Untold Story of Vice Admiral Vasudeva Anant Kamath and The World WAR 2

With the outbreak of World War II, Kamath was promoted to the rank of Midshipman and posted to the Revenge-class battleship HMS Royal Sovereign (05), part of the 2nd Battle Squadron of the Home Fleet.

The Royal Sovereign was assigned to the 2nd Battle Squadron of the Home Fleet. She was assigned to the North Atlantic Escort Force, which was based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was tasked with protecting convoys from Britain.

In July 1940, he was aboard the ship when she participated in the Battle of Calabria. On 1 May 1941, Kamath was commissioned as an acting Sub-Lieutenant.

He was subsequently trained at the Anti-Submarine school in Castle barracks in Bombay. After the course, he was posted as an anti-submarine warfare officer to the sloop HMIS Clive which was a part of the Eastern Fleet.

In February 1943, he was posted as an instructor to HMIS Bahadur, the boys' training establishment in Karachi. He also served at the junior boys' training establishment HMIS Dilawar.

In 1944, Kamath was selected to attend the Long Gunnery course and embarked on the United Kingdom.

He completed the course at HMS Excellent on Whale Island at Portsmouth in December 1944. After completing the gunnery course, he returned to India and was posted to HMIS Himalaya, the RIN gunnery school in Karachi, as an instructor.

After a two-year stint, he was selected to take Indian ratings to the United Kingdom to train them at the Excellent.

This was done since the Leander-class cruiser HMS Achilles (70) was being acquired by the Indian Navy as INS Delhi (C74) and Kamath was to be the commissioning gunnery officer.