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HMS Overdale Wyke (FY 338) was a Ceylonese steam turbine trawler launched in 1924, which served as a Minesweeping Trawler with the Ceylon Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during World War 2.
She was requisitioned into the service of the Royal Navy in 1939 as a Minesweeping Trawler with the name His Majesty's Trawler Overdale Wyke (HMT Overdale Wyke). It was later sold to the Government of Ceylon in 1941. It was fitted with minesweeping gear and armament and sailed to Port Said by a Royal Navy crew and was taken over by a Ceylon Naval Volunteer Reserve (CNVF) crew that included Lt. P.J.B. Oakley (C.O.), Lt. A.H.H. Boyns, Lt. B.A. Ohlson, Lt. A. Smith (Engineer), P/O Stanislaus, P/O (Tel) Rankine, P/O (SM) Bastiampillai, P/O (CK) Marshall and Stwd. Eric Perera leaving for Ceylon on 3 March 1941. She was commissioned as CNVF vessel as 15 March 1941. Between March 1941 and December 1944, HMS Overdale Wyke with a crew of 4 officers and 40 sailors took on multiple duties including patrolling, minesweeping, providing escort services, search-and-rescue work and anti-submarine attacks. On 5 April 1942, during the Easter Sunday Raid on Colombo, Lt. Simpson moved her close to HMS Hector which had been hit and ablaze to assist putting out its fires only missing a stick of bombs that fell on her former moorings. Along with other vessels of the CNVF the armed trawlers Hoxa and Balta; converted Antarctic whaler Okapi, Semla and Sambur supported by tugs Samson, Goliath and C-405; she formed part of the Ceylon Escort Group, which was later designated the ABCD (“Arabia-Bangala-Ceylon-Dutch East Indies”) group, carrying out patrol, escort, search-and-rescue, guard-ship and sundry other duties off Ceylon, Bay of Bengal and as far west as Addu Atoll and Diego Garcia. She also served as Guard ship at Addu Atoll, a secret RN port called “Port T”. She is credited with the rescue of several persons from sunken ships, and of carrying out depth charge attacks on enemy submarines, although she has not been credited with any “kills”. In September 1943, she intercepted and accepted the surrender of the Italian sloop Eritrea and escort her to the Colombo port with a prize crew on board. Following the end of the war she was decommissioned and remained in the Colombo harbour until she was sold for scrap. Her sole QF 12-pounder gun still stands at the entrance to SLNS Rangalle in the Port of Colombo. [1] [2]
HMAS Burnie (J198/B238/A112), named for the city of Burnie, Tasmania, was one of 60 Bathurst class corvettes constructed during World War II and one of 20 built for the Admiralty but manned by personnel of and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
The first USS Thomas (DD–182) was a Wickes-class destroyer of the United States Navy that entered service just after World War I.
HMS Electra was a one of nine E-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s. Sunk in the Battle of the Java Sea, Electra was a witness to many naval battles, including the Battle of the Denmark Strait and the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse. The ship's wreck was discovered in 2003 and had been badly damaged by illegal salvagers by 2016.
HMS Hollyhock was a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Navy. During her career, she was frequently used for escorting convoys. She was captained by Lt. Thomas Edward Davies.
After the outbreak of the Second World War, in the British Crown Colony of Ceylon, the government of Sir Don Baron Jayatilaka assured the British King and his government of its continued support.
HMCS Alberni was a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) during the Second World War. The Flower-class corvettes were warships designed for anti-submarine warfare. The ship was constructed by Yarrows Ltd. in Esquimalt, British Columbia, laid down on 19 April 1940, launched on 22 August and commissioned on 4 February 1941. The corvette sailed east to join the RCN's fleet in the Atlantic via the Panama Canal, where upon arrival, the vessel began escorting trans-atlantic convoys in the Battle of the Atlantic. Alberni took part in the key convoy battle of Convoy SC 42. In 1942, the corvette was transferred to Allied convoy assignments associated with Operation Torch in the Mediterranean Sea. In 1944, Alberni was among the Canadian naval vessels assigned to Operation Neptune, the naval component of the invasion of Normandy and escorted support ships to and from the United Kingdom on D-day.
