The Grand Fleet

Agar was aboard Hibernia when the First World War broke out in August 1914, and soon sailed with her to Britain's wartime base at Scapa Flow. He was a part of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe's Grand Fleet.

As newer and faster dreadnoughts joined the fleet, the pre-dreadnoughts became increasingly obsolete, being slower, with much less firepower and poor design features.

The Dardanelles and guard duty

In the summer of 1915 it was decided to send Hibernia out to the Dardanelles to provide gunnery support to the Allied landings on the Gallipoli peninsula. She arrived in September 1915 at the Royal Navy base at Mudros on the Greek island of Lemnos at the entrance to the straits leading to the Black Sea.

The sheltered waters of the Aegean Sea and the straits enabled Hibernia to use all her guns and she was employed in firing at Turkish targets on Gallipoli and the nearby Asia Minor shore. She was hit once by a Turkish shell, but not seriously damaged.

Hibernia returned to Britain when the Allies evacuated Gallipoli and was stationed at Rosyth with others of her class to guard against raids on the British coast by German ships. Because of their slow speed and weak offensive power, the pre-dreadnought battleships were not ordered to join the Grand Fleet for the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, though they got up steam pending the outcome of the engagement.

North Russia

After Jutland the battleship threat from Germany receded somewhat and the danger from mines and submarines grew. Especially vulnerable were the two ports of Murmansk and Archangel in North Russia used by British merchant ships taking materiel to their ally. Mine-sweeping naval trawlers were sent to counter this threat, and two old cruisers were modified to act as repair workshops and headquarters for this flotilla. Agar joined one of them, HMS Iphigenia, executive officer in December 1916. The Iphigenia dated from 1892, displaced 3,400 tons and in her early days could make 20 knots.

Iphigenia arrived at Murmansk in March 1917, just as the Russian Revolution was beginning. She operated out of Archangel in the summer when the White Sea was clear, and from the ice free Murmansk in the winter. Although it was apparent to local Allied commanders that the materiel landed after the spring of 1917 was not being put to good use, their advice to stop the flow was ignored by Whitehall. Indeed, much of the materiel was either destroyed or ended up being used by the Bolsheviks or the Germans.

While at Murmansk, Agar had the opportunity to renew acquaintance with Russian officer friends from the cruiser Askold, which was berthed alongside. He had served with them in the Dardanelles when he was on HMS Hibernia. He met them again at the Devonport dockyard. However, mutiny soon broke out on the Askold, and Agar was shocked to see his officer friends arrested one by one and taken ashore, not to be seen again. Discipline aboard the ship broke down completely and, after the last of the food and supplies were consumed, she was abandoned to rust away.

This difficult and occasionally dangerous mission occupied the Iphigenia until the end of February 1918, when worsening conditions and a hostile Bolshevik government prompted a withdrawal. The British were able to take away with them a number of Russians fleeing the Bolsheviks.

The Russian experience was of value to Agar later in his career.

Coastal motor boats

Agar served in the Coastal Motor Boats (CMBs) in home waters during the latter part of the war. These small vessels displaced just 5 tons, compared to the 1,110 tons of a First World War era destroyer. Their main offensive weapon was a torpedo. They were of shallow draught and could operate close inshore.

The CMBs carried one or two torpedoes, depending on whether they were "forty footers" or "fifty-five footers". Mines could be substituted for torpedoes and they also carried depth charges and Lewis guns. It was planned that they be either towed or carried into battle on the German controlled coast by the light cruisers and destroyers of Commodore Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt's Harwich Force. With their shallow draught they could skim over the mines and attack the German patrol craft around Heligoland. As 1918 wore on a more ambitious scheme matured to send the CMBs in over the shallow coastal waters to attack the German fleet at its anchorage. However, the Armistice occurred on 11 November 1918 before these plans could be put into effect.

It was as a torpedo and mining officer that Augustus Agar was selected for this service. He participated in the famous raid on Zeebrugge led by Commodore Roger Keyes, CMBs being used to lay smoke screens outside the mole to cover the escape of the crews of the blockships. During the summer of 1918, he was stationed at Dover and at Dunkirk, where the CMBs attacked German patrol craft along the Belgian coast.

