Hector Waller

Hector Waller

Hector ( Hec ) Macdonald Laws Waller (born April 4, 1900 in Benalla , Victoria , † March 1, 1942 in Sunda Strait ) was an Australian naval officer in World War II . He commanded the cruiser HMAS Perth during the Battle of the Java Sea .

Life

Hector Waller was the youngest of ten children of shopkeeper William Frederick Waller and his wife Helen, née Duncan. He attended elementary school and began his military training on December 31, 1913 when he entered the Royal Australian Naval Academy in Geelong near Melbourne . The school was relocated to the newly formed federal territory of Jervis Bay in 1915 . Waller finished his education with honors and was on January 1, 1918 Midshipman (equals: midshipman ) transported.

The young officer candidate was then commanded to Great Britain to the Grand Fleet and used there on the HMS Agincourt . The British battleship had no contact with the enemy until the end of the First World War in November 1918. In February 1919 Waller was transferred to the Australian cruiser HMAS Melbourne and returned home in April.

He reached in September 1919 to the rank of sub-lieutenant (roughly equivalent to: Second Lieutenant ) and was established in March 1921, Lieutenant ( Lt. transported). After several sea missions and advanced training courses in Great Britain, Waller continued his service in March 1923 in the staff of the Royal Australian Navy .

Hector Waller married Nancy Bowes on April 7, 1923 in a Methodist church in Sydney . The marriage produced two sons.

Between 1924 and 1926 Waller successfully took part in advanced training courses to become a signal officer. Between 1928 and 1930 he served on the British destroyer HMS Broke as a signal officer and was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in 1929 (roughly equivalent to: Kapitänleutnant ). After being used on the British destroyer, Waller served on the Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Australia until 1934 . At the same time he deepened his training and reached the rank of commander in 1934 (comparable to: frigate captain ).

In 1937 Waller received his first command of a warship. Hector Waller commanded HMS Brazen between 1937 and 1939 . At the time, the British destroyer was mainly used in the Mediterranean to observe the Spanish Civil War.

After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Australia sent a flotilla of five destroyers to Europe. Commander Hector Waller was given command of the lead ship HMAS Stuart . Joseph Goebbels referred to the outdated and slow ships as the scrap fleet . Confident Australian sailors and adopted the term from the hostile propaganda and called themselves from now itself "Scrap Iron Flotilla" ( Engl. : Scrap fleet ). The Australian destroyer group reached the Mediterranean in December 1939.

During this time Admiral Cunningham became aware of the Australian when he demonstrated his excellent seafaring skills while rescuing the shipwrecked crew of the sinking tanker Trocas . In May 1940, Waller was given command of the 10th Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean and in June the Captain ( Sea Captain transported).

In the same month Italy entered the war and France was defeated by Germany. The Mediterranean became an immediate war zone.

Waller commanded the destroyer flotilla in several battles against Italian units. These included the sea ​​battle at Punta Stilo in July 1940 and the battle at Cape Matapan in March 1941. Captain Waller also took part in other operations off Greece, Crete and North Africa. The operations off North Africa were mainly directed against the Italian supplies for the Tobruk fortress . The Libyan city was captured by British land forces in January 1941 and then held against German besiegers by Australian ground forces for over a year.

For his work, Captain Waller was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in September 1940 and was " mentioned in despatches " twice in the daily report .

Hector Waller returned to Australia in September 1941 and was given command of the light cruiser HMAS Perth a month later . One month after the start of the Pacific War , the Australian warship was assigned to the ABDA fleet , which was jointly established with the USA, Great Britain and the Netherlands . The multinational naval association was supposed to protect the British, US and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia from a Japanese invasion.

The ABDA fleet tried on 27./28. February 1942 to repel a Japanese invasion fleet aiming for a landing on Java . The developing battle is known as the Battle of the Java Sea . The Japanese units were far superior to the thrown together Allied fleet and smashed it in a few hours. The newly established fleet de facto ceased to exist after the battle. Given the hopeless situation, Hector Waller decided to evacuate HMAS Perth together with the US heavy cruiser USS Houston under Captain Albert H. Rooks in the direction of Batavia . The commander in chief of the ABDA fleet, Vice Admiral Conrad Helfrich , strongly criticized Waller's decision. He expected a fight to the last ship . In contrast to the Dutch Vice Admiral, Waller had two years of active naval warfare and had participated in several battles and skirmishes. He therefore had the experience and moral competence to recognize a hopeless situation and to question a meaningless order. In addition, Helfrich was indeed the commander in chief of the entire ABDA fleet, but the commandant of the ships in the Java Sea, so Waller's direct command, was Rear Admiral Karel Doorman , who was also Dutch . Doorman ordered shortly before he was killed in the sinking of his flagship Mr. Ms. De Ruyter fell, the retreat of the Allied ships.

The two cruisers reached Batavia (now Jakarta) in the morning hours of February 28th. Waller's cruiser could stash fuel. The American ship still had enough oil to go to Australia. Both warships received no ammunition replenishment and ran out in the evening with almost empty magazines to break through to Australia. On the night of March 1, the cruisers in the Sunda Strait were cleared up and attacked by a Japanese unit. The two ships could only fire back at the beginning of the battle in the Sunda Strait , as the ammunition soon ran out, and sank during the night. 351 crew members of HMAS Perth were killed together with their captain. The allied Americans had to mourn 693 fatalities, including the captain. 474 Australian and American seamen became Japanese prisoners of war. The Japanese lost four sailors. Hector Waller was initially listed as missing, but his death was soon confirmed.

Waller's Mediterranean-Time Commander Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham wrote: “Hector Waller's death was a grave loss to the young Australian Navy. He was one of the most extraordinary officers of his generation. "

Honors

Hector Waller has twice been awarded the Distinguished Service Order and several Mentioned in Despatches ( mentions ).

The Royal Australian Navy is honoring the outstanding sailor with a modern Collins-class submarine named after him . The HMAS Waller (SSG 75) was launched in 1997 and entered service on July 10, 1999.

Web links

Commons : Hector Waller  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Website of the Australian Navy over Hector Waller ( Engl. )