Writer: Lieutenant Colonel Imran Hassan Khan Niazi, Retired

The P&O (Peninsular & Oriental) Steam Navigation Company commissioned the 16,697-ton ocean liner P&O SS Rawalpindi in 1925, on London-Bombay (now Mumbai)-Far East routes. Named after a major garrison city of British-India (present-day Pakistan), it was a regular and popular ship on the India run. The second of the four ‘R’ class sister ships, made by the P&O for the first time with facilities for carrying refrigerated stores, mainly fish and fruit. She could carry 307 first class and 288 second class passengers. She was a little under 548 feet in length and 30 feet of drought, and a fraction over 71 feet in breadth. Powered by two quadruple expansion four-cylinder steam engines with 15000 indicated horsepower, Rawalpindi had a service speed of 17 knots.

At the outbreak of World War II, she was requisitioned by the British Navy and converted into an armed merchant cruiser on 26th August 1939. Most of her civilian P&O crew were Royal Naval Reservists, and hence many of them were retained on the ship as well as her civilian name, but now commissioned as the ‘HMS Rawalpindi’ (also addressed as RMS Rawalpindi in some accounts). She was modified at the Royal Albert Dock, London by R & H Green & Silley Weir. Eight 6-inch and two 3-inch guns of First World War vintage were mounted after the removal of aft funnel. She was employed on convoy protection work.

According to an account by Royston Alfred Leadbetter, one of the survivors, since being tasked, HMS Rawalpindi was on her third patrol on her doomsday. He also claimed that they sunk one German ship ‘Gonsenheim’ during their second patrol. However, this claim could not be verified through any historical reference.

On 23 November 1939, she was on patrol between Iceland and the Faroes, when she encountered German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. According to battle account under article AGAINST ALL ODDS - HMS RAWALPINDI by Stephen Cashmore and David Bews (uploaded on www.pandosnco. co.uk), the cruiser was on day’s routine and intelligence reports indicated the presence of German pocket battleship Deutschland at large somewhere in the North Atlantic. Rawalpindi’s orders were to avoid combat should she spot her and immediately radio her position for despatch of interception.

At 1530 hours, under the dying winter sun of a cold and foggy afternoon, Rawalpindi sighted a ship’s silhouette on the starboard horizon. Captain Edward Coverley Kennedy, a 60-years old reservist (father of future media figure Ludovic Kennedy) initially thought her to be a British cruiser of the Northern Patrol, but the experienced veteran still ordered ‘Action Stations!’. Observing through his binoculars from the bridge under a twilight, soon he recognised the grey enemy battlecruiser, initially taking it as Deutschland. Fully understanding the gravity of the situation, he ordered to change course under smoke-screen with full speed towards the fog bank’s enveloping shelter, and to radio ‘enemy sighting’ immediately. After failure of the smoke floats to ignite in freezing cold and drizzling rain, he instantly ordered a course change towards a large iceberg about 4 miles away, expecting a better promise of protection. However it was not to be, as the German warship, almost twice as fast as the Rawalpindi, quickly cut off her escape route. Captain Edward Kennedy was a man cast in the mould of Lord Nelson, who ignored Gneisenau’s signals and warning shells with mere scorn. Now being certain of a German battleship but not Deutschland, he ordered an amended message. While the Gneisenau once again flashed, ‘Heave to!’ (a naval term to slow down for boarding the ship), another ship had been sighted to starboard at that very moment. Caught between two superior enemies, Kennedy realised that it was the end of the road and he announced; “We’ll fight them both, they’ll sink us - and that will be that. Goodbye”. Rawalpindi, a hastily converted passenger liner with outdated guns and eggshell armour, was about to take on the mightiest warships in the Kriegsmarine.

Having received Rawalpindi’s radio message, the Home Fleet Headquarters had already despatched HMS Newcastle, HMS Dehli, heavy cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk, all hurrying full steam ahead to intercept the German battlecruisers, but it was all too late for Rawalpindi.

This time Scharnhorst signalled ‘Abandon your ship!’. According to Captain Hoffmann of ‘Scharnhorst’;

He was astonished at Rawalpindi’s failure to respond. Was the captain mad? Surely no sane person would pit eight obsolete 6-inch guns against the combined weight of eighteen modern 11-inch monsters, firing at point-blank range of only 4 miles? From his vantage point on the ship’s foretop, filled with a mixture of bewilderment and silent admiration, Hoffmann commanded the ‘Abandon ship!’ signal be repeated. It was - twice, and twice it went unheeded. With a heavy heart, Hoffmann prepared to give the signal for the Scharnhorst to open fire.

