The Incredible Story of Harbour Defense Motor Launch 1321
The year was 1942 and the Japanese had invaded New Guinea. The Australian Navy needed ships of all types. Including vessels capable of patrolling the waters of New Guinea coast and nearby islands.
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| HDML 1321 on slipway Oct 1943 |
FIRST BORN
To provide these, several Australian ship builders were employed to construct a British patrol boat design known as a Harbor Defence Motor Launch, or HDML. Of all wood construction several Harbour Defence Motor Launches, HDMLs, had already been purchased from England and the USA, and with modifications these were found suitable for Australian use. The first Australian built vessel, HDML 1321, was launched at Purdon & Featherstone’s slipways in Hobart, Tasmania in November 1943. Of Huon pine construction, 1321 was 72 feet long, displaced 58 tonnes and powered by twin 380 horsepower diesel engines. On the night April 11th 1945 HDML-1321 launched four folding kayaks into the Bismark Sea near an island called Muschu off the north coast of New Guinea. This insertion was the beginning of the highly secret Z Force mission called Operation Copper.
Z Special Unit was the forerunner of Australia's Special Air Services (SAS), men selected for their proven fighting ability and fitness, highly trained in infiltration, reconnaissance and survival. Their role included penetrating enemy areas to bring back information on their defences, sabotaging installations and creating fear and uncertainty among the enemy by ambush and assassination.
To do this one method used to insert teams into enemy territory were patrol boats, of which HDMLs were a prime example.
HDML 1321 was essential to Operation Copper, a reconnaissance mission by eight Z Special Commandos of Muschu Island some five miles off Wewak. The aim of the mission was to determine the status of defences on the island, including the position of two large naval guns that dominated the approaches to Wewak, and to confirm the number of Japanese soldiers and marines on the island. If possible they were also to capture a Japanese soldier and bring him back for interrogation. As Ron Reynolds the surviving radio operator of HDML 1321 remarked.
“They were more than brave we thought they were paddling off to a certain death”
— Ron Reynold's: Radio Operator HDML - 1321
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| Ron Reynolds (left), Radio Operator of HDML 1321 during Operation Copper |
Seven Australian Z Force Commandos perished during Operation Copper. Two Commandos drowned, three were captured, tortured and beheaded by the Japanese with another two commandos declared missing and their fate remaining unknown for nearly seventy years. The lone survivor Mick Dennis found himself on Muschu Island with the worst of prospects; stay on the island and try and outwit 700 ruthless Japanese or test his ability as a swimmer and channel his sisters Olympic gold medal swimming prowess. Nine days later, after fighting his way off the island, swimming the shark and crocodile infested waters of Muschu Strait to the mainland, fighting more Japanese Patrols the only survivor Sapper Mick Dennis reached the Allied lines north of Wewak. The information he carried allowed the Japanese guns to put out of action and casualties in the subsequent Allied assault on the Japanese Garrison at Wewak were minimised. HDML 1321 remained in New Guinea as a support craft for Z Special, inserting and extracting more patrols during the work-up towards the invasion of Wewak in May 1945.
Four of the crew members of Motor Launch (ML) 1321 and NX73110 Sapper (Spr) Edgar Thomas 'Mick' Dennis, Z Special Unit, the only survivor of the ill fated raid on Muschu Island (off the coast of New Guinea), at Brisbane dockyard; May 1945.
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| Four of the crew members of Motor Launch (ML) 1321 and NX73110 Sapper Edgar Thomas 'Mick' Dennis, Z Special Unit, the only survivor of the ill fated raid on Muschu Island (off the coast of New Guinea), at Brisbane dockyard; May 1945 |
In 1946 HDML returned to Australia where it served with the Naval Reserve in Sydney as a harbor defence vessel, renamed HMAS Rushcutter. In 1953, HMAS Rushcutter was paid off and sold to a private owner who converted it to a cruise launch and renamed MV Rushcutter. For almost thirty years, MV Rushcutter cruised the Australian east coast, eventually being sold and moved it north to Darwin in approximately 2006.
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| Russell Smith, Mick Dennis, Ron Reynolds in 2011 |
In 2006 The Rushcutter was purchased in Nhulunboy on the Gove Peninsula NT by Tracy & Wendy Geddes and sailed by the mother and daughter team some 100kms to Darwin. Tracy & Wendy are the eccentric mother and daughter combination who have found themselves the passionate protectors of the history of HDML 1321. Together they have put everything they have into preserving what is a huon pine crafted time machine of Australian military history.
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| Tracy Geddes the current owner of MV Rushcutter / HDML 1321. The two diesel engines are the original Buda motors used throughout the war, one still performing perfectly. |
Now Tracy & Wendy need to sell the Rushcutter and return to their native Tasmania and retire. They want the memory of HDML 1321 and its role in Operation Copper to be preserved for future generations to be able to understand the sacrifices made for contemporary Australian society, a society grappling to understand a new era of human conflict.
HDML 1321 is a central character and an enduring symbol of the memory of the seven brave souls who lost their lives during Operation Copper. The lone survivor Mick Dennis, passed away in 2015 with only radio operator Ron Reynolds and engine stoker John Sevenoaks of HDML 1321's crew remaining. The memory of Operation Copper is a story that has travelled through time and refuses to be laid to rest.
In June 2014 the final two Z Special Unit soldiers killed on Kairiru Island during World War II have been laid to rest at the Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery in Papua New Guinea. Lance Corporal Spencer Walklate and Private Ronald Eagleton were buried with military honours in the presence of their families. They were thought to be lost at sea, before evidence discovered by series of coincidental events lead the Australian Army’s Unrecovered War Casualties Unit to the discovery of their remains on Kairiru Island.
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| The Ruschcutter (HDML 1321) before she sank |
Before she sank the plan was to purchase HDML 1321 and sail the vessel from Darwin to Sydney, visiting various landmarks along the way such as Fraser Island and Townsville, the training grounds for Z Force Commandos during World War 2. It will be via this journey of delivering HDML 1321 that the narrative of our story will be revealed, the contemporary will meet the past as we channel the memories of Operation Copper and the various characters this vessel has touched over the decades.
HDML 1321 and its crew couldn’t save the Z Force Commandos during Operation Copper but the boat itself can now be saved and preserved and in doing so help its current owners Tracy & Wendy Geddes return to their native Tasmania, the same Australian state that gave birth to HDML 1321. By doing this we will open a new chapter on a story that has touched the lives of many and preserve the history of HDML 1321 and its involvement in Operation Copper.
This is a story about Australia’s most secret wartime history being presented for future generations and ensuring its sacrifices are not forgotten.
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| HDML 1321 |
The first HMAS Ruschutter was the later name give to HDML 1321. In this photo was see the multi-hulled mine-hunter HMAS Ruschutter[II] making its way towards its base at HMAS WATERHEN at Waverton, on the inner north of the Harbour, west of the Harbour ridge.
The mansion on the headland to the right here is Admiralty House, the Governor-General's official residence in Sydney.
Up until the 19 October 2016 HDML 1321 was operating as the MV Rushcutter.
