IN APRIL 1945, AS THE FINAL PHASE of the submarine campaign in the Far East began, the war in Europe was nearing its conclusion. The Allied armies were overrunning Germany and on 30th April Hitler committed suicide. Finally on 7th May the Germans capitulated unconditionally. In the Pacific, the US forces, supported by the British Pacific Fleet, landed in Okinawa as a preliminary to the assault on Japan itself. In Burma, the Fourteenth Army was driving down the Irrawaddy towards Rangoon, and in the South West Pacific, preparations were being made for the Australians to land in Borneo. The American submarines in the Pacific had practically run out of targets. The Japanese merchant marine had fallen to 2,465,000 tons from the 6,052,000 tons it had been in 1941 and such traffic as put to sea was in the inner zone around Japan. The US still found plenty to do protecting amphibious operations from attack by the remnants of the Japanese Navy, sweeping ahead of carrier forces to sink the enemy reconnaissance picket boats and, above all, doing 'lifeguard' duty, as the Americans called air-searescue. Nevertheless they still sank sixty ships of 220,269 tons in these three months for the loss of four submarines.

The Japanese had now practically lost command of the sea and could only run convoys at great peril. They were desperately short of oil in Japan and, indeed, of everything necessary for their war industries. They were even short of food for the civilian population. The five remaining battleships were lying camouflaged and hidden in creeks and inlets in the Inland Sea with no fuel: a few aircraft carriers were in the same state and without any aircraft. In the southern zone, based on Singapore, Field Marshal Count Terauchi, the Supreme Commander, had already decided to withdraw all his outlying garrisons to Malaya so that he could conduct a fighting withdrawal up the Kra Isthmus into Siam and Indo China. Such Japanese aircraft as were available were to be used as Kamikaze suicide planes but to all except a few fanatics, the end was in sight. Nevertheless the Japanese were expected to make a desperate fight for their homeland. The invasion of Japan was clearly going to be accompanied by very heavy Allied casualties.

This then was the strategic setting into which the considerable force of British submarines in the Far East had now to be fitted. Already decisions had been made for a redistribution of the flotillas and for changes in their composition. These had been fully discussed between the US Commander, Submarines Seventh Fleet, the Cs-in-C of the British Pacific Fleet and of the East Indies, as well as A(S) during his visit in February and March. The first move was of the Fourth Flotilla from Trincomalee to Fremantle. Adamant (Captain HMC Ionides RN) sailed on 1st April and arrived on 11th. Four of her submarines had already left for patrol in the Malacca Strait and were afterwards to follow her to Western Australia¹. Four more submarines sailed later², and three of them made the passage to Fremantle direct and three others, already in the South West Pacific, transferred to the Fourth Flotilla from the Eighth³.The Second Flotilla remained at Trincomalee with the depot ship Wolfe (Captain JE Slaughter DSO RN) with the three short range T-class⁴ and six of the S-class⁵. Maidstone (Captain LM Shadwell RN) left Fremantle on 19th April and proceeded by Sydney, Manus and Leyte to Subic Bay in the Philippines, where, on arrival on 20th May, she found two US tenders with their squadrons and Admiral Fife already operating from a headquarters ashore. The Eighth Flotilla submarines underwent considerable change at this time. Storm had already left for the United Kingdom to refit and was followed by Sirdar and Spirit. They were replaced by Stygian, Supreme and Selene from the Second Flotilla, and Solent and Sleuth direct from the United Kingdom. With Seascout and Spark, these boats now formed the Eighth Flotilla and all proceeded to Subic from Fremantle at various dates, patrolling on the way. There were another nine British submarines in the Far East at this time but none of them was operational⁶.The grand total of British submarines in the Far East at this time was therefore thirty-five, and there were five others on passage and three under repair as well as three Netherlands boats.