HMS Emerald, gold ingots and the North Atlantic convoys

When war began on 3 September 1939 Agar was in command of the Emerald and, as in 1914, was directed to Scapa Flow. His ship was soon ordered onto the "Northern Patrol", between the Faroe Islands and Iceland, to intercept any German merchant ships trying to return to their homeland. A second duty was to stop neutral ships and check for contraband headed for Germany. Emerald had just returned to Scapa on 1 October 1939 when Agar received "Top Secret" orders to proceed "with all despatch" to Plymouth, England.

On 3 October, Emerald dropped anchor in Plymouth. A short time later Agar was being briefed by Rear Admiral Lancelot Holland on his mission. The written instructions were:

Two million pounds in gold bars is to be embarked in each ship to Halifax. A railway truck is expected to be placed alongside each ship about 01.00 October 7. Each truck is expected to contain 148 boxes each weighing 130 lbs. The total number of boxes is numbered Z 298 to Z 741 inclusive. Guards are to be put on each truck on arrival at the ship. Embarkation is to commence about 06.30 or as soon as daylight permits. Adequate steps are to be taken for supervision of each box from unloading from truck to stowage in ship. Finally a receipt is to be forwarded to C-in-C Western Approaches on the attached form.^[5]

On 7 October 1939, Emerald sailed from Plymouth, England for Halifax, Nova Scotia with the gold bullion from the Bank of England bound for Montreal, Quebec, Canada to be used to pay for American war materials. This voyage was a component of Operation Fish, the transfer of British wealth to Canada, and was under the strictest secrecy, with the crew were outfitted with tropical whites to confuse German agents. In the company of the two old battleships, HMS Revenge and HMS Resolution, her sister ship, Enterprise, and the old cruiser HMS Caradoc, she ran into some of the heaviest seas that Agar encountered. By the time they reached Halifax the Emerald had lost her ship's boats, rafts and various depth charges, wires, shackles and other valuable equipment, not to mention her spotter plane, a Fairey Seafox.

Upon arrival in Halifax, Emerald was assigned to North Atlantic convoy escort duty for the return voyage. The large convoy was filled with American munitions for the war effort. Since the Emerald had been designed and equipped for work in gentler climates this was very uncomfortable as well as dangerous duty. The Canadian Red Cross provided a large supply of warm gloves, woolen scarves, sea boot stockings, leather headgear lined with wool and fur, and woolen underwear, for the crew were ill-equipped to face winter storms with their tropical gear. The convoy lost two merchant ships to U-boats on the trip to the United Kingdom.

Among the convoys Emerald escorted was the first Canadian troop convoy, in November 1939, when 7,500 troops reached Britain without incident. Convoy duty continued through the bitter winter of 1939/40. Agar's tour of duty as captain of the Emerald was completed in June 1940 after escorting a contingent of Canadian soldiers in the SS Empress of Australia to occupy Iceland. In the Clyde he handed over command of his beloved ship and departed with the cheers of his officers and crew ringing in his ears.^[6] He was then assigned to command the destroyer leader HMS Malcolm as head of the 16th Destroyer Flotilla based at Harwich. It was the first assignment in six months on temporary duty.

Operation Lucid

Agar was in charge of the planning and execution of Operation Lucid in September 1940, an attempt to hit the German wooden invasion barges at Boulogne and Calais, France, with incendiary material and set them alight. It was a desperate time and any measure, however risky, that could frustrate the German invasion plans was welcome. The plan had the personal backing of Winston Churchill.

Accompanied by various auxiliary vessels, Agar set off for Boulogne several times in September and October 1940 with four small ancient oil tankers filled with a special incendiary fuel (called "Agar's special mixture"). The wartime need for oil tankers was so great that only vessels unfit for convoy work were available to Agar. The very poor mechanical condition of these ships hampered the enterprise. Bad weather or mechanical breakdowns forced cancellation of the first attempts.

The last attempt seemed set to be successful until the command ship with Agar aboard, HMS Hambledon, a Hunt class destroyer, hit an acoustic mine mid-Channel and was severely damaged. She had to be towed back to England, being shelled by German coastal batteries on the French coast on the way back, but without receiving a hit.

