thor) fought off two AMCs that were both much bigger and faster than his vessel, and sank a third. As you say, the AMC crews were astonishingly brave.
@@oriontaylor That deadliness of german hilfskreuzers relied heavily on the element of surprise as happened with Kormoran vs. Sydney. And on Thor, it was somewhat superior (more accurate and fast) in gunnery against it`s british counterparts, but slower. Thor would have been doomed, if Alcantara would have settled to tailing it and calling in assistance from the ”grey funnel line”, actual RN warships, instead of a futile gunnery duel. Thor crippled it`s opponent and got away.
Thank you for shining a light on these lesser known stories of great courage at sea Drach.
Auxiliary cruisers / Auxiliary gunboats are still popular today for navies that can't afford purpose-built designs. Iran, Cuba, Turkey, Bosnia and bunch of African, middle eastern and Latin American navies have a few homemade and converted auxiliary warships in service. Even the U.S and Britain too.
There is a monument to the Jervis Bay near my hometown in Canada, used to walk by it all the time. Quite a story.
What a story of bravery by the captain and his crew
Never been this early for drach....oh, what a day!
Thank you drach, for the almost impossible number of hours you've given us to learn, and be entertained by. Cheers!
Attacking was brilliant - long range raiders must avoid taking damage, so Scheer had to kite away, when they could've gone straight in but taken some hits that might cut it's raiding short.
“Cruise liners at war” needs to be a playlist on this channel
I met growing up a former enlisted soldier who was wounded at Schofield barracks during the Pearl Harbor attack and received 100% disability out of the service who joined the merchant marine serving throughout the war and stayed a merchant sailor post war to retirement.
I remember my first exposure to this story being the film San Demetrio London. Seem to remember war films were standard fair for a Saturday afternoon TV in the 80s early 90s.
Then Fogarty Fegan
Sets out alone to meet the battleship.
Five-inch guns against eleven-inch guns.
Egg-shell hull against Krupp plate.
"Damme, Mr. Wilson, sir," he shouts,
"We're not hearing mandolins today,
somewhere south of Singapore!"
This is a mad thing to do
This sea-charge of the Jervis Bay,
Yet a sky of dead admirals looks down
From the Grand Haven,
Looks down at Fogarty Fegan,
Whose senile tub
Steams bow-on for the battleship.
From: The Jervis Bay Goes Down by Gene Fowler
Thanks Drach, an excellent video about a brave crew who did their duty
Awesome, they were all heroes!
It should also be remembered that a significant number of the crew weren’t really RN, they were the previous peacetime crew taken into RN service to do the same roles on the ship.
That have been under T124 regulations I'm thinking....
@@Claymore5 Correct.
How serendipitous! Historigraph just released a video last week on "The Sacrifice of Jervis Bay" focusing only on the action though. 😁👍
And with moving pictures 😀
The captains and men of the Jervis Bay and the USS Johnston. All brothers from a different mother. Led by 2 captains who's VICTORIA CROSS and CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF.HONOR gleam with the brightness of the sun.
Apparently much of the crew were the original civilian staff from it's ocean liner days as well.
I believe Douglas Reeman's Rendezvous - South Atlantic is largely inspired by Jervis Bay's sacrifice. I say inspired as the final enemy is more like a Hipper and things go a little wild throughout the story. However it is a good read if you can suspend your disbelief a little.
The Boat and Yacht Club where I kept my 28' cabin cruiser I met an old WWII Merchant mariner. He had 2 or 3 ships shot out from under him in the North Atlantic. He longed for warmer waters and moved to the Pacific where he promptly had this new ship sunk. He was a good soul. Rest in Peace Joe.
I am just going to say some of those armed merchant captains, destroyer/destroyer escort captains who figured "Fuck it, its only a battleship, knowing they and the men they led and their ships were going to die but did what had to be done. Their sacrifice truly brings tears to my eyes.
You really need to do a video on the story of another ship in convoy HX-84, the MV San Demetrio. It was hit by 11 inch gunfire, set on fire, abandoned by it's crew, reboarded by it's own crew after they bumped into it again two nights on the trot, the fire extinguished, limped back to england on their own without charts or navigation equipment which had perished in the fire, discovered that only 200 tons of the oil aboard had burned off and got put back into service after the salvage money was sorted out. They even made a film out of the whole thing in 1943.
Don't forget the SS Beaverford. She managed to keep the Admiral Scheer occupied for upwards of four hours in what could be described as a demented game of peekaboom through the smoke laid by the rest of the fleeing convoy (Jervis Bay had managed to land a shot on the Admiral Scheers radar).
Her last transmission upon turning to engage the raider is recorded as "it is our turn now. So long. The captain and crew of SS Beaverford."
Someone else, i think operations room?, also just did a video about the heroic performance of the Captain and Crew of Jarvis. I had never known it before, truly brave. Thank you for making this!
HMS Rawalpindi, HMS Jervis Bay, and Taffy 3 really put an exclamation point on Admiral Cunningham's statement: “It takes three years to build a ship; it takes three centuries to build a tradition.” The Germans and Japanese were comparative newcomers, and it showed.
Well, the Taffies had hundreds of warplanes available so it was anything but as one sided as US histories claim.