Bonaventure (Captain WR Fell OBE RN) and the Fourteenth Submarine Flotilla consisting of XE1-6 had now also arrived in the Pacific. She had left the United Kingdom at the end of February and passed through the Panama Canal to San Diego in California and then to Pearl Harbour. While Bonaventure was crossing the Pacific, the C-in-C of the US Pacific Fleet decided that there was no use for X-craft in the area and the C-in-C British Pacific Fleet reluctantly concurred. She was therefore ordered to proceed to Brisbane to await orders. The obvious targets for the XE-craft were the surviving battleships and aircraft carriers of the Japanese Navy now in the Inland Sea. These ships could, without doubt, have been destroyed by this means using the T-class submarines of the Fourth Flotilla to tow them from the Philippines to Japan. Although in the more recent X-craft attacks on Bergen they had attacked successfully and the crews had been recovered with their craft, in the earlier Tirpitz operation, all the crews who had attacked had been killed or taken prisoner. There is little doubt that the American high command regarded them almost as suicide machines and felt that there was no need at this stage of the war for such sacrifices. It must also be said that the US Navy felt that they should have the honour of finishing off what remained of the Imperial Japanese Navy. They believed that this was due to them as restitution for Pearl Harbour and they were reluctant to allow the Royal Navy to do this for them after the American Navy's long and hard fought campaigns in the Pacific⁷. It is also probable that the US Navy's carrier forces reckoned that the remains of the Japanese battlefleet were 'their bird'. Although many years later such notions may seem to us almost puerile, they were at the time very understandable. To the X-craft crews of the Fourteenth Flotilla, however, the decision was devastating. Not to put their years of X-craft training and development to the test was a terrible blow to the morale of these brave and skilled officers and men. The real trouble, of course, was that they had arrived too late. If they had been a year earlier an attack on the Japanese Fleet at Lingga would have been quite possible and might have been sanctioned by the American authorities. On 7th April, however, the whole question was rendered somewhat academic by the sinking of the Japanese super battleship Yamato by the US Third Fleet, for she was the prime target for the XE-craft. Plans were therefore made to scrap the six XE-craft in Australia and to use Bonaventure in the Fleet Train of the British Pacific Fleet.

At the same time as O19 and Zvaardvisch were working in the Java Sea, Scythian (Lieutenant CP Thode RNZNVR), Torbay (Lieutenant Commander CP Norman DSO RN) and O24 (Luitenant ter zee 1e Kl PJS de Jong) were operating in the Malacca Strait and off the west coast of Sumatra. Scythian left Trincomalee on 6th April for the northern part of the Strait but was recalled after three days for another operation. Torbay sailed on 7th for special operations landing and recovering beach reconnaissance parties on the west coast of Siam and the north coast of Sumatra. O24 also sailed on 7th to patrol on the west coast of Sumatra on her way to Fremantle. She sank a large junk on 14th and joined the Fourth Flotilla on 28th.

The two new S-class submarines Solent (Lieutenant Commander JD Martin DSC RN) and Sleuth (Lieutenant KH Martin RN) left Fremantle on 14th April, five days before Maidstone, and their patrols were timed to join her on her arrival at Subic Bay. Although both were on their first patrol in the Far East, they were ordered to work together as a 'wolf-pack' in the east Java Sea⁸. The two submarines fuelled at Exmouth Gulf but met a strong southerly set in the Lombok Strait. Both were also forced to dive by a patrol and only Sleuth was able to get through. Solent had to turn back and wait for another opportunity. While still south of the Strait on 23rd April, Solent sighted a small merchant ship approaching from the eastwards. She was escorted by a whaler and three aircraft. Solent made a submerged attack and fired five torpedoes at a range of 2000 yards, but one of them had a gyro failure and circled overhead and the other four missed, the tracks probably being seen by the air escort. The whaler counter attacked and hunted for an hour dropping twenty-four depth charges but none close enough to cause any damage. Solent successfully transitted the Strait that night and met Sleuth again on 25th April. That evening a landing barge escorted by a trawler was encountered. The trawler, however, detected Solent and counter attacked her. After dark, both submarines manoeuvred to obtain the advantage of the moon and then opened fire with their guns on the escort, destroying Special Minesweeper No3, which blew up and sank. The landing barge was found ashore next day and was also destroyed. Two days later, a coaster was sunk by the guns of both submarines and no less than 90 survivors were picked up before both submarines were forced to dive by aircraft. All except five were subsequently put ashore on the Laurent Islands next night. On 2nd May, a coaster full of oil barrels was sunk by concentrated gunfire and on 8th both submarines were ordered to shift patrol area. They were, however, already short of fuel and had to return to Exmouth Gulf to fill up. Here the Captain of Solent went sick and was relieved by the spare Commanding Officer from Adamant, who was flown up on 11th (Lieutenant JC Ogle DSC RN). Both submarines sailed again on 13th May and were ordered to proceed direct to Subic Bay where they arrived on 26th. These patrols lasted forty-two days, steaming a total of 7180 miles.