The season was now too late for another attempt and, in any case, the threat of invasion had receded.

Coastal Forces

On 25 November 1940, Agar was appointed chief staff officer to the rear admiral commanding Coastal Forces. This was a critical position as the Germans were vigorously attacking the coastal convoys running down the English Channel and up and down the east coast from Scotland to the northeast of England down to London. The threats were from aircraft, mines and fast German motor torpedo boats called E-boats. Britain had let her coastal forces deteriorate since the days when Agar had himself commanded CMBs.

One coastal convoy in the fall of 1940 lost fourteen of twenty-five ships between London and Bristol. The toll on the East Coast convoys was just as great, with the threat of E-boats making a quick dash from ports in the Low Countries. The problem was that if coastal convoys were discontinued, the British rail network could not handle the extra traffic and factories would be idle for lack of raw materials. The vessels used in the coastal trade were small and specially designed for the service, and of limited utility on ocean convoys. The traffic in coal from the northeast of England to London was especially important.

Agar worked hard in this role from November 1940 to July 1941 when he was given a new seagoing command.

HMS Dorsetshire

Agar was appointed captain of the 9,925 ton heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire in August 1941. The ship carried a catapult operated reconnaissance aircraft (a Supermarine Walrus), had a great range and was designed for finding and destroying enemy commerce raiders. She was assigned to convoy protection duty in the South Atlantic and left Scotland on her first mission escorting a slow convoy to South Africa with a stop en route at Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Based at Freetown, Dorsetshire worked with the cruisers HMS Newcastle and later HMS Dunedin and HMS Devonshire. For a while they were joined by the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle. Their task was to protect Allied commerce in the South Atlantic from German surface raiders and submarines. Particular targets of the British cruisers were the supply ships which replenished German submarines and surface raiders. Without them the submarines would have to withdraw. The Devonshire sank the German commerce raider Atlantis on 22 November 1941.

On 1 December 1941 Dorsetshire came upon the German supply ship Python, which immediately attempted to flee. Since the area was one where merchant ships seldom ventured, Agar fired two salvos at the ship, one before and one behind as a warning to stand to. At this the Python scuttled herself. Dorsetshire did not stop to pick up survivors as she knew that submarines were likely to be near.

One of the German U-boats heading to the Python to be refuelled spotted HMS Dunedin and sank her. Only four officers and 63 men survived out of Dunedin's crew of 486 officers and men.

Japanese in the Indian Ocean

Dorsetshire was berthed at the naval base at Simon's Town, South Africa, on 7 December 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and, soon after, British positions at Hong Kong, Shanghai and Malaya. She was immediately assigned to escort a convoy of British troops just arriving from Halifax in American transports, originally destined for the Middle East, but now diverted to Singapore. She guided them to Bombay and then returned to Durban to escort another convoy to Aden and Bombay. This was essential duty as these convoys were now vulnerable to attack by both German and Japanese raiders, passing by the less than friendly Vichy French island of Madagascar. Dorsetshire then was assigned to escort a convoy to withdraw as many civilians from Singapore as possible before the island was overrun by the Japanese. She got them safely to Colombo, Ceylon.

Agar then was assigned a mission to transport and land a party of 100 Royal Marines in Burma to harass invading Japanese forces, giving the main forces time to evacuate Rangoon. Dorsetshire then escorted the last convoy to get out of Rangoon before it fell on 8 March 1942.

Dorsetshire was not equipped to operate in an area with enemy aircraft and Agar was attempting to add anti-aircraft guns in Colombo and to dismantle and refit her engines and boilers to meet the challenges ahead when word arrived that an enemy fleet had entered the Indian Ocean. For an account of the Japanese attack on British positions in the Bay of Bengal see Indian Ocean raid. He stopped his refit, reassembled his machinery and put to sea as fast as he could. Acting on information that the Japanese fleet had turned back, Admiral Somerville ordered Dorsetshire back into Colombo to finish the refit. Agar again began to dismantle his machinery and clean his boilers. He was told by the port admiral that anti-aircraft guns would arrive in two days for his ship. It was a Saturday, 4 April, the day before Easter.

