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HMNZS Leander was a light cruiser which served with the Royal New Zealand Navy during World War II. She was the lead ship of a class of light ships, the Leander-class light cruiser and was initially named HMS Leander.

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HMNZS Leander was a light cruiser which served with the Royal New Zealand Navy during World War II. She was the lead ship of a class of light ships, the Leander-class light cruiser and was initially named HMS Leander.

History[edit]

Leander was launched at Devonport on 24 September 1931. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Leander on 24 March 1933. Along with Achilles she served in the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy.

In August 1937 HMS Leander, on a journey from Europe to New Zealand, carried out an aerial survey of Henderson, Oeno and Ducie, and on each island a British flag was planted and an inscription was nailed up proclaiming: “This island belongs to H.B.M. King George VI.”[1]

In 1941 the New Zealand Division became the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) and she was commissioned as HMNZS Leander in September 1941.

Italian ship Ramb I sinking after the engagement with Leander

In World War II, Leander served initially in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Commander Stephen Roskill, in later years the Royal Navy’s Official Historian, was posted as the ship’s executive officer in 1941. In action on 27 February 1941, she sank the Italian armed merchantman Ramb I near the Maldives, rescuing 113 of her crew and taking slight damage. On 23 March 1941, Leander intercepted and captured the Vichy French merchant Charles L.D. in the Indian Ocean between Mauritius and Madagascar. On 14 April, Leander deployed for support of military operations in Persian Gulf and, on 18 April, joined the aircraft carrier Hermes and the light cruiser Emerald. On 22 April, Leander was released from support duties in the Persian Gulf and took part in search for German raider Pinguin south of the Maldives.

In June 1941, Leander was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet and was active against the Vichy French during the Syria-Lebanon Campaign. After serving in the Mediterranean, Leander returned to the Pacific Ocean in September 1941.

On 13 July 1943, Leander was with Rear Admiral Walden Lee Ainsworth‘s Task Group 36.1 of three light cruisers: Leander and the US ships Honolulu and St. Louis. The task group also included ten destroyers. At 01:00 the Allied ships established radar contact with the Japanese cruiser Jintsu, which was accompanied by five destroyers near Kolombangara in the Solomon Islands. In the ensuing Battle of Kolombangara, Jintsu was sunk and all three Allied cruisers were hit by torpedoes and disabled. Leander was hit by a single torpedo just abaft ‘A’ boiler room. 26 crew from the boiler room and the No.1 4-inch gun mount immediately above were killed or posted missing.[2] The ship was so badly damaged that she took no further part in the war. She was first repaired in Auckland, then proceeded to a full refit in Boston.[3]

She returned to the Royal Navy on 27 August 1945. In 1946 she was involved in the Corfu Channel Incident. She was scrapped in 1950.

The superyacht Leander G, owned by Sir Donald Gosling, is named after HMS Leander, the first naval vessel on which he served.[4]

In 2020 Fiji commissioned the RFNS Savenaca, a patrol vessel named after Savenaca Naulumatua, a sailor from Fiji who lost his life while serving on the Leander during the Battle of Kolombangara

HMNZS Achilles was a Leander-class light cruiser, the second of five in the class. She served in the Royal New Zealand Navy in the Second World War.

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Allan C. Green – State Library of Victoria – Allan C. Green collection of glass negatives.



lHMS Achilles and HMS Leander 1938 HMS Philomel alongside training jetty

Achilles crew members returning aboard at Rio de Janeiro

HMS Achilles, USS Louisville, Melb Feb. 1930’s

The 7000 ton light cruiser HMNZS Achilles at Malta. The Achilles belongs to the Leander class, the first modern light cruiser class of the Royal Navy. She was fitted with New Zealand-made radars, her crew comprised of mostly New Zealanders.

On this day, March 17 in 1946, HMNZS Achilles arrived in Auckland ending her service with the British Pacific Fleet. Read about HMNZS Achilles on our website: https://navymuseum.co.nz/…/by-collections/ships/achilles/
Image: AAF 0197 HMNZS Achilles 1946

Supermarine Walrus on board HMNZS Achilles

She was launched in 1931 for the Royal Navy, loaned to New Zealand in 1936 and transferred to the new Royal New Zealand Navy in 1941. She became famous for her part in the Battle of the River Plate, alongside HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter and notable for being the first Royal Navy cruiser to have fire control radar, with the installation of the New Zealand-made SS1 fire-control radar in June 1940.[2]

After Second World War service in the Atlantic and Pacific, she was returned to the Royal Navy. She was sold to the Indian Navy in 1948 and recommissioned as INS Delhi. She was scrapped in 1978.

