HMNZS GAMBIA IN AUSTRALIAN & NEW ZEALAND WATERS
STOKER 1st CLASS - C/KX725495 DENNIS KING
Dennis King joined Gambia in 1945,
after travelling to Perth, he then made his way to Sydney by Rail, only to find out that the ship had sailed without him.
Dennis finally caught up with the ship in Guam, from where they went to Sea and was present at the
Surrender of the Japanese Forces.
Please note the above link replaces the RNZN History Folder.
Also see Links and Web Ring Page for Link to RNZN Museum
ALLOW TIME FOR THE FILM TO BUFFER, THEN WHEN YOU PLAY IT ON THE SECOND OCCASION YOU WILL FIND IT WILL PLAY THROUGH WITHOUT INTERRUPTION
The pictures immediately above, and the article below are reproduced with the kind permission of JONATHON SHER,
of the
London Free Press - Canada.
Second World War veteran Bob Kennedy, a resident of South London, (Canada) describes combat in three theatres of the war that culminated with the surrender of Japan on Sept. 2, 1945 -- his 25th birthday. Kennedy took part in surrender ceremonies in the Bay of Tokyo. He turns 90 on Thursday and Saturday hosted a party for friends and family. (CRAIG GLOVER, The London Free Press)
Bob Kennedy steps up to the microphone, straightens his tartan cap and glances down at the next bawdy song he’ll sing to entertain guests who have come to his south London home to celebrate his 90th birthday.
He’s the headliner at his own party and that doesn’t surprise those who know him best — he’s told jokes and has sung songs to friends, family and fellow veterans for as long as they can remember.
If someone’s surprised, it’s Kennedy himself, not that he’s the life of the party but that he’s alive at all.
It’s not the first time he’s stood on his birthday in awe at his own mortality.
Sixty-five years earlier, Kennedy felt a similar blend of joy and relief as he stood on the deck of HMS Gambia in the Bay of Tokyo, part of an Allied armada there as Japanese leaders signed a surrender that officially ended the Second World War.
The Allied force was overwhelming, especially the Americans, and U.S. General Douglas MacArthur timed the ceremony so that as the Japanese leaders lifted the pen to sign surrender documents on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri, thousands of American planes flew just overhead.
That night, Allied soldiers celebrated and those in the British fleet were treated to a double tot of rum — about five ounces — and the one and only beer they’d get on a naval vessel.
That day became VJ-Day in Canada, short for Victory Over Japan Day.
It would be mostly overlooked in Europe and celebrated with aplomb in the United States, where the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour had been the first on American soil since the War of 1812.
For Kennedy, that day meant something more personal: He’d live to see more birthdays after what before had seemed like a path to certain death.
From the sunlit room of his kitchen in South London, the Glasgow native recalls how he grew up in the shadow of a military base where he delivered milk to married soldiers and their families. His Scotland of the 1930s was one where men struggled to find work in the face of the Great Depression, so at age 17, Kennedy signed up to become a Royal Marine.
“I joined up to see the world. I didn’t think there would be a bloody war,” he says.
Kennedy pulls out a framed black-and-white photo of his graduating class of 1938, points to several and lingers at one.
“Captain Phillips. He was killed at Dieppe. Quite a few of the boys were killed at Dieppe.”
Kennedy was assigned to man the big guns for the British fleet, first in the Atlantic Ocean, where the Royal Navy struggled with German U-boats to control the shipping lanes.
His closest brush with death came in 1942 in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Allies had been using the island of Malta to attack Axis convoys taking supplies to armies in North Africa, so when Nazis blockaded the island, the Allies sent military convoys to get supplies to Malta.
Kennedy was assigned to man the big guns of the flagship of the 15th Cruiser Squadron, HMS Naiad, and in March it was lured from port in Alexandria, Egypt, by a false report of a damaged Italian vessel.
The ship was in total darkness when Kennedy felt it jolted up from the sea, a torpedo from a U-boat exploding the engine room.
The Naiad lurched to the right and quickly began to sink. (HMS NAIAD was a Dido Class Cruiser).
With explosions rocking the ship, Kennedy and a crew mate made their way to the stern, where seawater was already coming over the deck. They jumped into waters cold from winter, kept afloat by a life jacket the sailors called a Mae West for the way the chest inflated.
