The Royal Australian Navy has never won a Victoria Cross. Why this is so is a curious matter. Valour is the quality in battle for which the Cross is awarded, and the lack of VCs seems more to do with convoluted bureaucracy than a dearth of this quality.

There is certainly the material for such recognition, and so this article hopes to prove, by comparing a VC winner from the Royal Navy with one of our own - LCDR Rankin of HMAS Yarra.

The RN recipient has some coincidental links to the RAN. CMDR Fogarty Fegen was an executive officer of the RAN College from 1928-29. He was posted from the Royal Navy to the RAN and arrived in the college on January 20, 1928.

He was listed in the college yearbook for that year as 'Edward SF Fegen'; and so the use of his third name 'Fogarty' is presumed to be his preferred one. He was much admired at the college; not only was he a fine rugby coach, but his wife and he put on splendid afternoon teas for the teenage and ever-hungry cadets.1 He left the college in August 1929.

Fegen had been in the RN since 1904. He served throughout WWI as a lieutenant in the ships Amphion and Faulknor, and as second in command of torpedo boat No.26 and the destroyers Moy and Paladin.2

He continued in command of various destroyers after the Armistice was signed in 1918. In 1924 he was appointed to Colossus, a training ship.

On November 5, 1940, HMS Jervis Bay - an echo of his old posting to Australia's Jervis Bay on the NSW coast - under Fegen's command, was making her way from the United States to Europe, as the sole escort for 37 merchant ships.

Jervis Bay, a former passenger liner built in 1922-23, had a displacement of 14,000 tons and a maximum speed of around 15 knots. She was armed with seven 6-inch guns.

Fogarty Fegen's Victoria Cross citation takes up the story:

For valour in challenging hopeless odds and giving his life to save the many ships it was his duty to protect. On the 5th November 1940, in heavy seas CAPT Fegen, in his Majesty's Armed Merchant Cruiser Jervis Bay, was escorting 31 merchantmen. Sighting a powerful German warship, he at once drew clear of the convoy, made straight for the enemy and brought his ship between the raider and her prey, so that they might scatter to escape. Crippled, in flames, unable to reply for nearly an hour the Jervis Bay held the German's fire. So she went down, but of the merchantmen, all but four or five were saved.

The researched history3 written after the war gives more information. The German ship was the pocket-battleship Admiral Scheer, a heavily-armoured ship of 12,200 tons, six 11-inch and eight 5.9-inch guns.

Six merchant ships were sunk, and of the Jervis Bay's complement, nearly all were lost. Fegen was said to be gravely wounded in the action, almost losing one arm, but he stayed at his post on the bridge and fought on until the end of his ship, going down with her into the deep Atlantic.

One of the convoy vessels4, the Swedish ship Stureholm, returned to the scene after dark and rescued survivors. The Jervis Bay had been the sole escort for this convoy so for a merchant ship to return unescorted was indeed the act of brave men.

Another notable ship in the convoy was the tanker San Demetrio. The Scheer left her immobilised and ablaze. Her crew abandoned ship, but later some reboarded and were able to put out the fire and eventually get up steam and return to the UK.

This story was made the subject of the early Ealing Studios film San Demetrio, London, filmed during the war, using the remains of the ship as a set.5

The 1941 college yearbook carried a special tribute to CMDR Fegen - the news about the battle received too late to be carried in the previous year's edition. The obituary noted the coincidence of his ship's name, Jervis Bay, giving yet another link to the college.

It concluded that "...it is intended to erect at the college some memorial to this very gallant officer; and we know that all who have been connected with the college at any time will desire to pay tribute to the memory of our former commander".

Indeed the memorial was built at Creswell, and the historical collection there has been fortunate in acquiring a pencil sketch of the man; a replica of his Victoria Cross, and several other items associated with CAPT Fogarty Fegen RN, VC.

However, why not bring forward into recognition one who is even more of the RAN, the College and HMAS Creswell - and who was just as brave in very similar circumstances?

Less than two years later, this member of the class of 1921 was in command of the sloop HMAS Yarra. LCDR Robert Rankin had specialised in surveying6, but had been caught up in the war in more of a fighting role. He had just been posted from Alexandria in the Mediterranean after commanding there the repair ship HMS Resource and doing that job "remarkably well" according to his report.7

The 1060-tonne sloop Yarra was sole escort for two merchant ships and a small minesweeper steering to the south-east of Christmas Island on the morning of March 4, 1942.

The Allies were in disarray before the mighty Japanese war machine sweeping south, taking Singapore, smashing Darwin, and bringing death and destruction to Allied shipping, including USS Houston and HMAS Perth with our CAPT Waller in command.

Yarra had been shadowed the previous day by enemy aircraft, and attacked continuously from the air for 11 hours. She was part of a bigger convoy but with the situation deteriorating the convoy was split and Yarra's part of four ships turned for Australia, stopping only briefly to pick up survivors in two lifeboats from the Dutch merchant ship Paragi.