On 14th, Thrasher (Lieutenant Commander MFR Ainslie DSO DSC RN) left Trincomalee to land stores and a party in the Nicobar Islands on the night of 18th/19th, returning direct to base. Sturdy (Lieutenant FA Wicker RNVR) left Fremantle on 19th for the United Kingdom to refit. She was to patrol along the north coast of Java on the way, fuelling at Exmouth Gulf. She was to enter by the Lombok Strait and leave by the Sunda Strait for Trincomalee. She too met an adverse current in the Lombok Strait and failed to get through at the first attempt. She got through the next night but otherwise her patrol was uneventful. On 21st April, Supreme (Lieutenant Commander TE Barlow RN) left Fremantle for Subic Bay. She fuelled at Exmouth Gulf and passed northward through the Lombok Strait without trouble. While on passage through the Java Sea, she sighted a convoy consisting of a small passenger vessel and a merchant ship escorted by a torpedo boat, a trawler and two aircraft. It was flat calm but she managed to fire five torpedoes at 4400 yards, but the tracks were seen and the torpedoes were avoided. The counter attack was feeble and only one depth charge was dropped. The convoy then sought safety by anchoring among the Kangean Islands. Attempts that night by Supreme to renew the attack were prevented by the torpedo boat, which forced her to dive. The depth charges dropped, however, did no damage. She then went on her way to the Gulf of Siam, where she had been ordered to patrol, being bombed ineffectively by an aircraft as she passed through the Karimata Strait. After reaching the Gulf on 7th May, she destroyed two coasters and a motor junk by gunfire. Next day she began an attack on a coaster with three escorts in very shallow water. Supreme was, however, detected by a large submarine chaser and she hit the bottom at 55 feet while trying to evade the counter attack. The Subchaser dropped two close patterns causing leaks in the high-pressure air system, putting the asdic out of action and damaging the port propeller and both periscopes. The hunt continued for two hours and then Supreme successfully wriggled into deeper water and got away. The rest of the patrol was spent making a reconnaissance of the area in co-operation with American submarines. She arrived at Subic on 27th May having expended nearly all her fuel and having run 6567 miles. She was docked for repairs that were within the capacity of Maidstone to remedy. During this same period, Stygian, Spark, Selene and Seascout proceeded direct from Fremantle to Subic Bay through the East Indies without any incidents of consequence.

In the first few days of May, a group of four T-class submarines left Fremantle independently for the Java Sea. Terrapin (Lieutenant RHH Brunner RN), Trump (Lieutenant AA Catlow RN), Tiptoe (Acting Lieutenant Commander RL Jay) RN) and Tudor (Lieutenant SA Porter DSC RN) all sailed between 3rd and 7th and all fuelled at Exmouth Gulf, passing through the Lombok Strait successfully. Terrapin was sent west to Batavia and the Thousand Islands. Trump was sent to investigate the Sapudi Strait, Tiptoe to the north coast of Sumbawa and the Postillon and Kangean Islands, and Tudor to the Makassar Strait. On arrival in her area, Terrapin had the misfortune to run hard aground on the Arnemuiden Bank in the early morning of 16th. She got off after one and a half hours and jettisoning over 70 tons of oil fuel and two torpedoes. Two days later she sank a motor lugger carrying forty Japanese soldiers, and also a schooner with a cargo of coal, both by gunfire. On 19th, she fired a stern salvo of three torpedoes at 2500 yards at a tanker escorted by a frigate and another small warship and missed. In taking evasive action, Terrapin struck the bottom with 57 feet on the gauge. She was shortly afterwards heavily and accurately counter attacked with two patterns of depth charges as she lay on the bottom causing serious structural damage to the pressure hull forward and a number of leaks. Attacks continued intermittently for five hours and Terrapin stayed where she was without further damage until nightfall. After dark she surfaced and evaded the frigate, which was still in the vicinity, and withdrew at full speed on the surface. When clear, she made a trial dive but there were many leaks. Most of these were repaired by dawn and a second dive was found to be satisfactory. She decided to return to base but her wireless was out of action. Fortunately on 21st she fell in with the US Submarine Cavalla, who reported her plight and escorted her through the Lombok Strait back to Fremantle. Terrapin's damage was so severe that she was, in fact, out of the war. Trump, in the Sapudi Strait, also had an exciting time. On 13th, she damaged and set on fire an armed trawler with her gun but was forced to dive and was counter attacked by another escort vessel. She was stuck in mud on the bottom in 150 feet of water but was undamaged. Later the same day she fired three torpedoes at 800 yards at a submarine chaser and missed because the tracks were sighted. The counter attack was fortunately not serious and she escaped damage. She saw nothing more until 25th, when she sank a junk and, three days later, found a camouflaged coaster inshore and sank her by gunfire. On 31st, she fired two torpedoes at two anchored coasters close inshore at a range of 2000 yards but the torpedoes ran into soft mud before reaching the target. Next day, in Bewleleng Roads, she sank a wooden coaster by gunfire and damaged some sheds and a bridge ashore. On 8th June, she drove a small tanker ashore on the north coast of Bali with her gun but then she ran out of ammunition. She subsequently expended no less than six torpedoes at this same target. The first three torpedoes missed at 3500 yards but the second salvo of three, fired at 2000 yards, secured a hit and blew her stern off. Tiptoe also saw action and, after looking in to a number of anchorages in her area, she sank two coasters by gunfire on 15th and 17th May. On 1st June, after a fortnight's inactivity, she fired three torpedoes from her stern tubes at a range of 800 yards at the escorted 982-ton Tobi Maru near the Laurot Islands and hit and sank her. She was only in 140 feet of water and was heavily counter attacked with thirteen depth charges, which exploded very close. The torpedo tubes were put temporarily out of action as well as her asdic and there was other minor damage. Tiptoe was, in any case, near the end of her patrol and decided to return to base. She dived out through the Sape Strait and arrived at Fremantle on 17th June. Tudor, in the Macassar Strait, had a blank patrol and only sighted some anti-submarine craft in the distance.

