| Action of 27 February 1941 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Indian Ocean theatre of theSecond World War | |||||||
.svg) Maldive Islands (orthographic projection) | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 New Zealand |  Italy | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Robert Bevan | Alfredo Bonezzi | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Light cruiserLeander | Auxiliary cruiserRamb I | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Leander slightly damaged | Ramb I sunk c. 150 killed 100 captured of whom: 4 wounded (1 died of wounds) | ||||||
 | |||||||
TheAction of 27 February 1941 was asingle ship action between the New Zealand crewed BritishcruiserHMS Leander and the Italian shipRamb I, anauxiliary cruiser. It began whenLeander ordered an un-flagged freighter to stop for an inspection. The freighter raised the Italian colours and engagedLeander which sankRamb I shortly after. About 150 members of the crew were killed and 100 were rescued and taken toAddu Atoll, thence toCeylon (now Sri Lanka).Leander patrolled southwards to investigate more reports of commerce raiders.
In January 1941, British forces simultaneously advanced fromSudan andKenya intoEritrea,Abyssinia andItalian Somaliland, as the navy blockaded and bombarded Italian harbours. The port ofKismayu in Italian Somaliland was occupied on 14 February and sixteen Italian and German ships there were sunk or captured, except for one vessel.Merka andMogadishu were occupied on 25 February and several hundred Allied merchant sailors were liberated. As Allied forces closed onMassawa, the ItalianRed Sea Flotilla was ordered to break out and run for friendly ports. A group of Italian vessels consisting of the colonial shipEritrea and the auxiliary cruisersRamb I (Lieutenant commanderAlfredo Bonezzi) andRamb II attempted to operate as commerce raiders while en route to Japan.[1] The Italian squadron managed to evade the British blockade on 20 February and scattered into the Indian Ocean,Ramb I heading for theDutch East Indies.[2]
HMSLeander was the leader of theLeander class of light cruisers, armed with eight 6 in (150 mm) guns, ten4 in (100 mm) guns, twelve.50 in (12.7 mm) Vickers machine guns in quadruple mounts and eight 21 in (530 mm)torpedo tubes.Leander had armour plating over her turrets, deck and magazines and a top speed of 32.5 kn (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph).[3]
Ramb 1 (3,667gross register tons [GRT]), was 383 ft (117 m) long, 47 ft 11 in (14.61 m) wide at the beam, had a speed of 17 kn (31 km/h; 20 mph) and was a refrigerated merchant ship (reefer) built for theRegia Azienda Monopolio delle Banane (RAMB, the Royal Banana Monopoly Company) in 1933, adapted for naval service as anarmed merchant cruiser.[4]Ramb I was armed with two 120 mm (4.7 in) guns and eight 13.2 mm (0.52 in)anti-aircraft machine guns.[5]Ramb I was much slower thanLeander, with a maximum speed of 18.5 kn (34.3 km/h; 21.3 mph). The ship had departed Suez on 10 June 1940 for Massawa on theRed Sea coast, from where the ship made short cruises along the coast of Eritrea but was mainly used for anti-aircraft defence of the port. As British, Commonwealth and Imperial troops neared the port,Ramb I andCoburg (7,400 GRT), a German freighter, escaped from Massawa on the night of 20/21 February 1941 and passed into theGulf of Aden. One ship was sighted near the island ofSocotra off the Horn of Africa but it was considered too dangerous a location to attack.[6]
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Acting on reports ofcommerce raiders in the area,Leander detached from Convoy US 9 off Bombay on 22 February.[7] Passing west of theLaccadive andMaldive islands, to a patrol area west ofHuvadhu Kandu (One and a Half Degree Channel). At7:00 a.m. on 27 February,Leander was steaming east, about 28 nmi (52 km; 32 mi) north of the Equator and 320 nmi (590 km; 370 mi) west of the Maldives (01° N, 68° 30′ E).[8] CaptainRobert Bevan, altered course to the north to head for One and a Half Degree Channel, because news of the capture of Mogadishu in Italian Somaliland (now Somalia) had been received by radio on the previous day. Italian ships in the port might have sailed along that route for the Far East.[2]
At10:37 a.m., a ship was sighted ahead andLeander increased speed to 23 kn (43 km/h; 26 mph), gradually overhauling the vessel. AsLeander closed, a gun was seen on the ship's forecastle and the silhouette of the ship resembled an ItalianRamb-class fruit carrier. Leander went to action stations at11:15 a.m. and when ordered to identify themselves ten minutes later, the crew of the vessel hoisted a British merchant flag. When ordered to give its signal letters, the crew hoisted four letters which were not listed in British signal books.Leander made thesecret challenge but received no reply and the ship maintained its course and speed. A boarding party stood by and at11:45 a.m., the ship was ordered to stop instantly but no reply was received. A few minutes later, the ship hoisted the Italian merchant flag and trained its guns onLeander. The cruiser was broad on the beam of the Italian ship and at 3,000 yd (1.5 nmi; 1.7 mi; 2.7 km) was an easy target for its guns and torpedoes. At11:53 a.m., the Italian ship opened fire and thirty seconds later,Leander replied. The Italian fire was inaccurate and it was estimated that only about three shells were fired from each gun.[9]
A few shell splinters hitLeander, which fired five salvos in a minute, then ceased fire to observe results.Leander made the flag signal "Do you surrender?", the Merchant flag was seen to be lowered and the crew began to abandon ship.Leander had hit the ship several times in the forepart and a fire burned, visible through a large hole in the side. A boat was lowered fromLeander with a boarding party to try to save the ship and two lifeboats were seen leaving the vessel as other men jumped overboard or scrambled down the side. An Italian officer in the water called out that the boarding party should not approach the ship, as it was burning and laden with ammunition. The boarding party laid off and as the fire spread, a big explosion before the bridge shot flames and smoke high into the sky, the ship settling bows first. As the fire burned, there was another explosion and five minutes later the ship sank under a cloud of black smoke.Leander recovered the boarding party and the Italian lifeboats, while edging away.[9]
About a hundred and fifty Italians were killed in the engagement and a hundred men survived, of whom one man was seriously wounded and four were slightly injured.[10][a] The seriously wounded man died in surgery during the afternoon and was buried at sunset. The prisoners said thatRamb I had been badly damaged by the shell hits and asLeander closed, the order to abandon ship had been given.Leander proceeded eastwards and arrived atAddu Atoll the next morning. The Italian prisoners were transferred to the oilerPearleaf with an armed guard and the ship made forColombo,Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).[12]
Leander was sent to investigate indications from wireless direction-finding that Axis ships were in the vicinity of theSaya de Malha Bank, several hundred miles south-east of theSeychelles Islands and north-east ofMadagascar.[12]MV Coburg (7,400 GRT) with a prize,Ketty Brøvig (7,031 GRT), a Norwegian tanker, which had been captured by thecommerce raiderAtlantis on 2 February 1941, were discovered.[13] The ships were spotted south-east of the Seychelles by aWalrus reconnaissance aircraft fromHMAS Canberra. The ships were scuttled on 4 March 1941 at 04° 50′ S; 56° 00′ E, whenCanberra andLeander approached them.[14]
