HMIS Bengal

Bathurst-class corvette

History
India
Name| Bengal
Namesake| Bengal
Ordered| 24 September 1940
Builder| Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company
Laid down| 3 December 1941
Launched| 28 May 1942
Commissioned| 8 August 1942
Decommissioned| 1960
Fate| Scrapped 1960
General characteristics
Class & type| Bathurst-class corvette
Displacement|

* 650 tons (standard)
* 1,025 tons (full load)

Length| 186 ft (57 m)
Beam| 31 ft (9.4 m)
Draught| 8.5 ft (2.6 m)
Propulsion| Triple expansion engine, 2 shafts, 2,000 hp (1,500 kW)
Speed| 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) at 1,750 hp
Complement| 85
Armament|

* 1 × 4-inch Mk XIX gun
* 3 × 20 mm Oerlikon guns
* Machine guns
* Depth charge chutes and throwers

HMIS Bengal (J243) was a Bathurst-class corvette of the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) which served during the Second World War.

## History

[edit]

HMIS Bengal was ordered from Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company, Australia, for the Royal Indian Navy in 1940. She was commissioned into the RIN in 1942.

### Operations in the Second World War

[edit]

HMIS Bengal was a part of the Eastern Fleet during the Second World War and escorted numerous convoys between 1942 and 1945.[1]

On 11 November 1942, Bengal was escorting the Dutch tanker Ondina[2] to the southwest of Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean. Two Japanese commerce raiders armed with 5.5-inch (140 mm) guns attacked Ondina. Bengal fired her single 4-inch (100 mm) gun and Ondina fired her 4-inch (102 mm) gun and both scored hits on Hōkoku Maru, which shortly blew up and sank.[2] Both Ondina and Bengal ran out of ammunition. Ondina was badly damaged by shellfire and torpedoes, and her captain signaled "abandon ship" before he died. Bengal, seeing there was nothing more she could do, sailed away.

The other raider, Aikoku Maru, machine-gunned the lifeboats with Ondina's crew aboard, causing some casualties, picked up the survivors from Hōkoku Maru  and sailed off, believing that Ondina was sinking.[2] Ondina's surviving crew re-boarded their ship, put out the fires and sailed to Freemantle. Bengal, too, reached port safely.[3][4]

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Kindell, Don. "EASTERN FLEET - January to June 1943". ADMIRALTY WAR DIARIES of WORLD WAR 2.
2. ^ a b c Visser, Jan (1999–2000). "The Ondina Story". Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941-1942. Archived from the original on 21 March 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
3. ^ Kindell, Don. "INDIAN OCEAN & SOUTH EAST ASIA, including Burma". CAMPAIGN SUMMARIES OF WORLD WAR 2.
4. ^ "World War II In the Indian Ocean: Ondina and Bengal versus Aikoku and Hōkoku". YouTube.

## References

[edit]

* L, Klemen (2000). "Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941–1942". Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2021.

* v
* t
* e

Bathurst-class corvette

|  Royal Australian Navy|

| Australian-ordered|

* Ararat
* Armidale
* Benalla
* Bendigo
* Bowen
* Bunbury
* Bundaberg
* Castlemaine
* Colac
* Cootamundra
* Cowra
* Deloraine
* Dubbo
* Echuca
* Fremantle
* Geelong
* Gladstone
* Glenelg
* Gympie
* Horsham
* Inverell
* Junee
* Kapunda
* Katoomba
* Kiama
* Latrobe
* Lithgow
* Mildura
* Parkes
* Rockhampton
* Shepparton
* Stawell
* Strahan
* Townsville
* Wagga
* Wallaroo
* Warrnambool

|

Admiralty-ordered|

* Ballarat
* Bathurst
* Broome
* Burnie
* Cairns
* Cessnock
* Gawler
* Geraldton
* Goulburn
* Ipswich
* Kalgoorlie
* Launceston
* Lismore
* Maryborough
* Pirie
* Tamworth
* Toowoomba
* Whyalla
* Wollongong

Royal Indian Navy|

* Bengal
* Bombay
* Madras
* Punjab

Post-Second World War operators

|  Indonesian Navy|

* Banteng (ex-Cairns)
* Hang Tuah (ex-Ipswich)
* Pati Unus (ex-Tamworth)
* Radjawali (ex-Wollongong)

|

Royal Netherlands Navy|

* Ambon (ex-Cairns)
* Banda (ex-Wollongong)
* Batjan (ex-Lismore)
* Boeroe (ex-Toowoomba)
* Ceram (ex-Burnie)
* Morotai (ex-Ipswich)
* Ternate (ex-Kalgoorlie)
* Tidore (ex-Tamworth)

Royal New Zealand Navy|

* Echuca
* Inverell
* Kiama
* Stawell

Turkish Navy|

* Alanya (ex-Broome)
* Amasra (ex-Pirie)
* Antalya (ex-Geraldton)
* Ayancık (ex-Launceston)
* Ayvalık (ex-Gawler)

* v
* t
* e

Corvettes of the Indian Navy

Commissioned ships|

| Kamorta class|

* Kamorta (P28)
* Kadmatt (P29)
* Kiltan (P30)
* Kavaratti (P31)

|

Kora class|

* Kora
* Kirch
* Kulish
* Karmuk

Khukri class|

* Kuthar
* Kirpan
* Khanjar

Abhay class|

* Abhay

Veer class|

* Vibhuti
* Vipul
* Vinash
* Vidyut
* Nashak
* Prabal
* Pralaya

Decommissioned ships|

| Flower class|

* HMIS Gondwana
* HMIS Sind
* HMIS Mahratta
* HMIS Assam

|

Bathurst class|

* HMIS Punjab
* HMIS Bombay[a]
* HMIS Bengal[b]
* HMIS Madras[c]

Arnala class|

* Arnala
* Androth
* Anjadip
* Andaman
* Amini
* Kamorta (P77)
* Kadmatt (P78)
* Kiltan (P79)
* Kavaratti (P80)
* Katchall
* Amindivi

Durg class|

* Vijaydurg
* Sindhudurg
* Hosdurg

Veer class|

* Veer
* Nirbhik
* Nipat
* Nirghat
* Prahar
* Nishank

Abhay class|

* Ajay
* Akshay
* Agray

Khukri class|

* Khukri

Basset class[d]|

* HMIS Agra
* HMIS Ahmedabad
* HMIS Amritsar
* HMIS Baroda
* HMIS Berar
* HMIS Calcutta
* HMIS Cochin
* HMIS Cuttack
* HMIS Karachi
* HMIS Lahore
* HMIS Lucknow
* HMIS Madura
* HMIS Multan
* HMIS Nagpur
* HMIS Nasik
* HMIS Patna
* HMIS Peshawar
* HMIS Poona
* HMIS Quetta
* HMIS Rampur
* HMIS Shillong
* HMIS Travancore

Future ships|

| ASW-SWC|

* INS Mahe
* INS Malwan
* INS Mangrol
* INS Arnala (P68)
* INS Androth (P69)
* 11 more ships

|

NGMV|

6 vessels

Footnotes

1. ^ Renamed as INS Bombay post republic.
2. ^ Renamed as INS Bengal post republic.
3. ^ Renamed as INS Madras post republic.
4. ^ Classified as Anti-Submarine Naval Trawlers

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