HMIS Bengal
{{Short description|Bathurst-class corvette}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Use Indian English|date=January 2020}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= |Ship caption=HMIS Bengal }} {{Infobox ship career |Ship country=India |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|British India|naval-1928}} {{shipboxflag|India|naval}} |Ship name=Bengal |Ship namesake=Bengal |Ship ordered=24 September 1940 |Ship builder=Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company |Ship laid down=3 December 1941 |Ship launched=28 May 1942 |Ship commissioned=8 August 1942 |Ship decommissioned=1960 |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship fate=Scrapped 1960 |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Ship class={{sclass|Bathurst|corvette}} |Ship displacement=* 650 tons (standard)
|Ship length={{convert|186|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|31|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship draught={{convert|8.5|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship propulsion=Triple expansion engine, 2 shafts, {{cvt|2,000|hp|lk=in}} |Ship speed={{convert|15|kn}} at 1,750 hp |Ship range= |Ship complement=85 |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*1 × 4-inch Mk XIX gun
|Ship notes= }} |
HMIS Bengal (J243) was a {{sclass|Bathurst|corvette}} of the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) which served during the Second World War.
History
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=
HMIS Bengal was a part of the Eastern Fleet during the Second World War and escorted numerous convoys between 1942 and 1945.{{cite web|last = Kindell |first = Don |url= http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWD-EF1943a.htm |title = EASTERN FLEET - January to June 1943 |work = ADMIRALTY WAR DIARIES of WORLD WAR 2}}
On 11 November 1942, Bengal was escorting the Dutch tanker {{MV|Ondina||2}}{{cite web |last=Visser |first=Jan |url=https://warfare.gq/dutcheastindies/ondina.html |title=The Ondina Story |date=1999–2000 |work=Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941-1942 |access-date=30 March 2021 |archive-date=21 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110321233336/http://www.dutcheastindies.webs.com/ondina.html |url-status=dead }} to the southwest of Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean. Two Japanese commerce raiders armed with {{convert|5.5|in|mm|0|adj=on}} guns attacked Ondina. Bengal fired her single {{convert|4|in|mm|adj=on}} gun and Ondina fired her {{convert|102|mm|in|order=flip|adj=on|0}} gun and both scored hits on {{ship||Hōkoku Maru}}, which shortly blew up and sank. 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, {{ship||Aikoku Maru|1940|2}}, 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. Ondina{{'}}s surviving crew re-boarded their ship, put out the fires and sailed to Freemantle. Bengal, too, reached port safely.{{cite web|last = Kindell |first = Don |url= http://www.naval-history.net/WW2CampaignsIndianOcean.htm#hoko |title = INDIAN OCEAN & SOUTH EAST ASIA, including Burma |work = CAMPAIGN SUMMARIES OF WORLD WAR 2}}{{cite web|url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ujZemGqzJo |title = World War II In the Indian Ocean: Ondina and Bengal versus Aikoku and Hōkoku|website=YouTube}}
Notes
{{reflist}}
References
- {{cite web |first= Klemen |last= L |date= 2000 |title= Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941–1942 |url= https://warfare.gq/dutcheastindies/index.html |access-date= 30 March 2021 |archive-date= 26 July 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110726053035/http://www.dutcheastindies.webs.com/index.html |url-status= dead }}
{{Bathurst class corvette}}
{{Corvettes of the Indian Navy}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bengal (J243)}}