END OF THE HERMES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 July 1942, Page 4

END OF THE HERMES

DESCRIBED BY WELLINGTON SEAMAN BOMBED TILL SHE BECAME FLAMING BALL. SUDDEN & OVERWHELMING ATTACK. (Special Australian Correspondent.) LONDON, July 6. Swimming in the warm Indian Ocean under a clear blue sky, Able Seaman K. A. Walls, Wellington ,saw the Japanese dive-bombers batter the British aircraft-carrier Hermes till she became “like a big flaming ball.” The Japanese continued to bomb till the Hermes sank. While treading water, Walls saw silhouetted. against the skyline an ackack gun operated by an able seaman who had served nearly 20 years in the Royal Navy. Walls said, “He must have known he had not a chance, but he kept up the firing as the Hermes settled down, and then she suddenly turned over and went down in a quick finish of less than half a minute.” That was on April 9, and Walls has returned to England after an absence of 18 months. Walls served in the Hermes for seven months, and went to the Seychelles, Mauritius, and Cape Town. He was the ack-ack munition supplier on the top flight deck when the Japanese attacked.

Walls said, “It was a perfect day. We were at action stations as usual at dawn, and we were about 60 miles south of Trincomalee, 10 miles from the coast, when we heard that a merchantman had been sunk 60 miles to the north, after which we intercepted a Japanese wireless message to their parent ship saying we were sighted, so we knew we could expect an attack. Marines spotted the Japanese first.

“The enemy dived out of the sun. I saw bombs go right through the deck, leaving small holes, and then heard explosions b'elow, at which the whole ship shuddered. Fires broke out and the steering-gear was put out of action The water-pumps were also put out of action. As a result the Hermes revolved helplessly in circles, on fire, while the Japanese battered her. We could see the dive-bombers’ markings —the red blobs, and also yellow and black stripes on the fuselage. They dropped bombs from a height of about a six-storey building, relentlessly, and not put off by the barrage. It only took about 20 minute to sink the Hermes.

“There were few lifeboats, which were mostly all smashed, so I stepped into the water when the ship lurched, and managed to find a bit of wreckage. My chief worry while the Japanese finished off the Hermes was the concussion from the bombs which exploded in the water; I could feel the effect on my stomach and legs. I was picked up after four hours and a half when a hospital ship arrived, and we went to Kandy for two days. “After the Hermes sank the Japanese fired three bursts from machine-guns, which apparently was a signal, for they took up formation and flew off. While we were in the water a surgeon on a raft made from bits of wreckage, for four hours gave morphia to badlj 7 wounded men, many of them badly burned. He did grand work.”