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Asked Questions page. Related Resource: Naval Armed Guard Service During World War II
Source: Office
of the Chief of Naval Operations. "History of the Armed Guard
Afloat, World War II." (Washington, 1946): 86-92. [This microfiche,
identified as United States Naval Administrative History of World War II #173, is located in Navy Department Library, and can be purchased, or borrowed through interlibrary loan.]
The number of armed United States merchant ships lost to armed
raiders is not definitely known. Several ships went out independently
and were never heard from again. They may have been torpedoed,
have suffered marine casualties, or have gone down before the
guns of some fast surface raider. Six merchant ships, all carrying
Armed Guards, are known to have encountered armed raiders. All
of these ships were sunk, but some were able to fight back. The
stories of the Stephen Hopkins and the Stanvac Calcutta
rank with the great individual ship actions of all times.
The Germans converted some of their faster merchant ships to raiders.
They gave them guns with greater fire power than any merchant
ship. They also mounted torpedo tubes on the raiders. Generally
there was a mother ship to furnish supplies. Japanese bases and
facilities were used extensively by German raiders. They found
their prey in the fast allied merchant ships which did not operate
in convoy. The German raiders were able to slip through the allied
blockade and survive for months in the open seas. These raiders
were especially successful in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic.
Reports from Armed Guards sources indicate that Raiders No.
23 and No. 28 accounted for all six ships which were
sunk in these areas.
The first known United States merchant ship to fall prey to Raider
No. 28 was the Connecticut. This ship was sunk on April
28, 1942. There are no details on the sinking in the files of
the Arming Merchant Ship Section in the Fleet Maintenance Division
of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.
The Stanvac Calcutta, under Panamanian registry, but carrying
a four-inch gun aft and a three-inch gun forward, and having an
Armed Guard [U.S. Navy] officer and eight [U.S. Navy enlisted]
Armed Guards on board, was on a voyage between Montevideo, Uruguay,
and Port of Spain, Trinidad, in early June, 1942. Shortly after
1000 on the morning of June 6, a vessel emerged from a rain squall
about four miles distant on the port bow of the Stanvac Calcutta
and opened fire. The vessel was Raider No. 23 (Schiff
23), the ex S.S. Cairo. She hoisted the international
code flag signal to the Stanvac Calcutta to stop all engines.
The German ensign was flying at the gaff on her mainmast. The
Calcutta hoisted her international code flag number and
the Panama flag at the gaff on the mainmast. She increased her
engines to full speed and opened fire with both guns. Her three
and four inch guns were no match for the six 6" (5.9")
guns mounted on the enemy. Raider 23 opened fire with all
guns and fired 153 rounds and one torpedo at the Stanvac Calcutta
before that proud ship went down with her flag still flying. Each
gun on the Calcutta fired more than twenty rounds before
the ship was sunk. There was no surrender and no thought of abandoning
ship as long as her guns would fire. Dead and wounded were lying
at their stations. When her port rail was under water and it appeared
that she would roll over any minute, a few members of the Stanvac
Calcutta's crew were able to abandon ship. The vessel rolled
over very quickly until she was bottom-up and then sank by the
stern. This was the first of nineteen allied flag merchant ships
which offered opposition to Raider No. 23. Survivors were
picked up by the raider and eventually landed in Japanese prison
camps [when the raider returned to a Japanese base via the Indian
Ocean to replenish supplies], to remain until they were released
when the war ended. She had fought back against hopeless odds
and in the best tradition of the United States Navy.
The William F. Humphrey had an old 5"/51 gun [i.e.,
with a bore 5" in diameter and the barrel length of 51 calibers
- approximately 21' 3"] on her stern, and a fighting coxswain
[a U.S. Navy petty officer rating for specialists in boat handling]
named Jennings Jack Bennett in charge of five Armed Guards when
she met Raider No. 28 [or Michel, her actual nom
de guerre] on the night of July 16, 1942, while en route from
Capetown [South Africa] to Trinidad. The raider pulled up on the
port quarter at about half past nine in the evening. She fired
once and stopped. When the William F. Humphrey answered
her fire, the enemy ship opened up with all guns, including her
machine guns. As the Humphrey fired the third round, a
shell from the raider hit underneath the gun deck and so raised
the tun that it was impossible to fire again. Bennett was hit
in both legs and in the left arm while loading the second round,
but continued with the loading and pointing of the gun. When in
a pointer position to fire the second round, a finger from his
left hand was shot off. He continued his duties at the gun until
it could no longer fire. He then threw out life preservers into
the water and proceeded amidships to throw confidential papers
overboard. Just as he left his room, a shell struck the bridge
and the overhead caved in. As he was in the act of lowering a
lifeboat a shell exploded between the davits [i.e., lifeboat cranes]
and inflicted serious shrapnel wounds. Bennett was actually pinned
to the deck by shrapnel, but managed to free himself and roll
into the water. The Germans fired on the men from the Humphrey
as they swam in the water. Two torpedoes which sent the ship down
passed Bennett so close that he could had touched them and the
concussion from their explosion blew him completely out of the
water. Two ship-borne [German] motor torpedo boats cooperated
in the attack. He [Bennett] swam to a life raft and was pulled
aboard. Later he was transferred to a lifeboat. Fore seven days
he lay on a piece of canvas over a couple of oars with many wounds,
including shrapnel in his stomach. Finally a Norwegian ship rescued
the survivors on the seventh day and Bennett began his long battle
for life in a hospital at Freetown. For his heroic conduct, Bennett
was awarded the Silver Star.
