The Trade by Rudyard Kipling - Royal Australian Navy
The Trade by Rudyard Kipling - Royal Australian Navy
The Trade by Rudyard Kipling - Royal Australian Navy
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Vale Commander<br />
William (Bill) King<br />
DSO & Bar DSC RN<br />
RTD -<br />
23 June 1910 to<br />
21 September 2012<br />
<strong>by</strong> Mr Pat A. R. Heffernan<br />
Former Submariner<br />
CMDR Bill King was born in County Galway,<br />
Ireland on 23 rd June 1910. Ireland, at that<br />
time, was part of Great Britain. Bill King was<br />
the son of Lt. Col. William de Courcy King<br />
DSO, who was killed on the Western Front<br />
in 1917. Bill’s mother sent him to boarding<br />
school in England. He disliked his time there.<br />
His holidays were mainly spent in Scotland<br />
with his Grandmother who owned an 1899<br />
fifty-ton yawl, with a crew of five. This is where<br />
Bill developed his love of the sea, especially<br />
sailing.<br />
At the age of 14, Bill entered the <strong>Royal</strong> Naval<br />
College of Dartmouth to begin his Officer<br />
training. On completion of his three year’s<br />
schooling and initial Naval Cadet training, he<br />
continued his cadetship over the next four<br />
years. He started aboard HMS Nelson which,<br />
at the time, was a brand new battleship,<br />
where he soon became a midshipman.<br />
He then served for two years aboard HMS<br />
Resolution in the Mediterranean. <strong>The</strong> cadets<br />
were subjected to iron discipline and were<br />
moulded into the kind of men considered<br />
suitable to eventually command ships of the<br />
<strong>Royal</strong> <strong>Navy</strong>.<br />
At the age of 21, Bill was sent to commence<br />
Submarine training and joined his first<br />
Submarine in 1932, HM S/M Orpheus, on the<br />
China Station, where he learnt the Submarine<br />
trade. In 1938 Bill completed his Perishers<br />
course (Commanding Officers course) and<br />
was given command of the Submarine<br />
Snapper. He was in command of Snapper<br />
when World War II was declared.<br />
Early in 1939, before World War II began, the<br />
Submarine Snapper paid a visit to Alexandria,<br />
Egypt. CMDR. King went aboard a Dutch<br />
Submarine in port, at the time. He was shown<br />
their invention, a tube which could be pushed<br />
up some thirty feet, e.g. around periscope<br />
depth – “the Snorkel”. When Germany<br />
invaded Holland, they captured the Dutch<br />
Submarine and realising the value of a snorkel,<br />
had their U-Boats fitted with one. CMDR. King<br />
had described this gadget to senior officers at<br />
THE TRADE<br />
EDITION 2, 2012<br />
the Admiralty, on various occasions, but they<br />
failed to take any interest in it!<br />
In one year Bill King completed ten war<br />
patrols, in the North Sea and the Arctic Circle,<br />
off Norway. Turn-arounds between some of<br />
the patrols were less than a week’s duration.<br />
On his sixth patrol, between the 10 th h and 15 th<br />
August 1940, S/M Snapper sank 5 enemy<br />
supply and troop transport ships making<br />
for Norway. Bill fired two torpedoes at a fuel<br />
tanker on 10th August. Both missed, so he<br />
surfaced and sank her with Snapper’s gun.<br />
He picked up six survivors as prisoners of war.<br />
Two of the survivors later died and were given<br />
a dignified Naval burial service at sea.<br />
On 15 th August, while on the surface, very<br />
early in the morning, Snapper came across a<br />
large German convoy, heavily escorted, with<br />
troop carriers and supply ships, bound for<br />
Norway. Snapper remained on the surface and<br />
penetrated the screen of enemy destroyers.<br />
With only four torpedoes left, Bill King used<br />
the old rough rule to calculate the firing of<br />
the torpedoes (i.e. “If the enemy ship is going<br />
slowly, give nine degrees of lead, which<br />
approximates with the width of the human fist<br />
at full arm’s length, or, if the ship is going fast,<br />
use two fists”). CMDR. King estimated that the<br />
convoy was moving slowly, so he extended<br />
his arm over Snapper’s bow and used<br />
his knuckles as a gunsight, firing at seven<br />
second intervals and giving various helm<br />
