Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Petty Officer John Andrew Daly was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1917. He enlisted into the Royal Australian Naval Reserve on 3/11/1935 as a Seaman Gunner.
On the outbreak of WW2, he was mobilised to HMAS Penguin on 4/9/1939 and assigned to various Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships (DEMS). He was serving on the SS Tairoa (refrigerated freight ship) from 22/10/1939 – 3/12/1939 when she was intercepted by the German Surface Raider Admiral Graf Spee, off South West Africa.
After removing the crew, the ship was sunk and Daly found himself aboard the Admiral Graf Spee with nearly 300 other seamen victims of the raider. Daly and the others were transferred to the Altmark (German tanker) and were in the process of being sent to Germany via Norwegian waters when the Royal Navy rescued them on 16/2/1940. The Germans had not informed the Norwegian authorities of the POWs on board; however British Naval Intelligence was aware and under direct orders from Winston Churchill, HMS Cossack went into the Norwegian waters and after a short confrontation with the escorting Norwegian ships boarded the Altmark who had run herself aground in the meantime. After some hand-to-hand fighting with the bayonet whilst overwhelmed the ship's crew, the prisoners were rescued from the ships hold. Seven German sailors were killed, and eleven wounded during the fighting, six seriously.
On being rescued he was taken to England and a month later sailed as a Gun Layer on the SS Suffolk from England to Australia in April 1940. Posted to the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Niagara on 7/6/1940, his luck was in as the Niagara was sailing from Auckland 11 days later when she hit one of the 228 sea mines laid by the German auxiliary cruiser Orion. At the time she was carrying half of New Zealand's entire stock of small arms ammunition. In her strong room she was also carrying 590 gold bars from South Africa, valued at £2,500,000. The ship went down without loss in human life.
He continued to serve for the remainder of the war (without being sunk!) on Nievn Holland, Stirling Castle, HMAS Mildura (corvette) being demobilised on 20/5/1946 with the rank of petty Officer.
Of the 1070 gunners who served in the RAN DEMS service in WW2, 53 were killed and 22 were captured by the enemy. Of the 22, one was transferred to HMAS Perth and taken POW by the Japanese dying in a camp, another was put ashore by the Graf Spee and returned to Australia, a fourth was repatriated on medical grounds in 1944 and 18 remained in German captivity until the end of the war. It is believed that Daly was the only DEMS member to be rescued/escaped from captivity out of the 22 men.