Now from the north-east came three Japanese cruisers and two destroyers8 of ADML Kondo's Second Fleet.9

Rankin sighted the enemy, made a sighting report, told his convoy to scatter, and took station between the Japanese and the convoy to smoke-screen them as he engaged. Signalling, "I intend to charge the enemy",10 he ordered "full speed ahead" and opened fire. It was a hopeless situation.

The Japanese, aided by two target-spotting planes, rushed in at 30 knots and hit the Allied ships at will.

The Yarra's three four-inch guns were no match for the 30 eight-inch guns of the Japanese cruisers. The ships Anking, MMS.51 and Francol were sunk one by one with their ships' companies taking to the boats.

Yarra was still shooting an hour-and-a-half later, but she had been severely hit by then and was on fire and listing to port.

Just after eight o'clock, Rankin ordered "abandon ship"11, and then an eight-inch salvo hit the bridge, killing him instantly.

The two destroyers closed in and began circling the sloop, pouring fire into her. Still Yarra fought, with LS Taylor, captain of the last remaining gun, disregarding the order and continuing to return fire.

Thirty-four of the ship's company were by now on rafts and saw her final moments, but of these men only 13 survived.

Consider the similarities in the actions.

Both captains made the correct decision in terms of their ship's role - to defend their convoy by slowing the enemy enough to allow the convoy to escape.

Both captains paid the ultimate price in terms of personal safety - they were killed in action.

The fact that Fegen's convoy was more successful in escape than Rankin's was due to fortune rather than any action of the RN officer. His battle took place in the afternoon to dusk and the Canadian ships had the oncoming night to aid their escape.

Rankin's action was in the early morning with the convoy ships having no cover of darkness.

In terms of valour in the face of the enemy - the criteria for which the Victoria Cross is awarded - there appears little difference in the actions. Fegen's read: "For valour in challenging hopeless odds and giving his life to save the many ships it was his duty to protect". How true it is that this could be Rankin's epitaph as well.

But through cumbersome administrative procedures, inertia and perhaps an unwillingness to open up questions of unrecognised valour in battles of the past, Rankin saw no award.

As John Bradford pointed out in his work, In the Highest Traditions, it took laborious form-filling to recommend awards in the Navy - more so than in the RN, with restrictions on ship's commanders as to what members could be recommended for.12

Nevertheless, the Royal Australian Navy has never won a VC. I feel sure that actions such as Rankin's are an oversight. Compared to gallant actions such as Fogarty Fegen's - and that man's much-deserved decoration - perhaps we have unjustly treated some of our naval best.

The naming of a fine submarine after Rankin - coincidentally in the same week of the year that Jervis Bay was lost - is perhaps only the beginning of redemption and recognition long overdue.

Sources:

Bradford, John. In the Highest Traditions. SA: Seaview Press, 2000. In addition, perceptive comments on the draft of this article are acknowledged.

Bruce, Anthony and Cogar, William. An Encyclopedia of Naval History. New York: Facts on File, 1998.

Downs, Ian, Naval Cadet at RAN College 1929-1932, conversation with the author, September 2001.

Eldridge, FB. A History of the Royal Australian Naval College. Melbourne: Georgian House, 1949.

Fogarty Fegen Victoria Cross Citation. Historical Collection, RANC. An undated framed history of Fegen is also in the same display as well as a pencil sketch of the man.

Gill, G. Hermon. The Royal Australian Navy 1939-1942. Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1957.

McGuire, Francis. The Royal Australian Navy. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1948.

RAN College magazines. 1928, 1929, 1940-45. RAN College Historical Collection.

Watts, Martin. Website article on HMS Jervis Bay, the post-action proceedings, and the memorial erected to the convoy losses. http://www.saintjohn.nbcc.nb.ca/~JervisBay/. Including emails October 2000.

References:

1. Conversation with Ian Downs, cadet at RAN College 1929-1932, September 2001.

2. Bruce, Anthony and Cogar, William. An Encyclopedia of Naval History. New York: Facts on File, 1998.

3. ibid.

4. Watts, Martin. Website article on HMS Jervis Bay, the post-action proceedings, and the memorial erected to the convoy losses. http://www.saintjohn.nbcc.nb.ca/~JervisBay/. Including emails October 2000.

5. ibid

6. Eldridge, FB. A History of the Royal Australian Naval College. Melbourne: Georgian House, 1949. (403)

7. Bradford, John. In the Highest Traditions. SA: Seaview Press, 2000.

8. Some accounts - eg; Eldridge - say four destroyers. Gill cites Arashi and Nowaki as the ships involved.

9. Gill, pp. 629-632.

10. McGuire, Francis. The Royal Australian Navy. (224)

11. Different accounts of the battle give different versions of this. For example, McGuire's account was published well before that found in Gill, but as John Bradford has pointed out to me, the research for both was probably conducted at same time: McGuire too was given access to one of the survivors' - John Murphy's - eyewitness account. One question is whether the "XO" Smith or Rankin gave 'abandon ship' order. Bradford suggests Bromilow, only survivor from the bridge team, as being adamant Rankin gave the order. It may well be that Smith was relaying the order by word of mouth.

12. See John Bradford's book for a detailed explanation.

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By LEUT Fenn Kemp