page_title: Arthur Hezlet
section_title: HMS Trenchant (P 331)
hierarchical_section_title: Arthur Hezlet / Second World War / Operations in the Pacific / HMS Trenchant (P 331)
caption_attribution_description: English: The two Commanding Officers talk over their patrols. Lieut R H Brunner, RN, Poulton-Le-Fylde, Lancs (left) and Commander A R Hezlet, DSO, DSC, RN, of Aghadowey, Co Londonderry.
context_page_description: Vice Admiral Sir Arthur Richard Hezlet, nicknamed Baldy Hezlet, was a decorated Royal Navy submariner. He became the Royal Navy's youngest captain at the time – aged 36 – and its youngest admiral, aged 45. In retirement he became a military historian.
  He was a recipient of the Order of the British Empire, the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, the Distinguished Service Order and Bar, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Legion of Merit.
context_section_description: On 15 October 1943 Hezlet took over as Lieutenant Commander in Command of the submarine HMS Trenchant at Chatham. 
  
  After trials in the Clyde and nearby lochs, on 14 May 1944 Trenchant departed Holy Loch for Trincomalee, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Trenchant's first war patrol began on 25 July 1944 when she departed Trincomalee for the west coast of Sumatra. Her mission was partly to participate in Operation Boomerang, the USAAF's B-29 raid on oil fields and refineries at Palembang, by standing off the coast and assist in searching for and rescuing aircrew downed over the sea. Trenchant was given a special "homing device" to allow any B-29 in trouble to find her. In the event, no aircraft called for her assistance, though she was ordered to search for a downed aircraft but this proved fruitless. Trenchant was also to attack any enemy forces encountered.  During the patrol she sank a Japanese coaster. Hezlet stopped to pick up survivors who were being discouraged by one of their number, an officer, from doing so. Hezlet manoeuvred Trenchant to cut the officer off from the rest of the group and eventually Trenchant managed to coax 14 Japanese to accept rescue; the others had to be left to their fate. 
  Hezlet undertook long-range patrols in the Indian and Pacific oceans, earning him his first Distinguished Service Order (DSO). He sank the long-range German U-boat U-859, on 23 September 1944, near the Sunda Strait, whose position had been identified through 'Ultra' signals decrypts.
  On 27 October 1944, Trenchant deployed two Mk II Chariot manned torpedoes 6.5 nautical miles off Phuket in Thailand on a mission to destroy two salved former Italian merchant ships in what would prove to be one of the most successful uses of Chariots of the whole War. One Chariot, codenamed "Tiny" (manned by T/S.Lt. A.W.C. Eldrige, RNVR and T/A/Petty Officer S. Woollcott) was to target the former Sumatra, while the other, codenamed "Slasher" (manned by T/Petty Officer W.S. Smith  and Ordinary Seaman A.F. Brown) was to target the former Volpi. Both Chariots successfully placed the charges on their target and proceeded back out of the harbour and the crews were re-embarked aboard Trenchant. Both targets were sunk. The chariots "Tiny" and "Slasher" had to be scuttled due to the danger from a Japanese patrol boat in the vicinity.
  On 8 June 1945, Hezlet took Trenchant into shallow mined water in the Banka Strait off Sumatra, to intercept Japanese heavy cruiser Ashigara.  Despite being attacked by the Japanese destroyer Kamikaze, five out of eight torpedoes that he fired hit Ashigara, which quickly sank.  It was the largest Japanese warship sunk by a Royal Navy warship during the war.
  Hezlet was ordered to Subic Bay in the Philippines, where he was awarded the U.S. Legion of Merit by U.S. Admiral James Fife, Jr..  He was also awarded a Bar to his DSO.
  Ordered to return to the UK, he ended the war as he began it, serving on a submarine.
caption: Commander A R Hezlet, DSO, DSC, RN (right) and Lieut R H Brunner, RN, Poulton-Le-Fylde, Lancs (left). 21 March 1945, Colombo, Ceylon. © IWM (A 28133)
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