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Augustus Agar - End of the Dorsetshire
Dorsetshire was in some ways a victim of the lack of British intelligence about the capabilities of the Japanese fleet. Neither Agar nor Admiral Somerville had any idea that the range of Japanese naval dive bombers was almost twice that of comparative British aircraft. To survive after getting a second warning of the presence of a large westbound Japanese Fleet in the Indian Ocean he would have had to leave Colombo as fast as possible and head west at top speed.
On Saturday afternoon, April 4th, 1942 an urgent message summoned Agar to the base Operations Room in Colombo. A Catalina Flying Boat had just reported that it was shadowing a large force of enemy carriers accompanied by battleships steering west from the Malacca Straits, directly for Ceylon. This was the fleet of Admiral Nagumo.
Admiral Somerville was in the Maldives beyond the immediate reach of the advancing Japanese. Upon receiving the news he moved further out of Nagumo's way and ordered the Dorsetshire and HMS Cornwall, which was also in Colombo, to join him with all speed. He left the choosing of a rendezvous point to the admiral commanding in Colombo. It took six long hours to reassemble the ships machinery and get her ready for sea. The two cruisers left Colombo harbour at 10pm on April 4th. The rendezvous point was approved by Admiral Somerville. It was a fatal error as a more westerly rendezvous point would have saved the two ships. The ships could steam at only 28 knots, the top speed that Cornwall could make.
At daybreak, Easter Sunday, April 5, 1942, Agar received a signal that the Japanese Fleet was only 120 miles south of Colombo. They began an attack on the port at 8 am. No further communication was received from Colombo (their radio tower was hit).
At this point, lacking further direction, as Somerville was maintaining radio silence and Colombo was out of action, Agar made a fatal decision. He saw his first duty as rejoining the fleet in the hopes of launching a night attack on the Japanese and opted to continue on southwards to the rendezvous point instead of heading due west out of the danger zone. At 11:30 am a Japanese patrol aircraft spotted them. There were six hours of daylight left. Agar continued on to the rendezvous point. He broke radio silence to tell Somerville of his decision. The rendezvous point was 90 miles away.
The two ships were caught by Japanese dive bombers at 1pm on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1942 and the Dorsetshire sank eight minutes after the first bomb hit. She went down at 13:50 after being struck by 10 bombs. 234 men were killed and 500 including the Captain survived in the water until rescue 32 hours later. Only 16 of the men who went into the water died, a testament to crew discipline and the leadership of Agar and the other officers and petty officers. The Cornwall was sunk as well.
Agar worked hard to save his crew, picking up the wounded in a whaler, gathering up stragglers and giving good advice. He was reported by survivors as speaking calmly.
A Fairey Swordfish found the men in the water the next afternoon and an hour later the light cruiser HMS Enterprise and the destroyers HMS Paladin and HMS Panther arrived to rescue the survivors. Agar was taken aboard the Paladin.
During the engagement Agar was wounded in the leg by shrapnel. This wound turned septic as a result of being left unattended after the sinking. When the Dorsetshire sank, Agar was dragged down deep and suffered the bends coming up, doing serious damage to his lungs. On the surface he swallowed oil. These injuries affected his fitness for further seagoing duty. He was 52 and had completed 37 years of active duty. After a short stay in Bombay where his health took a turn for the worse, he was sent to hospital in South Africa. The leg healed, but lung trouble from the bends and oil he swallowed stayed with him for the rest of his life. He arrived home on May 28, 1942.
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 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "End of the Dorsetshire", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