During the early part of May, four submarines put to sea from Trincomalee and three of these were for special operations only. Torbay (Lieutenant Commander CP Norman DSO RN) sailed on 8th but broke down and had to return and, as related earlier, Statesman carried out her retrieval of agents near the Dindings in her place. Sibyl (Lieutenant HR Murray RN) also left on 8th and sank five junks by gunfire and demolition charge in the Malacca Strait. She also searched for a suspected minefield with her mine detecting unit. Clyde (Lieutenant RH Bull DSC RN) left on 9th for her last patrol and carried out a special operation on the west coast of Siam but a second special operation had to be abandoned because of defects to her hydroplanes. Thule (Lieutenant Commander ACG Mars DSO DSC RN), on her way to join the Fourth Flotilla at Fremantle, was ordered to carry out one more of her special operations on the east coast of Malaya. She left Trincomalee on 15th without reload torpedoes, but carrying nineteen Royal Marines, four tons of stores and fourteen raiding craft. She passed through the Sunda Strait and landed her party on 30th/31st May on the east coast of Johore, picking up thirty men from an earlier landing party and some US airmen who had been shot down, in exchange. The landing place was five miles from water deep enough for Thule to dive. With ninety-four men on board, she then went on to Fremantle by the Sunda Strait.

Control after firing the salvo was regained within three minutes and, as the enemy was still afloat, a turn was begun to bring the stern tubes to bear. The two remaining stern tubes were then fired but the enemy still had way on and they missed. The destroyer then appeared to the northwards and, as she arrived, Ashigara capsized to starboard and sank. She was carrying some 2000 troops and 800 men were drowned.

Trenchant withdrew without delay in order to pass between O19's minefield and Bangka Island in daylight while accurate navigation was possible. Stygian withdrew to the northwards to her patrol position off Lingga where she hoped she might get another shot at the destroyer. Trenchant was clear by dark and after surfacing, reported her success and set course for the Karimata Strait in anticipation of orders to return to Fremantle. She was, however, ordered to the patrol line off Pulau Tengol. Thorough and Taciturn had been on the patrol line since 3rd June. Thorough sank two coasters by gunfire off Pulau Tengol in 5 fathoms of water on 3rd and 5th and on 6th, Taciturn was attacked but missed by torpedo from a Japanese U-boat. Thorough was recalled to Fremantle on 11th and Taciturn on 13th, but after passing through the Karimata Strait, both boats, having plenty of fuel and torpedoes, asked for a week's extension. Extensions were approved and the two boats met off Surubaya on 16th. Next day, Taciturn met a curious convoy consisting of an armed trawler, an old and very rusty ex-Dutch submarine and a large hulk with promenade decks and a roof and towed by Special Submarine Chaser No105. Taciturn closed in water too shallow to dive and engaged with her gun. Most of this strange collection of ships were armed and returned the fire. The rusty submarine was sunk by gunfire, and then three torpedoes were fired at 2000 yards at the hulk, hitting with two of them and sinking her. The submarine chaser was also sunk by gunfire but the armed trawler made off. Taciturn expended 205 rounds of ammunition. Next day the armed trawler was sighted and pursued by Taciturn, but the enemy ran straight into the arms of Thorough who sank her with 17 hits out of 18 rounds fired. Taciturn was now short of ammunition and a rendezvous was arranged to obtain some from Thorough. During the transfer, two schooners carrying coal to Surubaya were sighted and one of them was boarded by Taciturn and sunk by demolition charge. On 13th, Trenchant, who had previously met the US Submarine Puffer off Pulau Tengol, encountered a large tanker in ballast escorted by a destroyer and a minesweeper. They were inside the ten-fathom line and the water was very clear. When attacking, Trenchant began to run into shallower water and, considering it to be suicidal to continue, broke off the attack. On 15th, she was ordered to Subic Bay where she received a great welcome from Admiral Fife and the Maidstone and the Eighth Flotilla. The sinking of Ashigara removed the only remaining heavy Japanese warship from the southern area. All three cruisers used for Field Marshal Terauchi's evacuation policy for a concentration at Singapore had now been destroyed.