Two other United States merchant ships went down before the guns
of Raider No. 28. The American Leader left Capetown
on September 7, 1942, en route for the United States. At 1940
on September 10, Raider 28 began shelling this ship with
heavy guns and machine guns and continued for twenty minutes.
She sank her [the American Leader] with two torpedoes.
Most of the Armed Guards and a large number of the merchant crew
were picked up by the raider and some of the survivors were eventually
liberated from Japanese prison camps.
The Sawokla was torpedoed and shelled by Raider No.
28 at 2035 on 10 November 1942. The ship was about 400 miles
southeast of Madagascar, bound from Columbo, Ceylon [now Sri Lanka]
to Capetown when the action took place. The ship took two torpedoes,
about 68 rounds of heavy [artillery] ammunition, presumably six-inch,
and considerable machine gun fire before she went down. J.J. Parrington,
Coxswain in the Armed Guard crew fired two magazines of 20mm [cannon]
ammunition at the raider. It is believed that four Armed Guards,
including the Armed Guard officer, were killed at the time of
the sinking. There were many survivors who were made prisoners
on board of the raider. Not until 1945 were some of these prisoners
released from Japanese camps. The ship sank in eight minutes.
The Stephen Hopkins fought one of the most gallant actions
in World War II against two German raiders on September 27 about
midway between Capetown and Rio de Janeiro. The vessel was proceeding
on a northwesterly course at about 0935. The weather was hazy.
From the north two armed raiders appeared on her starboard bow.
The larger, a 7,000 ton motor ship, was a mother ship and apparently
was unarmed forward. The smaller, a 4,000 ton motor ship, was
heavily armed, probably with six 5.9" guns. She was probably
Raider No. 23. The Hopkins had a 4" gun aft,
two 37mm guns forward, four .50 cal. And two .30 cal. machine
guns.
Upon sighting the raiders, the Hopkins turned away to port.
The larger raider immediately drew ahead. At about 1,000 yards
the smaller raider opened salvo fire. Throughout the action the
larger raider strafed the decks of the Hopkins with machine
gun fire. Ensign Kenneth M. Willett, USNR, came out on deck as
the first shell struck. He was seriously wounded immediately in
the stomach by shrapnel from the bursting shell. Nevertheless,
he continued to direct the firing of the 4" gun at the heavier
armed raider until the [ship's ammunition] magazine blew up. Most
of the 35 projectiles [fired by the 4" gun] struck the raider
along the water line. The Cadet fired the five remaining four
inch shells at the other raider. Meanwhile, the machine guns from
Hopkins were sweeping the decks of the raiders and the
second mate was directing the fire of the two 37mm guns forward
at the larger ship until his shell handlers were killed and the
gun platform was wrecked. At the end of 20 minutes the Stephen
Hopkins was done for and the order was given to abandon ship.
When last seen, the Armed Guard officer was covered with blood
but was helping cut loose the life rafts. For his action he was
awarded the Navy Cross posthumously. The remaining Armed Guards
were commended by the Secretary of the Navy. Only five, all wounded,
survived the sinking. In addition, the destroyer escort No. 354
was named for Ensign Willett [destroyer escorts were not usually
named]. The Stephen Hopkins was awarded the Gallant Ship
Citation by the War Shipping Administration.
The second engineer, Mr. George D. Cronk, took charge of the one
lifeboat which escaped and brought 15 survivors to a safe landfall
on the coast of Brazil, although he had neither navigating instruments
nor charts. The weary survivors witnessed the dying gasp of Raider
No. 23 as her crew was removed and she was covered in smoke
[a smoke screen?]. Later an explosion was heard. The ship went
down. This exploit equals anything in John Paul Jones' experiences.
It is one of the few cases in Naval History where a lightly armed
ship was able by gunfire to sink a vessel with virtually the armament
of a cruiser.