"Prepare to repell boarders.......?" Topic

A random question popped into my head while on my daily walk this morning: when was the last time two naval vessels fought a boarding action? I'm not talking about Somali pirates attacking a freighter but rather when official naval vessels from two belligerent powers actual engaged in a boarding action. The last attempt I can recall is during the American Civil War. It doesn't matter if it was successful, I just wonder when the last one was attempted.

WWII

here is one account: link

IIRC correctly, there were several actions with RN and USN involving submarines

Somewhat accidental, but during the Battle of the Atlantic the DE USS Buckley rammed a U-Boat. A number of the German crew boarded the Buckley, and the order "All Hands Repel Boarders" was issued.

A US seaplane boarded a U-boat, and captured the codebook if I recall.

You're probably asking about warship-to-warship contested boardings, but remember that all throughout Viet Nam and for that matter today in the Persian/Arabian Gulf patrol boats are boarding and searching small civilian craft. These are generally uncontested, but there have been incidents.

The USS Pueblo was *almost* boarded.

I would nominate the USS Chatelain's boarding of the U505 in 1944 as the last boarding action by the US Navy. I don't count searching civilian vessels.

To go with this boarding discussion, here is a bit of history on cutlasses which left the US Navy as weapons in 1949 (but have returned as ceremonial weapons more recently). USN officer's swords are proscribed at the grade of LCDR and above; I keep a dull edge on mine to repel zombies.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutlass

When I was in the US Navy (1968-71) our submarine rescue ship held occasional repel boarders drills. This was after the capture of the Pueblo. In case of an actual boarding my duty as a radioman was to fill weighted bags with classified publications and hurl them overboard while the crew held off the boarders with small arms, hand grenades and fire hoses.

2004? Iranian Revolutionary Guard v. the Royal Australian Navy.

The Iranians attempted to board the MV Sham while it was being searched. No shots were fired but they were repulsed by the Aussies' "highly colourful language". Medals were won though.

"HMAS Adelaide returned to the Middle East from July 2004 to January 2005 as part of Operation Catalyst, the Australian contribution to the reconstruction of Iraq following the United States-led invasion in 2003.[28] During this deployment, in December 2004, several gunboats of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard attempted to capture a boarding party after it had inspected the freighter MV Sham, which had grounded near the Iraq-Iran maritime boundary.[29][30] After completing their inspection, the boarding party returned to their two RHIBs, but were approached by an Iranian gunboat.[29][30] The boarding party climbed back aboard Sham, took up defensive positions, and, according to BBC reporter Frank Gardner, "warned [the Iranians] to back off, using what was said to be 'highly colourful language'."[29][30] During the next 45 minutes, four more gunboats arrived, and the stand-off lasted for four hours before the Australians were evacuated by Adelaide's Seahawk helicopter.[30] No shots were fired during the incident, and two of the Australians were later awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for their conduct during the stand-off."

More to the point of the original query, the last boarding actions between two surface warships that I am aware of both occurred in 1879 during the War of the Pacific between Peru and Chile.

On 21 May 1879 during the Battle of Iquique the crew of the badly overmatched Chilean wooden corvette "Esmeralda" attempted to stave off defeat by boarding the Peruvian ironclad "Huascar." The latter's armament included a Gatling gun, and the gallant Chileans were all shot down. The "Esmeralda" was then sunk by repeated ramming and gunfire.

At the Battle of Angamos on 8 Oct. 1879 the "Huascar" was caught by two more modern Chilean ironclads and captured by boarding after several hours of battering by the latter. The "Huascar," by the way, still exists as a museum ship in Chile.

From this point on, the development of quick-firing naval guns, and the increasing speed of warships made attempts at closing to board increasingly futile.

For more information, see the Wikipedia articles "Battle of Iquique," "Battle of Angamos," and "Huascar (Ironclad)."

The USN launched lots of boarding actions of oil rigs during both Gulf Wars.

This thread reminded me of the Mayaguez, and the great headline of the time, "Marines Save Mayaguez and Ford".

It was quite common in coastal actions in the Adriatic, with RN MTBs/MGBs, Yugoslavian Partisan gunboats and German coastal craft capturing and in some cases recapturing each other.

Here is a forum discussion that gives excellent detail on an action between German S-boats and Yugoslav Tiger Fleet boats.

link

I have rules for boarding actions in my "Flaklighter II" rules.

Dave G
The PT Dockyard
ptdockyard.com

wasn't there one a couple months ago, that unfortunate capture of the 2 us navy craft by the iranians

Wardog – There was no "boarding action". The US commander simply surrendered his command without any physical resistance. Sad and embarrassing, but nevertheless true.

B

Allowing loose application of "boarding" here's a US Destroyer vs. Japanese Submarine surface incident that will open your eyes and get under your skin.
link

Let's not forget that the Brits boarded U-boats 110 and 559 in WWII to capture their Enigma machines and code books.

Not much cutlass action, but they were both boarding actions which included loss of life.

In the Falklands campaign John Coward, the captain of HMS Brilliant, trained his Royal Marines for boarding actions:
" I had a Royal Marine detachment on board and had them practicing against the Glasgow and the Sheffield all the time.
I told them we might get the chance to take or burn or capture an Argentinean Type 42; they thought I was mad!"

Glasgow and Sheffield were also Type 42 destroyers, like the two sold to Argentina.

It was probably just a means of making the training interesting and getting them to practice their boat drill, but I love the choice of words: "to take or burn or capture…." Tradition is a wonderful thing.

Source: hmsbrilliant.com under "The Skipper."

Cheers,
Berie