WARSHIP WEDNESDAY MAR.

29, 2017: THE FIRST

INTO KURE AND THE SMASHER OF I-BOATS
Posted on March 29, 2017 by laststandonzombieisland 4 comments
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off  every Wednesday for a look at the old
steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each
week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to
the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Mar. 29, 2017: The first into Kure

Copyright: © IWM. Original Source:  http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205142565

Here we see the Black Swan-class sloop, His Majesty’s Indian Ship Sutlej (U95), off the coast of Burma
while on a coastal patrol in March 1942 just weeks after the Japanese entered WWII. She is as seen from
the boarding whaler as the sloop goes alongside a native Sampan for a closer look.
With its roots hailing back to the East India Company in 1612, the modern Indian Navy was formed in
1830 under the aegis of the Royal Navy and, after over a century of name changes and rebranding
became the Royal Indian Navy in 1934. Based in Bombay, this impressive-sounding force only had a
handful of ships by the time the Commonwealth found itself in World War II.
The war sparked a huge expansion of the RIN, with a pair of Black Swans ordered in 1939 followed by
four more of the same types in subsequent years. The Swans were an improvement of the Bittern-class
sloop and were hardy 1,250-ton ships of 299 feet overall and, armed with half-dozen high angle 4-inch
guns and some AAA pieces, also carried more than enough depth charges to scratch the paint on
German U-boats and Japanese I-boats. They weren’t very fast (19 knots) but had long legs
(7,000nm@12kts).
The hero of our tale, Sutej, is named after one of the major rivers that flow through India and carries the
name of a previous 50-gun Ship of the Royal Navy as well as a Cressy-class armored cruiser who served
in the Great War.

Named after one of the five great rivers of Punjab, HMS Sutlej was a Cressy-class armored cruiser in the
Royal Navy
She and sistership Jumna were laid down at William Denny and Brothers Limited, Dunbarton, Scotland in
early 1940. Sutlej  was commissioned on 23 April 1941 and rushed into combat with her Indian crew
under the command of Capt. J. E. N. Coope, R.I.N.
By July 1941 she was deployed in the Irish Sea for convoy defense and between May of that year when
she joined HX 127 and August 1944, she escorted no less than 50 convoys in virtually all theaters of the
conflict.
But convoy work was almost a sideshow for Sutej, who transited to the Pacific on the entry of Japan into
the war, escorting some of the last troops and supplies into Singapore in January 1942. She then worked
the coastal patrol off Burma, inspecting local traffic.

Royal Indian Navy Sloop Sutlej on Burma coastal patrol 26 March to 9 April, off Ceylon. The ship’s whaler
returned after the inspection of a Sampan. HMIS Sutlej is in the background. Copyright: © IWM. Original
Source:  http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205142566

Royal Indian Navy Sloop Sutlej on Burma coastal patrol 26 March to 9 April, off Ceylon. HMIS Sutlej
investigating Sampans while on patrol. In the foreground, the ship’s officer is carefully scrutinizing the
craft through his binoculars. Copyright: © IWM. Original
Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205142564

ROYAL INDIAN NAVY SLOOP HMIS SUTLEJ ON BURMA COAST PATROL. 26 MARCH TO 9
APRIL 1942, OFF CEYLON. The gun is a quad Vickers .50 (more on that here). Copyright: ©
IWM. Original Source:  http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205142570

Loading the twin 4″ High Angle, guns during exercise stations on board HMIS Sutlej while escorting
merchantmen from Colombo to Calcutta. March 1942. Copyright: © IWM. Original
Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205142569
She then shepherded merchantmen from Bombay to the Persian Gulf, and in the Eastern
Mediterranean. This brought her to Operation “Husky” the invasion of Sicily. There, alongside
her Indian sister Swan Jumna, she covered the Acid North beaches.
From that campaign:
“The Sutlej was senior officer of A/S patrol and as such had a roving commission as general
‘Whipper in’ to the patrol ships and managed to make quick dashes inshore to have a ‘decco’ at
the landings at close quarters. The sight was amazing. Landing Craft of all descriptions pouring
their loads ashore with very little congestion on the beaches as the troops and vehicles very
rapidly pushed inland to capture their objectives.
“By 1100, five hours after initial assault, Admiral Troubridge was able to signal to the Supreme
Naval Commander—Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew Cunningham ‘Landings at Acid Beaches
successfully carried out, bridgehead secured.’ Landings on the southern and western coasts of
Sicily were also successfully accomplished.
In late 1943 Sutlej was tasked with rushing a detachment of the Queen’s Own Royal West Kents
from Haifa– trucked across Iraq by lorry– to beaches in the Aegean where they tried to shore up
the campaign there. The year 1944 saw her again in the Indian Ocean, providing convoy
defense in the Bay of Bengal between Chittagong and Calcutta. There, she took part in the
search for German submarine U-181, a Type IXD2 U-boat hunting in the Indian Ocean.
These days were quiet in this almost forgotten corner of the war. War photographer Cecil
Beaton visited the ship during this period.