Stygian and Spark remained on patrol east of Singapore until nearly the end of June. On 14th, Stygian had returned to the entrance to the Bangka Strait and she engaged a coaster at long range but had to break off the action because of fire from shore batteries. Both submarines were used for air-sea-rescue but Spark's patrol was otherwise uneventful. On her way back to Subic, Stygian investigated anchorages and local craft off the coast of Borneo. There was one other submarine which sailed for patrol at the end of May and that was the newly arrived O24 (Luitenant ter zee 2e Kl PJS de Jong) after refit in the United Kingdom. She sailed from Fremantle on 29th May and carried out a fifty-two day patrol in the Flores Sea with a short break in the middle at Darwin from 18th- 21st June to fuel. She only had one excitement and that was an attack on a Japanese torpedo boat on 12th June. She fired four torpedoes at a range of 3000 yards and missed. She was then subjected to a long but fortunately ineffective counter attack.

CAPTAIN(S/m) FOURTEEN in Bonaventure, under orders to turn over his XE-craft for scrap in Australia and for Bonaventure to join the Pacific Fleet train, had never ceased to look for an operational role for his flotilla. At a staff meeting in June, he heard of a requirement to cut the telegraph cables between Singapore, Saigon and Hong Kong. At this time the Allies were able to decrypt practically every message sent by radio by the Japanese. Messages sent by cable, however, could not be intercepted and so could not be decrypted. If the cables could be cut, then all traffic would have to be sent by radio and it would be possible to read it. Captain Fell was confident that XE-craft would be able to cut the cables and was given permission by the C-in-C, British Pacific Fleet to fly to the Philippines to discuss the matter with the Commander of the Seventh Fleet and Admiral Fife. After trials off Brisbane in the Great Barrier Reef, it was shown that XE-craft could locate and cut cables, the proposal was accepted by the US Navy and plans were made to mount the operation towards the end of July. The Fourteenth Flotilla was therefore reprieved from an ignominious end and given a chance to show what it could do operationally.

During June, the Eighth Flotilla at Subic got away five submarines on patrol. Selene (Lieutenant Commander HRB Newton DSC RN) on 7th, Seascout (Lieutenant JW Kelly RN) on 16th and Supreme (Lieutenant TE Barlow RN) on 22nd, sailed for the Gulf of Siam. Solent (Lieutenant Commander JD Martin DSC RN) and Sleuth (Lieutenant KH Martin RN), acting as a 'wolf-pack', left for the Bangka Strait and Singapore approaches on 17th. Patrols in the Gulf of Siam were co-ordinated by the senior of two US submarines in the area. Most of the targets were attacked by gunfire and only two torpedo attacks were made. On 24th, Selene fired two torpedoes at one of two coasters at anchor at a range of 3000 yards but one torpedo probably hit the bottom before it reached the target, and the other stuck in the mud just clear of the submarine's bow and then circled. On 30th, Supreme, having been put on to a convoy by the US Submarine Charr, fired six torpedoes at two small tankers escorted by two subchasers at 800 yards but they missed or ran under. This convoy turned back to seek shelter and although Supreme tried hard to get at them with her gun, she was unsuccessful. Selene sank a total of three coasters, a junk and a schooner by gunfire and damaged another coaster. Seascout sank a tug, two schooners, a coaster, five barges and two junks and Supreme a lugger, a tug towing a lighter and three coasters, all by gunfire. Both Selene and Supreme were short of fuel by the end of heir patrols, Selene having run 5138 miles. Solent and Sleuth found two landing craft on the north coast of Bangka. Solent sank one and badly damaged the other, while Sleuth kept guard to seawards. Sleuth boarded a junk on 2nd July but let it go as it was not in the service of the Japanese. On 5th, both submarines joined the US Submarine Blower for a sweep thirty miles east of Singapore, and next morning Sleuth sighted a Japanese U-boat. She fired six torpedoes in a night attack at 4000 yards from the quarter. The U-boat, however, saw the tracks and avoided them. The next night, two patrol vessels were detected by radar. Sleuth was forced to dive, but Solent fired a full salvo of six torpedoes at a range of 1200 yards but they probably ran under in the swell.

