Index page for HMS Wryneck a V & W Class destroyer

The sinking of the SS Slamat, HMS Diamond and HMS Wryneck - on 27th April 1941
during the evacuation of troops from Greece

SS Slamat after conversion to troop carrier in WW2

The Italian invasion in October 1940, usually known as the Greco-Italian War, was followed by the German invasion in April 1941. German landings on the island of Crete (May 1941) came after Allied forces had been defeated in mainland Greece. The most authorative and detailed account of the evacuation of the troops from Greece was published in Supplement 38293 to The London Gazette on Tuesday 18 May 1948. It contains the official accounts of the senior officers responsible for directing the operation to take allied troops to Greece (Operation Lustre) and Operation Demon to evacuate them after the fall of Greece to German forces, It has been saved as a PDF so that it can be read online on this website. Although a great tragedy the loss of HMS Wryneck was only a small part of this operation which successfully evacuated 50,000 troops.

The SS Slamat was a twin-prop ship of 11,636 tons of the Rotterdamsche Lloyd (RL). The vessel was launched in 1924 by shipyard De Schelde in Flushing carrying passengers between Rotterdam and the Dutch Dutch East Indies. In order to compete with faster newer ships Slamat was modernized in 1931. Her length was increased to 155.5 meters by altering the bow which enabled the De Schelde steam turbines to increase the ship's speed from 15 to 17 knots. The Slamat was in Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies, when Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. She was chartered by the British Ministry of War Transport and converted into a troop-ship (on left) in Sydney, Australia. She was mainly deployed in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean carrying British Empire troops to Egypt until the Italian invasion of Greece in October 1940.

The sinking of the SS Slamat is described as "the greatest disaster in Dutch Merchant Navy History" on the website of the Museum of her shipowner Rotterdamsche Lloyd (RL). The part played by the Dutch Liner Slamat in the evacuation and the rescue of survivors from the Slamat by Wryneck and Diamond and the sinking of all three ships is described below.

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In the afternoon of 26 April, 1941, Slamat, HMS Glenearn and Khedive Ismail of 7,290 ton (under Egyptian flag) escorted by the cruiser HMS Calcutta and five destroyers were directed from Crete to evacuate the troops from Nauplia in the in the Peloponnese. The Glenearn, an LSI (Landing Ship Infantry), was bombed and a bomb hit the engine room stopping the LSI dead in the water. The destroyer HMS Griffin was ordered to tow the landing ship back to Crete. The loss of the Glenearn was a bitter set back; their landing craft would have madeb the evacuation of the troops much easier.

In the evening the ships dropped anchor in the bay at Nauplia. The harbour was still blocked by the wreck of the Ulster Prince and since the landing craft of the Glenearn were not available the troops could only be ferried to the ships in the life-boats of the ships themselves and some small loocal boats. The cruisers HMS Orion and HMS Perth and the destroyer HMS Stuart which had replaced HMS Glenearn, took the first 2,500 troops aboard. By 03.00 the Khedive Ismail had taken aboard no troops at all and Slamat only a few hundred, when HMS Calcutta signalled that departure was due. Captain T. Luidinga of the Slamat knew that hundreds of evacuees remained on shore and against orders he continued to embark troops. HMS Calcutta and the Egyptian ship only departed at 04:00 and Slamat at 04:15. In spite of the decision by captain Luidinga to board more troops there were only 600 troops onboard, only half of her capacity.

After a few hours they were attacked in the Sea of Pelagos by nine German Ju 88 bombers and the Slamat (on left) received a direct hit between the bridge and the foremost chimney which caused a fierce blaze. The crew tried to control the fire but this was made more difficult by heavy machine gun strafing by Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter airplanes and Ju 87 (Stuka) bombers. The ship received another near-miss and started to list. Captain Luidinga ordered abandon-ship. The life boats and rafts which had been left were inadequate and two overcrowded life-boats capsized. To make things worse the drowning troops were machine gunned in the water by the German planes while the other ships maintained heading and speed. HMS Calcutta took a few survivors aboard and ordered the destroyer HMS Diamond to stay and rescue as many survivors as possible.

