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COMMANDER LIAM AHERN NS (Rtd)
The Royal Navy: Prewar
Liam Ahern was born in Queenstown (as it then was) in 1920 and
went to school in Cobh and in Portsmouth, where his father was
posted in the 1930s. In 1936 he joined the Royal Navy in Chatham
(just after his 16th birthday) as an ERA (Engine Room Artificer)
apprentice and completed most of his training on HMS Caledonia
located in Rosyth, after which he was posted to sea.
HMS Caledonia: Mechanical
Training Establishment:
HMS Caledonia began her life at Blohm and Voss, Hamburg in 1913;
named the Bismarck, she was designed to be the largest liner ever
built but was transferred to Britain in 1919 under the Treaty of
Versailles as reparation for the sinking of the Lusitania.
Completed by late March 1922, she operated as the
White Star liner
Majestic until she was sold in May 1936 to a ship breaker's yard.
She was bought by the Admiralty shortly afterwards (at which time
the only larger vessels afloat were The Queen Mary and the Normandie) and converted to a training ship. She arrived in Rosyth
on 10 April 1937 to be commissioned as the 9th HMS Caledonia on 23
April 1937 for the purpose of training Boy Seamen and Artificer
Apprentices. In 1939, at the outbreak of war, she moved out of the
non-tidal basin to anchor off Crombie Point. Her intended future
use as a troopship was not to be, as she burnt to the waterline on
29 September 1939. She was later towed to Inverkeithing in 1941
where she was finally scrapped in 1943.
The Royal Navy 1939-1945:
Throughout the second world war Liam Ahern served on several ships
of the Royal Navy including
HMS Ajax in the Mediterranean (during
the
Battle of Cape Matapan, Greece: 27 to 29 March 1941; 08
February 1942: ERA Liam Ahern RN promoted to Chief Petty Officer
ERA, HMS Ajax) and on the destroyer
HMS Walker engaged on convoy
escort duties in the Atlantic, in the North Sea, on the Arctic
Convoys, and in operations towing the innovative, prefabricated
Mulberry Harbours to the Normandy beaches, including the provision
of oil supply lines to reinforce the Allied D-Day invasion
foothold in June 1944. Following the surrender of Nazi Germany in
May 1945, Chief Petty Officer ERA Ahern was deployed to the Far
East and served on ships of the British Pacific fleet.
The Irish Naval Service:
Enlisted 15 December 1947 – Retired 24 September 1980:
At the outbreak of the war, the Irish government established the
Marine and Coastwatching Service and acquired six motor torpedo
boats from Britain. By the end of the war the marine service had
been run down and two years later, it was decided to establish an
Irish Naval Service as part of the Defence Forces. In 1946 a
permanent Naval Service was established in Ireland and three
flower class corvettes,
L.É. Macha
(formerly known as H.M.S.
Borage),
L.É. Maev (formerly H.M.S. Oxlip) and
L.É. Cliona (formerly
H.M.S. Bellworth) were purchased from the British Admiralty and
became the backbone of the Naval Service for the following two
decades.
Chief Petty Officer ERA Liam Ahern RN was one of two junior
officers recruited from the Royal Navy, and was one of only a
handful of officers in the infant Irish Naval Service who had
naval combat experience as most of his fellow officers were
recruited from the merchant marine. In 1947 the majority of the
new intake of 23 cadets were sent for training to the Britannia
Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.
Sub Lieutenant Ahern NS (Naval Service) was subsequently posted to
the flower class corvettes L.É. Macha and L.É. Maev, becoming a
lieutenant commander in 1956, and a commander in 1968, before
moving to the dockyard engineering service and retiring in 1980 as
the senior marine engineering officer at the naval base & dockyard
at Haulbowline. Commander Ahern rarely referred to his experiences
and training in the Royal Navy, when serving at the Naval
headquarters on Haulbowline island.
Commander Liam Ahern was a good friend of
Commodore Peter Kavanagh,
Director and Flag Officer Commanding Irish Naval Service from 1973
till 1980.
Retirement:
Following his retirement in September 1980 Commander Ahern worked
with Irish Shipping for a further five years at the Verolme Cork
Dockyard. He had also been closely involved in the design and
commissioning of the Naval Service's helicopter patrol vessel
L.É. Eithne, its largest vessel, built and launched in 1984.
In recent years, following the death of his wife Sally (Sarah, née
Whelan), he was cared for by his family and the staff at the Conna
Nursing Home in north Cork as he coped with failing eyesight. Liam
Ahern was predeceased also by his eldest son, Peter. He is
survived by his daughters, Anne Marie (Bermingham) and Miriam, son
Damian, and seven grandchildren. Commander Ahern died on the 09th
March 2011 and is buried in
St Colman’s Catholic Cemetery, Cobh,
County Cork, Ireland.
MEDALS: Chief Petty
Officer ERA Liam Ahern RN:
When he retired Commander Ahern was presented with medals by the
government of Malta for service on the battle cruiser HMS Ajax and
by the Soviet Union in recognition of his services on the
Arctic
supply convoys to Murmansk and Archangel from 1941. He recalled,
on the evening before his 21st birthday, his ship had been
attacked by German dive-bombers off the Norwegian coast and,
knowing that his position in the mid-ship engine room was a likely
target, Liam feared that he would never attain his majority. He
was fortunate in that he survived nearly a dozen Russian convoy
trips without being sunk or getting his feet wet once.