It was 1545 hours. Barely a quarter of an hour had gone by since Rawalpindi’s first sight of the hostile vessels. Another 15 minutes and it would all be over. At this very moment, a salvo of 6-inch shells from Rawalpindi’s four port guns burst harmlessly against the second German battlecruiser, Gneisenau, commanded by Admiral Wilhelm Marschall. A similar salvo was on its way to Hoffmann’s ship simultaneously. The gunnery of Rawalpindi’s crew was good as they had practiced it often on the passing-by icebergs during routine patrolling, only that the weaponry was too weak for the German monsters. The salvo on Scharnhorst caused some casualties at the quarterdeck while, though negligible, the outdated guns did cause some damage to Gneisenau as well. In reply, the first salvo from Scharnhorst slammed into the boat deck, directly under the Rawalpindi’s bridge, killing almost everyone on it and demolishing the radio room. A cluster of 11-inch shells from Gneisenau struck Rawalpindi’s main gun control station, killing everyone there and immobilising one of her starboard guns. Caught in a murderous crossfire, Rawalpindi had no hope of survival. The undaunted Captain Kennedy having survived the direct hit on Rawalpindi’s bridge, ordered Chief Petty Officer Humphries to instruct commanders of all seven surviving gun turrets to continue firing independently which they did, manhandling 6-inch shells from magazine to gun turrets amidst the storm of German shells. Ablaze from stem to stern, her guns being picked off one by one, Rawalpindi was doomed. In desperation, Captain Kennedy went aft with two ratings to try again and lay a covering smoke-screen, but in the process he was killed. He went down fighting as a true warrior. It was hopeless and there was nothing left but to abandon the ship. The boats were being lowered and seemed as if a good number of crew would manage to be rescued, when at 1600 hours, a shell of Scharnhorst’s 11-inch gun found Rawalpindi’s forward magazine and the enormous explosion broke Rawalpindi in half. The stricken vessel began to sink and in the blazing chaos, a single British gun kept on firing, only two men of her crew still standing, and the story goes that other sailors vainly fired on the German ships with machine guns and even rifles.

Adding to the agony of the survivors, Scharnhorst while closing in for the kill, swung hard and swamped the lifeboats but then, in keeping with naval chivalry, the German battle-cruiser reduced speed and returned to rescue the survivors struggling in the freezing sea. She managed to pluck a few while, before Rawalpindi’s broken structure turning turtle, some unidentified hero repeatedly sent a message from the inferno in Morse Code to the Germans: “please send boats”. Admiral Marschall in the best tradition of the sea, ordered rescue. The desperate work of launching boats in this chaos, amidst crashing seas despite knowing for sure that Rawalpindi must have radioed the situation, is to their enormous credit. They stayed for an hour or so, doing everything in their power to save freezing seamen. However, the Germans had to finally return due to reports of Britain’s fast approaching pursuit ships, thereby leaving some survivors stranded in the water and washing away some with their turn around splash. Despite all odds, Rawalpindi offered a valiant fight under an intense thirteen-minutebombardment. She finally sunk in the cold grey waters at 2000 GMT, after drifting ablaze for three hours.

Contrary to some accounts, Captain Kennedy received a posthumous ‘Mentioned in Despatches’, the highest honour possible in the circumstances at the time. His famous words: ‘we will fight them both’, became the HMS Rawalpindi’s memorabilia slogan for all times to come.

Darkness was fast falling when the last 11 survivors were rescued by HMS Chitral, another war time cruiser (returned to P&O by Royal Navy in 1948). Only 37 out of 302 officers and crew survived, 26 of them were rescued by Germans and made prisoners. By now the first of the British warships had arrived on the scene. Soon, other battlecruisers including Hood and Repulse and battleship Warspite began converging on the forward track of the German cruisers. It looked as though the Rawalpindi’s defiance had entrapped the Germans. HMS Newcastle was in closest vicinity and arrived first, but it did not possess radar and could not take on both ships in combat. The rain now turned into a white wall of snow cutting down visibility. By the time the snow cleared, the northern climate had already helped the German cruisers escape. Had the British possessed radar at this stage, it is doubtful whether Scharnhorst and Gneisenau would have made it back. Nevertheless, Rawalpindi’s sacrifice had not been in vain after all. The encounter not only checked the Kriegsmarine breakout into Atlantic waters, but made them retreat under threat of retaliation, thereby abandoning further adventure.

