1942. Action against the Ondina The was a modern tanker built for La Corona, one of Shell's shipping companies. She was new, relatively fast and by contemporary standards not lightly armed with a 4"/50 caliber gun on her stern and several machine guns for anti-aircraft use. Under Captain W. Horsman, she was deployed between Fremantle in Australia and Abadan on the oil-rich shores of the Persian Gulf. On her journey to Abadan, she was protected by a single corvette, under the command of Lieutenant Commander W.J. Wilson, RNR. One of the Australian-type /minesweepers, Bengal was one of four ships of her class that had been allocated to the Royal Indian Navy. She only had one 3-inch gun (a 4-inch gun was not available), which made her firepower barely enough to protect the Ondina from submarines, let alone from enemy surface raiders. The two ships departed Fremantle on 5 November 1942, expecting a long but uneventful trip. Sightings On 11 November 1942 at 11:45 in the morning, naval authorities in Fremantle received an SOS signal sent out by the Bengal, reporting that she and the Ondina were under attack by two raiders, identified as being Japanese, at position 19.38° South 93.5° East. The battle started when a lookout aboard Ondina sighted an unknown vessel at about , bearing 270 degrees, followed by a ship of similar size. As no Allied ships were reported in the vicinity, the Allied sailors could only assume the ships bearing down on them were hostile and for some time these ships were even identified as Japanese aircraft carriers. On the Bengal, the lookouts saw the two AMCs a few minutes later. The ships both made a 90 degree turn to starboard away from the enemy in a north-north-west direction. Bengal then turned and headed straight for the attackers, hoping to buy enough time for the Ondina to escape. She opened fire at 1200 hours from , followed by the Ondina at 1205 from . The sensible thing to do for the Ondina was to obey the order to escape, but the captain decided to stay, as his ship, armed with a 4-inch gun, was still the more powerful of the two. In addition, the Ondina could only do while the Japanese ships could make . Attack The Aikoku Maru under Captain Tamotsu Oishi, and Hōkoku Maru under Captain Hiroshi Imazato, commenced firing at 1200 hours and