Diary of Cyril John Percy Hill, 1917 - Part 1

Cyril JP Hill
Diary kept in H.M.A.S.
Parramatta from 9^th June 1917 to 14^th
Dec 1918.
For Mr Cyril Hill.
Warrabeen
Sydney
 

Diary.  June 1917.
June 9^th  left Sydney on our way north to
join up with 2nd Division consisting of
Swan, Huon & Torrens. Went to General
Quarters as soon as we cleared harbour.
June 13^th  Arrived Cairns and remained
there for the day. Took in all the fresh
provisions & fruit we could by hands
on.
June 16^th  Arrived Thursday Island.
Completed with oil. Dined at local pub
& shoved off the following Day.
June 21st Arrived Timor. Took ships
companies for route march. Arrived
back with 30/- thirst which we
quenched at the expense of our ancient
allies the Portuguese. Cadged all we
could get in the way of grub and
left the same evening.
June 26^th  Joined up with our oil
ship S.S. Erturia. Oiled & proceeded
to Cocos Islands through Sundra Strait. Last
time I [passed through Sundra was
in "County of Kinross" bound to Batavia
June 28^th  Arrived Cocos Island and
anchored about a mile from the
Cable station. Remained at Cocos
11 days, having a royal time with
cricket, football, tennis, bathing, boat
sailing etc. Cable officers jolly good
chaps. July 3^rd went out for a
gunnery stunt and passed [[Is?]]. Keeling
 

Island and had a look at remains
of "Emden". Only fore part left.
July 5th  Swan, Torrens & Huon
arrived with a terrible moan about not
getting back to Australia. Strained
relations between 1^st & 2^nd Divisions.
July 8^th  Left Cocos and took up the
long trail once more.
July 15^th Arrived Diego Garcia. Rotten
place. Nothing but Coconut palms
Mangoes & Malaria.
July 20^th  Arrived Seychelles. Jolly nice
place. Lunched with Governor and
in afternoon led destroyers soccer team
to victory over local team. left on
July 22^nd.
July 28^th  Arrived Aden. Stinking
hot, but interesting with a decent
club. Turks usually had an early
morning strafe to which our batteries
replied. Occasional shells dropping into
harbour but not doing any damage.
Visited our outposts and had a
look at Turkish positions. Turks
having their afternoon siesta.
Turks got busy next morning and
attempted an attack. Nothing doing.
Very few casualties on our side.
left Aden on August 3^rd.
Aug 8^th  Arrived Suez and passed
through Canal on the 9th. Canal
very interesting and very different to
when I passed through last. Banks
fortified with sand bags etc nearly
 

the whole length and held by
Australian Light Horse. Great excitement
Ships companies & Soldiers cheering
each other like blazes.
August 9^th  Arrived Port Said. Things
very quiet there. Played cricket and
amused ourselves generally.
August 12th  Left Port Said with convoy
of six ships. Escort: Parramatta,
Yarra, Huon & Torrens. Swan & Warrego
convoying elsewhere. Weather glorious and
almost calm.
Aug 16.  3 PM. Sighted periscope about
1000 yards away on starboard bow.
Went to action stations and increased
to full speed. Periscope disappeared
when about 500 yds. distant. Let go
depth charge when captain considered we
were directly over her. Very big explosion
followed and by the amount of heavy
oil that came to the surface afterwards
we must have sunk her. No wreckage
appeared & no survivors. Experts in
Malta say we evidently destroyed her.
Aug 17^th  Arrived Malta, not having
been again attacked. Refitted after
our long voyage and enjoyed ourselves
Cricket, tennis, football and swimming
being the chief attractions for me.
By good luck met the Griffiths family
and did a few social stunts with
them. Got all the information I could
about Guy.
 

August Sept 20^th  Left Malta for
Corfu for torpedo running and gunnery.
Remained there till 27^th. Carried out
lots of useful exercises which we were
badly in need of. Corfu awfully pretty
place with splendid harbour.
Kaiser's palace, now a French hospital
being the chief place of interest. Place
crowded with remnant of Serbian army.
Big French fleet stationed there.
Sept 28^th  Returned to Malta, goodness
knows why.
Oct 2^nd  Arrived Taranto and were
inspected by Rear Admiral. Left Taranto
on Oct 4^th and arrived in Corfu
again the next day.
Oct 5^th  Sighted enemy submarine
outside Corfu, evidently waiting for
transport to come out. Fritz dived
in a great hurry on seeing us. Too
far away to straf him.
Oct 10^th  Back to Taranto. Last time I
saw Taranto was in "Omra" on way
out to Australia.
Oct 12th  Arrived Brindisi. Not
at all impressed with the place.
Chief attractions being one low music
hall & one picture palace. Smells
and dirt prevail. Redeeming feature,
plenty of grub. Beer not bad.
Whisky, terrible. Mail to & from
England every day except Thursdays.
 

Oct 18^th  Commenced patrol in
conjunction with six French destroyers.
Four days out & four in. Not a bad
job in fine weather. Object of patrol
to protect drifters working across Strait
of Otranto with submarine nets from
raids by Austrian cruisers and
destroyers and to assist drifters in
catching submarines. Not half enough
ships to do much good.
Nov 16^th S.S. [["Orime"?]] torpedoed at 1.30
PM. Parramatta, Yarra, Warrego & Huon
to rescue. Went aboard her with Bridge
& got her in tow of Parramatta. Spent
night aboard her and left in Italian
tug 8 AM next day. Arrived in Castro,
spent a miserable day & night &
shoved off next morning to Brindisi by
train & reported aboard Swan.
See: My official report.
Dec 13^th  Chased out at 4 PM and
recalled 2.30 AM. No one knew reason.
Suppose Austrian light forces were out
Dec 29^th  Went down to Valona in
company with Weymouth & Gloucester
for gunnery.
Dec 30^th  A few officers visited
Italian lines about 10 miles North of
Valona. Austrians very quiet. Next
day Italian battleships bombarded
Austrian lines from Valona harbour
Couldn't have hit anything as they made
no reply.
 