Hours passed. Kennedy’s arms and legs began to stiffen from the cold. He prayed. In his mind he saw the faces of family back in Scotland, urging him to hang on.
After five hours, they were spotted and picked up by a destroyer.
Eighty-three of his crew mates perished.
But while that night was awful, worse things awaited in the Pacific, where Kennedy joined HMS Gambia, which had been lent to the New Zealand navy.
Tales of Japanese brutality were rampant and Kennedy didn’t doubt them when the Allied fleet came under assault at the battle of Okinawa.
Kamikazes struck all five British carriers, says Kennedy, slapping his kitchen table five times. One took aim at the Gambia, barely missing.
“If you hadn’t had a bowel movement for awhile you had one right there. They’d come out of the sky out of nowhere and come straight down.”
He dreaded what was planned next: An invasion of Japan itself.
With mountains framing most of the main island, the only place for an amphibious landing was Tokyo Bay. The Japanese were dug in and some estimated more than a million Allied casualties if civilians resisted, too.
In early August 1945, the Gambia and Allied fleet were ordered to back away 640 kilometres (400 miles) from Japan. Something was up but no one knew what.
The world would learn Aug. 6.
A single American plane dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, destroying everything within two kilometres of its detonation, killing 66,000 people from the blast and unleashing radiation that would kill countless more in coming years.
On Aug. 9, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing between 40,000 and 75,000.
Six days later, Japan surrendered.
There would be no invasion.
In the weeks after the war, Kennedy went ashore in Japan to bring back Allied prisoners from a prisoner-of-war camp outside Kobe. The city was beautiful but the camp was awful: Prisoners who survived brutal treatment were bone thin, their bellies distended. One told Kennedy he ate snakes and rats to keep alive.
Estimates vary considerably of casualties in the Pacific War that began Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese launched attacks on Pearl Harbour and British Malaya. But the Americans alone estimated 41,322 soldiers in their force were killed and another 129,274 injured before the Japanese surrender Aug. 15, 1945.
“I don’t know, to be quite honest with you, how I got to this age,” Kennedy says, his eyes growing watery, his voice tired.
“I don’t know, It surprised me. Between the battle of Crete, the Malta convoys, the Pacific fleet, Okinawa. Jesus, I’ll tell you. Everyone dropped down on their hands and knees and thanked God they dropped those (atomic) bombs. Without that I doubt I’d be here today.”
Kennedy lifts his head with resilience learned over nine decades.
“I’m here and I’ll have a party here Saturday. I’ll put on my highland kilt and I’ll have a glass of Glenfiddich single malt scotch.”
How the Scotsman settled in London is an unlikely tale. After the war, he decided to move to New Zealand, whose beauty had struck him while he served in the Pacific.
The normal route of travel east was off-limits because of unexploded mines along the way. So Kennedy went west, with plans to get to Vancouver and sail across the Pacific. With only 50 English pounds — about
$200 Cdn — he sailed to New York, then took a train to Toronto. Only then did he learn Vancouver wasn’t close to Toronto.
“Little did I know the expanse of Canada.”
The fare was costly and Kennedy was almost out of money so he hooked up with a fellow Scot who helped him get a job at the Royal York Hotel as a bellhop.
“It was the biggest hotel in the British Empire, with 2,300 rooms. I know that because at 2 a.m. I delivered bills under all the doors.”
He planned to earn enough to continue his journey. But there was a setback, one he didn’t want to discuss, only saying it was related to his military service and he ended up in Sunnybrook Military Hospital.
There Kennedy would fall in love with a Canadian nurse named Jessie Bruce and she with him. “Can you see why?” he beams showing her photo.
In 1949 the couple moved to London. Kennedy worked with National Defence and the Ontario Liquor Board. They became parents — Bruce and Jim Kennedy still live in the city — and later grandparents.
A long life has brought joy, but also loss. Friends died. Kennedy stopped playing golf in his mid-80s because no one was left to play with.
A few years ago Jesse died.
Once there had been 28 Royal Marines in the London region; now it’s down to seven.
But one tradition endures.
Kennedy didn’t take many wartime souvenirs and most of what he did he gave to friends. But he still has three Japanese glasses he believes were used by its navy to celebrate victories at sea.
Kennedy isn’t one for 'Sake' — he swears Glenfiddich has been the key to his longevity. Each birthday he fills those glasses with rum.
