Ships
- HMS Argonaut (61) Captain from 10 January 1945 · Listed in command until mid-1946
William Patrick McCarthy commanded HMS Argonaut from 10 January 1945. Uboat.net lists the command to mid-1946 and does not give a day. He was the captain named on her events for Meridian, the passage to Sydney and Manus, Task Force 57 off the Sakishima Gunto, and the later duty off Japan.
Uboat.net says he was born on 13 November 1898. It gives no place and no death.
The page lists him as mate from 1 December 1923, lieutenant from 1 October 1926, lieutenant-commander from 1 October 1934, commander from 31 December 1937, and captain from 31 December 1942. It dates his retirement 8 July 1952. The only decoration is a CBE on 1 January 1953. The page does not say for what. HMS Argonaut is the only warship command on the page.
The event list opens on 12 January 1945, two days after the command starts, with King George V, Indomitable and Illustrious. The Meridian entry is the air strikes on the oil installations in the Palembang area. Force 63 sailed from Trincomalee on 16 January. Weather held the Pladjoe strike until 24 January. The second strike was Soengi Gerong. Force 63 reached Fremantle on 4 February. Mason's chronology has the Melbourne call on 4 February and Sydney on 10 February, and prints the refuelling place as Exmouth Bay. On 7 March the task force reached Manus. On 23 March Task Force 57 sailed from Ulithi for the Sakishima Gunto, to the south-west of Okinawa. The uboat.net event calls that Operation Iceberg, the landings on Okinawa. Mason has HMS Argonaut as radar picket on 26 and 28 March and on 6 April, then the diversion to Formosa on 9 April, and the Sydney refit from 15 May. On 27 July she relieved Uganda in Task Force 37 for the air operations against Japan. On 15 August she was transferred to Task Unit 111.3 for the collection of prisoners from Formosa. The page does not carry the story past the sailing from Ulithi in the extract used here. The chronology does, and it does not print his name.
Uboat.net still has him in HMS Argonaut in mid-1946. Mason says she returned to Portsmouth in 1946 and reduced to reserve. The retirement is 8 July 1952. The CBE is the New Year list of 1953. No appointment between the ship and the retirement was fetched.