Rawalpindi, was built by Harland & Wolff Ltd, Belfast, coincidentally the Titanic was built by the same company. HMS Rawalpindi made the headlines in all leading newspapers including The Daily Mirror, The Daily Telegraph, The Birmingham Gazette, The Daily Post, The Daily Mail etc.

Rawalpindi was at last avenged when Gneisenau was aerial bombed at dry dock of Kiel, damaged beyond repair, on 26 February 1942 by the Royal Air Force. The Scharnhorst was sunk in the Battle of Cape North on 26 December 1943 by battleship Duke of York and cruiser HMS Belfast of Royal Navy, taking with her 1,968 men in the icy seas of Norway. A mere 36 survived. It was a befitting tribute to Rawalpindi indeed.

It is not confirmed whether the Royal Navy reservists were given war medals or not. However, a special postcard and stamp were issued by Britain in 1974 to mark 35 years of her sinking, and again on the Day of Remembrance on 11 November 1989, as 50th anniversary of the loss of HMS Rawalpindi.

British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill paid tribute to HMS Rawalpindi and her crew in his book in the following words:

Her commanding officer, Captain Kennedy, could have had no illusions about the outcome of such an encounter. His ship was but a converted passenger liner with a broadside of four old 6-inch guns, and his presumed antagonist mounted 11 inch guns, besides a powerful secondary armament. Nevertheless he accepted the odds, determined to fight his ship to the last. The enemy opened fire at 10,000 yards, and the Rawalpindi struck back. Such a one-sided action could not last long, but the fight continued until, with all her guns out of action, the Rawalpindi was reduced to a blazing wreck. She sank sometime after dark, with the loss of her captain and 270 of her gallant crew. Only 38 survived, 27 of whom were made prisoners by the Germans, the remaining 11 being picked up alive after thirty-six hours in icy water by another British ship. In fact it was not the Deutschland but the two battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau which were engaged. These ships had left Germany two days before to attack our Atlantic convoys, but having encountered and sunk the Rawalpindi, and fearing the consequences of the exposure, they abandoned the rest of their mission and returned at once to Germany. The Rawalpindi’s heroic fight was not therefore in vain.

(Source: Churchill, Winston, The Gathering Storm: The Second World War, Volume 1, Winston Churchill World War II Collection, page 445, RossetaBooks, Kindle Edition)

HMS Rawalpindi’s incident was one of the initial naval encounters of WW2. It was also an unprecedented fight back of a vessel which was neither designed nor equipped for a direct face to-face combat. Had she seen through the war and gone back to P&O like many other wartime converted liners, she might not have earned such a distinction in the annals of maritime history. T he only other example of such outstanding courage is of HMS Jervis Bay and Beaverford in November 1940.

In 1930, Churchman’s cigarettes by W.A & C.A of the Imperial Tobacco Company, Britain and Ireland issued a series of 25 named ‘Life in a Liner; SS Rawalpindi’ displaying her luxurious layout. In 1947, Amalgamated Tobacco Corporation South Africa included her in the twin series of 25 titled; ‘Famous British Ships’ in their trade advertisement cards. Sea Cadet Corps at Prince Albert, Canada (established 1942) has been named after Rawalpindi.

Notes

• The Old Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (c 1852-1972), HMS Rawalpindi; the ship that had to die, http://www.pandosnco.co.uk/rawalpindi.html, accessed on 26 November 2020.
• Robert Barr Smith, Gallantry on the High Seas: Merchant Ship Sacrifices in the Atlantic, https://warfarehistorynetwork. com/2016/09/30/gallantry-on-the-high-seas-merchant-ship-sacrifices-in-the-atlantic/, accessed on 18 November 2020.
• My Night to Remember-The Sinking of the HMS Rawalpindi, WW2, BBC Southern Counties Radio, contributed on November 18, 2005, uploaded by Stuart Ross on October 15, 2014, https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/ stories/84/a7068684.shtml), accessed on 21 December 2020.