SS Léopoldville (1928)
History | |
---|---|
Belgium | |
Name | Léopoldville |
Namesake | Léopoldville |
Operator |
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Port of registry | Antwerp |
Builder | John Cockerill SA, Hoboken, Antwerp |
Launched | 26 September 1928 |
Completed | 1929 |
Identification |
|
Fate | Torpedoed and sunk by U-486 near Cherbourg, 24 December 1944 |
General characteristics | |
Tonnage | |
Length | 478 ft 8 in (145.90 m) |
Beam | 62 ft 2 in (18.95 m) |
Draught | 25 ft 9.75 in (7.8677 m) |
Depth | 35 ft 0 in (10.67 m) |
Installed power |
|
Propulsion |
|
Speed | 16 knots (30 km/h) |
Capacity |
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Crew | 213 plus 24 DEMS gunners[1] |
SS Léopoldville was a 11,509
Description
Léopoldville was 478 feet 8 inches (145.90 m) long, with a beam of 62 feet 2 inches (18.95 m). She had a depth of 35 feet 0 inches (10.67 m) and a draught of 25 feet 9.75 inches (7.8677 m). Her tonnages were 11,256 GRT and 6,521 NRT until 1936,[2] when they were revised to 11,509 GRT and 6,941 NRT.[3]
She had 8,458 cubic feet (239.5 m3) of refrigerated cargo space.[4]
The ship was built with two 1,019
In 1936 two Bauer-Wach low-pressure exhaust turbines were added, each driving one of the shafts via double-reduction gearing and a Föttinger fluid coupling. Each turbine ran on exhaust steam from the piston engine on the same shaft. The turbines increased Léopoldville's total power to 1,197 NHP.[3]
Service
She was built for the Compagnie Maritime Belge as the fifth to bear the name Léopoldville and initially served on the route between Belgium and its African colony, the Belgian Congo.[5] Her Belgian Official Number was 120. Her code letters were MLTP[2] until 1933–34, when they were superseded by the call sign ONLB.[3]
When Belgium entered the second world war on 10 May 1940 with the German invasion of Belgium, the Léopoldville was returning from Matadi. She was diverted to La Pallice in France and remained there until 30 May. When the fall of France approached the ship left for Matadi where she arrived on 19 June. On 30 July Léopoldville left for New York, arrived on 17 August and the next month she left for Liverpool. In Liverpool she was modified into a troopship. On 11 November Léopoldville started her career as a troop transport with three trips to Saint John, New Brunswick with a thousand Royal Air Force recruits which will receive training in Canada. The ship was not fit for North-Atlantic conditions and suffered damage in each journey. Léopoldville was reallocated to the South-Atlantic and transferred troops between Freetown, Cape Town, Durban, Mombasa and Suez. On each trip she had on average 2,000 troops on board. Between November 1942 and January 1943 Léopoldville was operating between Glasgow and Algiers, ferrying troops for the North African campaign. From 29 January 1943 on, she was back on the routes between Suez and Africa. In July 1943 she participated in the Allied invasion of Sicily. Until April 1944 Léopoldville remained in the Mediterranean Sea, transferring troops between Gibraltar, Algiers, Bône, Augusta, Port Said and Suez. End April Léopoldville is back in Glasgow for a refit in preparation for Operation Overlord. On D-day Léopoldville left Southend-on-Sea for Portsmouth in convoy. On 8 June she unloaded troops at the beaches in Normandy. Between 7 June and 24 December Léopoldville made 24 trips between The Solent and Normandy, transferring 53,217 troops. During the war she transported a total of 124,220 troops.[6]
Sinking
Léopoldville was hastily loaded for the
Léopoldville was within five miles from the coast of Cherbourg at 17:54 when one of two torpedoes launched by U-486 struck the starboard side aft and exploded in the number 4 hold, killing about three hundred men as compartments E-4, F-4 and G-4 flooded. Few US soldiers understood the abandon ship instructions given in Flemish. While some soldiers joined the crew in departing lifeboats, many did not realize the ship was slowly sinking, and stayed aboard anticipating the ship would be towed ashore by a tug.[7] While the other escorts searched for the U-boat, HMS Brilliant came alongside the sinking ship. Soldiers on Léopoldville jumped down onto the smaller Brilliant. The destroyer could take only five hundred men and headed for the shore leaving some twelve hundred soldiers aboard.[8]
Jack Dixon was a 21-year-old seaman on board HMS Brilliant. He and other crew members battled against the conditions to try and rescue as many of the soldiers as possible. From his web site:
"H.M.S. Brilliant went along the port side of the troopship we had put our starboard fenders over the side; the sea swell was causing a rise and fall of between 8 ft and 12 ft. The scrambling nets were hanging down the Léopoldville's port side and the US soldiers were coming down on to our upper deck. Some men had started to jump down from a height of approximately 40 feet. Unfortunately limbs were being broken when they landed on the torpedo tubes and other fixed equipment on the starboard side of the upper deck; some men fell between the two vessels and were crushed as the two vessels crashed into each other. To avoid any further injuries, if possible, all our hammocks were brought up from our mess-decks below and laid on the starboard upper deck to cushion the fall of the soldiers as they landed."
