 SS Fingal in 1942 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Builder | Moss Værft |
| Launched | 1923 |
| Completed | 17 March 1923 |
| Fate | Sunk 5 May 1943 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 2,137 GRT |
SS Fingal was a Norwegian merchant ship of 2,137 tons which was sunk during World War II off the coast of Australia.
Fingal was built at Moss Værft, Norway 1923. [1]
In December 1941, the steamer had been damaged by Japanese bombing when en route between Rangoon and Calcutta. [2]
In May 1943, Fingal was under charter to the Australian Government. She was sailing from Sydney to Darwin shipping cargo and ammunition escorted by USS Patterson, crewed by 31 men, mainly Scandinavian, apart from six Australians including two Royal Australian Navy gunners.
At about 1:35pm off Nambucca Heads, New South Wales on 5 May 1943, two torpedoes fired from the Japanese submarine I-180 struck the side of her hull. Fingal sank within a minute and Patterson dropped depth charges and immediately left the area.
Survivors from the sinking ship clung to debris. A RAAF Avro Anson DG696 [3] from No. 71 Squadron, crewed by Sergeant Geoffery Gillmore (pilot), Flying Officer Max Sharrad (Navigator) and Sergeant J "Poppa" Hall (WAG), [4] operating out of Coffs Harbour was escorting her at the time, flying about 10 miles (16 km) ahead of the ship. DG696 saw that she had been hit by a torpedo, returned to the area, found the survivors and advised Patterson. The survivors were picked up after spending four hours in the sea; 19 of the crew survived. Patterson dropped off the survivors at Newcastle at 9:00am on 6 May 1943.
Twelve men were killed in the sinking, including the captain, chief officer and all the engineers. [5]
USS Sturgeon (SS-187), a Salmon-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the sturgeon. Her 1944 sinking of the Japanese troopship Toyama Maru, killing more than 5,000 Japanese, was one of the highest death tolls from the sinking of a single ship in history. Her 1942 sinking of the Montevideo Maru which, unknown to crew on the Sturgeon, was carrying over 1,000 POWs, was the worst maritime disaster in Australian history.
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USS Raton (SS/SSR/AGSS-270), a Gato-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the raton, a polynemoid fish inhabiting semitropical waters off the Pacific coast of the Americas.
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No. 489 (NZ) Squadron was a torpedo bomber squadron established for service during the Second World War. It was a New Zealand squadron formed under Article XV of the Empire Air Training Plan. Although many of its flying personnel were largely drawn from the Royal New Zealand Air Force, the squadron served in Europe under the operational and administrative command of the Royal Air Force as part of Coastal Command.
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The Type B1 submarine, also called I-15-class submarine was the first group of boats of the Type B cruiser submarines built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the 1940s. In total 20 were built, starting with I-15, which gave the series their alternative name.
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German submarine U-123 was a Type IXB U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine that operated during World War II. After that conflict, she became the French submarine Blaison (Q165) until she was decommissioned on 18 August 1959.
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I-27 was a submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy which saw service during the Pacific Campaign of World War II. I-27 was commissioned at Sasebo, Japan on February 24, 1942 and sunk on February 12, 1944, after torpedoing the troopship SS Khedive Ismail.
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Japanese submarine I-180 was a Kaidai type cruiser submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. Ordered in 1939 under the 4th Naval Armaments Supplement Programme, she was laid down at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on 17 April 1941 as I-80. Launched on 7 February 1942, she was renumbered I-180 on 20 May 1942, and completed on 15 January 1943.
Ro-110 was an Imperial Japanese Navy Ro-100-class submarine. Completed and commissioned in July 1943, she served in World War II, operating in the Indian Ocean. She was sunk in February 1944 during her third war patrol.
I-37, originally numbered I-49, was a Japanese Type B1 submarine in service with the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. Commissioned in 1943, she made three war patrols, all in the Indian Ocean, during the last of which her crew committed war crimes by massacring the survivors of the merchant ships she sank. Subsequently, converted into a kaiten manned suicide attack torpedo carrier, she was sunk during her first kaiten mission in 1944.
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