HMS Wryneck and two V & W destroyers in the Australian Navy, HMAS Vendetta and HMAS Waterhen, were ordered from Souda Bay in Crete to reinforce the escort for the Convoy. HMS Wryneck was ordered to assist HMS Diamond in rescuing survivors from the Slamat. After rescuing as many men as possible HMS Wryneck fired a torpedo at the Slamat which sank her within minutes. HMS Diamond already had about 600 victims onboard and HMS Wryneck another few dozen and at 13:00 headed for Crete. A quarter of an hour later both ships were attacked by Ju87 dive bombers coming out of the sun. HMS Diamond received two hits and sank within eight minutes. HMS Wryneck received three hits, capsized on her port side and sank within fifteen minutes. The crew of the Wryneck had been able to lower a single life-boat and both destroyers had launched their three Carley rafts. The capacity of these was far short of what was needed and hundreds drowned, especially those wounded.

This is an extract from p3053 of the Supplement to the London Gazette referred to above.

Loss of Diamond and Wryneck

When it was realised that Diamond had not arrived with Phoebe and other destroyers I became anscious about her. From 1922 to 1955 Diamond had been called without reply. As Diamond had last been heard of with Wryneck during the forenoon, Phoebe and Calcutta were asked whether Wryneck hd been seen going away with GA.14 since I did not wish to ask Wryneck herself to break to break W/T silence. Their replies at 2235 and 2245 gave no definite indication. I therefor despatched Griffin to the position of the sinking of the Slamat to investigate. At 0230 Griffin rerported that she had come upon a raft from Wryneck and everything pointed to the fact that both Wryneck and Diamond were sunk. HMS Griffin picked up about 50 survivors. Wryneck's whaler was reported to have made towards Cape Malea. This eventually arrived at Suda. The total naval survivors from the two ships comprised one officer and 41 ratings. There were, in addition, about 8 soldiers. From statements of the survivors, it appears tht the two ships were bombed at about 1315 both receiving hits which caused them to sink almost immediately.

In the evening of 27 April the destroyer HMS Griffin was sent out to establish why HMS Diamond and HMS Wryneck had failed to return. Griffin found two rafts at the spot where Slamat had sunk. Fourteen survivors were picked up and next morning another four, who were taken to Crete. The life-boat of HMS Wryneck reached a little rocky island thirteen miles south east of Milos on the 28th of April. Here they found a Greek fishing boat full up with Greek and British refugees from Piraeus. That evening the fishing boat and the life-boat sailed for Crete and were spotted during the night by a landing craft on its way with refugees from Port Raphtis. All the evacuees were taken aboard the landing craft and arrived safely at Crete.

The Sinking of HMS Wryneck
The men who died

Cdr Douglas-Lane was appointed CO of HMS Wryneck on 26 July 1940 during her refit in Malta Dockyard, a month before she was placed in Commission on 29 August, The Admiralty records of her activities between then and her loss can be seen on U-Boat.net

Port quarter view of HMS Wryneck, pennant number L04, probably at Sollum, Egypt, 1940
Photographer Robert Nicol Milne
Australian War Museum P00219.013

On the 25 April HMS Wryneck was ordered to Greece to evacuate the Australian 6th Division Signals from Megara near Pireus, the main port for Athens, east of the entrance to the Corinth Canal. She replaced HMS Pennland, a former Atlantic passenger liner requisitioned by the Ministry of War Transport (MOWT) and converted into a troop carrier, bombed and sunk the previous night.

These two photographs from the Australian War Memorial website show the 647 troops of the Australian Signals Division crowding the deck of Wryneck (left) and gratefully accepting loaves of bread handed to them by the crew of an oil tanker (on right), the first bread that the men had eaten for three weeks. ERA Stanley Gordine began his Diary on this day and noted

"Troops line the deck and use Bren and Tommy guns for dive bombers. We lash the boys up with cocoa and biscuits. Couldn't give them any food as we had been living for days on corned beef and biscuits. Troops slept all over the decks. Eventually reached Suda Bay in Crete without seeing one of our aircraft but plenty of Jerrys. Troops all off by by 1700."

Wryneck was sunk two days later.

