BAY OF BENGAL
After the fall of Singapore and prioritization of the European and Mediterranean theaters, British naval forces throughout the Indian Ocean had been limited. By late 1944, with reinforcements and modernized battleships and carriers, the Royal Navy’s Eastern Fleet returned to full strength in Southeast Asia and reclaimed a role in the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal, and Malayan operations. Within the year, Japan was struggling to maintain control over its far-flung territories as United States forces advanced through the Pacific islands and British-led campaigns in Burma and Malaya gained momentum. While British and Commonwealth troops advanced steadily through dense jungles and mountainous terrain, warships prowled the coastal waters with guns poised to strike at Japanese installations and supply ships sneaking along the shoreline.
The heavy cruiser H.M.S. London was on convoy defense and interception duty when Midshipman Gerald Crofton Briggs joined on January 19th, 1945. Within a few months, the cruiser sailed for the Indian Ocean to join Task Force 63. At Ceylon they received orders to target strategic locations along the coast of Sumatra and the Malayan Peninsula as part of Operation Sunfish. The London was responsible for the Malayan Port Swettenham and Port Dickson where she was to conduct photographic reconnaissance and bombard critical infrastructure and shipping capacity to ensure that Japan could not reinforce its positions or extract valuable resources from its territories.
They struck Saband first on April 11th alongside H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth and Richelieu of Group One. Despite the absence of enemy shipping in Sabang, the ships managed to damage a small coaster that had been beached. After the coastal bombardment duty, the London escorted carriers during photo reconnaissance flights until turning back for Trincomalee. The task force faced aerial retaliation when ten Japanese aircraft launched an attack. Where swarms of fighters were known to be devastating throughout the Pacific, the fleet's combat air patrols shot down two of the enemy planes and ensured the safety of the naval vessels, allowing the London to slip through untouched.
With their bombardment mission concluded, the ships refueled from the tanker Easedale and in May were detached and ordered to Simonstown, South Africa, for a scheduled refit. Though a formidable cruiser, London’s aging pre-war guns and outdated radar systems had begun to show their limitations. The installation of Radar Type 283 dramatically improved barrage fire control, allowing gunners to better track and engage fast-moving aircraft—appreciated after the aerial attack off Sumatra, especially paired with four twin 4-inch mounts that replaced the outdated single-barrel anti-aircraft guns. The addition of Radar Type 277 enhanced surface detection, providing early warning of enemy vessels lurking beyond visual range. On returning to Ceylon in August, the crew braced for their amphibious landings in Malaya, but just as final preparations were made the Americans insisted on cancelling in light of the Japanese surrender.
On the newly outfitted ship, Briggs contemplated the reality of war’s end. He had been through considerable preparation from naval cadet through months in hostile waters with only a few moments of action. Against the London’s previous service as well as what was to come, her time around the Bay of Bengal was often reduced to a mere sentence or two in the ship’s history, but for Briggs, it was most significant. Japan’s formal surrender in Sumatra would not come for another two weeks. H.M.S. London steamed for Sabang, arriving on August 28th to oversee the disarmament of the local Japanese garrison. A delegation from the defeated force handed over charts detailing the locations of Japanese minefields off Malaya and Singapore, ensuring safer passage for Allied vessels in the coming months. With hostilities officially over, the crew remained vigilant while her guns remained silent.
YELLOW SEA
As war erupted on the Korean Peninsula in June 1950, H.M.S. Constance departed Hong Kong under war orders to join the Royal Navy’s Far East Fleet along Korea’s western coastline where the waters were contested not just by the North Koreans, but by Chinese naval forces, whose warships frequently intercepted British merchant vessels attempting to enter or leave ports. Though China was not officially at war with the United Nations, such incidents pushed the country closer to intervention. As ship’s gunnery officer, Lieutenant Briggs sailed with the C-class destroyer throughout the Yellow Sea to enforce the blockade, disrupt enemy supply lines, and escort British and American carriers launching strikes deep into North Korean territory. Flotilla duties continued through early 1951, punctuated by brief periods of rest and resupply. The ship’s routine included night patrols, bombardments of enemy positions, and high-stakes encounters with hostile forces.
The uneasy stillness of one night patrol was shattered when radar operators on H.M.S. Constance picked up an unexpected contact—large, unaccounted for, and moving quickly through the dark sea. Every ship in the area should have been known to them, yet this presence was mysterious. Though likely to be an allied ship as neither the Koreans or Chinese had anything so large, the crew grappled with the possibility of an enemy vessel where none should be. The anxious Constance issued their coded challenge, which the mystery vessel incorrectly responded with the same code. The klaxons blared and Briggs stood ready as his gunners prepared to engage, which would be the next move had the Captain not hesitated. Firing on a Chinese vessel could erupt into something far greater given the tensions with China. While the crew braced for a broadside, the Captain opted to fire a star shell, which revealed the massive form of the U.S.S. Toledo, a heavily armed American cruiser. A misstep away from catastrophe, the coded challenge was hastily corrected before shots were fired.
With the blockade in full effect, H.M.S. Constance was assigned independent patrols stretching as far north as the Yalu River near the Chinese border. Five miles of sea ice threatened to trap the ship and sharp winds cut across the decks, icing over gun mounts and rigging. The temperature dropped as low as nine degrees Fahrenheit, freezing any seawater that splashed onto the deck. At times, icebreakers were needed just to keep the route open for the Constance while she dodged shore batteries and illuminated the waters with searchlights and star shells to hunt for the enemy in the cold darkness.