Design[edit]

She was the second of five ships of the Leander-class light cruisers, designed as effective follow-ons to the York class. Upgraded to Improved Leander-class, she could carry an aircraft and was the first ship to carry a Supermarine Walrus, although both Walruses were lost before the Second World War began. At one time she carried the unusual DH.82 Queen Bee which was a radio-controlled unmanned aircraft, normally used as a drone.

Service[edit]

Achilles was originally built for the Royal Navy, and was commissioned as HMS Achilles on 10 October 1933. She would serve with the Royal Navy’s New Zealand Division from 31 March 1936 up to the creation of the Royal New Zealand Navy, into which she was transferred in September 1941 and recommissioned HMNZS Achilles. About 60 per cent of her crew was from New Zealand.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Achilles began patrolling the west coast of South America looking for German merchant ships, but by 22 October 1939 she had arrived at the Falkland Islands, where she was assigned to the South American Division under Commodore Henry Harwood and allocated to Force G (with Exeter and Cumberland).

Battle of the River Plate[edit]

Main article: Battle of the River Plate

Achilles as seen from Ajax at the Battle of the River Plate
HMS “Achilles” in Battle of the River Plate , a painting by Frank Norton, is part of the National Collection of War Art held by Archives New Zealand

In the early morning of 13 December 1939, a force consisting of Achilles, Ajax and Exeter detected smoke on the horizon, which was confirmed at 06:16 to be a pocket battleship, thought to be the German battleship Admiral Scheer but which turned out to be Admiral Graf Spee. A fierce battle ensued, at a range of about 11 nautical miles (20 km). Achilles suffered some damage. In the exchange of fire, four crew were killed, her captain, WE Parry, was wounded; 36 of Graf Spee‘s crew were killed.

The range reduced to about 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) at around 07:15 and Graf Spee broke off the engagement around 07:45 to head for the neutral harbour of Montevideo which she entered at 22:00 that night, having been pursued by Achilles and Ajax all day. Graf Spee was forced by international law to leave within 72 hours. Faced with what he believed to be overwhelming odds, the captain of Graf Spee, Hans Langsdorff, scuttled his ship rather than risk the lives of his crew. An ensign flag flown by HMS Achilles in the Battle of the River Plate was donated to Christ Church Cathedral in the Falkland Islands and is still on display hanging on the south wall of the Cathedral at Port Stanley.[3]

Pacific theatre[edit]

Following the Atlantic battle, Achilles returned to Auckland, New Zealand, on 23 February 1940, where she underwent a refit until June. After German raider activity in the South Pacific in 1940 Achilles escorted the first Trans-Tasman commercial convoy, VK.1, composed of Empire Star, Port Chalmers, Empress of Russia, and Maunganui leaving Sydney 30 December 1940 for Auckland.[4] After Japan entered the war, she escorted troop convoys, then joined the ANZAC Squadron in the south-west Pacific.

Achilles met HMAS Canberra, flagship of Rear-Admiral John G. Crace, and HMAS Perth in December 1941 to form an escort for the Pensacola Convoy.[5]

While operating off Guadalcanal Island with US Navy Task Force 67 on 5 January 1943, she was attacked by four Japanese aircraft. A bomb blew the top off X turret, killing 13 sailors. Between April 1943 and May 1944 Achilles was docked in Portsmouth, England for repairs and modernisation. Her single 4-inch AA guns were replaced by the dual-purpose QF 4 inch Mk XVI naval gun in four twin mountings, modern radar was fitted, and the damaged X turret was replaced by four QF 2 pom poms in a quadruple-mount. The work was delayed by a dockyard explosion that killed 14 men. Stoker William Dale was awarded the Albert Medal for Lifesaving for his actions in saving the lives of several dockyard workers.[6]

Sent back to the New Zealand Fleet, Achilles next joined the British Pacific Fleet in May 1945 for final operations in the Pacific War.