orders to the control room down the voice<br />
pipe, as the ships appeared out of the mist.<br />
CMDR. King, with his Officer of the Watch,<br />
then scrambled down the conning tower to<br />
the control room and gave the order: “Dive!<br />
Dive! Dive!”. <strong>The</strong> convoy escort vehicles were<br />
tearing angrily towards S/M Snapper. Each<br />
of his four torpedoes hit and sank an enemy<br />
supply and troop ship, which was a very<br />
remarkable achievement. Snapper took quite<br />
a bit of depth charge hiding, before managing<br />
to sneak away and make it back to her base<br />
at Harwich, where she was given a truly<br />
deserved rousing welcome <strong>by</strong> all the crews of<br />
warships in the harbour.<br />
After completing ten patrols in Snapper,<br />
CMDR. King became ill and was hospitalised.<br />
S/M Snapper sailed for its 11th patrol with a<br />
new captain and was lost with all hands.<br />
CMDR. King was then given one of the new<br />
“T class” Boats HM S/M Trusty to command.<br />
After working her up (running in both the<br />
crew and Boat), he was ordered to the<br />
Mediterranean, where he carried out war<br />
patrols for the next 12 months. CMDR. King<br />
was then dispatched to the Ceylon Naval<br />
Base, Trincomalee, to join the Indian Ocean<br />
Fleet. Shortly after arriving at Ceylon, CMDR.<br />
King was given orders to sail for Singapore.<br />
He took a spare crew along with him, with the<br />
intention of establishing a Submarine Base<br />
there. Singapore was in big trouble at that<br />
time. He was unable to obtain up-to-date<br />
information and intelligence as to the enemy’s<br />
whereabouts. He arrived in Singapore, on 8th<br />
February 1941, just one week before it fell to<br />
the Japanese, on 15 th February 1941. CMDR.<br />
King managed, with great difficulty, to obtain<br />
fuel, food and some spare parts and was able<br />
to sail out of Singapore, to carry out a patrol,<br />
before the Japanese arrived. He decided to<br />
take the spare crew with him. Had he not,<br />
they would have ended up as Japanese<br />
Prisoners-of-war! His only success was the<br />
sinking of two small Japanese supply ships.<br />
Again, there was virtually no information or<br />
intelligence to assist him.<br />
On completion of that patrol in the China<br />
Sea, CMDR. King sailed into the Dutch<br />
Submarine base at Surabaya, Java. While he<br />
was there, the Japanese attacked the Java<br />
base constantly, over a three-week period. In<br />
one of the air attacks, S/M Trusty sustained<br />
damage to one of her external fuel tanks. With<br />
fuel leaking from the tank, Trusty managed to<br />
sail back to Ceylon on the surface (a distance<br />
of over 3000 miles!), without being spotted<br />
<strong>by</strong> the Japanese. After docking for repairs,<br />
Trusty tied up alongside the Submarine Depot<br />
Ship, HMS Lucia, where she was re-armed,<br />
stored and made ready for sea again. While<br />
alongside HMS Lucia, when the crew were<br />
having lunch inboard, a large Japanese fleet,<br />
consisting of aircraft carriers, a battleship,<br />
destroyers and frigates, attacked the Naval<br />
base and surrounding harbour. One Japanese<br />
carrier plane dropped an armour-piercing<br />
1000 pound bomb (designed to sink a<br />
battleship) onto HMS Lucia. <strong>The</strong> bomb went<br />
through two decks without exploding. It slid<br />
along the mess deck, where two Submarine<br />
crews were having their meal. Regrettably, the<br />
bomb’s fin killed one of Trusty’s crew, before<br />
proceeding through the side of HMS Lucia<br />
and into the sea. <strong>The</strong> crews of S/Ms Trusty<br />
and Truant jumped through the hole and<br />
swam to their Boats. (HM S/M Truant, at the<br />
time, was commanded <strong>by</strong> Lt. Hugh Haggard,<br />
the nephew of Lt. CMDR. Geoffrey Haggard,<br />
the 1st Lieutenant of S/M AE2, the <strong>Australian</strong><br />
Submarine involved in the Anzac Campaign<br />
in World War I. Hugh Haggard was 6 foot 9<br />
inches!).<br />
Shortly after completing a few patrols, CMDR.<br />
King was taken ill. He was relieved of his<br />
command and sent to Malta, as Officer in<br />
Charge of Submarine Operations. He was<br />