“Every 2nd of September my boys and I have a tot of rum and we say,
‘Thank God.’ ”
This page was last updated: November 29, 2011
HMNZS GAMBIA
1. In April 1945 GAMBIA was replenishing in Leyte Gulf, where on 28th, Captain RAB Edwards CBE, RN relieved Captain NJW William-Powlett, DSC, RN in Command.
2. On 1st May GAMBIA sailed with Task Force 57 to continue operations against Sakishima Gunto. On 4th, GAMBIA in company with HMS SWIFTSURE carried out a simultaneous bombardment on Nobara Airfield with air co-operation for spotting. A successful bombardment was reported. Air strikes were continued against Sakishima Gunto until 25th May, when after refueling, Task Force 57 set course for Manus.
3. From 1st to 4th June, GAMBIA was on passage from Manus to Sydney, where she remained until 28th storing and replenishing apart from two day at sea carrying out gunnery exercises.
4. On 28th June the Rear Admiral commanding Fourth Cruiser Squadron, Rear Admiral EJP Brind, CBE and a skeleton staff embarked and GAMBIA proceeded in company with the British Pacific Fleet for Manus. Rear Admiral Brind and staff were transferred to HMS NEWFOUNDLAND on 30th June.
5. After fuelling at Manus, GAMBIA forming part of Task Force 37.1 sailed on 6 July for the current operations against Japan. Air strikes were carried out against Northern Honshu and Southern Honshu.
6. Rear Admiral RM Servaes, CBE commanding the Second Cruiser Squadron and two of his staff officers joined GAMBIA temporarily to gain experience of fleet operations in the combat area. GAMBIA later rejoined Task Force 37, and the whole force carried out more air strikes against South Honshu on 28th and 30th July. During the month of July, GAMBIA spent thirty days at sea and steamed 10,561 miles.
7. On 9th August, GAMBIA was detached from Task Unit 37.31.8 under the control of the Rear Admiral commanding Fourth Cruiser Squadron to carry out a bombardment of Kamaishi. Reports suggested that the bombardment was most successful. During the retirement the force was attached by Japanese aircraft, which was engaged by GAMBIA. This, as far as is known, was the last aircraft to be engaged by British Fleet gunfire during the war. It was ultimately reported as being brought down.
8. Further air strikes carried out over Northern Honshu until, on 15th August, Command Task Force made a signal, “Cease Hostilities against Japan”.
9. While the signal was still flying. Spitfires were overhead engaging a Japanese aircraft. The latter dropped a bomb, which fell, in the sea between HMS INDEFATIGABLE and GAMBIA. The enemy aircraft was shot down by the Spitfires, a part of it falling on board GAMBIA. No further enemy air attacks were made, but several snoopers were shot down by patrolling aircraft out of sight of the fleet, which retired to await events.
10. In the forenoon of 20th August a Royal Marine detachment under the command of Captain Blake, RM and two platoons of seaman with company headquarters under the command of Lieutenant Commander Davis-Goff, RNZN were disembarked from GAMBIA into two United States destroyer transports in readiness to land in Tokyo Bay. They were reported to be the first ashore on Japanese soil.
11. On 23rd August the Fleet formed into Task Groups for entry into Sugami Wan. GAMBIA in company with HM Ships KING GEORGE V, NEWFOUNDLAND, NAPIER and NIZAM formed Task Group 37. It was, however not until 27th August that the ships entered Sugami Wan. Hands went to general quarters ready for any treacherous move on the part of the Japanese, and battle ensigns were flown, but the entry was without incident. Subsequently, the Commander-in-Chief British Pacific Fleet, Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser GCB, KBE paid an informal visit to GAMBIA and addressed the ship’s company.
12. GAMBIA was in Tokyo Bay during the signing of the instrument of surrender, and remained their until 12th September, when she proceeded to Kii Suido, where she was employed until 19th assisting United States Forces with the embarkation and recovered Allied military personnel. While here a very severe typhoon was experienced.
13. On 11th October GAMBIA departed from Tokyo Bay for Manus and onward routeing for Sydney and Auckland where she arrived on 31st October.
14. On 8th February 1946, GAMBIA reduced to one-fifth complement and re-commissioned with steaming party. From this date she ceased to be attached to the British Pacific Fleet.
15. On 12th February, GAMBIA departed from Auckland for Sydney and the United Kingdom for reversion to the Royal Navy.
(This perspective account from the RNZN Comms)