While the escorts focused on searching for the U-boat and rescuing survivors, they failed to respond to blinking light signals from Cherbourg. Brilliant attempted radio communications, but could not communicate directly with the Americans at Fort L'Ouest in Cherbourg because the Americans used a different radio frequency and could not read the British code. Brilliant contacted HMNB Portsmouth, which telephoned Cherbourg; but shore post communications, decisions, and orders were significantly slowed by minimal staffing during attendance at holiday parties.
It took nearly an hour for Cherbourg to realise Léopoldville was sinking. Several hundred Allied vessels in the harbor at Cherbourg might have served as rescue craft, but all had cold engines while many of their crewmen were ashore celebrating the holiday.[7] Allied forces enjoying their Christmas Eve dinner in Cherbourg failed to mobilize a rescue effort before Léopoldville sank by the stern at 20:40.[8] Belated efforts by ships including USS PC-1225 rescued some survivors.[9]
In 1998 the
Of the 2,235 US servicemen on board, about 515 are presumed to have gone down with the ship. Another 248 died from injuries, drowning, or hypothermia. Captain Charles Limbor, one Belgian and three Congolese crewmembers also went down with the ship. An unknown number of British soldiers died. Documents about the attack remained classified until 1996. The soldiers of the 66th Infantry Division were ordered not to tell anyone about the sinking of the ship and their letters home were censored by the Army during the rest of World War II. After the war, the soldiers were also ordered at discharge not to talk about the sinking of SS Léopoldville to the press and told that their GI benefits as civilians would be canceled if they did so.
Discovery of the wreck
In July 1984, Clive Cussler of NUMA claimed to have discovered the wreck,[10] although French maritime officials claim the location of the shipwreck had always been marked on all maritime charts since its size and location present a potential hazard to navigation.[11] Cussler asserts[12] that the wreck is wrongly located, its true position being about a mile to the south.
In 1997, the 66th Infantry Division Monument was dedicated in
In 2005, a memorial was erected in Veterans Memorial Park in Titusville, Florida.
Clive Cussler dedicated his 1986 book
To the eight hundred American men who were lost with the Léopoldville, Christmas Eve 1944 near Cherbourg, France. Forgotten by many, remembered by few.
In 2009, the
Memorialization
There is a memorial for the sinking in Weymouth, Dorset in the United Kingdom.[14]
There is a memorial for the sinking at Fort Moore Main Post Cemetery in the U.S. state of Georgia.[15]
On November 20, 2007, legislation was ratified in Massachusetts to name December 24 as an annual day of remembrance of the sinking.[16]
See also
- List by death toll of ships sunk by submarines
References
- ^ a b c d e Ambrose 1997[page needed]
- ^ a b c "Steamers and Motorships". Lloyd's Register (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1930. Retrieved 24 October 2020 – via Plimsoll Ship Data.
- ^ a b c "Steamers and Motorships". Lloyd's Register (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1936. Retrieved 24 October 2020 – via Plimsoll Ship Data.
- ^ "List of Vessels Fitted with Refrigerated Appliances". Lloyd's Register (PDF). Lloyd's Register. 1931. Retrieved 9 October 2014 – via Plimsoll Ship Data.
- ^ Stockmans, Charles. "Léopoldville 5". Congo Belge et Ruanda-Urundi.
- ^ Machielsen 1991, p. 398-399.
- ^ a b c d e Allen, Tonya. "The Sinking of SS Léopoldville". uboat.net. Guðmundur Helgason. Retrieved 17 January 2011.
- ^ a b "Deep Wreck Mysteries on History". history.co.uk. Archived from the original on 16 December 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2011.
- ^ "Waverly". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^ Cussler 1997, p. 318.
- ^ Machielsen 1991, p. 403.
- ^ Cussler 1997, p. 317.
- ^ "Sunk on Christmas Eve". channel.nationalgeographic.com. National Geographic Channel. Archived from the original on 5 February 2009. Retrieved 17 January 2011.
- ^ "Weymouth American Memorial". www.uswarmemorials.org. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
- ^ "SS Leopoldville [+1944]". Wrecksite. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
- ^ "Acts and resolves passed by the General Court" (PDF). p. 678. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
Bibliography
- Ambrose, Stephen E (1997). Citizen Soldiers. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-84801-5.
- ISBN 0-671-51669-8.
- Machielsen, Roger (1991). De Belgische koopvaardij in de tweede wereldoorlog (in Dutch). Veurne: Drukkerij Pattyn. ISBN 90-74023-01-0.
External links
- "66th Infantry Division Monument". U.S. Army Infantry Homepage. Archived from the original on 26 April 2003.
- "Veterans Memorial of Titusville,Florida; Leopoldville Memorial Monument". Titusville Florida Area Community Guide. Archived from the original on 7 September 2006. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
- "North Sea and English Channel Hunt". National Underwater and Marine Agency. Archived from the original on 28 December 2003.
- "S.S. Leopoldville Disaster: December 24, 1944 part III". The History Channel. Archived from the original on 19 December 2021 – via YouTube. – directed by Lawrence Bond
- Survivors of the Leopoldville by Ray Roberts Archived 2000-10-01 at the Wayback Machine
- "Leopoldville Troopship Disaster".
- Dixon, Jack. "My 7th draft H.M.S. Brilliant". My Life in the Royal Navy During the Second World War.
- The Sunken Mysteries of Britain's Wartime Shipping Lanes: Link