Far East
Early in January 1945, the Saumarez left from the Clyde to rendezvous with the carrier HMS Formidable and escort her from Alexandria to Colombo. She arrived at Colombo on 8 February and Trincomalee on 10 March. On 11 March Saumarez took part in a sweep in the Andaman Sea, with the destroyers HMS Volage and Rapid. They found and destroyed a junk in Stewart Sound, but Rapid and Volage sustained damage and casualties from hits from a coastal gun reported to be 6 inch or larger. On 25 March, a further sweep was made. A Japanese convoy was sighted the next day and engaged. Although the destroyers attacked with gunfire and torpedoes they made few hits and, being low on ammunition, called on two Liberator bombers to sink the enemy. One of these sank one of the Japanese auxiliary, Risui with bombs. Volage sank the other auxiliary, Teshio Maru, with gunfire. Both escorts were also sunk. HMS Saumarez was in Force 63 in April, when she bombarded Oleelhoe, Sumatra.
She was part of the Carrier Force in Operation Bishop, formed to protect the convoys in the seaborne assault on Rangoon, and then took part in Operation Dukedom, which was mounted to attack a Japanese naval force reported sailing from Singapore on 10 May 1945. On this occasion, she was part of the newly constituted Force 61. The Japanese cruiser Haguro and destroyer Kamikaze had left the Malacca Strait on 14 May and early next day an Avenger operating from the escort aircraft carrier HMS Emperor sighted them. The Saumarez, Verulam and Vigilant in one division and the Venus and Virago in a second, were diverted to intercept. The destroyers attacked both ships early on 16 May. Haguro, overwhelmed by their torpedoes, went to the bottom at 0209 in a position some forty-five miles southwest of Penang, although she had straddeled Saumarez twice prior. Kamikaze was damaged but managed to escape.
Read more about this topic: HMS Saumarez (G12)
Famous quotes containing the word east:
“The beds i’ th’ East are soft.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“We have heard all of our lives how, after the Civil War was over, the South went back to straighten itself out and make a living again. It was for many years a voiceless part of the government. The balance of power moved away from it—to the north and the east. The problems of the north and the east became the big problem of the country and nobody paid much attention to the economic unbalance the South had left as its only choice.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)