On 27 July 1950, within 48 hours of the Government making the decision to support United Nations operations in Korea two of the Navy’s Loch Class frigates HMNZS Pukaki and Tutira were enroute to the area. When this decision was being made, Pukaki was in Dock in Auckland, undergoing routine maintenance and Tutira was returning to Auckland having been on a visit to Fiji. For the next three years the New Zealand Navy kept two of these vessels attached to the United Nations naval forces off Korea.
To get to Korea entailed a 5,500 nautical mile trip from New Zealand. The ships called at Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea for fuel, then direct to Hong Kong for war stores and gunnery exercises before arriving at Sasebo. Our ships were then based either at Sasebo or Kure in Japan, for what were generally deployments away from New Zealand of 12 to 14 months duration. Facilities for recreation in these two ports were extremely limited, considerably reducing the benefit of the relatively few occasions that the ships were in harbour. The nature of the deployments was such that generally the only ports other than these two that were visited were those on the way to or from New Zealand, although Taupo was at Hong Kong for ANZAC Day 1952.
On arrival in theatre the New Zealand ships became part of the British Far East Fleet, administered by the Flag Officer Second in Command Far East Station, who flew his flag in the ship most convenient for operations. In addition to the Royal New Zealand Navy, the other Commonwealth countries providing naval forces, Australia and Canada, also attached their ships to the Far East Fleet.
For the first few months the main tasks of the New Zealand ships were convoy escort and general patrol work. Pukaki formed part of the naval forces which included covering the landings at Inchon and with Tutira also participated in the landings at Wosan. At the end of 1950 HMNZS Rotoiti relieved Pukaki in the first change around of ships. Tutira had a variation in tasking when she took charge of two South Korean minesweepers in operations off Peng Yong Island in early 1951, just prior to the ship’s return to New Zealand.
From mid 1951 the New Zealand ships primarily operated close off the West Coast of Korea in support of land operations, often well up the Han River. Much of the time was spent providing gunfire support to units ashore. During a 14 month deployment from August 1951 to October 52, Taupo fired over 16,000 rounds from her 4 inch gun, wearing out the barrel in the process. A great deal of gunfire missions were also conducted using the ships 40mm Bofors guns, which had a relatively short range, requiring the firing ship to be very close inshore.
During naval gunfire support operations the ships often landed their own spotters and on two occasions Rotoiti made up raiding parties from the seamen on board. During a short refit in Kure the opportunity had been taken to have an assault platoon trained up by a Royal Marine Commando which was based in the area.
In a major contrast to these war-like operations, Rotoiti was instrumental in retrieving a merchant ship which had been captured by pirates. Rotoiti was on her way home, off the coast of China when a distress signal was received from a British merchant ship, SS Hupeh, which had been attacked and captured by pirates. Any hostile act on the part of Rotoiti would have resulted in the murder of the crew and passengers of the Hupeh and so Rotoiti took up a shadowing position. Eventually the pirates offered to leave the ship and its passengers unharmed if they were promised safe custody to a nearby island. With the safety of life paramount, this proposal was agreed and the incident ended peacefully.
Because of the nature of their operations there was little opportunity for contact between the Korean population and the New Zealand sailors. When this was possible it was a special occasion, such as the rescuing of the crew of a sunken junk by Rotoiti or the visiting to a local orphanage by some of the crew.
The Loch Class frigates were of a wartime design and not really suitable for the extremes of conditions experienced off Korea. In summer it was unbearably hot, particularly in the engine and boiler rooms but also on the crowded mess decks where there was no air-conditioning. Winter was the other extreme, with regular snow falls and gales compounded by inadequate heating within the ship. Making matters worse was the fact that many of the crew had to work on the upper deck, 24 hours a day.
Although hard worked and frequently operating close inshore, the ships were particularly fortunate in seldom coming under fire. Two notable exceptions to this were Rotoiti which was engaged by enemy shore batteries when far up the Han River and Taupo, which assisted in the foiling of an invasion of Yang Do, an island off the East Coast of Korea.
With the type of operations conducted by the ships, it was fortunate that there were few casualties. Tragically, the first occurred during the initial deployment of Tutira in July 1950, when one rating was lost overboard between Hong Kong and Sasebo. The second was the loss of an Able Seaman during one of the landings conducted by Rotoiti in August 1951.
A number of awards were granted to the personnel of the ships notably the Distinguished Service Medal to two members of the landing party off Rotoiti for their actions during the raids of 1951. Most of the Commanding Officers of the ships received the Distinguished Service Cross or bars thereto if they already held one in general recognition of the work of the whole ship. In addition to these a number of men were awarded a Mention in Despatches for their particular efforts during the various ships’ deployments.
All of the Navy’s Loch Class frigates served off Korea two of them Hawea and Rotoiti both completing two deployments. During three hard years they had none of the headline brilliance of great naval battles, or even the satisfaction of bringing important convoys safely through enemy attacks. It had been hard and monotonous but essential work - denying the sea to the enemy while making use of it yourself.