Signals Division on deck of Wryneck, 25 Aopril 1941

Signals Division on deck of Wryneck on 25 April 1941

The names and fates of all the men in Wryneck when she sunk are recorded on the list of crew members compiled by Ian McLeod from official records in The National Archives, Kew, and by Brian Crabb for his book on Operation Demon, the evacuation of troops from Greece. Amongst the men who died were the Commanding Officer, Lt Cdr Robert Henry Douglas Lane RN, and five of his officers. John Reginald Batt CM/X 53459, Leading Supply Assistant, was one of the hundred ratings who were killed. His story is told below by his his great nephew, Andrew Lyle, in Australia.

Lt Cdr Robert Henry Douglas Lane RN

Robert Henry Douglas Lane was born on 15 February 1896, the son of “Charles M.R. Douglas Lane Esq, Gentleman” (the entry on his Service Certificate) and joined the Navy on 10 January 1909 when he was thirteen. His hand written service certificate is difficult to read and to interpret but after gaining one months seniority on passing out from Dartmouth Naval College he was appointed Midshipman on 15 September 1913 and on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914 was serving in the battleship HMS Africa. Two years later to the day he was promoted to Acting Sub Lieutenant and on 15 November 1915 joined HMS Hindustan in the 3rd Battle Squadron. By the 15 October 1917 he was a full Lieutenant and he completed his wartime service in destroyers, the Nonpareil and the Patriot, latterly as a “Jimmy the One", First Lieutenant.

On 15 July 1919 he was appointed 1st Lt of a former yacht and despatch vessel launched as Margarita in 1900, renamed Semiramis in 1910 and Mlada in 1913 which was requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1918 and commissioned as HMS Alacrity in 1919. HMS Alacrity had been requisitioned for use as an Admiral's yacht by the Commander-in-Chief of the China Station. This was his introduction to the complex problems faced by the Navy in protecting British interests on the China Station. Britain was the first of many foreign powers to take advantage of Chinese weakness to secure rights to trade and settle in treaty ports, concessions and enclaves along the coast of China and major rivers. The process began with the ceding of Hong Kong to Britain at the end of the First Opium War (1841-2) and accelerated with the fall of the Quing dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912. By 1920 there were 60,000 foreigners living in the International Settlement at Shanghai, China's largest city on the delta of the four thousand mile Yangtze River which flowed from west to east separating north from south China. Russia, France, Germany and Japan also acquired treaty ports from the weak government and had warships on the China coast and along the Yangzte to protect their ports and citizens. He only served in Alacrity from 15 July 1919 to March 1921 but at present nothing further is known of his role in Alacrity. He returned to Britain in the troop carier SS Devanha in June 1921.

On joining Alacrity he expressed an interest in an “appointment to destroyers” and on his return to HMS Pembroke, the shore base at Chatham on the Medway, he was sent on the Gunnery Control Course (GCC) and the Short Torpedo Control Course (TCC) and served in the V & W Class destroyer HMS Viscount from 15 Dec 1921 to 28 November 1923. He was promoted to Lt Cdr in October 1925 and in October 1927 passed the examination for command of a destroyer and from 9 April 1928 – 6 May 1930 was CO of HMS Whitehall. He transferred to HMS Seraph on 6 June 1930 and joined HMS Diamond on 30 March 1932 while under construction and for her sea trials. At the outbreak of hostilities in 1939 he was back on the China Station at HMS Tamar as Naval Provost Marshal in Hong Kong. There is no obvious explanation for him being appointed to this senior post ashore in the Regulating Branch of the Navy. Was it related to his marriage to the daughter of Lord Mowbry?

He returned to the Britain in early 1940 and was given command of the ancient freighter SS Moyle, one of three blockships ordered to Dunkirk on the last night of the evacuation on 3-4 June 1940. Lane and his crew rammed her into the west pier and scuttled her, prior to becoming among the very last to be evacuated from the battered port. He was subsequently among those men mentioned in despatches in The London Gazette of 10 October 1940, for "good services when carrying out blocking operations in enemy occupied ports". He was also MID for service in Norway but at present nothing is known about what he did to merit this.

