Kookaburra2011
WWII Java Sea companion HMS ENCOUNTER, her loss and crew rescue by a Japanese destroyer - courtesy Richard Dennis, U.K.
4591. Seen here is the Royal Navy E Class destroyer HMS ENCOUNTER whose loss on March 1, 1942 in the Second Battle of the Java Sea produced one of the more remarkable episodes of gallantry and humanism to be shown by a Japanese naval commander during the Pacific War. It was an episode that produced several books and a TV documentary in Japan later.
We had told this story in the late Derek Simon Collection, 'Episodes or WWII' [pics4291-4381], and it attracted some interest.
Unfortunately it was told under a misidentified photo, and U.K. Collector Richard Dennis has now kindly sent us this replacement image of HMS ENCOUNTER so the story and comments that followed can be preserved [below]. Many thanks Richard.
This photo in fact shows ENCOUNTER in the pre-WWII period about 1936, when she was assigned to Spanish Civil War non-intervention patrols. Notice she is carrying the protective red white and blue British neutrality stripes over B turret.
HMS ENCOUNTER AND HER LOSS:
ENCOUNTER was an Admiralty E Class destroyer of 1,350-1,428 tons full load. Built by Hawthorn Leslie and Co at Hebburn and completed on Nov. 2, 1934, she was a somewhat old-style destroyer armed with four 4.7 inch [120mm] guns, and an AA armament that initially consisted entirely of machineguns.
These were later augmented by one three-inch [76.2mm] HA gun , and two 20mm Oerlikons.
On March 1 1942, two days after the diastrous Battle of the Java Sea, ENCOUNTER and the aging U.S. four-stack destroyer USS POPE were escorting the damaged cruiser HMS EXETER - hit by an 8-inch shell in her boiler rooms - in an attempt to break out of the Java Sea via the Sunda Strait .
At 9.35 am that morning , however, they ran into a powerful Japanese force comprising the heavy cruisers NACHI, HAGURO, MYOKO, and ASHIGARA and the destroyers AKEBONO, IKAZUCHI, INAZUMA, YAMAKAZE, and KAWAKAZE [a different force to that which had surrounded and sunk the cruisers HMAS PERTH and USS HOUSTON nearby in the Strait around 10 to 12 hours earlier, during the preceding night].
These actions, and several others that followed, are sometimes referred to collectively as the Second Battle of the Java Sea.
Like PERTH and HOUSTON, EXETER's group also had very little chance.
ENCOUNTER was sunk as soon as the Japanese force had despatched the crippled cruiser, which had been famous, of course, for her role in the 1939 Battle of the River Plate, USS POPE, initially escaped behind a smoke screen and a rain squall, but she too was caught and sunk by 12 Japanese aircraft several hours later.
About 800 Allied seamen survived the battle, and - in one of the more unusual episodes of gallantry during the Pacific war - the Japanese destroyer IKAZUCHI,[ LCDR Shunsaku Kudo], placed herself at some risk to stop and rescue 442 survivors from ENCOUNTER and POPE from the water the next day, March 2. Covered with oil, and in the water for 20 hours,at that stage, many of the men had been in desperate straits. LCDR Kudo was felt to have also impaired his ship's fighting ability by the sheer number of survivors he took on board.
By coincidence, more than three years later, the RAN ships, frigate HMAS BARCOO and corvette HMAS INVERELL would be involved in the liberation and transport of survivors from HMS EXETER, HMS ENCOUNTER and the destroyer HMS STRONGHOLD from the Japanese PoW camps in the Celebes.
We had a very touching photo of HMAS INVERELL involved in that role at pic NO. 2934, here:
www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/4982641988/
Sadly, 36 of HMS ENCOUNTER'S crew died in captivity, where not much humanism was in evidence. EXETER's CO, Captain Oliver Gordon, however, was one of the survivors of the action and the camps, and filed the first comprehensive report of his ship's loss from a relief ship immediately after his release. Written secretly in the PoW camps and kept hidden for years, it was the first real account that the Admiralty had received of the loss of the cruiser more than 3 1/2 years earlier.
SANDY1618 ORIGINALLY COMMENTED ON THIS STORY ....
'.... I was intrigued by the actions of LCDR Kudo and looked up his story in the net. An amazing story and an admirable man. Ironically the IKAZUCHI, under the command of another officer was sunk by the Americans with the loss of all hands....'
FrigateRN asked with the original entry:
'....An interesting commentary, any more on the Japanese officer who showed this humanity?'
A wikipedia entry on LCDR Shunsaku Kudo is here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunsaku_Kud%C5%8D
shunsaku Kudo died of stomach cancer in 2007. A news story on former British diplomat and ex-RN Lieutenant Sir Samuel Falle making a visit to Japan to pay homage at Kudo's grave in Japan in 2008 can be read here:
www.upiasia.com/Politics/2008/12/11/english_survivor_prai...
Photo above of HMS ENCOUNTER: Courtesy Richard Dennis, Falmouth, U.K.
