FUSETSUKAN!

© 2010 Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp and Peter Cundall

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1938:
Renfrew, Scotland. Laid down at Lobnitz & Co. Ltd.'s shipyard as a BARRICADE-class boom defence vessel.

9 September 1938:
Launched and named HMS BARLIGHT.

12 December 1938:
Completed.

Early 1939:
Arrives at Hong Kong. Assigned to British Admiral Sir Percy L. H. Noble's China Station in the Hong Kong Local Defence Unit.

8 December 1941:
Hong Kong. The Japanese move troops across the New Territories and bomb Kai Tak airport on Kowloon.

13 December 1941:
Major General C. M. Maltby, British Indian Army, orders the evacuation of Kowloon Peninsula. By 0930, all British and Commonwealth troops are evacuated from the Mainland to Hong Kong Island.

19 December 1941:
Hong Kong. Chief Skipper Andrew Flett, RNR, and his crew scuttle HMS BARLIGHT in Deepwater Bay to prevent her capture. [1]

25 December 1941: Christmas Day and the Fall of Hong Kong:
Governor Sir Mark A. Young surrenders the outnumbered British garrison because of lack of food and water. Nearly 6,500 British and Commonwealth troops go into Japanese captivity.

20 September 1942:
Hong Kong. BARLIGHT's hulk is raised and repaired by the IJN, probably by the 2nd Construction and Repair Unit. Designated M-101 and rated a minelayer.

1 January 1943:
Attached to the Yokosuka Guard Unit.

1 February 1944:
Redesignated Ma-101 and rated an auxiliary netlayer/minelayer.

15 June 1944 - Operation FORAGER:
Saipan, Marianas. After days of aerial and naval bombardment, Vice Admiral (later Admiral) Richmond K. Turner's Task Force 52 lands Marines under LtGen Holland M. Smith, USMC on Saipan under further cover of intensive naval gunfire and carrier-based aircraft.

Tanapag Harbor, Saipan. USS HALSEY POWELL (DD-686), on fire support station off the beaches, sinks Ma-101 with gunfire at 15-15N, 145-45E.

1944-1945:
U.S. Forces refloat and repair Ma-101.

1947:
Ceded to the Chinese Nationalist (KMT) Navy as a war reparation.

1949:
Taken over by Chinese Communist (PRC) forces.

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Author's Note:
[1] Chief Skipper Flett was taken prisoner after the Fall of Hong Kong. On 2 Oct 1942, while crossing from Hong Kong to Japan on armed troop-carrier LISBON MARU, with about 2000 Japanese troops aboard, she was torpedoed 100 miles off Ningpo, Shanghai by LtCdr Rob R. McGregor's USS GROUPER (SS-214). An IJN destroyer took off the troops, but the POWs were kept confined in the hold even after the ship settled on a sandbank. About 846 POWs were lost including Flett. About 970 continued as POWs. A few escaped.

Thanks go to Rob Stuart of Canada for info on the fate of Chief Skipper Flett.

- Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp and Peter Cundall.

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