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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 18, 2011 17:17:48 GMT 12
Navy honours its own who gave their lives
EVAN HARDING Last updated 05:00 12/12/2011
A memorial service in Bluff yesterday marked the 70th anniversary of New Zealand's worst naval loss, with an Invercargill woman remembering her late uncle who was one of the seamen who died.
The cruiser HMS Neptune hit floating mines and sank in the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast in December 1941, killing 749 of the 750-strong international crew.
Among those killed were 150 New Zealanders, with four Southlanders believed to have been among the dead.
Invercargill woman Lyn Knewstubb-Jones was at yesterday's memorial service at the Bluff Maritime Museum to remember her 22-year-old uncle, Jack Knewstubb of Port Chalmers near Dunedin, who was on the Neptune.
Jack was the brother of Mrs Knewstubb-Jones' late mother, Joy Knewstubb.
"Mum used to talk about what a great brother he was, very kind and very gentle," Ms Knewstubb-Jones said. "He used to write mum lots of letters."
She had learned more of the Neptune disaster during yesterday's service, she said.
Royal New Zealand Navy Lieutenant Commander Nigel Finnerty said about 40 people attended the Bluff ceremony, including former servicemen and current crew members of HMNZS Otago, which arrived in Bluff on Friday.
The service was to remember not just the dead HMS Neptune crew members, but all sailors who had lost their lives in naval service over the years, he said.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 18, 2011 17:23:18 GMT 12
Pain of brother's loss undimmed MIKE CREAN Last updated 05:00 17/12/2011 The last 70 birthdays have been less than happy for Jim Birss. When January 26 rolls round each year, his thoughts turn to the half-brother he lost in World War II. George Jackson went down with his ship, HMS Neptune, 70 years ago on Monday. Birss, 79, and Jackson shared the same birthday, although they were years apart. Birss said he found his half-brother's death hard to deal with when their mother explained it to him, as he was only 9. "The memory dulled after a while, but every now and then you hear something and it comes to mind again. Then every birthday it comes back to mind," he said. Jackson joined the Naval Volunteer Reserve before the war. He was called up and served as an able-bodied seaman on the cruiser Neptune. The crew of 765 included 151 New Zealanders, 21 of them from Canterbury. Neptune hit three mines off Libya in 1941. It hit another a few hours later, rolled on its side and sank. Only one crew member, an Englishman, survived. Birss remembers the dreaded telegram arriving soon after. His mother told him that the ship had sunk with the loss of all hands. His brother would not be coming home. "It was a very great shock. Great sorrow. Mum never got over it," Birss said. She died in 1965. Birss said his father was away at the war, too. He had joined the 19th Railway Company that laid railway tracks across the desert in North Africa to help move men, food and equipment for the New Zealand Army in the region. He returned from the war and died in 1956. Neptune was to have joined the newly formed Royal New Zealand Navy. It was sailing from Malta when it hit the mines. The death toll of 151 New Zealanders is still the country's highest in a naval action. The Leander-class cruiser was a sister ship to HMS Achilles, of River Plate fame, one of five five ships of this class. - The Press www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/6154285/Pain-of-brothers-loss-undimmed
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Post by meo4 on Dec 18, 2011 19:41:57 GMT 12
I see they had a service at Philly to at the memorial wall as well, Its sort not as well known Leander class cruiser as it's sister ships Achilles and Leander. There's a good book written by the sole survivor John Walton of his account of survival and how he ended up being captured by the Italians on Christmas eve.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 18, 2011 21:51:49 GMT 12
I have interviewed a sailor, Noel Smith, in Christchurch who was also aboard HMS Neptune for a while and only just got put ashore with about five others, only a few days before Neptune was lost. He had a lucky escape there, and was also in a couple of other actual sinkings in his wartime career, the last being in HMS Broke during Operation Terminal, an amazing raid on Algiers harbour which is little known today.
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