there for a month, when the Submarine<br />
Headquarters, due to constant enemy air<br />
attacks, was moved to Beirut. It was there<br />
that CMDR. King first met Anita Leslie, who<br />
was later to become his wife. Captain Ruck-<br />
Keene was, at that time, Captain Submarines<br />
Mediterranean. He later became Commander<br />
of the Aircraft Carrier HMS Formidable and<br />
rose to the rank of Vice-Admiral<br />
Four months later, CMDR. King was sent back<br />
to England to stand <strong>by</strong> and take command<br />
of a new “T class” Submarine, HM S/M<br />
Telemachus. After completing Telemachus’s<br />
work-up, they carried out three week’s of<br />
secret trials in the Arctic Circle, to test out new<br />
torpedo mechanisms for holding torpedoes to<br />
the saddle tanks. CMDR. King then received<br />
orders to join the Submarine Squadron in<br />
Fremantle, Western Australia, where the<br />
British, American and Dutch Submarines,<br />
along with their Depot Ships (supply,<br />
maintenance and Submarine repair ships)<br />
were stationed. Telemachus sailed on several<br />
patrols, at times dropping off <strong>Australian</strong><br />
commandoes and Coast-watch troops onto<br />
Malaya and various islands around the Indian<br />
and Pacific Oceans, Singapore and strategic<br />
information gathering places.<br />
During Trusty’s time operating from Fremantle,<br />
there was a change of 1st Lieutenants. Lt.<br />
John Pope had to return to England to carry<br />
out his Perishers (CO’s) course. He was<br />
relieved <strong>by</strong> a Lt. Bill Dundas. Lt. Dundas was<br />
a former Midshipman aboard the battleship<br />
HMS Hood, which was sunk <strong>by</strong> the German<br />
battleship Bismark. Lt. Dundas, along with<br />
Signalman Briggs and Able Seaman Tilburn,<br />
were the only survivors of HMS Hood. (Aboard<br />
Hood were four <strong>Australian</strong> Naval trainees, who<br />
were also lost. <strong>The</strong>y were part of the Dominion<br />
Yachting Scheme).<br />
During one patrol, on 17th July 1944, CMDR.<br />
King attacked and sank the Japanese U-Boat<br />
I-166. After a concentrated depth charge<br />
attack <strong>by</strong> the enemy, Telemachus managed to<br />
avoid being damaged and made her way to<br />
Columbo to an overwhelming reception from<br />
the fleet. I-166 was the last enemy Submarine<br />
sunk <strong>by</strong> the <strong>Royal</strong> <strong>Navy</strong> during World War<br />
II. Some of Telemachus’s patrols lasted up<br />
to almost 60 days at sea! Shortly after the<br />
war ended, CMDR. King sailed Telemachus<br />
back to the English Naval base in Plymouth.<br />
War was over and he had completed<br />
almost 13 consecutive years in Submarines,<br />
commanding three of them during 6 years<br />
of war. He was unable to be relieved from<br />
Submarines during the War, due to the<br />
<strong>Royal</strong> <strong>Navy</strong>’s heavy losses of experienced<br />
Submarine Captains. At the outbreak of World<br />
War II, Bill King was the youngest Submarine<br />
Captain in the <strong>Royal</strong> <strong>Navy</strong>. At the end of the<br />
war, he was the oldest Submarine Captain,<br />
due to the large number of <strong>Royal</strong> <strong>Navy</strong><br />
Submarines which failed to return from their<br />
patrols. He lost so many of his dear friends.<br />
CMDR. King remained in the Submarine<br />
Service for a while after the war. As Secondin-Command<br />
of the flotilla, he accompanied<br />
the new “A class” Submarines on their deep<br />
dives. He then decided that, after two further<br />
years, which made it 15 years continuous<br />
service in Submarines, he had had enough<br />
and he retired from the <strong>Royal</strong> <strong>Navy</strong>. He<br />
devoted the rest of his life to sailing and<br />
farming in Ireland, concentrating on organic<br />
farming, as well as ocean racing. Bill made<br />
three attempts to sail solo around the world.<br />
On his first attempt, his yacht turned turtle in<br />
a fierce storm (360 degrees). His mast and<br />
rigging were destroyed and, with a jury rig,<br />
he managed to make it to Cape Town, South<br />
Africa. His yacht was shipped back to England<br />
