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HMNZS Kiwi (T102) was a Bird class minesweeper of the Royal New Zealand Navy.

She was commissioned in 1941 for minesweeping and anti-submarine roles. From 1948 to 1956 she functioned as a training ship.

Kiwi was the first of two boats with this name to serve in the Royal New Zealand Navy and is named after the national bird of New Zealand.


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[edit] War service

By the end of 1941 in Scotland, the newly built Kiwi had completed here workup exercises. On 1 January 1942 she departed from Greenock with a convey bound for Canada. Ten days later the convey encountered the worse storm for decades and Kiwi suffered considerable hull damage from "dropping off a huge wave". A Canadian destroyer received similar damage, and the crew regarded Kiwi as lucky to survive. After repairs, she carried on to Auckland where she arrived on 21 May 1942. There she joined the was assigned to the 25th Minesweeping Flotilla, and remained with it for the rest of her war career.

On 29 August 1842, under the command of COMSOPAC, Kiwi set sail for Noumea where she joined Gale and her sister ship Moa.

The 25th Minesweeping Flotilla had been offered to COMSOPAC, and by early December Tui, Moa, and Kiwi with Matai as flotilla leader, were all together at Noumea ready to move north. They sailed for the Solomons, escorting a convey some of the way. Making Tulagi their base they began anti-submarine screen patrols on 19 December 1942 off Tulagi and Lunga Point, Guadalcanal.

[edit] Liberated armament

The Americans regarded the New Zealand ships in the Solomons as inadequately protected forward against air attack so the New Zealanders supplemented this unofficially, using 20 mm Oerlikons "liberated" from wrecked ships.Kiwi and Moa are said to have acquired a 20 mm Oerlikon each at Noumea for the priceof two bottles of gin apiece.

For the rest of the war, the guns were removed at Noumea before going home for refits, and refitted on the return journey. This was because the Chief Constructor at the Auckland Dockyard considered they put the ships over-weight. This earned him the nickname "Topweight Narbeth".

Kiwi's extra Oerlikon, mounted on her bow forward of her 4 inch gun like a whale chaser, was to prove crucial in events to come.



[edit] Kiwi and US PT boat

One night in January 1943 PT boats were waiting for a "Tokto Express" to arrive near Salvo Island. The PT boats seem not to have been advised, or had forgotten, about the presence of the New Zealand boats, and on sighting Kiwi in the dusk PT-45 fired two torpedoes at her. This skipper had a reputation for not missing, but these two "fish" missed Kiwi, just. One passed close ahead from starboard, and the other under, both tracks seen clearly from the kiwi. The torpedoed had a then unidntified design fault whichcaused them to 10 feet deeper tha n set.

'Kiwi's commanding officercalled up on radio


[edit] Submarine I-1

On 29 Jan 1943, with her sister ship Moa, Kiwi rammed and wrecked[1] the Japanese submarine I-1. At the time Kiwi was under the command of Lieutenant Commander Gordon Bridson who was awarded the DSC and the United States Navy Cross[2] for this action.

[edit] Other service

COMSOPAC released the New Zealand ships in June 1945, and Tui departed the Solomons escorting a group of six RNZN Fairmiles. On her return to Auckland, Tui worked with Kiwi and the 7th Trawler Group on the final clearing of the German minefield in the outer Hauraki Gulf.

[edit] Post-war service

Tui was put in reserve in June 1946.

[edit] Training

In 1952 the Navy wanted to free some Loch class frigates for war service in Korea. Tui was recommissioned in February 1952 to take over training duties previously undertaken by the frigate Kaniere. This training was carried out for the RNZNVR and included training for compulsory reservists as well as volunteer reservists and sea cadets.

She was also used part time by the DSIR and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL).

[edit] Her fate

Tui was finally decommissioned on 22 December 1967. She was stripped of her equipment and sold in December 1969 to Pacific Scrap Ltd who demolished her.

She was replaced in 1970 by a purpose built oceanographic ship with the same name.







The wrecking of Japanese submarine I-1==

The wrecking of Japanese submarine I-1

HIJMS I-1 was a Japanese Junsen Type-1 class submarine built by Kawasaki, Kobe, for the Imperial Japanese Navy.

[edit] The wrecking of Japanese submarine I-1

On 29 January 1943: Guadalcanal. I-1 evades patrol craft in the Sealark Channel and arrives at Kamimbo Bay, near the part of the island that is under Japanese control.

