Tribute to HMS Exeter

A tribute to the heavy cruiser HMS Exter sunk at the Second Battle of the Java Sea, now more appropriately called The Battle off Bawean Island. Her escorting destroyers, HMS Encounter and USS Pope were also lost; Pope temporarily escaped the initial melee, only to be sunk by aerial attack a few hours later. About 800 Allied seamen, including the commander of Exeter, Captain Oliver Gordon, were picked up by the Japanese and became prisoners of war.

The wreck was located and positively identified in February 2007. Exeter lies in Indonesian waters, at a depth of about 200 ft (60 m), 90 miles north of Bawean Island.

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[PlymouthPilgrim1975]

My late grandfather was (at the time) a Sergeant of Royal Marines named George Puddifoot. His action of flooding the main magazine at the River Plate was credited with saving HMS Exeter, as the ship was on fire from stem to stern.

RIP Gramps, gone but never forgotten.

[DangRockets]

@wrmxh18 Did he spend the war in Japan ar Makassar after becoming a POW from the Exeter? My grandad was in Nagasaki when the Americans dropped 'Fat Man'

[MrMike3865]

Tribute to these brave men..God Bless them.

[BrabazonBW]

A place in Valhalla is reserved for these men

[wrmxh18]

Thank you for the video, my father was on the ship at the fateful time and became a "guest" of the Japanese. Never spoke of it very much. We can only guess what they all went through.

[MrPIT1956]

MY FATHERS UNCLE, HENRY DE WET GREEN SERVED ON THIS FINE SHIP AS CHIEF STOKER, AND ALSO SERVED ON THE ACHILLES AT THE RIVER PLATE, HE WAS ON THE EXETER WHEN SHE WAS SUNK AND CAPTURED, BUT DIED AS POW, GODBLESS HIM

[WeePollokBoy]

My father was also on the Exeter in that battle. He too survived the horrors of the prison camps. What about the stills, are they available especially the one of the crew. Great video.

[BrabazonBW]

Amazing. My father was on Exeter at Java Sea and was a prisoner of the Japanese until liberated in August 1945.

Is there any possiblity I could have some of the stills from this fantastic presentation. Beautifully and sensitively done

[flyboy8492]

why don't you watch the credits?

[marcofrattini1]

wot's the name of the song?