HMAS Bathurst (J158), named for the city of Bathurst, New South Wales, was the lead ship of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes constructed during World War II and one of 20 built for the Admiralty but manned by personnel of and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Constructed during 1940, the ship spent most of her early career operating with the British Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean. She returned to Australian waters in late 1944, then was deployed to New Guinea in 1945, but saw little action. Bathurst was paid off in 1946, and sold to a Sydney scrap merchant in 1948.
HMAS Gawler (J188/B241/A115), named for the town of Gawler, was one of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes constructed during World War II and one of 20 built for the Admiralty but manned by personnel of and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). The ship was laid down by BHP at its Whyalla shipyard in early 1941, launched later that year, and commissioned in 1942.
Eritrea was a colonial ship of the Italian Regia Marina constructed in the Castellammare Shipyards near Napoli. Construction started in 1935 and she was commissioned in 1937. She served mainly in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans.
Vice-Admiral Sir Arthur Richard Hezlet, nicknamed Baldy Hezlet, was a decorated Royal Navy submariner. He became the Royal Navy's youngest captain at the time – aged 36 – and its youngest admiral, aged 45. In retirement he became a military historian.
The Royal Naval Patrol Service (RNPS) was a branch of the Royal Navy active during both the First and Second World Wars. The RNPS operated many small auxiliary vessels such as naval trawlers for anti-submarine and minesweeping operations to protect coastal Britain and convoys.
Vorpostenboot, also referred to as VP-Boats, flakships or outpost boats, were German patrol boats which served during both World Wars. They were used around coastal areas and in coastal operations, and were tasked with – among other things – coastal patrol, ship escort, and naval combat.
HMS Jason was a Halcyon-class minesweeper. She was named after the hero in Greek mythology and was the sixteenth Royal Navy ship to carry the name Jason. She was laid down on 12 December 1936, launched on 6 October 1937, and was completed on 9 June 1938. She survived the Second World War and was sold in 1946 to become a cargo ship. She was eventually broken up in 1950. Her pennant number was originally N99, but was changed to J99 in May 1940.
HMS Lightning was an L-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 22 April 1940 and sunk on 12 March 1943 by German Motor Torpedo Boat S-55.
HMS Salvia (K97) was a Flower-class corvette of the Royal Navy. She was ordered on the eve of the Second World War and entered service in September 1940. She rescued many survivors from the prison ship SS Shuntien when it was sunk on 23 December 1941. A few hours later, on Christmas Eve 1941, Salvia too was torpedoed. The corvette sank with all hands, and all of the survivors that she had rescued from Shuntien were also lost.
HMS Vanessa (D29) was a V-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that was in service during World War I and World War II.
HMS Sharpshooter was a Halcyon-class minesweeper of the British Royal Navy. Built at Devonport Dockyard, Sharpshooter was completed in 1937. She served through the Second World War, acting both in her designed role as minesweeper and as a convoy escort, escorting several Arctic convoys. She took part in the evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940, and sank the German submarine U-655 in 1942.
HMCS Wolf was an armed yacht of the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II that saw service on the British Columbia Coast of Canada. Constructed in 1915 as the yacht Wenowah, with the US entry into World War I, the vessel was taken into United States Navy service as USS Wenonah (SP-165) as a patrol ship. The vessel escorted convoys between the United States and Europe and between Gibraltar and Bizerte, Tunis and Genoa, Italy. After the war, Wenonah was loaned to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey for three and a half years before being sold to private interests in 1928. In private ownership, the vessel was renamed at least twice, including Stranger and Blue Water.
The Ceylon Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve was the volunteer naval reserve of the British Crown colony of Ceylon from 1938 to 1950. Established as the Ceylon Naval Volunteer Force (CNVF) on 1 January 1938 under the Naval Volunteer Ordinance, No, l of 1937. It was made up of volunteers mainly from the mercantile sector of Colombo consisting of 12 officers and 18 sailors, under the command of the newly commissioned Commander W. G. Beauchamp. The first headquarters of the force was set up on 11 January 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, at Kochchikade.