HMIS Bengal (J243)

HMIS Bengal (J243) was a Bathurst class corvette of the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) where she served during World War II.

History
India
Namesake: Bengal
Ordered: 24 September 1940
Builder: Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company
Laid down: 3 December 1941
Launched: 28 May 1942
Commissioned: 8 August 1942
Decommissioned: 1960
General characteristics
Class and type: Bathurst class corvette
Displacement: 650 tons (standard), 1,025 tons (full war load)
Length: 186 ft (57 m)
Beam: 31 ft (9.4 m)
Draught: 8.5 ft (2.6 m)
Propulsion: triple expansion engine, 2 shafts, 2,000 horsepower
Speed: 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) at 1,750 hp
Complement: 85
Armament:

History

HMIS Bengal was ordered from Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company, Australia for the Royal Indian Navy in 1940. She was commissioned into the RIN in 1942.

Operations in World War II

HMIS Bengal was a part of the Eastern Fleet during World War II, and escorted numerous convoys between 1942-45.[1]

On 11 November 1942, Bengal was escorting the Dutch tanker Ondina[2] to the southwest of Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean. Two Japanese commerce raiders armed with six-inch guns attacked Ondina. Bengal fired her single four-inch gun and Ondina fired her 102 mm and both scored hits on Hōkoku Maru, which shortly blew up and sank.[2] Both Ondina and Bengal ran out of ammunition. Ondina was badly damaged by shellfire and torpedoes, and her captain signaled "Abandon ship" before he died. Bengal seeing there was nothing more she could do, sailed away.

The other raider, Aikoku Maru, machine-gunned the lifeboats with Ondina's crew aboard, causing some casualties, picked up the survivors from Hōkoku Maru , and sailed off, believing that Ondina was sinking.[2] Ondina's surviving crew reboarded their ship, put out the fires, and sailed to Freemantle. Bengal too reached port safely.[3] [4]

Notes
  1. Kindell, Don. "EASTERN FLEET - January to June 1943". ADMIRALTY WAR DIARIES of WORLD WAR 2.
  2. Visser, Jan (1999–2000). "The Ondina Story". Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941-1942.
  3. Kindell, Don. "INDIAN OCEAN & SOUTH EAST ASIA, including Burma". CAMPAIGN SUMMARIES OF WORLD WAR 2.
  4. "World War II In the Indian Ocean: Ondina and Bengal versus Aikoku and Hōkoku".
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