on a cargo ship. His second attempt had<br />
to be given up at Gibraltar, due to the new<br />
type of mast and rigging, which had been set<br />
differently, following the mishap on his first<br />
attempt (in the hope of improving speed). It<br />
performed okay in light conditions, but was<br />
impossible to handle in the fierce Atlantic<br />
storms. He also experienced back problems.<br />
He was forced to sail to Gibraltar, where his<br />
yacht was shipped back to England. On his<br />
third attempt, at the age of sixty, Bill sailed<br />
alone around the world, via the Southern<br />
Ocean and Cape Horn. He almost did not<br />
survive, due to his yacht being rammed <strong>by</strong><br />
a large white pointer shark, down in the<br />
Southern Oceans of Australia (the Roaring<br />
Forties). He managed to make it to Fremantle<br />
for repairs.<br />
In 1949, Bill married Anita Leslie, an<br />
authoress, a cousin of Sir Winston Churchill.<br />
(Churchill’s American mother and Anita’s<br />
grandmother were sisters). Anita was the<br />
lovely lady that Bill had met while he was<br />
based in Beirut. <strong>The</strong>y had two children, a boy,<br />
Tarka Dick and a girl, Leonie.<br />
LIFESTYLE<br />
In 2003 an unusual incident occurred which<br />
brought together three families of wartime<br />
submariners, British, Dutch and Japanese,<br />
and united them in peacetime. On Christmas<br />
day, 1941, the I-166 sank the Dutch<br />
Submarine KXVI. <strong>The</strong>re is a memorial to the<br />
KXVI at the Dutch Naval Base in Holland. In<br />
late 2003, a Japanese-born man, Mr. Akira,<br />
a computer expert, who lives with his family<br />
in the USA, visited the memorial in Holland<br />
and left a message in the visitor’s book,<br />
saying how sorry he was for the loss of the<br />
KXVI, which his father, being the Skipper,<br />
was responsible for. By coincidence, one of<br />
the memorial’s volunteer staff, a Mrs. Katja<br />
Boonstra, was the daughter of one of the<br />
officers of the KXVI. She saw Akira’s message<br />
in the visitor’s book and made contact with<br />
him. She also informed him that the person<br />
responsible for his father’s death, with the<br />
sinking of the I-166, (CMDR. Bill King) was<br />
alive and well. Akira tried to contact Bill, but<br />
At first, Bill wanted nothing to do with Akira’s<br />
phone calls or letters, as he thought that Akira<br />
could be seeking revenge. However, Akira,<br />
with his wife and children, flew to Ireland and<br />
was lucky to have met Bill King’s daughter,<br />
Leonie Finn, at Bill’s castle in Oranmore,<br />
Galway. He then met up with Bill King, who<br />
made him very welcome. A peace tree<br />
planting ceremony was held at Bill’s home<br />
in Oranmore castle, with Bill’s family, Akira’s<br />
family and Mrs. Katja Boonstra’s family being<br />
present, to mark the occasion. Later, a special<br />
service was held at the Dutch Naval Base.<br />
A third ceremony was also held in Japan.<br />
(Unknown to Bill, at the time, there were 7<br />
survivors from the I-166). All three occasions<br />
were filmed and made into DVDs.<br />
On 23 rd June 2010, CMDR. Bill King<br />
celebrated his 100 th birthday at his home,<br />
Oranmore Castle, in Oranmore, Galway,<br />
Ireland. Bill has written two books on his<br />
submarine experiences, one book on his<br />
solo around the world epic, two books on<br />
sailing, which incorporated the solo Atlantic<br />
races, and, at 87 years of age, he wrote<br />
his first novel. He is the winner of the Paul<br />
Hammond Cup, the Sir Alec Rose Trophy and<br />
the Sir Francis Chichester Trophy for the most<br />
outstanding lone sailor’s performance. He also<br />
justly deserved his two wartime Distinguished<br />
Service Orders and one Distinguished Service<br />
Cross!<br />
Commander Bill King DSO + Bar, DSC RN<br />
Rtd. is a very extraordinary and exceptional<br />
man.<br />
Note: <strong>The</strong> information for this biography has<br />
been obtained from CMDR. King’s four books<br />
that he wrote, as well as that which was<br />
passed on to me personally <strong>by</strong> Bill on his visits<br />
to Melbourne and when my wife and I visited<br />
his home in Ireland.<br />
THE TRADE<br />
EDITION 2, 2012