HMNZS Leander

HMNZS Leander was a light cruiser which served with the Royal New Zealand Navy during World War II. She was the lead ship of a class of eight ships, the Leander-class light cruiser and was initially named HMS Leander.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Leander.

History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Leander
Ordered: 18 February 1930
Builder: HMNB Devonport
Laid down: 8 September 1930
Launched: 24 September 1931
Commissioned: 24 March 1933
Recommissioned: 27 August 1945
Decommissioned: February 1948
Out of service: loaned to Royal New Zealand Navy 30 April 1937
Identification: Pennant number: 75
Fate:
  • Sold for scrapping 15 December 1949
  • Scrapped 15 January 1950
New Zealand
Name: HMNZS Leander
Commissioned: 30 April 1937
Out of service: Repair and refit at Boston 8 May 1944
Identification: Pennant number: 75
Fate: Returned to Royal Navy 27 August 1945
General characteristics
Class and type: Leander-class light cruiser
Displacement:
  • 7,270 tons standard
  • 9,740 tons full load
Length: 554.9 ft (169.1 m)
Beam: 56 ft (17 m)
Draught: 19.1 ft (5.8 m)
Installed power: 72,000 shaft horsepower (54,000 kW)
Propulsion:
  • Four Parsons geared steam turbines
  • Six boilers
  • Four shafts
Speed: 32.5 knots (60 km/h)
Range: 5,730 nmi (10,610 km; 6,590 mi) at 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Complement: 570 officers and enlisted
Armament:
Aircraft carried:

History

Leander was launched at Devonport on 24 September 1931. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Leander on 24 March 1933. Along with Achilles she served in the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy.

In August 1937 HMS Leander, on a journey from Europe to New Zealand, carried out an aerial survey of Henderson, Oeno and Ducie, and on each island a British flag was planted and an inscription was nailed up proclaiming: "This island belongs to H.B.M. King George VI."[1]

In 1941 the New Zealand Division became the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) and she was commissioned as HMNZS Leander in September 1941.

Italian ship Ramb I sinking after the engagement with Leander

In World War II, Leander served initially in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Commander Stephen Roskill, in later years the Royal Navy's Official Historian, was posted as the ship's executive officer in 1941. In action on 27 February 1941, she sank the Italian armed merchantman Ramb I near the Maldives, rescuing 113 of her crew and taking slight damage. On 23 March 1941, Leander intercepted and captured the Vichy French merchant Charles L.D. in the Indian Ocean between Mauritius and Madagascar. On 14 April, Leander deployed for support of military operations in Persian Gulf and, on 18 April, joined the aircraft carrier Hermes and the light cruiser Emerald. On 22 April, Leander was released from support duties in the Persian Gulf and took part in search for German raider Pinguin south of the Maldives.

In June 1941, Leander was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet and was active against the Vichy French during the Syria-Lebanon Campaign. After serving in the Mediterranean, Leander returned to the Pacific Ocean in September 1941.

On 13 July 1943, Leander was with Rear Admiral Walden Lee Ainsworth's Task Group 36.1 of three light cruisers: Leander and the US ships Honolulu and St. Louis. The task group also included ten destroyers. At 01:00 the Allied ships established radar contact with the Japanese cruiser Jintsu, which was accompanied by five destroyers near Kolombangara in the Solomon Islands. In the ensuing Battle of Kolombangara, Jintsu was sunk and all three Allied cruisers were hit by torpedoes and disabled. Leander was hit by a single torpedo just abaft 'A' boiler room. 26 crew from the boiler room and the No.1 4-inch gun mount immediately above were killed or posted missing.[2] The ship was so badly damaged that she took no further part in the war. She was first repaired in Auckland, then proceeded to a full refit in Boston.[3]

She returned to the Royal Navy on 27 August 1945. In 1946 she was involved in the Corfu Channel Incident. She was scrapped in 1950.

The superyacht Leander G, owned by Sir Donald Gosling, is named after HMS Leander, the first naval vessel on which he served.[4]

In 2020 Fiji will commission the RFNS Savenaca, a patrol vessel named after Savenaca Naulumatua, a sailor from Fiji who lost his life while serving on the Leander during the Battle of Kolombangara.[5][6]

See also

References
  1. Rehder HA; Randall JE (15 January 1975). "Ducie Atoll: Its history, physiography and biota" (PDF). Atoll Research Bulletin. 183: 1–55. doi:10.5479/si.00775630.183.1.
  2. "Recovery and repair - HMNZS Leander | NZHistory, New Zealand history online". nzhistory.govt.nz.
  3. Morison 1975, p. 190.
  4. Gosling, Donald. "Sir Donald Gosling's superyacht memories". Boat International. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  5. Maika Bolatiki (6 July 2019). "RFNS Volasiga To Arrive In October And RFNS Savenaca In April 2020, Women To Make Up 16% Of Fiji Navy Personnel". Fiji Sun. Retrieved 26 October 2019. Savenaca Naulumatua from Yasawa and Timo Puamau from Lau were members of Fiji Naval Volunteer Force and during World War II they were part of the HMSNZF {sic} Leander's crew that was hit by a Japanese torpedo at the Battle of Kolombangara in July 1943.
  6. "Fiji's future Guardian-class patrol boat to honour fallen sailor". Baird Maritime. 25 October 2019. Retrieved 26 October 2019. The vessel honours Seaman Savenaca Naulutuma, a Fiji-born Royal New Zealand Navy sailor who was killed in action while serving aboard the cruiser HMNZS Leander at the Battle of Kolombangara in the Solomon Islands in World War II. Naulutuma and 25 other crewmembers on Leander were killed shortly after their ship was struck by a Japanese torpedo in the early morning hours of 13 July 1943.

Sources
Catapult-launched Supermarine Walrus from HMNZS Leander, ca. 1938, used as a fleet spotter
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