The Fourth Flotilla in Fremantle, which had practically had a sabbatical in sailings for patrol in June, got nine boats to sea during July, but one of these was a relief for the Eighth Flotilla and went on to Subic. Thule (Lieutenant Commander ACG Mars DSO DSC RN), who had been employed a great deal for special operations, sailed on 5th July for a normal patrol on the north coast of Java. She fuelled at Onslow and passed northward through the Lombok Strait submerged, which was unusual. On 14th, she drove an armed coaster ashore and she was bombed, the missile fortunately missing 50 feet astern, as she dived into a mud bottom. She destroyed three coasters and bombarded a slipway on the north coast of Java but was then, on 20th, recalled, as C-in-C East Indies had asked for her back to carry out another special operation in Johore in which she had become the undoubted expert. She therefore left patrol by the Sunda Strait and returned to Fremantle. The special operation was, however, later cancelled. O21 (Luitenant ter zee 2e Kl FJ Kroesen), on her first patrol since refit in the United Kingdom, sailed on 7th July for the south coast of Java, which she searched, and then passed through the Sunda Strait. On 29th she unsuccessfully attacked two coasters with her gun but it jammed and they got away. O21 was recalled through the Sunda Strait at the end of July and sank a Japanese fishing boat off southwest Java on her way back to Fremantle. It had been intended to send Sidon (Lieutenant HC Gowan RN) direct from Trincomalee to Subic to join the Eighth Flotilla, but battery trouble necessitated a visit to Fremantle. She subsequently left for Subic on 7th July and to patrol east of Singapore Strait on the way. She fuelled at Onslow and passed through the Lombok and Karimata Strait and was then ordered to proceed direct to Subic. Later she was diverted to search for the crew of an American Liberator, which had come down off Saigon. She rescued a Second Lieutenant of the US Air Force after five days some 287 miles from the position in which his aircraft had crashed. Three more days were spent searching for other members of the crew without success, before going on to Subic Bay.

Tudor (Lieutenant Commander SA Porter DSC RN) sailed on 9th July to patrol in the west Java Sea and, after passing through the Lombok Strait, took up a position west of Surubaya. On 27th, she attacked a convoy but was driven off by the escort. She later sank four small coasters with her gun. She carried out air-sea-rescue duties south of Lombok on her way back to Fremantle. Stubborn (Lieutenant Commander AG Davies RN) arrived in Fremantle after service in Home waters and a refit. She was originally intended for the Eighth Flotilla but it was decided to keep her in the Fourth Flotilla as the Eighth, in early July, was already up to full strength. She was sent on her first patrol to the east Java Sea and, after fuelling at Onslow, passed through the Lombok Strait. On 25th she sighted an eastbound destroyer north of Bali and was able to fire four torpedoes at a range of 3000 yards at this difficult zigzagging target. She hit with two of them and sank Japanese Patrol Boat No2, which was the elderly ex destroyer Nadakaze of 750 tons. This was the last Japanese warship to be sunk by torpedo by a British submarine during the Second World War. Two days later, Stubborn met the US Submarine Cabrilla and together they reconnoitred Suleh Bay in Sumbawa forcing a small vessel to jettison its cargo and sinking another. Sadly an officer was lost boarding a junk. On 30th, Stubborn bombarded Bewlelang Roads in northern Bali damaging slipways and landing craft. She was forced to break off this action by shore batteries and an aircraft. On her way back to Fremantle, she contacted Taciturn to take off an injured man and also carried out air-sea-rescue duties.

Finally in July, two T-boat 'wolf-packs' left Fremantle for the west Java Sea. The first of these consisted of Trump (Lieutenant Commander AA Catlow RN) and Tiptoe (Lieutenant Commander RL Jay RN) who sailed on the 16th of the month. They first made a thorough investigation of the south coast of Java from the Lombok Strait to the Sunda Strait, which they passed through in company. Tiptoe damaged a coaster on the last day of the month, being forced to let her go on the arrival of a subchaser with an aircraft. On 2nd August, they sank two coasters with combined gunfire and next day, Trump off Batavia, sighted a substantial convoy consisting of four large ships, one of which was a tanker, escorted by a destroyer, two smaller escorts and aircraft. She fired five torpedoes at the tanker, which was of 6000 tons, at a range of 6500 yards and hit with two of them. The target was seen to catch fire and sink. Tiptoe, four miles away, received an enemy report from Trump and intercepted the convoy in very shallow water and a calm sea. She fired four torpedoes at a range of 3500 yards and one hit was obtained, sinking a merchant ship of 4000 tons. Tiptoe was practically aground at periscope depth on firing, but extricated herself before a counter attack developed which was, in any case, ineffective.

On 9th the combined gunfire of both submarines sank a coastal tanker north of the Sunda Strait. Both submarines returned to Fremantle by the Lombok Strait. The second 'wolf-pack' consisted of Taciturn (Lieutenant Commander ET Stanley DSO DSC RN) and Thorough (Lieutenant Commander AG Chandler RNR) who left Fremantle on 25th July. They entered the Java Sea by the Lombok Strait in company at the end of the month and sank two schooners by demolition charge north of Bali on 1st August. They then surfaced in Bewlelang Roads and while Thorough sank a coaster and a landing craft, and damaged the waterfront, Taciturn kept the shore battery busy. Thorough sank a schooner that night and another on the next day, but she was slightly damaged by a bomb from an aircraft as she dived. On 5th, the 'wolf-pack' closed the Kangean Islands near where a coaster had been reported by an American submarine. The coaster had an air escort and Taciturn surfaced to attract its attention and then dived. This ruse had to be repeated before the aircraft expended its bombs, but when Taciturn surfaced to engage the coaster, she was forced to dive by another aircraft. Thorough sank two coasters on 4th and 12th by gunfire and on 14th sighted two large coasters with five anti-submarine vessels and three aircraft escorting them. Shallow water prevented a submerged attack. Thorough was missed by bombs from two aircraft when withdrawing through the Lombok Strait.

