Ships

[Carruthers]

Aboard cruiser HMS Sussex (1945)

This recollection is from:

George Coyne of Lightwater, Surrey.

In 1945 I was serving in cruiser HMS Sussex. My ship was part of a task force (Operation Livery) in action at Phuket Island in what is now Thailand.
The Japs attacked us with suicide planes, one of which hit us and another struck and sank HMS Vestal.
She was a minesweeper and was Camberley's adopted warship.
She was the last British warship to be sunk during WW2.

There's some rather onerous conditions attached to reproducing the full text, hence the somewhat brief extract above.

WW2 People's War for the full article.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Here's a good illustration of the Sussex and the plane.

[Carruthers]

Thank you, sir!

Some more info has emerged:

26 Jul 1945

Her Task Force was attacked by 2 "Val" suicides (Mitsubishi type 99 dive-bombers): one was shot down by escort carrier Ameer and the second by Sussex.
However, this latter one bounced on the surface of the sea and impacted the cruiser's hull above the waterline, causing a 2 metre dent.
Later in the same day Sussex downed another aircraft.

Link

There is no mention of an explosion so effective anti-aircraft fire and a large slice of good luck seem to have saved the day.