Lt Cdr Douglas-Lane was appointed CO of HMS Wryneck on 26 July 1940 while she was undergoing a refit in Malta Dockyard. She was placed in Commission on 29 August and served with distinction in the Mediterranean, and more particularly during the evacuation of Greece. Although Douglas-Lane (his name is often hyphenated) was "Placed on retired list (age) with rank of Commander 15 February 1941" he remained in command and two months later was killed with five of his officers and one hundred of his men. Having assisted in the withdrawal of troops from Megara on 25 April 1941, and in rescuing survivors from the lighter A. 19, Lane was ordered to take the Wryneck on a similar mission two nights later. HMS Wryneck and her consorts departed Navplion too late to avoid enemy attention in the first hours of daylight and at 7 am thirty enemy dive bombers commenced a devastating attack on the Wryneck, the Diamond and the Dutch Slamat.

This description is taken from the catalogue entry for the sale of Lane's medals in 2002:

‘Wryneck, meanwhile, had been equally unfortunate. Taken unawares in the same way as Diamond, a bomb had struck the foc’s’le near ‘A’ gun, killing or wounding everyone at the gun, on the bridge and in the sick bay, shattering the stokers’ mess deck and killing numbers of stokers and soldiers. Another fell down the engine room hatch bursting all the steam pipes, and a third bomb struck aft setting an ammunition locker on fire. With the ship moving at about 18 knots, with a heavy growing list to port, an E.R.A. managed to open the safety valves; then, with others, he got a whaler away which was practically undamaged, and released the rafts before abandoning ship ...’

The ERA Paul Gordine -

"... never thought the ship would sink ... I put the heavy list down to the the fact the skipper was making a heavy turn. I think that everyone thought the same until it was too late, hence the heavy death toll; no orders were given to abandon ship, it was when I looked up at the bridge in the hope of seeing somebody doing something when I saw a heap of torn papers come blowing down, that I thought it must be serious because they are destroying confidential papers."

There were a number of rafts and Carley floats drifting in a growing patch of oil, and a few carried survivors. Commander Lane of the Wryneck, with two of his RNVR Sub. Lieutenants, Jackson and Griffiths, and his Midshipman Peck were on one of them. Able Seaman Taylor helped to haul them on to the raft. They were all badly wounded and coated in oil. For a little while they clung to the raft as it rolled in the rising sea until they slipped off, too weak to hold on any longer ...

When a handful of Wryneck’s men were eventually picked up, the senior surviving rating was asked to complete a report. He ended:
"The men of the Wryneck wish me to add that we have lost a fine ship, fine officers and a magnificent Captain."

Officers in the Navy List for April 1941

The Navy List is not always accurate
Lt Cdr Burnell-Nugent left HMS Wryneck in Jan 1941 and was in HMS Jersey when she sank on 2 May 1941
Mid Basil Peck is thought to have replaced Mudford before Wryneck was sunk

Cdr Robert Henry Douglas Lane RN and John Reginald Batt (CM/X 53459) were two of the men who died

Click on image to enlarge

Newcastle Sin, NSW, report on desath of Lt Cdr Lasne,

I have no photographs of Lt Cdr Douglas-Lane RN and only a brief outline of his life based on his service certificate, his entry on the Dreadnought Project, the auctioneer's catalogue entry for his medal set and this brief tribute from the Newcastle Sun 15 December 1941, in New South Wales, Australia.

His Australian born wife led an interesting life (see left) and I would like to hear from their children and grandchildren should they see this page.

John Reginald Batt CM/X 53459 - read about him below

John Reginald Batt CM/X 53459
Leading Supply Assistant

John Batt was was born on the 16th May 1918 in Sandgate Kent to Walter Leonard Batt and Emily Elizabeth Batt. He came from a naval family and was educated at the Royal Hospital School which was founded at Greenwich in 1712 to provide an education for children from a naval background. It occupied the present buildings of the National Maritime Museum until 1933 when it moved to the village of Holbrook in Suffolk on the bank of the River Stour near HMS Ganges, the boys training school on the Shotley peninsula.John Batt joined the Navy before the war, was not married and left no children when he died. Only 27 crew members survived the sinking of HMS Wryneck. His body was not recovered and he appears on official lists as MPK (Missing Presumed Killed). The photograph of him posing in front of one of the 4-inch HA / DP main guns in Wryneck (above right) was provided by his great nephew, Andrew Lyle, in Australia. Andrew is building a scale model of HMS Wryneck as a memorial to his uncle and all the men who died when she sunk on 27 April 1941

