Here I have obtained a detailed account of the
devastating attack on Hollyhock & Athelstane, written by the captain of the
Athelstane, from the PRO ADM199/2140 pages 177-178.
Captain Moore:
We were bound from Trincomalee to Colombo with a cargo of 7,000 tons of admiralty fuel oil. The ship was armed with a 4 inch gun, 2 rifles & 2 P.A.C rockets. The crew, including 1 Australian Naval Gunner, numbered 52 of whom 3 men were injured. All confidential books, including wireless were thrown overboard in a weighted bag. The vessel was degaussed and the apparatus was switched on.
We left Trincomalee on the 9th April at 0100, sailing independently escorted by HMS Hollyhock, bound for Colombo. At 0900 we saw HMS Hermes, HMS Vampire and the S.S British Sergeant some distance away from us, all three ships being attacked by aircraft and eventually sunk. shortly afterwards at 1100 about 29 planes flew over at considerable height, apparently monoplane aero-fighters, returning from this attack, as they did not attack us and soon disappeared. I called up hollyhock to ascertain their identity, and she replied they were presumably Japanese, as they had ignored their signals.
We proceeded at 9 knots steering a southerly course, weather was fine with good visibility, smooth sea with light airs. The sun was directly overhead when at 1207 A.T.S, on the 9th April, in position 7° 31'N, 82° E, we sighted a large number of planes approaching from the south, that is from directly ahead. They were zero fighters, , about 29 of them as far as I could count, then I noticed 9 planes in a V formation making straight toward us, flying at a height of about 10,000ft, ( in reality they were D3A-1 `VAL` dive bombers, 20 in number )
I ordered the crew to take cover behind the sandbags, as we had no A.A armament, and as I did so the planes formed into single line astern and dived one after the other in rotation in a fore and aft line over the ship. Each plane carried one bomb, which was released at a height of 800 feet, the aircraft pulling out of its dive at about 400 feet. We fired the P.A.C rockets but one jammed in its box, and the other fouled the wireless aerial.
A large number of bombs fell around us, we received 5 direct hits and 2 near misses. the first bomb struck the fore deck between Nos 1 and 2 tanks, the second in almost the same position, the third on No 3 tank, the fourth fell into N0 3 tank, exploded in the oil, which was thrown up, smothering everything, and blew a hole in the starboard side shell plating.
The fifth bomb, which fell on the after deck, apparently failed to explode properly, as there was no damage to the deck, the only effect being to throw the gunner at the 4" gun up into the air. One near miss fell off the starboard side, doing no damage, but the other fell off the port side abreast of the engine room amidships, smashing the steering gear out of action.
The whole attack lasted about 5 minutes, during which another formation of enemy aircraft was attacking H.M.S Hollyhock. The first bomb fell close alongside her, the second struck her near the funnel, probably exploding in her magazine, as she immediately blew up, disintegrating, and sank at 1217.
When the planes flew off I gave the order to lower the boats and abandon ship. we carried 4 lifeboats, of which we could only launch N0s 4 and 4 and a raft. N0 1 lifeboat could not be launched owing to the hole in the ship's starboard side, and the after starboard boat N0 3 was lowered into the water but was so badly damaged that it became water-logged and drifted away floating on its tanks, and was useless.
The whole ship was covered with oil which had been thrown up from N0 3 tank, the boat falls were very slippery, but we managed to lower the two lifeboats successfully, with a few men only in them to lessen the weight. We abandoned ship ay 1222, all the crew getting away safely. The mate jumped overboard for some unknown reason, and was picked up later along with gunner A. Goodman, who had been caught by the blast of the last bomb and was either blown overboard or had jumped over, in any event he was in the water. I was in charge of N0 2 boat, but I was told that a native in N0 4 boat, seeing the gunner in the water, jumped into the sea and swam some considerable distance to him, with a rope, and they were both pulled back into the boat. The native's name is Joseph John, a Christian Hindu. Meanwhile, we pulled our lifeboat for about 1/4 mile to the survivors from the Hollyhock and picked up 14 men (2 officers and 12 ratings): the remainder of the corvettes crew must have been either killed or drowned, as we did not see any other men in the vicinity.
We rowed and sailed the boats for a distance of about 8 miles towards the land, and landed on the east coast of Ceylon a little to the southward of a village called Kalamani.
The Athelstane finally sank at 1430, nearly 2 1/2 hours after being hit. All the crew behaved remarkably well throughout the attack and there was no sign of panic amongst the native portion of the crew.