HMS Howe in Auckland February 1945

[juzzy]

I was looking on the net for info on the February 1945 visit to Auckland of the battleship HMS Howe. HMS Howe was the Flagship of the British Pacific Fleet at the time, and arrived in Auckland along with HMNZS Achilles on February 2nd 1945, and departed on February 10th. During her stay she carried out exercises in the Hauraki Gulf with HMNZS Gambia.

I became interested when I came across a photograph of the Howe in a recently published book on the British Pacific Fleet – ‘The British Pacific Fleet: The Royal Navy’s Most Powerful Strike Force’ by David Hobbs. On page 51 is an excellent photo of HMS Howe “carrying out a demonstration shoot off the New Zealand coast”. You can actually see three 14 inch shells in flight heading upwards. Anyway, I came across this online newsreel of the exercises. The navy bit is about 3 minutes 10 seconds into the newsreel, and is well worth a look.

http://www.ecasttv.co.nz/program_detail.php?program_id=1038&channel_id=60&group_id=

Does anyone else have any information about the Howe in Auckland or photos ? It would be interesting to know how many 14 inch rounds she fired. I guess they are just sitting somewhere out there in the Hauraki Gulf just rusting away. It would be great to recover one for the Navy Museum !!!

Sorry about the small size of the photo, it is all I have found so far.

[Old Salt]

Hi juzzy

Thanks for posting that, all new to me but keen to follow up.

The movements of HMS Howe were listed in the diary of Able Seaman Richard Leonard at :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/26/a6888126.shtml

He gives the dates as 5 to 14 February 1945 and his family have copies of :

The New Zealand Herald, Thursday, Feb. 22, 1945 (shows pictures of HMS Howe)
The Weekly News (New Zealand, Auckland) 21st and 28th Feb. 1945 (shows HMS Howe)


Brian

[Don Boyer]

Great video post, thanks for finding that and bringing it to the forum. My next purchase is going to be the books on the British Pacific Fleet, an area of the Pacific war where I'm sadly lacking in knowledge other than the late-war operations of HMS King George V with the American battleline.

Regards,

[juzzy]

Thanks for the replies guys, and thanks for the link Brian - the dates of 5th to 14th February 1945 do seem to be the correct time of the visit.

I have found a couple of interesting articles from the Evening Post in Late February 1945 regarding the Howe's visit to Auckland. They came from the NZ Newspaper Archive - Papers Past ( http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast ).

To get the files into JPEG format, down to a managable file size, and to a good size for printing to A4 paper, I have split each of the two articles into two parts - not ideal but they print OK.

The articles manage to answer a few of my questions. Enjoy.... :)

[peter brough]

e net for info on the February 1945 visit to Auckland of the battleship HMS Howe. HMS Howe was the Flagship of the British Pacific Fleet at the time, and arrived in Auckland along with HMNZS Achilles on February 2nd 1945, and departed on February 10th. During her stay she carried out exercises in the Hauraki Gulf with HMNZS Gambia.

I became interested when I came across a photograph of the Howe in a recently published book on the British Pacific Fleet – ‘The British Pacific Fleet: The Royal Navy’s Most Powerful Strike Force’ by David Hobbs. On page 51 is an excellent photo of HMS Howe “carrying out a demonstration shoot off the New Zealand coast”. You can actually see three 14 inch shells in flight heading upwards. Anyway, I came across this online newsreel of the exercises. The navy bit is about 3 minutes 10 seconds into the newsreel, and is well worth a look.

http://www.ecasttv.co.nz/program_detail.php?program_id=1038&channel_id=60&group_id=

Does anyone else have any information about the Howe in Auckland or photos ? It would be interesting to know how many 14 inch rounds she fired. I guess they are just sitting somewhere out there in the Hauraki Gulf just rusting away. It would be great to recover one for the Navy Museum !!!

Sorry about the small size of the photo, it is all I have found so far.[/QUOTE]
the vidio'cruisers of the rnzn has some excellent footage of her visit to auckland plus a shoot in the gulf. bruffy

[nigelweysom]

ive just added the link to my favorites , my Dad was in New Zealand with Whirlwind in 45, so i will be trawling this archive , but i dont have any info on Howe
Nigel