The Dorsetshire was part of a scratch fleet of obsolete British battleships with two small obsolete aircraft carriers and attached cruisers hurriedly put together to stem the Japanese naval advance into the Indian Ocean. Admiral James Somerville had moved the main part of the fleet to a secret base at Addu Atoll in the Maldives, as he knew that his fleet was no match for the Japanese. His main duty was to keep the sea lanes open to India, to the Persian Gulf oilfields and to the Eighth Army in Egypt, at that time attempting to stop the German and Italian armies under General Erwin Rommel.

End of the Dorsetshire

Dorsetshire was in some ways a victim of the lack of British intelligence about the capabilities of the Japanese fleet. Neither Agar nor Somerville had any idea that the range of Japanese naval dive bombers was almost twice that of comparable British aircraft. To survive after getting a second warning of the presence of a large westbound Japanese Fleet in the Indian Ocean he would have had to leave Colombo as fast as possible and head west at top speed.

On Saturday afternoon, 4 April 1942 an urgent message summoned Agar to the base Operations Room in Colombo. A Consolidated Catalina flying boat had just reported that it was shadowing a large force of enemy carriers accompanied by battleships steering west from the Malacca Straits, directly for Ceylon. This was the fleet of Admiral Nagumo.

Admiral Somerville was in the Maldives beyond the immediate reach of the advancing Japanese. Upon receiving the news he moved further out of Nagumo's way and ordered the Dorsetshire and HMS Cornwall, which was also in Colombo, to join him with all speed. He left the choosing of a rendezvous point to the admiral commanding in Colombo. It took six long hours to reassemble the ships machinery and get her ready for sea. The two cruisers left Colombo harbour at 10 pm on 4 April. The rendezvous point was approved by Admiral Somerville. It was a fatal error as a more westerly rendezvous point would have saved the two ships. The ships could steam at only 28 knots, the top speed that Cornwall could make.

At daybreak, Easter Sunday, 5 April 1942, Agar received a signal that the Japanese Fleet was only 120 miles south of Colombo. They began an attack on the port at 8 am. No further communication was received from Colombo (their radio tower was hit).

At this point, lacking further direction, as Somerville was maintaining radio silence and Colombo was out of action, Agar made a fatal decision. He saw his first duty as rejoining the fleet in the hopes of launching a night attack on the Japanese and opted to continue on southwards to the rendezvous point instead of heading due west out of the danger zone. At 11:30 am a Japanese patrol aircraft spotted them. There were six hours of daylight left. Agar continued on to the rendezvous point. He broke radio silence to tell Somerville of his decision. The rendezvous point was 90 miles away.

The two ships were caught by Japanese dive bombers at 1 pm and the Dorsetshire sank eight minutes after the first bomb hit. She went down at 13:50 after being struck by 10 bombs. A total of 234 men were killed and 500, including the Captain, survived in the water until rescue 32 hours later. Only 16 of the men who went into the water died, a testament to crew discipline and the leadership of Agar and the other officers and petty officers. The Cornwall was sunk as well.

Agar worked hard to save his crew, picking up the wounded in a whaler, gathering up stragglers and giving good advice. He was reported by survivors as speaking calmly.

A Fairey Swordfish found the men in the water the next afternoon and an hour later the light cruiser HMS Enterprise and the destroyers HMS Paladin and HMS Panther arrived to rescue the survivors. Agar was taken aboard the Paladin.

During the engagement Agar had been wounded in the leg by shrapnel. This wound turned septic as a result of being left unattended after the sinking. When the Dorsetshire sank, Agar had been dragged down deep and suffered an air embolism while coming up, with serious damage to his lungs (i.e. 'pulmonary barotrauma'). On the surface he swallowed oil. These injuries affected his fitness for further seagoing duty. He was fifty-two and had completed thirty-seven years of active duty. After a short stay in Bombay where his health took a turn for the worse, he was sent to hospital in South Africa. The leg healed, but lung trouble from the air embolism and from the oil he swallowed stayed with him for the rest of his life. He arrived in Britain on 28 May 1942.