ON THE 1ST AUGUST 1945, few members of the Allied forces fighting the Japanese in the Pacific had the remotest knowledge of the existence of the Atom Bomb, or that its use was a matter of weeks away. Nearly all believed that total victory would not come until Japan had been invaded and that this would take a considerable time and much hard fighting. In South East Asia the plan was still to land in Malaya between Port Swettenham and Port Dickson and preparations were at an advanced stage. British submarine operations therefore continued much as before. The 'wolf-pack' consisting of Solent (Lieutenant Commander JD Martin DSC RN) and Sleuth (Lieutenant Commander KH Martin RN) had left Subic to operate in the Gulf of Siam on 31st July. There was little left in this area except junks and the two submarines sank fifteen of them as well as a small Japanese patrol vessel. The crews of the junks were all saved. Seascout (Lieutenant Commander JW Kelly RN) left Subic on 8th August to join Solent and Sleuth in the Gulf of Siam. From Trincomalee the newly arrived Spur (Lieutenant PS Beale RN) left for her first patrol at the southern end of the Malacca Strait. She sank eleven junks by gunfire and demolition charges. Torbay (Lieutenant Commander CP Norman DSO RN) set off on 7th to land Dutch military personnel and stores in Sumatra and Trident (Lieutenant AR Profit DSC RN) sailed next day to relieve Subtle in weather reporting duty in the Andaman Sea. Finally Statesman (Lieutenant Commander RGP Bulkeley RN) left Trincomalee on 9th August for the Malacca Strait and sank five junks by gunfire and finished off a derelict coaster with a torpedo, the last to be fired by a British submarine during the Second World War.

On 6th August, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and on 9th, the second was exploded over Nagasaki and it was obvious that the whole war situation had completely changed. On 15th August the Japanese government surrendered and that day all British submarines in the Pacific were recalled from Patrol: those in the East Indies were recalled on 18th except for Trident on weather reporting duty in the Andaman Sea. She remained there until 31st August. On 15th, there were eight British submarines at sea in the Pacific and five in the East Indies. In the Pacific, there were three 'wolf-packs' operating: Solent and Sleuth were in the Gulf of Siam; Tiptoe and Trump were on their way back to Fremantle by the Lombok Strait and Taciturn and Thorough were actually pursuing a convoy in the west Java Sea. Seascout was by herself, also in the Gulf of Siam and Spearhead was on air-sea-rescue duty east of Singapore. In the East Indies, Spur and Statesman were on patrol in the Malacca Strait. Trident had just relieved Subtle on weather reporting duties and Torbay was landing Dutch military personnel in Sumatra. There were five S-class submarines in harbour at Subic Bay¹⁶. was on her way back to the United Kingdom in a damaged state; six T, S and Netherlands submarines were at Fremantle^17, and seven assorted boats were at Trincomalee¹⁸.

Scorcher was sent out on weather reporting duties on 23rd August to relieve Trident and remained in position until 13th September. The Eighth Flotilla at Subic Bay reverted to national operational control before the end of August and was ordered to join Rear Admiral Harcourt's force for the re-occupation of Hong Kong. Maidstone arrived there with eight S-class submarines on 29th August. On 30th, Maidstone berthed at the dockyard and the submarines entered the basin and at once began to supply electricity to the city, whose power stations had no fuel. Apart from this, the requirement for submarines in the Far East had ceased. The available naval and military forces were used to re-occupy territory and take the surrender of the Japanese garrisons; submarines could not help much with these tasks. Maidstone was in need of refit and in poor shape. On 17th September, she was sailed for Fremantle to adjust complement with Adamant and then left for the United Kingdom round the Cape, reaching Portsmouth in December. By October, the Admiralty had issued orders for the submarines of the Eighth Flotilla and also Wolfe and the Second Flotilla, to return to the United Kingdom too, which they did via the Mediterranean. Adamant and the Fourth Flotilla received orders to remain in the Far East as part of the post war fleet. Adamant and three T-and one S-class²⁰ sailed for Hong Kong accordingly. Trenchant, Thorough, Tudor and Thule returned to the United Kingdom and O21 and O24 returned to national control.