The bay is patrolled by two Royal New Zealand converted trawlers of the 25th Minesweeper Flotilla. LtCdr (later Vice Admiral Sir) Peter Phipps' HMNZS MOA and LtCdr Bridson's KIWI. The I-1 has a crew of 82 aboard. At 1830, she surfaces off Kamimbo, but the phosphorescent water reveals her silhouette and the KIWI spots her. The I-1 dives.

An ASDIC operator identifies an echo that he picks up at 1,600 meters as a submarine. The MOA remains on course and acts as the ASDIC vessel. The KIWI alters course and comes to full speed for a depth charge attack. She drops a pattern of six depth charges. The depth charges knock out the I-1's port electric engine and flood her aft storeroom. All of the submarine's lights go out and she falls abruptly to 595 feet (330 feet below her test depth of 265 feet). She hits bottom and damages both forward torpedo rooms.

After another depth charge attack, LtCdr Sakamoto decides to surface and battle it out. The I-1 uses her diesel engines to make for Guadalcanal in an attempt to escape into the darkness.

The KIWI and the MOA turn towards the I-1 and fire high explosive and star shells. The submarine replies with her forward deck gun, two shells pass over the KIWI and three shells pass close to the MOA. The I-1 tries to reach the land, making 11 knots on her starboard diesel engine.

The KIWI prepares to ram while the MOA fires illuminating star shells. The I-1 alters course slightly to starboard. The KIWI hits her on the port side abaft the conning tower and holes it. The KIWI backs off and rams the submarine again. Japanese troops in full packs on the submarine's deck are forced to jump overboard. As the KIWI backs away, her gunners fire into the landing barge strapped to the submarine's after deck. The barge bursts into flame and lights up the area. The I-1's gun crew fires a few rounds at the KIWI but miss. Then the KIWI's guns cut down the I-1's gun crew and her captain, LtCdr Sakamoto.

The KIWI mounts a third ramming and lands on the submarine's deck, then bounces off. The I-1's navigator, a Kendo 3rd dan swordsman, accompanied by the First Lieutenant attempt to board the KIWI with swords in hand, but are unsuccessful. The Executive Officer, Lt (later LtCdr) Koreeda Sadayoshi (later CO of RO-115 and CO of the "Kaiten" base at Hikari), tries to run the submarine aground as the stern goes underwater. At 2040, the I-1 runs hard aground on a submerged reef off Kamimbo.

The I-1 sinks at 09-13S, 159-40E, but her bow remains out of the water. The MOA stands off waiting for dawn. At first light, she sees the battered fore part of the I-1 sticking about 40 feet out of the water at a 45 degree angle. The MOA captures the I-1's navigator before IJA shore artillery drives the corvette off.

About 26 of the I-1's crewmen are lost in the attack. Fifty-five crewmen crawl ashore carrying current codebooks, but they leave a case containing the past and future codes aboard. The crew destroys the current code books, but over 200,000 pages of the remaining code books, charts, manuals, the ship's log and other secret documents fall into Allied hands. Code books captured from the wreck are sent to CINCPAC at Pearl Harbor. When the IJN Naval General Staff's 10th Department learns of the loss, all current codes and "tables of random numbers" are changed, but the JN-25 code remains in use.


[edit] Campbell Buchanan

Leading Signalman, Royal New Zealand Navy HMNZS Kiwi Date of Action: January 29 & 30, 1943 Citation: The Navy Cross is presented to Campbell H. Buchanan, Leading Signalman, Royal New Zealand Navy, for extraordinary heroism in action against a Japanese submarine at Kamimbo, near Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands on the night of January 29 and 30, 1943, while serving aboard the HMNZS Kiwi. Birth: 4/7/1920 - Port Chalmers, New Zealand Home Town: Port Chalmers, New Zealand

Campbell H. Buchanan, Royal New Zealand Navy - Leading Signalman Buchanan was posthumously decorated with the Navy Cross for heroism in the HMNZS Kiwi's sinking of the Japanese submarine I-1.


[edit] The Navy Cross

The Navy Cross is the second highest United States naval award for valor, and the highest that can be awarded to foreign military personal. Only nineteen were awarded to foreigners throughout all of World War II. Of these six were awarded to New Zealanders, three of them to participants in the ramming of submarine I-1. [3]


[edit] Her ramming

With her sister ship Kiwi, Tui rammed and neutralised the Japanese submarine I-1.