Jan 3^rd  On patrol again. Sighted
submarine and chased. Dived before
we got within range. Since commencing
patrol on Oct 18th, our chief job has
been sinking floating mines and
sighting Fritz in distance but never
being able to get close enough to deal
with him. Not nearly enough
destroyers on patrol. Terribly cold at
times and weather putrid.
March 5^th  Warren sent to hospital
having been ill for some days with
malaria but worse than usual this time.
Took over temporary command & proceeded
on the same old patrol. Weather getting
much warmer thank goodness.
March 17^th  Sent down to Patras in
Greece with "Torrens" to pick up convoy
coming out of Gulf of Corinth.
Convoy hung up somewhere so "Parramatta"
sent back to Brindisi. On the way
saw Greek steamer flying signals
of distress. Found she had broken
down badly so took her in tow and
anchored her inside defences at Oscia
S.S. Agios Georgios. Arrived Brindisi
at 8 PM. Glad to have got her in
to safety before Fritz got her.
March 21^st  Again sent to Patras with
"Huon" this time to pick up belated
convoy. Found her all it right and
escorted it to Corfu in safety.
Left Corfu on our lonesome at 8 PM
March 22^nd.
 

March 23^rd  Arrived Malta at 4 PM
and at 5 PM were chased out again
to help a torpedoed steamer about
75 miles to west^ward of Malta.
At 1.30 AM found steamer "Damodocus"
She had be torpedoed in engine room
and was lying helpless with a list
to port with "Neride" & "Byong" standing
by her. Relieved "Neride" and steamed
round & round her keeping sharp
lookout for Fritz. At 2 AM Large
Tug arrived from Malta & took her in
tow. Tug could only tow her at 4 knots
so took all day Sunday March 24th
getting back: 8 PM. Anchored
"Damodocus" safely in St Pauls Bay
and made fast in our own berth.
March 24^th to May 3^rd  Refitting at Malta
and having a pretty good time.
Navigator went to hospital about a week
after arriving & was invalided back to
Australia. Glad to get rid of him.
April 15^th  got news from Brindisi of poor
old Warren, no particulars. Tried to get
leave to go to England for officers & men
Not approved owing to situation in
France. Ship being fitted to carry
kite balloon. Saw quite a lot of
the Griffiths and used to go up for
tea every Sunday & play tennis with
them during the week. Had several
cheery little dinners at the club & one
at G.O.C. with Mac. Went to the opera
once & lunched with the Governor. Jolly
nice old bird. Dockyard officials
jolly nice chaps & out to help us all
 

all they could. Best refit ship has
had for a long time. Sub lieut
Herbert RN lent to us as 1^st lieut until
we could get RAN officer. Herbert having
been blown up in [["Arno?]] and being out
of a job. May 3rd left Malta, one officer
short and proceeded up to Brindisi.
May 4^th  Arrived Brindisi. Found place
transformed. "Blenheim" and forty
RN destroyers working Barrage. Times
very strenuous. Cap^t D. full of ginger
and chasing destroyers round unmercifully.
Hun submarines appear to be getting
a rusty time passing barrage. Went
alongside "Blenheim" and started to
have balloon winch fitted. Spent
very strenuous week alongside getting
things up to date and trying to
fathom all new memos & orders.
Very good concert held in Blenheim
May 10^th  Proceeded to outer harbour
and took Kite balloon aboard.
Everything went wrong. Three balloon
officers & 7 ratings all at sixes &
sevens. Got everything square at last
and proceeded to sea. Got balloon
down outside swept Channel &
sent observers up. Wireless signal
that "Phoenix" was torpedoed &
being towed into Valona by "Warrego"
Balloon started to loose gas. Had
to get observers out & get back to
harbour. Better luck next time.
Wireless message "Phoenix sunk
 

May 19^th  Took balloon on patrol again
Behaving very well this time. Weather
lovely. Great stunt ballooning.
Thinking of joining R.A.F. myself.
May 20^th  2.30 PM Having afternoon siesta
Wakened up by alarm gongs. Tore up on
bridge & saw Hun submarine on surface
about 5 miles distant. Rang up full
speed and opened fire with 4" gun.
Just as shots were falling close, sub
dived. Ran up to spot where she
disappeared & smothered the ocean with
depth charges. No sign of Fritz.
Must have given him bad shaking all
the same. No wreckage appeared so
couldn't claim her worse luck.
8.30. Balloon behaving very badly
& loosing gas. Got observers out
& let balloon up empty. Took two
heavy lurches, tore big rent in herself
& dropped into the sea. Lost. No
luck. Expensive job loosing balloons
Each cost about £1600.
May 27^th  3.30 AM Arrived in
Otranto. Heard firing & saw
shrapnel bursting. Hun planes driven
off & no damage done. On patrol
with kite balloon at the time.
May 29^th  British sea plane down
off Durazzo. Destroyers sent up
full speed to pick her up & prevent
Austrian ships from capturing her.
Picked up pilot & observer & sunk
machine being badly damaged. No
enemy ships in sight.