Mines littering the waters and enemy shore batteries poised to fire were among the more malicious hazards. The destroyer’s speed and agility made her suited for inshore raids, where precision gunnery was crucial in suppressing enemy positions. Supply depots and railway junctions feeding the retreating North Korean war machine were common coastal targets engaged at range. Briggs’ guns were constantly called upon to disrupt enemy troop movements and provide covering fire for United Nations forces pushing inland.
While armistice talks brought no successful agreements to the table, the sea war continued its predictable pattern of patrolling and bombarding. The exception going into the winter of 1951 was the campaign through West Coast islands manned by guerilla forces. The waters off Korea’s west coast were particularly treacherous—shoals shifted with the tides, navigation lights were unreliable or nonexistent, and the only charts available were drawn from outdated surveys. The destroyer wove through narrow channels and past bleak, wind-lashed islands, her crew on edge in the dark, wary of unseen obstacles beneath the waves and enemy guns waiting inland. The islands changed hands frequently – garrisoned one month by ragged bands guerrillas, the next by North Korean forces reinforced with supplies ferried through mined waters on silent, blacked-out junks. The Constance was to maintain control and deny the enemy passage while holding the maritime flank. While all ships came under fire from the shore based 75 and 105mm guns, the Constance in particular suffered a shot that blew a two-foot hole in her plating just above the water line.
At the end of November, the enemy launched a determined assault to seize control of the surrounding islands. A thousand enemy troops advanced under the cover of such shore batteries, their small boats slipping through the darkness to the lightly defended Taewha-do. The island fell before daylight, its surviving British personnel forced into hiding as the invaders secured their foothold. The batteries inland were well-placed, mobile, and camouflaged, proving to be threatening and difficult targets for the superior sea power. They were constantly subjected to the pestering fire and the Constance was again hit by mortar fire while patrolling.
These brief adrenaline-riddled engagements broke the relative monotony of the sea war in Korea, and Briggs had seen considerably more action than he had five years earlier. Few ships could claim such an experience in the Far Eastern waters during the war. In early 1952, H.M.S. Constance remained on station, conducting further patrols and bombardments along the western coastline. The ship’s guns were called upon to disrupt enemy supply lines, support island garrisons, and provide counter-battery fire against well-hidden artillery positions. As the enemy pressed their assault on the islands, evacuation operations became the focus around the contested islands. With control constantly shifting between United Nations and Communist forces, British naval vessels were called upon to extract civilians and key personnel before the enemy could overrun them. By early 1952, ships like H.M.S. Constance had helped evacuate thousands of refugees while maintaining pressure on enemy positions along Korea’s western coast. The evacuations were a humanitarian departure from their regularly scheduled missions blasting apart the country.
MALAYA & SUEZ
Following her service in Korean waters, H.M.S. Constance was redeployed to the Malayan coast, where British forces were engaged in counter-insurgency operations against communist guerrillas during the Malayan Emergency. The destroyer's mission involved patrolling the strategic Straits of Malacca and adjacent waters to intercept arms shipments destined for insurgents, disrupt smuggling networks, and ensure the security of vital maritime routes essential for Malaya's economy. These operations were crucial in curtailing the flow of supplies to the Malayan National Liberation Army, thereby weakening the insurgency's operational capabilities. The service in these perilous waters was a footnote compared to Korea, but it earned Briggs and his crew a clasp to the General Service Medal. He would add one more by the end of his career.
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Assigned as Gunnery Officer aboard H.M.S. Saintes, a Battle-class destroyer assigned to the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet, the ship joined the Third Destroyer Squadron to provide naval gunfire support for amphibious operations against Egyptian forces at Port Said as part of Operation Musketeer. Briggs oversaw the targeting and precision bombardments from the ship’s 4.5-inch guns, directing fire onto enemy fortifications and strategic coastal positions.
From their positions offshore, Briggs and his crew navigated through heavy artillery fire from Egyptian coastal batteries. The ship trembled under near misses, and the crew felt the concussive blasts of explosions reverberating through the hull. Briggs calmly directed precise barrages against fortified positions, machine-gun nests, and enemy artillery emplacements that had pinned down advancing British and French troops ashore.
Smoke drifting across the water made for poor visibility and the acrid scent of cordite from the constant gunfire mingled with salt spray. Spotting enemy positions became increasingly challenging; shore batteries were mobile and skillfully camouflaged, forcing Briggs to make split-second adjustments based on limited visual feedback and fragmented radio communications from spotters ashore. The sustained bombardment from Saintes’ 4.5-inch guns gradually silenced enemy positions, supporting Royal Marines and paratroopers as they secured strategic footholds on Egyptian soil.
Though militarily successful offshore, the Suez operation became a contentious episode, overshadowed by international political fallout. The entire operation spanned only ten days—a remarkably swift campaign given the logistical and tactical challenges involved. Planning had been rushed, with British and French forces coordinating amphibious landings, aerial bombardments, and naval gunfire support in a matter of weeks. The Royal Navy played a pivotal role in ensuring the rapid execution of the assault, providing cover for airborne and seaborne troops while simultaneously engaging Egyptian coastal defenses. The sheer speed of the operation, coupled with the challenge of coordinating multinational forces under heavy fire, highlighted the adaptability and precision of British naval forces. However, the international backlash meant that the military gains were short-lived, and the withdrawal was just as rapid as the advance.