Indian Navy[edit]

Main article: INS Delhi (1948)

After the war, Achilles was returned to the Royal Navy at Sheerness in Kent, England on 17 September 1946. She was then sold to the Indian Navy and recommissioned on 5 July 1948 as INS Delhi. She remained in service until decommissioned for scrap in Bombay on 30 June 1978. In 1968 she was present at the granting of independence to Mauritius representing the Indian Government together with the Royal Navy frigate Tartar under Captain Cameron Rusby.[7] As part of the scrapping her Y turret was removed and presented as a gift to the New Zealand government. It is now on display at the entrance of Devonport Naval Base in Auckland.[8] On 22 January 1979, Admiral Jal Cursetji, the Indian Navy Chief of the Naval Staff, presented Achilles’s builder’s plaque, steering wheel and engine room telegraph to Admiral Terence Lewin, the First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff of the Royal Navy.[9]

Achilles played herself in the film The Battle of the River Plate in 1956.

Hull damaged as NZ warship berths in high winds

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Royal NZ Navy frigate Te Kaha pictured at Devonport Naval base. (file photo)
PHIL DOYLE / STUFF

Andrea Vance

Andrea Vance

May 21, 2024

https://www.thepress.co.nz/politics/350284063/hull-damaged-nz-warship-berths-high-winds

One of the navy’s troubled frigates has limped into port with a gash in its hull after smashing into a wharf.

HMNZS Te Kaha sustained damage when it struck the wharf at Auckland’s Kauri Point ammunition depot on Thursday.

The Defence Force said the accident took place in “gale force winds,” the damage is minor and an investigation is now under way.

The vessel is now berthed at Devonport Naval Base, undergoing repairs.

It’s the latest setback for the beleaguered warship fleet, which recently underwent a $700 million upgrade.

Two surface combat vessels — HMSNZ Te Kaha and HMSNZ Te Mana — were purchased nearly 35 years ago for just under $1 billion.

In 2014, the Government approved weapons and communications upgrades first budgeted at $446m, but costs later soared in 2017.

The eight-year refit took place in Canada, and during that time New Zealand’s ability to run anti-piracy operations, monitor sea lanes, and participate in exercises with military partners was limited.

Te Kaha returned to New Zealand at the end of 2020 and Te Mana, in 2022. The ships are expected to be in service for another decade.

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HMNZS Te Kaha pictured in the Western Indian Ocean in 2015. The vessel is one of only two frigates in the Royal New Zealand Navy fleet including the HMNZS Te Mana.
SUPPLIED

A spokesperson for NZDF confirmed the incident at the munitions storage facility last week but did not answer questions about the estimated cost of repair.

“At Kauri Point Wharf in Auckland on Thursday 16 May, HMNZS Te Kaha experienced minor damage to its bow after coming into contact with the wharf whilst berthing in near gale force winds,” she said in a statement.

“This resulted in a small hole in the hull above the waterline. No personnel were injured in the incident. Port of Auckland tugs were in attendance at the time assisting the ship to berth.”

Repair work has started and is expected to be completed next week, she said. The Defence Force did not specify if this was a patch, or permanent fix for the damaged hull. A question about the dimensions of the damage was also not answered before publication.

“Whilst the repair work is being conducted, other maintenance and training will also be carried out which will mean there will be negligible impact to the ship’s longer term programme,” she said.

Te Kaha’s commanding officer is Commander Fiona Jameson.

An internal investigation began on the day of the incident, the spokesperson added. This “restricts further detail being released at this time”, she said.

The bungle comes as defence force spending comes under increasing scrutiny.

Under pressure to find savings, earlier this year military bosses warned the Government of a staffing crisis, which saw almost a third of uniformed staff lost over two years, and a pressing need to replace ageing military equipment, such as two Boeing 757s, used to transport VIPs, and Seasprite helicopters.

A Defence Capability plan is due to go before minister Judith Collins next month. Earlier this month she announced a funding boost of more than $570m for pay and equipment.

Minesweeper Hananui II

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Mine sweeper – Hananui II.
She entered service very late in feb 1919

This was owned by Messers Jagger and Hardy of Auckland and a Charter Agreement, similar to those for the other two vessels (Simplon and Janie Seddon) was drawn up.

Unlike the other vessels, there were no naval personnel on board for sweeping operations, probably because of a lack of suitable personnel in Philomel.

Hananui II began operations in the latter part of February 1919.

Having swept the field without finding any mines it returned to Auckland at the end of April, landing the minesweeping equipment at Devonport and was returned to its owners.”

Looks to have run aground