The Royal Marines Band Service On-line Community

2nd Clarinet · Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 6:32 am Post subject: In Memory - HMS Hermes

9th April 1942.

On the 9th April 1942, the following members of the Royal Marines Band Service gave their lives while serving onboard HMS Hermes.

Bandmaster F.C. Roe
Band Corporal T. Fitzgerald
Musicians G. Hemming, R.L. Barnes, R.A.J. Hall, J.J. Coombes, F.W. Martin, H. Henly, W. Lomax and E.M.J. Weymouth.

I have posted below, the circumstances of that day.

Hermes was laid down by Sir W. G. Armstrong-Whitworth and Company at High Walker on the River Tyne in January 1918 and was launched on 11 September 1919. She was not commissioned until 1923.

HMS Hermes of the Royal Navy of United Kingdom was the first ship in any navy to be designed and built as an aircraft carrier, although the Imperial Japanese Navy's Hōshō was the first to be commissioned.

The design of Hermes preceded and influenced that of the Hōshō, and she was launched before Hōshō was laid down but her commissioning did not occur until more than six months after that of the Hōshō.

Like Hōshō, Hermes was based on a cruiser-type hull, and the design incorporated lessons learned from the operation of the earlier carriers such as HMS Furious and HMS Argus. Notably, this included a full-length flush flight deck and an island superstructure and funnel to starboard.

The latter innovation allowed the ship to be conned effectively but did not interfere with air operations.
The logic behind placing it to starboard was that early aircraft were powered by rotary engines that rotated in a clockwise manner (when viewed from the rear). The whirling mass generated considerable torque, and aircraft tended to yaw to their left upon take off. It was therefore desirable that they would turn away from any potential obstructions.
An interesting identification feature was the tripod mast, which had two forward and one rear leg, a unique arrangement.

However, operational experience with Hermes demonstrated that her air complement was too small, her protection and endurance limited, her speed was not sufficient for fleet operations and that her stability was poor, especially in high seas.

Despite her size, Hermes was only able to carry 20 aircraft.

Like other carriers of the time, Hermes, as built, was fitted with longitudinal wires, but these were changed to transverse arrester wires in the early 1930s.

During World War II she served briefly with the Home Fleet before being assigned to the southern Atlantic from October 1939.

At the commencement of war in September 1939, the British Home Fleet deployed aircraft carriers to seek out and destroy German submarines: HMS Ark Royal off the northwestern approaches to the British Isles, HMS Courageous and HMS Hermes off the southwestern approaches.

Courageous was sunk on 17 September 1939 by a torpedo and Hermes returned to port.

Hermes maintained her brief service in Home waters for a while after the loss of both Courageous and Glorious.

With a small aircraft complement, light protection and anti-aircraft armament, limited high-speed endurance, and stability problems caused by the large starboard island, with fuel having to be carefully distributed to balance the ship, Hermes was deemed unsuitable for operations in European waters, and was consequently employed in trade protection in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans until March 1942.

As the French had no aircraft carriers Hermes was then posted to Brest to operate with the French navy out of Dakar, French West Africa for approximately six months.

When Vichy France took over, the Admiralty ordered Hermes out of Dakar to patrol the immediate area to keep a close watch on Vichy French naval movements.
Her only fleet operation was on 8 July 1940, when her Swordfish aircraft attacked the Vichy French battleship Richelieu at Dakar and scored one torpedo hit.

Shortly after this action during the middle watch, she was in collision with the AMC Corfu; the lead ship of a convoy which came out of Freetown, and resulted in her steaming to Simonstown in South Africa for a more permanent repair.
Following which she was deployed with aircraft as shadow ship to prevent the pocket battleship Graf Spee from escaping to the South Atlantic.

She then went on patrol on the East Coast of Africa and the Red Sea and finally to the Persian Gulf.
Some of her crew members and ratings from other ships, were landed in Basra to take over the running of the port and man commandeered craft to patrol the river Shat-el-Arab, between Iraq and Iran.
After about eight months, troops from the Indian and Ghurka regiments invaded Iran.
They then had to take over the naval base at Khoramshah and to repair the sabotaged machinery.

During the Indian Ocean raid, Hermes was in harbour at Trincomalee, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), undergoing repairs.
Advance warning of a Japanese air raid allowed her to leave port, but as she returned following the raid on 9 April 1942, she was spotted off Batticaloa by a Japanese reconnaissance plane.

Lacking planes of her own, she was defenceless when she was attacked by 70 Japanese bombers.

Hit 40 times, Hermes sank with the loss of 307 men.

Her escorts – the destroyer HMAS Vampire and the corvette Hollyhock – and two tankers were also sunk.

590 survivors of the attack, were picked up by the hospital ship Vita and taken to Colombo.
Some survivors were taken to Kandy where they spent 10 days recuperating at the Queens Hotel.

The aircraft which sank Hermes were from the Japanese carriers Akagai (flagship), Hiryu, and Soryu.
Akagi had been the flagship for the Pearl Harbour attack in December 1941.

The Japanese Fleet went on to attack Darwin on its return to Japan.

Akagi and Hiryu were later scuttled and sunk by US dive bombers and Soryu hit by three bombs and exploded on 5 June 1942 in the Battle of Midway.

The wreck of the Hermes is located in the Indian Ocean off Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

To those named above and the ships company who also died…..R.I.P.
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