Mm. The Americans of Taffy 3 were also only a few decades into serious naval action, and haven't yet *had* three centuries to do anything.
@@VersusARCH There were 6 escort carriers in Taffy 3 with a capacity of 27 planes each. Quite a few of them would have been fighters, not that useful for killing battleships or cruisers. It takes time to arm the actual strike aircraft, that was a luxury they didn't have under the circumstances. The aircraft had minimal impact on the battle.
@@johnlee1297 Other Taffies sent fully armed planes as well. Kurita faced more than 2 Pearl Harbor Attack's worth of aircraft at Samar, all attacking just his ships (at Pearl many planes were attacking the airfields)..
Historiograph released a video a week ago about the convoy & Jervis Bay. Worth a watch 👍
These are the stories that fill me with gratitude.....of brave men fulfilling their duty even though it meant certain death for them. Brave men!
I'd been hoping you would do this story. I remember an "On This Day" feature in The Guardian some years ago. It was a first report of the action, after the first surviving ships had straggled into Liverpool. It was clear that the seamen interviewed still hadn't come to grips with the enormity of what they'd witnessed a couple of days earlier.
My God, the bravery of Captain Fogarty Fegen and his men. May they rest in peace and with the laurels they richly deserve.
Imagine beeing on that ship. Imagine beeing on that ship in command. Imagine making this kind of decisions. It´s unimaginable, alas it´s history now. RIP to this brave men.
For many years until the mid 2010s, the _Jervis Bay_ and her action against the Germans was the main event in the Naval Battle in Scarborough's Peashome Park
After losing his arm Captain Fegen sat down, upon his massive bollocks, and continued to fight. Safe to say they don't make them like that these days. What a tale.......what a man and what a crew.
Must have been a hard seat, what with them being steel.
@@kieranh2005 Indeed, maybe Titanium?
Admiral Scheer: "Oh? You're approaching me? Instead of running away you're coming right to me?"
Jervis Bay: "I cant beat the shit out of you without getting closer."
That's the first thing that came to mind when I heard the explanation.
How HMS Jervis Bay stayed afloat with so many massive balls of steel onboard is still not understood to this day.
If she was packed with empty barrels and cork (as mentioned by Drach) then that might be your answer....
Fascinating! I love learning about this era in naval history.
I read this story years ago as a boy from a Reader's Digest edition of the 1970s. It is said that Admiral Krancke of the Scheer described Captain Fogarty Fegen as having the 'Nelson Touch.' He more than deserved that VC.
So much info, so little time to research it. Thank you for all the work you do.
Thank you, Drachinifel.
What a credit he and his crew are to the Royal Navy!
First hear of her from McLean book lonely sea. Story of brave men, they did more than anyone can ask them. Such a contrast to lost of Ravalpindi...
Incredibly brave men and ship.
Hats off to that brave captain.. RIP.
Appropriate that the actual Jervis Bay was for many years the site of the Royal Australian Naval College. HMAS CRESWELL. ( I was Senior entry there in 1980) We did however pronounce it "JArvis..." which as it turns out is likely incorrect (Named after Sir John Jervis... )
Hadn't heard this story before, and kind of wondered whether a single converted passenger liner could possibly occupy a warship long enough to make any difference for a convoy. I guess that with some amazing bravery and a little bit of luck, it absolutely can do just that.
Well part of what helped the convoy was shitty German designs. Much like Bismarck, Scheer's radar was destroyed by the blasts of her own guns. Which made it a lot harder to target the ships in the scattered convoy once she caught up.
She may be slow and unarmoured, but even six inch guns can do mission-kill levels of damage on any ship up to and including battleships if they ignore the threat and let her get close enough to start scoring hits. So the AMC really has to be disabled or sunk before the raider can proceed to attacking the convoy it is covering.
I first heard about Jervis Bay's last stand through the miniature game I play.
(Axis & Allies War at Sea)
We have a card and miniature of her and special abilities that reflect her history
When it takes two 11" shells to stop just the captain you know its not going to end well.
5:40
"Can't beat the shit out of you without coming closer" energy right there.
Well done! Ive been waiting for this one.
Such heroism
The last action of Jervis Bay for me sums up the Royal Navy's attitude towards enemy engagements; A RN converted ocean liner vs a German 11" gun-armed heavy cruiser? That just makes it a fair fight. All joking aside, well deserved VC. Anyone who takes an ocean liner armed with some old 6" guns that were laying around against a full blown warship designed for merchant raiding has some balls!
Wow. That one gave me goosebumps.
I think you have found my next model project. What history thankyou for reminding me.
"So far we haven't seen any real action, but I promise you this much: If the gods are good to us and we meet the enemy, I shall take you in as close as I possibly can."
-- Capt. Fegen To the crew, shortly after taking command.
Captain Fegen and Captain Evans I think would have gotten along very well. Either that or they’d argue over who wins the award for biggest badass of a captain
Fegen every day.
Evans had a destroyer, 30 knots, radar controlled guns, torpedoes, agile as only a destroyer can be.
Fegen had a 15 knot cruise liner, no radar, no agility.
Both had balls of steel, but one of them had a genuine fighting ship, the other had a floating palace.
Excellent presentation!
None of your granny knots now...or I'll never see Barra again...classic story👍