Letter from AB Eddie Gray to his niece describing the loss of HMS Wryneck

"At dawn on the 27th of April HMS Wryneck was ordered to sea, and assist in escorting a convoy which was between Greece & Crete. When we were about 2 hours steaming from Crete we sighted the convoy which we were looking for. In the convoy there were the Merchant ship of considerable size, escorted by 3 destroyers & HM Cruiser. We were then told that one of the convoy had already been dive-bombed & hit. We were then at action station, where we had been for the last to days, without any real kind of dinner, but we were even more alert now, that we had heard there were dive bombers in the vicinity. However left the convoy & proceeded to where the badly damaged Ship, was forever dive bombed. We arrived at the scene to find H.M.S Diamond already picking up survivors who were machine-gunned & torn to shreds in the water.

However, we picked up as many as we could, and then a few of them were already half dead. When we finally satisfied ourselves that there was nothing more to be done, we made up our minds to return to Crete. That was about 12.15, so we put ourselves or rather took up our positions. Diamond then flashed that they were going to torpedo the already badly blazing ship. The Diamond fired one only which hit right amid-ships. We saw the vessel give a great lurch and then begin to sink very quickly. During these operation Dive-Bombers never came near us. Then when they began to think they were saved & all was well, out of nowhere came those Junkers 87, those terrifying dive bombers, with something like vengeance, which they quickly got. All we knew was when we heard the whining of the machine & the machine guns & a second later bombs.

I never experienced as much in all the war as I did those next five minutes. One bomb landed on the forward gun & wiped out nearly everyone out, then one landed on the after gun but lucky only one was hurt, the other one or two were near misses, but they did all the damage. After the Nazis thought they had done a good job which they nearly had, they never bothered us again, which was to my relief. I didn’t fancy having a machine gun bullet in me. However the ship now had a great list to port & was sinking rapidly. My Pal who I owe my life to found me forward in the (galley flat) and these were the words he spoke to me quite calmly. They got us, Dolly. Dolly was my nick name in case you want to know. We went out on the Upper Deck together, & he said to me, Have you got a life belt,

I said no, I didn’t need one, but he gave me one as he had two and we did a bit of work together, we untied a Carley Raft & threw it over the side, however the ship was going about 20 knots & we could not hold on to it, that we made our objective. We travelled a bit further on, I should say a few seconds, because all this happened within six minutes. I look over to have a look at the Diamond but it had already gone down. When we finally decided to jump over, me & my pal, we gripped one oar each, before we went. Believe me they came in handy. We made to get clear of the oil-fuel which was now spreading on the water, and then for the rafts which we could not see. When we had swam a couple of miles together, we noticed that someone else had got the whaler free so we made for this, eventually I think we swam about 3 miles before we caught up with the whaler, which we then noticed had collected two rafts, We got to one of these rafts and clambered inboard.

The time would then be about 2.15 - 2.30. We kept good hearts and I joked with a few of my favourite comrades who were in the whaler. I cannot tell you every little detail, but I’m writing this down to give an idea what I thought was a terrible ordeal.

It came to dusk & I think we had picked only two more survivors up, then a rough sea sprang up, as I have already told before we were on a raft. However it began to get rougher & rougher every minute. The whaler who was towing us suddenly decided to cut us adrift. We never thought such a thing could happen among English sailors or more so one that you share the same ship & eat with. However when we found to our misfortune that we were actually adrift, we almost gave up. Time wore on hour after hour went by till we thought that we would never be picked up when suddenly about half past three in the morning we sighted a ship but not before they had sighted us, it was a destroyer, one of those dark grey shapes. We realised but it took quite a bit to do so that it was making straight toward us, at least that what we thought, but thank goodness we were wrong. I’ll never forget that night of terror.

The destroyer finally came along-side us with great skill, and we were pulled up the side of the ship, our legs were numb & we could hardly use them, but we were full of smiles. We were treated splendidly aboard HMS Griffin which was the name of the destroyer. I was only interested about getting something to eat. I didn’t. We got something to drink which did us the world of good. When we arrived at Crete the same morning I was relieved & never wanted to go to sea again. But I'll never forget the splendid behaviour of my ship company."