Captain Walter Godsal, helped sink the Haguro in the last major surface battle of the war in the Far East
As a midshipman on the foc’s’le of Verulam he counted the destroyer’s torpedoes running towards the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro
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15 August 2025 5:04am BST
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Captain Walter Godsal: post-war, he specialised in torpedo and anti-submarine warfare
Captain Walter Godsal, who has died aged 100, was probably the last survivors of the last major surface action of the Second World War in the Far East.
Godsal, in the destroyer Verulam, had just celebrated VE Day in Trincomalee at a short shipboard thanksgiving service on board and tasted his first tot of rum at a “splice the mainbrace”, when the five destroyers of the 26th Destroyer Flotilla were ordered to sail at 06:00 next morning.
A few days later, on the night of May 14-15, still a midshipman, and formally under training, he took part in the Battle of the Malacca Strait when the flotilla, cued by the Wrens at the wireless listening station in Colombo, intercepted the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro and her escort in the Malacca Strait. Godsal witnessed the subsequent battle from his action station at A-gun on the foc’s’le of Verulam.
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In a classic manoeuvre, the destroyers Saumarez, Verulam, Venus, Vigilant and Virago surprised Haguro from different sectors to launch their torpedoes. When Haguro became aware of the impending attack she illuminated the night with starshell, and a mêlée ensued.
At about 01:13 the destroyer Saumarez was hit; Verulam, meanwhile, was able to close to within a mile and fire her torpedoes without being seen, Godsal getting away a few rounds at his 4.7-inch gun.
It was a clear night with good visibility between heavy thunderstorms, with an extraordinary display of lightning. Haguro could readily be seen, and Godsal counted Verulam’s torpedoes running towards her. About three minutes later the cruiser exploded in a sheet of flame and her guns fell silent. Soon she was blazing from end to end and was finished off by gunfire and a torpedo from Venus.
Low on fuel, the flotilla returned to Trincomalee and was cheered into harbour by the fleet. Mountbatten described the battle as an outstanding example of a night attack by destroyers – and on this high note, Godsal’s midshipman’s training in destroyers ended.
Cadet Godsal
The younger son of Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Godsal MC, Walter Edward Browning Godsal was born on December 3 1924 at Dalton Holme near Beverley, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and attended Lambrook prep in Berkshire.
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Inspired by stories of his uncle, Commander Alfred Godsal DSO, who was killed in action while commanding HMS Vindictive at the Second Ostend Raid in 1918, Walter wanted to join the Navy, but his father insisted that his education should be more rounded and sent him to Eton.
From there, at the relatively advanced age of 18, Godsal joined the naval college at its wartime home of Eaton Hall in Cheshire, as a “Frobisher”, as the Special Entry for public schoolboys was sometimes known.
He joined the cruiser London in January 1944, before she deployed to the Indian Ocean, where he first saw action. He saw further action in the destroyer Volage, but after she was damaged off Port Blair in the Nicobar islands by Japanese shore batteries, while making smoke and attempting to tow another destroyer out of danger, he joined Verulam.
Immediately after the sinking of Haguro, Godsal returned to the UK in a troop ship for courses on promotion to sub-lieutenant. He was reappointed to Saumarez, which had now become leader of the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean. Remarkably, there were four Old Etonians and one Old Harrovian in the wardroom, and another OE was Able Seaman Straker, the navigator’s yeoman.
On October 22 1946 Godsal was officer of the watch in Saumarez when she struck a mine in the Corfu channel, the explosion occurring just forward of the bridge, causing heavy casualties and starting a major fire.
While Volage attempted to secure a tow, she too was mined and had her bow blown off, but some 12 hours after the first explosion, she managed to tow both ships stern-first into the safety of Corfu Roads.
Godsal wearing his and his uncle’s medals
“Surprisingly I have only a hazy recollection,” Godsal recalled. “There was plenty to be done with preparing to be taken in tow, helping to move the casualties and assist the damage control parties. Although I had escaped with a few cuts and bruises, I had a gash above one eye which was bleeding profusely and a bandage over half my face.”
Saumarez lost 36 men, and as many were wounded, but there was no compassionate leave for Godsal, who now joined Troubridge and did not return to England until 1948. Much of his time was spent on the Palestine Patrol, attempting to thwart illegal Jewish immigrants.
In 1949 Godsal specialised in torpedo and anti-submarine warfare, and was successful in a series of challenging shore and seagoing appointments, including the planning team of Operation Musketeer and the Anglo-French landings in Egypt during the Suez Crisis. However, promoted to commander on the “dry list”, he was denied the opportunity for seagoing command.
Godsal made the most of a series of challenging staff appointments, and after he had crossed the Atlantic in RMS Queen Elizabeth, he joined the British naval staff in Washington in the early 1960s. There he set out to trace the original John Hoppner portrait of his forebears, The Godsal Children (1789), which had been sold by his grandfather.
He soon learnt that the painting had passed though M Knoedler, the New York art dealers. But they denied any knowledge and were unhelpful, and over many months, Godsal visited leading galleries in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Austin and Cleveland.
Eventually, in the summer of 1963, he met a dealer who took up the matter with one of Knoedler’s directors – who, as it turned out, knew all along that the Hoppner had been purchased by a collector in Hollywood; Godsal finally saw the painting on a trip to the West Coast. Although the search had been frustrating, he found satisfaction in its successful outcome, and in the many art galleries he visited – where he was always welcomed, and which he might otherwise never have seen.
In 2018 Godsal and many of his family, along with members of the families of Admiral Sir Victor Crutchley and Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Drummond, who had won their VCs at Ostend, visited the Vindictive war memorial. Godsal was guest of honour and made a speech before the King of the Belgians to commemorate the centenary of the Ostend Raid and the death of his uncle.
In retirement, Godsal settled on Exmoor, where he took up porcelain restoration for a hobby, and was an avid reader and letter writer, although his final years were marred by blindness. He died in the Royal British Legion home in Taunton. He was sustained by his faith, which found expression in his stewardship of St Mary Magdalene at Winsford in Somerset and by his support for the Prayer Book Society.
In 1970 Walter Godsal married Pamela, née Caulfeild, the former wife of his elder brother, Philip. She died in 2004, and he is survived by five children from her first marriage.
Captain Walter Godsal, born December 3 1924, died July 15 2025