On the night of 2-3 January 1943 the Japanese made a large push down The Slot towards Guadalcanal. There were eight ships and HMNZS Moa was on guard off Kukum Beach when the Japanese arrived and off-loaded their supplies. The Moa stayed silent right through this episode and was not discovered, even though they were only a mile away and the voices of the Japanese could be clearly heard.

On the night of 29 January 1943 the Japanese submarine I-1 was under the command of Lieutenant Commander Eiichi Sakamoto off the Kamimbo Bay area (near Tambea or Cape Esperance), west of Honiara, when it was detected by the New Zealand corvettes HMNZS Kiwi and HMNZS Moa. The I-1 was a Junsen (cruiser submarine) Type 1 submarine launched on 15 October 1924 as No. 74 but completed 10 March 1926 as I-1. One of four constructed by Kawasaki at Kobe (all were lost in the war), the I-1 was a very large submarine displacing a maximum 2135 tons at the surface. She was 319 feet long and powered by twin shaft M.A.N. 10 cylinder 4 stroke diesels giving 6000 bhp and two electric motors of 2600 ehp. The I-1 had six torpedo tubes and carried 20 "Type 95" oxygen-driven torpedos.

As the New Zealanders approached, the phosphorescent outline of the submarine could be clearly seen so the Kiwi dropped six depth-charges. Shortly after, it dropped another six and the submarine was forced to the surface with its electric motors apparently disabled. Switching on its diesels, the I-1 made a run for it and a surface battle ensured, with all three vessels exchanging gunfire. During the short battle, the submarine altered course to starboard just before the Kiwi rammed it on the port side abaft of the conning tower. Numerous hits were landed at this time. The Kiwi again rammed the submarine and an officer, probably the Japanese Captain, was seen to be hit by machine-gun fire. A third ramming damaged both vessels and the Moa took up the chase, following the submarine while continually firing its gun. More than two hours after the first attack, the I-1 hit a reef that was to become its final resting place. The next morning revealed the I-1 projecting about 40 to 50 feet out of the water at an angle of 45 degrees. [4]

HIJMS Submarine I-1 was part of the submarine reconnaissance IJN 6th Fleet.

[At less than 150 yards]... Kiwi opened fire, rammed the I-1, then backed off and fired some more. One of the first shots wiped out [Captain] Sakamoto's primary gun crew and mortally wounded the commander himself. The submarine's navigator called for swords and replacement gunners; this would be the first warning to those below decks that an emergency had begun...

Kiwi rammed three times in all. As she did, the I-1's navigator tried to board and fight it out with swords in the best swashbuckling tradition. A recent American account has overdramatized this episode, making the Japanese officer out to be a famous swordsman, but the Japanese narrative on which that is apparently based merely says that the navigator was an expert with this weapon. Either way, his attempt to board Kiwi simply resulted in his being caught helplessly between the two ships, then hauled out of the water to become a prisoner of war...

On the Japanese side Lieutenant Koreda became the senior surviving officer, with a crippled submarine incapable of submerging, and thirty dead sailors. He beached the I-1 and got fifty men ashore. Koreda took secret documents with him, including code material, and later told Orita Zenji, another submariner, that he had burned them. But other accounts, including that of submariner Hashimoto Mochitsura, aver the papers were simply buried...

The Americans... began a very careful effort to salvage documents from the I-1. Jasper Holmes [author of Double-Edged Secrets, 1979], from intelligence at Pearl Harbor, notes that the papers recovered contained lists of call signs, old codebooks and charts, lists of the Imperial navy's geographic designators ... and remarks that the I-1 was carrying copies of reserve codes scheduled to go into effect during future months...[5]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ * Waters, Sydney David (1956) The Royal New Zealand Navy, Page 307-309, Historical Publications Branch, Wellington.
  2. ^ Full Text Citations for award of the Navy Cross
  3. ^ American heroes from foreign nations
  4. ^ HMNZS Moa
  5. ^ Prados, John (1995) Combined Fleet Decoded: the Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II. Page 399-400. New York: Random House.

[edit] References

[edit] Reading

Richard B. Frank's Guadalcanal


[edit] External links