SO ENDED THE BRITISH SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN in the Far East, the third major campaign which they had fought during the Second World War. In its last year, it had a greater number of submarines operating than in the Mediterranean campaign of 1940-43 or the Norwegian campaign of 1940. It is, however, doubtful if they exerted as great a strategic effect as in the other two campaigns. As discussed in Chapter XII, the original purpose of sending British submarines to the Far East after the First World War, was to 'hold the fort' against the Japanese until a battle fleet could arrive from Europe. Not only, when the time came, were no submarines available for this task but no battle fleet was to hand either. In the next phase in 1942, after Admiral Nagumo's raid into the Indian Ocean and the retreat of the Eastern Fleet to Kilindini, there was a pressing need for submarines in the Far East. They were needed not only to give warning of Japanese raids but also because they were the only naval force capable of operating at all in an area in which we had lost command of the sea. The question was considered by the Admiralty after calls for submarines from C-in-C Ceylon and C-in-C, Eastern Fleet. In the end it was decided to keep the submarines in the Mediterranean, which was the only place from which they could be sent. A small force of Netherlands submarines with British support was all that was allocated. That we survived without further disasters was due entirely to the victory of the US Navy at Midway and the Coral Sea and their campaign in the Solomons, which kept the Japanese too busy to spare any forces for the Indian Ocean. When, after the Italian surrender, submarines did become available for the Far East, surface ships also became available to build up an Eastern Fleet and the strategic purpose of submarines changed again. It was now not only to satisfy the local needs in the Indian Ocean such as reconnaissance for the Eastern Fleet, attrition of the German and Japanese U-boats operating in the area and attack on the sea communications of the Japanese army in Burma, but also to join the American submarines in the Pacific in their general campaign against Japanese shipping wherever it could be found.

The above comments, except to point out that British submarines unlike those of the US Navy, could not reach Japanese waters after the fall of Singapore, do not explain the huge difference in the sinkings. There were two other reasons for this. The first was the number of British compared with American submarines operating in the Pacific and the second was that until 1944, the British were restricted to the Malacca Strait. At the outbreak of war with Japan, the British had no operational submarines in the Far East at all. The two that were then sent from the Mediterranean only arrived as Singapore fell. The Dutch had at first eleven and the Americans sixty-seven in the Pacific. Soon after the end of 1942, the two British submarines departed for refit, leaving three Netherlands boats on the station. American strength by the end of 1942 rose to eighty and a year later it was one hundred and twenty-three. British submarines did not return to the Pacific until the Italian collapse in the late summer of 1943 and their strength was at first slow to increase. By the end of 1943, there were still only seven boats on the station. Thereafter reinforcement was fairly rapid and by the end of March 1944, they reached a total of nearly thirty and this strength was maintained until the end of the war. By the end of 1944 the Americans had one hundred and fifty-six submarines in the Pacific and their strength was kept at this level until hostilities ceased. After 1943, the Dutch had about three submarines in the Far East. Roughly, therefore, the British only deployed just over ten per cent of Allied submarine strength in the Far East over the whole period and the Netherlands about 2.5%. With the restrictions on the area of operations, partly brought about by lack of endurance and partly by the division of responsibilities between the Allies, it is not altogether surprising that the sinkings by British and Dutch submarines only amounted to some two per cent of the total. In general the British submarines were not available for the Far East when they were really required in the early stages, and when the Eastern Fleet had retired to Kilindini; and were in abundance after the US Submarines had virtually destroyed the Japanese merchant fleet.

Much greater results were expected when the British submarines moved from the East Indies to the Pacific. However hopes were not realised as, by the time they got there, targets were as short as in the Malacca Strait. As has already been pointed out, the distance to most of the important patrol areas was no shorter by sending British submarines to Fremantle and the same areas could have been reached as easily from Trincomalee especially if an advanced fuelling base had been organised in the Cocos Islands. Better results could probably have been obtained if the Gulf of Siam, the waters east of Singapore and the Sunda Strait area had been included in the South East Asia Area from its inception and the whole British submarine force operated from Trincomalee throughout without sending any boats to Australia. Strategically the blockade of Burma, in which the South East Asia Command was mainly concerned, as well as the isolation by sea of Singapore could have been better co-ordinated in this way.

The British submarines in the Pacific, although operating in the shadow of the victorious American Submarine Force of the Pacific Fleet, had done well. They had arrived too late to partake in the destruction of the Japanese merchant fleet but had helped substantially in the final stages. Not only had they prevented the Japanese Army in Burma using the sea in the Malacca Strait and the port of Rangoon for their supplies but after joining the American submarines in Fremantle were able to assist them with attacks in shallow water and on small craft with their guns which kept up the pressure of the blockade. It was British forces which were mainly responsible for frustrating Count Terauchi's strategy of concentrating his armies in Malaya by sinking Haguro and Ashigara which would have been of increased importance had the Japanese surrender not come early as a result of the atom bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.