SAINT Partners Conclude Exercises

Old-School Heel

Thursday, October 2nd 2003, 10:44pm

An Excerpt from “Jones’ Quarterly Naval Review, Volume 1921/3”...

SAINT Partners Conclude Exercises
By Roger Williams, Asian Bureau

The first joint South African - Indian naval exercises were held in May, and I was one of several journalists selected to cover this event. The exercises kicked off on May 19, with a formal dinner on the newly commissioned SR Dara Shikoh , a former South African dreadnought completed in 1908. Unfortunately, the dinner was a closed event, so I and the other journalists kept to our cabin.

The next morning, however, I found myself on the Dara Shikoh’s bridge as a stream of South African and Indian warships and liners departed Durban under cloudy skies. The battlecruisers Hertog Alexander and Hertog Rijnhard took up station on our port and starboard beams respectively, while the Gujurat and five South African transports fell into three columns behind us. Around us, a flock of cruisers and destroyers formed a protective ring, keeping a watchful eye on the various commercial traffic in the area. This would be the order of the day - the exercises themselves would not begin until we were well clear of the coast.

Consequently, I was able to sit down with Captain Rik Eichardt of the Royal South African Navy, who would be the senior referee aboard the Dara Shikoh . “Several dozen officers and non-commissioned officers have been training over the past several weeks as referees”, Eichardt told me. “There are two on each torpedo boat and destroyer, four on each cruiser, and eight on each battleship - for a total of one hundred and four. Each team has two responsibilities - using specially made signal flags to tell other ships what their own ship is doing, and telling their own ship’s crew what is happening to them.”

While this in part depended on what the ships did, Eichardt confided that there was a script of sorts for the exercise. “We’ve identified a series of events that will take place on each warship at some point during the exercises. Each is intended to test a portion of the crew on a specific problem - for example, each of the capital ships will lose its captain and whoever happens to be in the same place as him. That will force his executive officer to assume command for the remainder of the day. The timing for a few of the major events is scripted, but otherwise the senior referee on each ship will decide when an event takes place. If he thinks that the affected crew need additional practice, he may invoke it more than once.”

The first real exercise began at sunrise on the 21st, as Dara Shikoh , Hertog Alexander , and most of the light forces broke away from the convoy and steamed northeast. Somewhere out there were South Africa and Cameroon , a pair of newer, larger South African battleships, coming south for a straight forward slugging match. It took until just after noon for the two forces to find each other, after which the light forces began an intense but simulated battle. By 1400, the capital ships were engaging each other, and at 1506, Eichardt informed Captain Pachauri that he and everybody else in the conning tower were casualties of a heavy caliber hit. Commander Muzamil Ibrahim found himself in command for the remainder of the day, during which Dara Shikoh suffered a torpedo hit, an explosion in one of the 5.9" ready lockers, and enough fires to wear out the damage control teams.

At 1800 the exercise concluded and the two opposing forces re-formed, heading back to link up with the convoy. I had a few minutes to speak with Captain Pachauri about his ship’s performance.

“I’m disappointed to be have spent much of the battle as a casualty”, he began, “But Commander Ibrahim and the crew performed well throughout the day. I was particularly impressed with the forward damage control team who had to deal with our torpedo hit.” Pachauri said he had a few specific concerns, which he’d discuss privately with Captain Eichardt later in the evening. Eichardt would then be able to introduce some events that would address these issues during the course of the exercises.

The next day’s missions were much the same, but the South African and Indian convoy escorts traded places with some of yesterday’s combatants. Consequently, it was Dara Shikoh and Hertog Rijnhard operating together, with the Indian battleship operating as command ship. I spent the afternoon at the port-side secondaries; although the guns weren’t actually shooting, the crews were still drilling.

It turned out that the ship was carrying warshots in just half of its magazines - the others had been loaded with bright red dummy rounds, similar in weight and shape, but totally inert. The port-side secondaries were using the dummies, so guns one, two, four, five, seven, and eight were manned and “firing”. As they did so, another six gun crews were running the dummies right back down to the magazines. It was a complicated process, and it slowed the overall rate of fire, but seemed to get the point across.

"This is miserable work", Gunner's Mate Prakash Basu remarked as he supervised the loading of his gun. "But that's the idea. Me and some of the old hands know how this works for real - shoot as fast as you can, make sure you're hitting the other guy, and don't get killed. We might not have incoming, but at least these youngsters are sweating."

No referee arrived to announce a serious hit here - there was no sense in taking them away from intense gunnery training. Instead, the remaining four gun crews, on the starboard side, had that privilege, as a referee introduced problem after problem to them. For the twelve active gun crews, it was a long afternoon of handling dozens, if not hundreds, of dummy shells. By day’s end, the crews were exhausted and sweaty; several had suffered minor injuries - mostly pulled muscles, bruises, and a hernia.

That evening, South Africa , Cameroon and their escorts headed home, and we reformed with the convoy. We spent another two days with Dara Shikoh and the South African battlecruisers sparring over the convoy, during which time an Indian destroyer suffered an engineering casualty and fell in with the convoy.

On the twenty-fifth, our planned anti-submarine exercises were postponed as we passed through a gale. Dara Shikoh handled the swells easily, although the waves did get through to the casemated secondaries. Seas were still choppy the following morning, but the submarines undertook their raids anyway. It was a relatively peaceful day for the battleship, apart from a few emergency turns to dodge simulated torpedos, a failed ramming attempt, and two simulated hits.

With the convoy nearing the Maldives, we detached that night with the half of the South African force and steered for the so-called “Western Range”, a blasted atoll used for gunnery practice. The convoy and the remaining warships carried on toward Alleppey, where the South Africans were building a base for float planes.

Dara Shikoh’s gunnery practice was limited to the aft main battery and starboard secondary guns, since these were the only weapons with live rounds. The eleven inch guns roared every minute or so, as the Indians concentrated on doing it correctly, not quickly. At noon, though, the gunners ended their work with eight rounds in six minutes.

In the afternoon, the crews of the forward main turrets replaced their counterparts in the aft guns and got their own practice in. Similarly, the portside gunnery crews shifted to the starboard guns and fired them. Meanwhile, Hertog Alexander was also pounding away at the nearly lifeless island; her sister was well to the west with the convoy. The two capital ships were later replaced later by some of the smaller vessels, which got a half hour or so each before sunset.

That evening, Captain Pachauri seemed satisfied. “More practice will be needed, but I would say that the shooting was acceptable. I’m also pleased that we had no accidents and only one mis-fire.”

As for the exercise as a whole?

“Very tiring, but also cause for insight. Every man on this ship now has a sense of how he and his mates might operate in a genuine battle, and can see for themselves how they need to improve. Certainly my officers and I will be analyzing the results for some time.”

The mood aboard Dara Shikoh was one of exhausted relief. The exercises were at an end, and the crew thought they’d done well. Just as importantly, though, Madras, and their families, were just two days away. After almost eight months away, the men of the Dara Shikoh would soon be home.

"I've been ready for this for a while", Gunner's Mate Basu said later that night. "Over in Agra I've got a four month old daughter to meet."