O¯ taki College marks fateful World War II naval convoy
Only 11 of 35 ships reached destinations
An annual commemoration ceremony at O¯ taki College, which remembers a World War I naval battle, has also marked the 80th anniversary of a fateful World War II naval convoy.
Each year the college commemorates the sinking of the SS O¯ taki during World War I which led to a close association between Robert Gordon College in Scotland, and O¯ taki College.
But at the commemoration last Friday, the focus was on the 80th anniversary of the voyage of merchant shipping convoy PQ17 during World War II.
The keynote address, before a wreath-laying ceremony involving various dignitaries, was by Russian Convoy Club (NZ) president Derek Whitham.
He described PQ17 as the “convoy to hell”. A 35-strong merchant ship convoy, which was “loaded down to the gunnels with war materials to aid Russia in her fight against the invading Nazi forces”, set off from Iceland, on June 27, 1942, bound for the Soviet Union.
“Winston Churchill didn’t want this convoy to sail until the winter due to the long daylight hours of the Arctic summer.
“However, [Soviet leader] Stalin, aided by US President Roosevelt, demanded it go ahead.
“The convoy was joined by 27 close escorts, seven covering force and 17 distant cover which included two battleships — one from the Royal Navy and one from the US Navy.
“German agents in Iceland reported the sailing of the convoy and later that of the escorts.
“Due to reports that a German force including the battleship Tirpitz, and her attendant cruisers and destroyers, had left port intending to attack the convoy, the order [on July 4] was given for the convoy to scatter.
“Each merchant ship was ordered to make its own way to Murmansk or Arkhangelsk, and the escorts left to face the German threat.
“This led the unguarded merchant ships [from the morning of July 5 and over the next five days] to the mercy of some nine U-boats and 234 Luftwaffe bombers and torpedo bombers, resulting in 24 ships being sent to the bottom of the Barents Sea with their cargo. Only 11 of the original 35 ships reached their destinations at Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.
“When the German command realised the U-boats and
bombers were having a field day, the German naval force, which had sailed on July 5, was ordered back to base, Hitler not wanting to risk his capital ships in a confrontation.
“Material losses when the ships were sunk included 210 crated airplanes, 430 tanks, 3350 vehicles, and over 100,000 tonnes of cargo.
“And worst of all — the lives of 150 Merchant seamen.
“Prime Minister Churchill later described the event as one of the most melancholy naval episodes in the whole of the war.
“Let’s hope this kind of catastrophe never happens again.”
SS Otaki ¯
On March 10, 1917, a refrigerated freighter called the SS O¯ taki, owned by the New Zealand Shipping Company, and captained by Archibald Bisset Smith, was spotted in the mid-Atlantic by the German auxiliary cruiser SMS Moewe, which was disguised as a merchant ship.
The Moewe broke out its battle ensign and ordered the O¯ taki to stop but Captain Smith ignored the warning which led to the Moewe, armed with five guns and two torpedo tubes, firing at the O¯ taki and the O¯ taki, which only had a single gun, firing back.
The O¯ taki tried to outrun the Moewe but was unsuccessful and both ships became
engaged in¯ a fierce gun battle before the Otaki, which took 29 hits, was sunk.
Six people on the Otaki ¯ died including Captain Smith, and five on the Moewe died.
The Moewe, which had sustained seven hits and was badly damaged, rescued the survivors from the O¯ taki, who spent the rest of the war in Germany.
After the war, the captain of the Moewe, Nikolaus zu Dohna-Schlodien, said Captain Smith’s battle with the Moewe was “as gallant as naval history can relate”.
It led to Captain Smith receiving a posthumous Victoria Cross for bravery on that fateful day.
Captain Smith’s wife, New Zealander Edith Broomfield, established an Otaki ¯ Shield award at her husband’s old school, Robert Gordon’s College. This led to the awarding of the O¯ taki Scholar, to a highachieving senior student, who has visited New Zealand every year since 1937, except the World War II years.
The O¯ taki Scholar, funded by the New ¯Zealand Government, visits Otaki College and other schools.
And since 2013 Otaki ¯ College has sent one of its students, known as the Sander Scholar, to Scotland for two weeks every January where they’ve been hosted by the college before touring the Highlands.