HMIS Bengal (J243)


HMIS Bengal was a Bathurst class corvette of the Royal Indian Navy where she served during World War II.

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 World War II

HMIS Bengal was a part of the Eastern Fleet during World War II, and escorted numerous convoys between 1942-45.
On 11 November 1942, Bengal was escorting the Dutch tanker Ondina to the southwest of Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean. Two Japanese commerce raiders armed with six-inch guns attacked Ondina. Bengal fired her single four-inch gun and Ondina fired her 102 mm and both scored hits on 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, Aikoku Maru, machine-gunned the lifeboats with Ondinas crew aboard, causing some casualties, picked up the survivors from Hōkoku Maru , and sailed off, believing that Ondina was sinking. Ondinas surviving crew reboarded their ship, put out the fires, and sailed to Freemantle. Bengal too reached port safely.