Wrestling, boxing, and Physical Training during the dog watches. Copyright: © IWM.
Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205142572
Indian ratings hoisting a depth charge onto the thrower. Copyright: © IWM. Original
Source:  http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205142571
Cecil Beaton portrait of an Indian naval rating operating a signal lamp on the sloop SUTLEJ at the Royal
Indian Naval Station at Calcutta, 1944. Copyright: © IWM. Original
Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205125435
India 1944: Three stokers of the Royal Indian Navy on the mess deck of the sloop HMIS SUTLEJ. Cecil
Beaton portrait. Copyright: © IWM. Original
Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205193623
In April 1945, Sutlej was relieved of her vital but monotonous convoy work and attached to Operation
Dracula– the amphibious assault on Rangoon. Joining the sloop HMIS Cauver, she sailed from Akyab for
Rangoon, merging with the massive Allied Dracula force on the way. During the operation, the two
sloops stood at the mouth of the Rangoon river ready to bombard shore positions if required.
After the capture of Rangoon, the army in the south of Burma was reinforced from India and Sutlej,
along with the fellow H.M.I. Ships Cauvery, Narbada, Godavari, Kistna, and Hindustan were assigned
“anti-escape” patrols along with the remote islands in the Mergui Archipelago, Forrest Strait, and the
Moscos and Bentinck Group, to prevent Japanese forces bottled up there from being evacuated.
With a long war behind her and a lengthy campaign to take the Japanese Home Islands believed to be
ahead, Sutlej was in refit at Bombay on VJ Day.
Then came the endgame.
Sutlej was given the honor of being the first Allied ship to reach the former Japanese naval bastion at
Kure after negotiating the shallows, wrecks, minefields, and obstacles.

Indian warship HMIS Sutlej leaves Hong Kong for Japan as part of the Allied forces of occupation.” She
was the first Allied warship to reach the former Japanese naval base at Kure. Copyright: © IWM. Original
Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205208273
HMIS Sutlej, the first Allied warship to reach the former Japanese naval base at Kure, lies in the harbor
at Kuchi on Shikoku Island, after negotiating the difficult shallow waters. Date February 1946. (Photo
courtesy of the Imperial War Museum with photo credit to ‘Number 9 Army Film & Photographic Unit’).
Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205208272
Among the tasks given by Sutlej was that of “smasher” duty– coupled with the Royal Australian
Navy destroyer HMAS Quiberon she sank several captured Japanese warships and submarines
in the Inland Sea in May 1946 via naval gunfire as part of Operation Bottom. One batch of 17
submarines was sunk in 800 feet of water on the same day and included I-153, 154, 155, Ro-59,
62, 63, and Ha-205.
Scenes aboard the Indian sloop HMIS Sutlej show the views of preparations before the sinking
of the Japanese submarine I-155, built-in Kure, 1929, and which apparently was not used during
the war. The following scenes show the effect of 4″ shells on the sub and 20mm Oerlikon shells.
After 238 rounds of 4″ shells and 4 depth charges, and after 4 hours of firing and closing the
range from 4,000 yards to 200 yards, the sub was sunk:
Her sailors were courteous in victory. According to one report:
Many sailors/officers from other ships were seen removing Emperor Hirohito’s portraits, fancy-
looking barometers, decorated chinaware, and even zinc bars from a battleship and a
submarine. Although the act entailed no criminal offense, none of the Indian sailors or officers
brought any Japanese trophies aboard the Indian ship, Sutlej, out of regard for the Indian
people’s sensitivity on this subject.
By the end of the war, the RIN had swollen from eight ships and 3,500 personnel of all ranks to
over 100 vessels and 30,000 men (as well as the newly established RIN WRENs corps of female
sailors) commanded by Vice Adm. Sir Geoffrey Miles, K.C.B. This was soon to change as ships
were scrapped and sailors demobilized.
With funds tight and the Empire close to insolvency, the RIN spent much of its postwar period
swaying at anchor. By 1947, with India’s and Pakistan’s independence, the Navy was split by
each side with Sutlej going to the new Indian Navy along with her Black Swan-class
sisters Jumna, Cauvery, and Kistna while three others; Narbada, Godavari, and Hindustan went
to Pakistan.
Redesignated Indian Naval Ship (INS) Sutlej was reclassified as a frigate and was one of just a
handful of oceangoing warships operated by the fleet of the new republic, forming the 12th
Frigate Squadron with her sisters.

SUTLEJ at anchor in Bombay harbor, 1947.

 LCDR BA. Samson, R.I.N., Commanding Officer of the SUTLEJ photographed with a group of
Bombay Journalists who visited the Sloop in May 1948. Indian Navy archives #3632

Officers of the R.I.N. Sloop SUTLEJ on the deck (May 1948). Indian Navy archives #3633
In 1955, Sutlej was disarmed and converted to a survey ship.
By the late 1970s, the Indian Swans were showing their age. INS Kaveri was the first
decommissioned, in 1977, followed by our hero in 1978, INS Jumna in 1980, and INS Krisna in
1981.
Sutlej, however, was apparently scrapped last, going to the breakers in 1983.
A few pieces of her were saved and are in circulation.
 Such as this tread plate that appeared for sale in 2015

Only one of the 37 Black Swans, HMS Mermaid (U30)/FGS Scharnhorst, lasted longer
than Sutlej did, going to the scrappers in 1990 after a decade as a damage control
training hulk.

Our Indian navy’s ship name was handed down to the new survey ship INS Sutlej (J17),
commissioned in 1993.

Specs:
Displacement: 1,250 tons
Length: 299 ft 6 in (91.29 m)
Beam: 37 ft 6 in (11.43 m)
Draught: 11 ft (3.4 m)
Propulsion:
Geared turbines, 2 shafts:
3,600 hp (2,700 kW)
Speed: 19 knots (35 km/h)
Range: 7,500 nmi (13,900 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h)
Complement:
180
Armament:
6 × QF 4 in (102 mm) Mk XVI AA guns (3 × 2)
4 × 2-pounder AA pom-pom
4 × 0.5-inch (12.7 mm) AA machine guns, later augmented in 1945 by 20mm guns
40 depth charges

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