Medals:
1. 1939-1945 Star.
2. Atlantic Star: with France and Germany Clasp.
3. Africa Star: with North Africa Clasp 1942-1944.
4. 1939-1945 War Medal.
5. Naval Service Medal – Minesweeping 1945-1951
6. Russia:The Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the
Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" to denote the fortieth anniversary
of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
7. Arctic Star: Service on the Arctic Convoys.
8. Chile: Medal of Gratitude 1939. On the 24 January 1939
HMS Exeter and HMS Ajax of the Royal Navy’s South America Squadron
were tasked to assist the Government of Chile in a humanitarian
mission following the devastating earthquake at Concepción. The
earthquake, the deadliest in Chile’s history, measured 8.3 on the
Richter scale and led to a death toll of approximately 28,000, and
around 95% of the town’s buildings were completely destroyed. The
crews of
H.M.S. Ajax and H.M.S. Exeter were awarded the Medal of
Gratitude 1939, by the Chilean Municipality of Concepción.
9. Malta George Cross Fiftieth Anniversary Medal: Service
on Malta Convoys.
HMS Walker:
W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy, was laid down by
William Denny and Brothers at Dumbarton, Scotland. She was
launched on 29 November, completed on 12 February 1918. She took
part in in World War I and World War II (starting from 1939). In
January 1944, Walker was transferred to the Home Fleet to escort
Arctic convoys to and from the Soviet Union.
Corvettes L.É Macha and
L.É Maev:
During the post-war period of his life and career,
Commander Ahern served on the corvettes L.É. Macha (formerly known as HMS Borage)
and L.É. Maev (formerly HMS Oxlip) of the Irish Naval Service.
Notably, both corvettes were part of the Northern Convoys to
Russia in the Royal Navy during the World War II. Their history is
also noteworthy because it was these corvettes, together with the
corvette L.É. Cliona (formerly HMS Bellworth), that became the backbone of the
Irish Naval Service
for the following two decades (until the 1970s).
LÉ Cliona ( Ex HMS
Bellworth) Fire Revisited:
RTE Film: Recorded 29 May 1962:
On the 29 May 1962, the Irish Naval Vessel L.É. Cliona while
participating in an annual exercise at sea, south of Roches Point,
County Cork, carried out a successful Hedgehog mortar exercise.
During her second pattern of depth charges, Cliona suffered a
premature explosion from a charge dropped from the stern rails
which lifted the stern of the ship out of the water. The ensuing
concussion ruptured fuel oil feed pipes in the aft boiler room.
Leaking oil resulted in a serious fire which rapidly accelerated
out of control. Able Stoker William Mynes immediately closed the
oil feed valves, isolating the supply of fuel to the fire and in
the process suffered burns to his hands, arms and face. A/S Mynes
then assisted the two injured young stokers, Ordinary Stoker Brady
and Ordinary Stoker Hennessy to safety out of the boiler room,
which was engulfed in flames, even though he was injured himself.
A/S Mynes continued to fight the fire until ordered to report for
first aid. Lt O'Mahony (ÓMathúna) then proceeded into the boiler
room and fought the fire single-handedly, ably assisted by crew,
for nearly 30 to 40 minutes. The fire was eventually extinguished
and despite the Marine Rescue Coordination Centre dispatching an
oceangoing tug to the scene to assist, L.É. Cliona was able to
proceed to Haulbowline under her own steam for an investigation
and repairs. (Extract: Report to the Chief of Staff from
Captain
Thomas McKenna on fire damage to L.É. Cliona, 31 May 1962
(Military Archives). Had Cliona foundered it is unlikely that
there would have been survivors as there was a primed depth charge
on the deck. Had she sunk the hydrostatic trigger would have
ignited the charge and the resulting concussion would have killed
survivors in the water.
LÉ Maev (HMS Oxlip):
Oxlip was ordered in July 1939 as part of the Royal Navy's 1939
War Emergency building programme. She was launched in August 1942,
and served on the Arctic convoys during World War II.
From February 1942 onwards Oxlip served with close escort groups
on Arctic convoys. In three years Oxlip sailed with 18 convoys
(outbound and homebound), contributing to the safe and timely
arrival of more than 300 merchant ships. In 1946 she was sold for
the Irish Naval Service where she was named after Medb, the
legendary queen of Connacht. L.É. Maev was and decommissioned in
March 1972.
L.É Macha (HMS Borage):
Flower-class corvette, ordered in 1939 as part of the Royal Navy's
1939 War Emergency building programme. She was launched in
November 1941 and completed in April 1942. In December 1943 she
was part of the close escort to convoy JW55B, which was subject to
a failed attack resulting in the sinking of the German battleship
Scharnhorst. In 1946 HMS Borage was sold to the Irish Naval
Service where she was commissioned as L.É. Macha (named after Macha,
an ancient Irish goddess of war). She was scrapped in November
1970.
Credit:
Damian Ahern, son of Commander Liam Ahern NS (Rtd)
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