On this day in 1941 John Walter Johns Jnr (1921-1941) died when the cruiser HMS Neptune sank in the Mediterranean in the Second World War after running into an uncharted minefield.
Twenty-year-old John was one of 764 officers and men who lost their lives when the ship went down off Tripoli on December 19, 1941.
Only one man – rescued after five days in the water – survived the tragedy.
Neptune was leading a raiding squadron of cruisers – which had the task of intercepting and destroying German and Italian convoys en route to Libya – when she struck two mines.
She hit a third while reversing out of the minefield, blowing off the ship’s propellers.
Neptune capsized when she struck a fourth mine.
More than 100 of those who died were from New Zealand.
An able seaman in the Royal New Zealand Navy, John is remembered on the New Zealand Naval Memorial in Devonport, Auckland.
Paul Roberts
NOTES
Born on October 6, 1921 in New Zealand, John was the son of John Walter Johns (1871-1967) – the eldest son of John Johns (1936-1929) and Martha Henwood (1851- 1942) – and May Violet Stewart (1887-1970). He attended Pukekohe Primary and Otahuhu Technical High Schools, and was a keen football, tennis and golf player.
John was a great-nephew of Caroline Roberts (1847-1921) – the youngest sister of John Roberts (1829-1919), my great-great grandfather who had 30 grandsons serving in the Great War.
Picture below
Able Seaman John Walter Johns Jnr