WWII Java Sea companion HMS ENCOUNTER, her loss and crew rescue by a Japanese destroyer - courtesy Richard Dennis, U.K.
4591. Seen here is the Royal Navy E Class destroyer HMS ENCOUNTER whose loss on March 1, 1942 in the Second Battle of the Java Sea produced one of the more remarkable episodes of gallantry and humanism to be shown by a Japanese naval commander during the Pacific War. It was an episode that produced several books and a TV documentary in Japan later.
We had told this story in the late Derek Simon Collection, 'Episodes or WWII' [pics4291-4381], and it attracted some interest.
Unfortunately it was told under a misidentified photo, and U.K. Collector Richard Dennis has now kindly sent us this replacement image of HMS ENCOUNTER so the story and comments that followed can be preserved [below]. Many thanks Richard.
This photo in fact shows ENCOUNTER in the pre-WWII period about 1936, when she was assigned to Spanish Civil War non-intervention patrols. Notice she is carrying the protective red white and blue British neutrality stripes over B turret.
HMS ENCOUNTER AND HER LOSS:
ENCOUNTER was an Admiralty E Class destroyer of 1,350-1,428 tons full load. Built by Hawthorn Leslie and Co at Hebburn and completed on Nov. 2, 1934, she was a somewhat old-style destroyer armed with four 4.7 inch [120mm] guns, and an AA armament that initially consisted entirely of machineguns.
These were later augmented by one three-inch [76.2mm] HA gun , and two 20mm Oerlikons.
On March 1 1942, two days after the diastrous Battle of the Java Sea, ENCOUNTER and the aging U.S. four-stack destroyer USS POPE were escorting the damaged cruiser HMS EXETER - hit by an 8-inch shell in her boiler rooms - in an attempt to break out of the Java Sea via the Sunda Strait .
At 9.35 am that morning , however, they ran into a powerful Japanese force comprising the heavy cruisers NACHI, HAGURO, MYOKO, and ASHIGARA and the destroyers AKEBONO, IKAZUCHI, INAZUMA, YAMAKAZE, and KAWAKAZE [a different force to that which had surrounded and sunk the cruisers HMAS PERTH and USS HOUSTON nearby in the Strait around 10 to 12 hours earlier, during the preceding night].
These actions, and several others that followed, are sometimes referred to collectively as the Second Battle of the Java Sea.
Like PERTH and HOUSTON, EXETER's group also had very little chance.
ENCOUNTER was sunk as soon as the Japanese force had despatched the crippled cruiser, which had been famous, of course, for her role in the 1939 Battle of the River Plate, USS POPE, initially escaped behind a smoke screen and a rain squall, but she too was caught and sunk by 12 Japanese aircraft several hours later.
About 800 Allied seamen survived the battle, and - in one of the more unusual episodes of gallantry during the Pacific war - the Japanese destroyer IKAZUCHI,[ LCDR Shunsaku Kudo], placed herself at some risk to stop and rescue 442 survivors from ENCOUNTER and POPE from the water the next day, March 2. Covered with oil, and in the water for 20 hours,at that stage, many of the men had been in desperate straits. LCDR Kudo was felt to have also impaired his ship's fighting ability by the sheer number of survivors he took on board.
By coincidence, more than three years later, the RAN ships, frigate HMAS BARCOO and corvette HMAS INVERELL would be involved in the liberation and transport of survivors from HMS EXETER, HMS ENCOUNTER and the destroyer HMS STRONGHOLD from the Japanese PoW camps in the Celebes.
We had a very touching photo of HMAS INVERELL involved in that role at pic NO. 2934, here:
www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/4982641988/
Sadly, 36 of HMS ENCOUNTER'S crew died in captivity, where not much humanism was in evidence. EXETER's CO, Captain Oliver Gordon, however, was one of the survivors of the action and the camps, and filed the first comprehensive report of his ship's loss from a relief ship immediately after his release. Written secretly in the PoW camps and kept hidden for years, it was the first real account that the Admiralty had received of the loss of the cruiser more than 3 1/2 years earlier.
SANDY1618 ORIGINALLY COMMENTED ON THIS STORY ....
'.... I was intrigued by the actions of LCDR Kudo and looked up his story in the net. An amazing story and an admirable man. Ironically the IKAZUCHI, under the command of another officer was sunk by the Americans with the loss of all hands....'
FrigateRN asked with the original entry:
'....An interesting commentary, any more on the Japanese officer who showed this humanity?'
A wikipedia entry on LCDR Shunsaku Kudo is here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunsaku_Kud%C5%8D
shunsaku Kudo died of stomach cancer in 2007. A news story on former British diplomat and ex-RN Lieutenant Sir Samuel Falle making a visit to Japan to pay homage at Kudo's grave in Japan in 2008 can be read here:
www.upiasia.com/Politics/2008/12/11/english_survivor_prai...
Photo above of HMS ENCOUNTER: Courtesy Richard Dennis, Falmouth, U.K.