VALE

A Tribute to our recently deceased member of the HMAS Hobart Association
Malcolm ‘Mick’ Fowler

After completing training at Flinders, Mick was posted as an Ordinary Seaman to the HMAS Hobart which joined an armada including 3 battleships and 53 other warships.  On its first attempt to navigate the Suez Canal, action required them to retreat astern to clear the passage due to enemy alert.
Their time spent on this patrol was in protecting the fleet against attack by submarines, bombers, torpedo bombers, mines, rescuing survivors from abandoned ships, transporting troops, bombarding garrisons and enemy ships.  There were many ships and crew lost in the action.
South China and Java Seas : December 1941 – April 1942
HMAS Hobart, with Able Seaman Fowler on board, was recalled to rejoin RAN after Japan entered the war to carry out patrols of the Maldives.  It then joined the fleet escorting the military convoy to Singapore when it came under unsuccessful attack from Japanese submarines and bombers before berthing at Kepple Island (Singapore).
HMAS Hobart Captain Howden was given carte blanche to procure all the stores and fuels required.  Seven red alarms were recorded during that day and a considerable number of bombs fell in the harbour.
The HMAS Hobart was the last major ship to leave Singapore before it fell to Japan with the ship being continuously attacked during this period, on one occasion by 28 bombers and submarines.  Avoiding bombs called for the most violent maneuvering.  On one occasion the captain found it necessary to go from 24 knots ahead to 24 knots astern on one engine to change the ships direction.
The fighting was full-on during the next four months until April 1942 which saw the ship secure in Sydney Harbour for repairs and maintenance.
The Battle of the Coral Sea : April 1942 – August 1943
HMAS Hobart was nominated for service with the ANZAC force ships as part of the US Navy task force deployed in the sea north of Australia on anti invasion patrol and came under heavy attack many times.  (At the battle of Savo Island HMAS Canberra was sunk.)
In one battle alone in the Coral Sea Japan had three aircraft carriers, ten cruisers, thirty five destroyers, ten submarines together with a group of other ships.
During bombing of HMAS Hobart, Skipper Howden was known to spend hours on his back watching with binoculars the enemy planes coming in to attack.  When their bomb hatches opened releasing their load he would alter the ship’s course, avoiding the explosives.
HMAS Hobart continued with the fleet in various ways to help halt the Japanese fleet and force their ultimate withdrawal of its forces.
On July 20th 1943, time 18:45 HMAS Hobart was to receive a vital blow while returning to Espiritu Santo. 
The darkened ship was slicing through the water at 25 knots on a zig zag course when a searing flash illuminated HMAS Hobart’s aft port side.  The ship shuddered under the terrific impact, causing it to lay dead in the water.  The ship had been hit by a torpedo fired at HMAS Australia by a submarine some 10 miles away.  Mick was aft at the time of the explosion and was propelled across the deck sustaining minor injuries, one of the luckier ones.
Some observations were:

• The torpedo struck the port quarter
• 60 ton Y turret lifted and was partly thrown over the side of the ship (later secured until ship reached port)
• Eight relief crew of Y turret lucky escapes while sitting on a carly float beside turret
• The explosion blew them over the side and they survived
• 7 officers and 6 ratings were killed by the explosion and many more were injured.
• The ship was able to continue to Santa at 8 knots.
• The repair ship, Vestral, carried out sufficient repairs to enable HMAS Hobart to return to Sydney

Post War World II
HMAS Australia : January 1946 – May 1948
Mick spent time in the far eastern waters as part of the occupational force in Japan followed by time in Australian waters including a goodwill trip to New Zealand.
HMAS Warramunga : April 1949 – January 1951
Having recently become a Petty Officer, Mick was on board the Warramunga on the 25th August 1950 when it began operations in the Korean War with her first patrol being with the HMS Triumph.  Then with a naval force assembled for the amphibious operations the patrol ended with the recapture of Inchon.  The ship was then involved with the landing at Wonsan. 
HMAS Warramunga then operated around the coast of Korea carrying out many assignments when action was at its greatest. Petty Officer Fowler was later to receive a presentation from a Korean national for his part in saving survivors from a sinking vessel.
The remainder of Mick’s service time was spent at the Rushcutters, Flinders and Leeuwin (Parkes) depots.
Life Outside Service
Mick was born in Perth in 1922 and died aged 88 in Busselton on 7 November 2010 a day after his birthday.  He was married and is survived by his wife Lois, son and grandson.
Mick grew up on the family dairy farm in Armadale before joining the RAN, at age 17, where he spent the next 13 years.
On discharge from the navy he completed a rehabilitation course in plumbing, being apprenticed to JC Lyons for the term of his indenture.  He then started a successful plumbing business in 1957 doing cottage plumbing in Scarborough through to 1977 when he retired to Dunsborough where he built a house and purchased a hobby farm running sheep.  After selling these properties he moved into a Busselton home fronting Geographe Bay.
Mick was an active person at both work and leisure including fishing, football in his younger days, golf and lawn bowls.  He would apply himself with enthusiasm be it in the garden, vegetable patch or cabinet making.
He was a very generous person and played his part in the formation of the HMAS Hobart Association, Dunsborough Bowling Club and religiously attended many functions locally and nationally when able to.  Mick could always be called on to support groups.  On one occasion this meant nurse-maiding a pod of whales that had beached themselves.
Mick was to spend the last three months of his life in and out of hospital fighting an incurable infection.

Bill Freind Navy Club, Fremantle 11Feb 1994