Destini paralleli delle navi Laconia e Arandora Star: cariche di prigionieri italiani e affondate dai tedeschi

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Created on Monday, 14 November 2011 16:09

Laconia e Arandora Star

La Nova Scotia non fu la sola nave inglese carica di prigionieri italiani a essere affondata durante la seconda guerra mondiale. Altre due unità - la Laconia e l'Arandora Star - ebbero un destino quasi identico: entrambe affondate da sottomarini tedeschi. Gli italiani che morirono in queste altre due tragedie furono quasi duemila, ma non è possibile dare cifre esatte perché ogni resoconto di questi episodi riporta numeri diversi dagli altri. Ecco qui di seguito le versioni in inglese dei due incidenti che abbiamo trovato in Wikipedia:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The second RMS Laconia was a Cunard ocean liner built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson as a successor to the Laconia of 1911 to 1917. Like her predecessor, sunk during the First World War, this Laconia would also be destroyed by a German U-boat, whose commander Werner Hartenstein then staged a dramatic rescue effort for its passengers and crew, which involved additional German U-boats sent for assistance. It became known as the Laconia incident. The new ship was launched on 9 April 1921, and made her maiden voyage on 25 May 1922 from Southampton to New York.
 
Laconia was 601 feet 3 inches (183.26 m) long, with a beam of 73 feet 7 inches (22.43 m). She had a depth of 40 feet 6 inches (12.34 m) and a draught of 32 feet 8 inches (9.96 m). She was powered by six steam turbines of 2,561 nhp, which drove twin screw propellors via double reduction gearing. The turbines were made by the Wallsend Slipway Co Ltd, Newcastle upon Tyne. In addition to her passenger accommodation, Laconia had 10,920,060 cubic feet (309,222 m3) of refrigerated cargo space.

Laconia was built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd, Newcastle upon Tyne. Launched on 9 April 1921, she was completed in January 1922. Her port of registry was Liverpool. The code letters KLWT and United Kingdom Official Number 145925 were allocated. As a Royal Mail Ship, Laconia was entitled to display the Royal Mail "crown" logo as a part of its crest.
 
In January 1923 Laconia began the first around-the-world cruise, which lasted 130 days and called at 22 ports.
 
In 1934, her code letters were changed to GJCD. On 24 September 1934 Laconia was involved in a collision off the US coast, while travelling from Boston to New York in dense fog. It rammed into the port side of Pan Royal, a US freighter.[5] Both ships suffered serious damage but were able to proceed under their own steam. Laconia returned to New York for repairs, and resumed cruising in 1935.
 
Drafted into war service
 
On 4 September 1939, Laconia was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted into an armed merchant cruiser. By January 1940 she had been fitted with eight six-inch guns and two three-inch high-angle guns. After trials off the Isle of Wight, she embarked gold bullion and sailed for Portland, Maine and Halifax, Nova Scotia on 23 January. She spent the next few months escorting convoys to Bermuda and to points in the mid-Atlantic, where they would join up with other convoys.
 
On 9 June, she ran aground in the Bedford Basin at Halifax, suffering considerable damage, and repairs were not completed till the end of July. In October her passenger accommodation was dismantled and some areas filled with oil drums to provide extra buoyancy so that she would stay afloat longer if torpedoed.
 
During the period June–August 1941 Laconia returned to St John, New Brunswick and was refitted, then returned to Liverpool to be used as a troop transport for the rest of the war. On 12 September 1941, she arrived at Bidston Dock, Birkenhead and was taken over by Cammell Laird and Company to be converted. By early 1942 the work was complete, and for the next six months she made trooping voyages to the Middle East. On one such voyage the ship was used to carry prisoners of war, mainly Italian. She travelled to Cape Town and then set a course for Freetown, following a zigzag course and undertaking evasive steering during the night.
 
On 12 September 1942, at 8:10pm, 130 miles north-northeast of Ascension Island, Laconia was hit on the starboard side by a torpedo fired by U-boat U-156. There was an explosion in the hold and many of the Italian prisoners aboard were killed instantly. The vessel immediately took a list to starboard and settled heavily by the stern. Captain Sharp, who had also commanded another famous Cunard liner, Lancastria when she was sunk by enemy action, was gaining control over the situation when a second torpedo hit Number Two hold. At the time of the attack, the Laconia was carrying 268 British soldiers, 160 Polish soldiers (who were on guard), 80 civilians, and 1,800 Italian prisoners of war.
 
Captain Sharp ordered the ship abandoned and the women, children and injured taken into the lifeboats first. By this time, the ship's stern deck was awash. Some of the 32 lifeboats had been destroyed by the explosions and some surviving Italian prisoners tried to rush the lowering of the ones that remained. The efforts of the Polish guards were instrumental in controlling the chaotic situation on board and saved many lives.
 
At 9:11pm Laconia sank, stern first, her bow rising to be vertical, with Sharp himself and many of the Italian prisoners still on board. The prospects for those who escaped the ship were only slightly better; sharks were common in the area and the lifeboats were adrift in the mid-Atlantic with little hope of rescue.
 
However, before Laconia went down, U-156 surfaced. The U-boat's efforts to rescue survivors of its own attack began what came to be known as the Laconia incident.
 
When Kapitänleutnant Werner Hartenstein, commanding officer of U-156, realized civilians and prisoners of war were on board, he surfaced to rescue survivors, and asked BdU (the U-Boat Command in Germany) for help. Several U-Boats were dispatched; all flew Red Cross flags, and signalled by radio that a rescue operation was underway.
 
The next morning, a U.S. B-24 Liberator plane sighted the rescue efforts. Hartenstein signaled the pilot for assistance, who then notified the American base on Ascension Island of the situation. The senior officer on duty there, Robert C. Richardson III, unaware  that it was a Red Cross-sanctioned rescue operation, ordered that the U-boats be attacked. Despite the Red Cross flags, the survivors crowded on the submarines' decks and the towed lifeboats, the B-24 then started making attack runs on U-156. The Germans ordered their submarines to dive, abandoning many survivors. After the incident, Admiral Karl Dönitz issued the Laconia Order, henceforth ordering his commanders not to rescue survivors after attacks. Vichy French ships rescued 1,083 persons from the lifeboats and took aboard those picked up by the four submarines, and in all around 1,500 survived the sinking. Other sources state that only 1,104 survived and an estimated 1,649 persons died.

The following account was written by Albert Goode,

Merchant Navy Naval Sea Cadet

I was born in Bristol, at Horfield in the year 1926 and was about 10 years old when I became the first boy to join the newly formed Bristol Sea Cadets. In December, 1941, aged 15, I joined the Cunard ship Laconia and on my first trip spent my 16th birthday in Capetown.

My second trip was very different. We sailed from Liverpool on the 28 May 1942, joining a big convoy containing the famous liners, Britannic, Aquitania, Mauretania, Orcades, Oranto, Viceroy of India and the Empress of Canada protected by the battleships HMS Nelson and HMS Renown together with three destroyer escorts.

The outward-bound trip was uneventful and we departed Port Tewfik, homeward bound, on the 29 July, 1942, calling at Aden, Mombassa, Durban and Capetown. When we left Capetown on the 1 September, 1942, we had a total of 2,732 people on board, made up of 463 crew, 286 military personnel, 87 civilians (mainly women and children), 1,793 Italian prisoners of war and 103 Polish guards.

At about 20:10 on 12 September and with darkness having just fallen, the first torpedo hit us followed a few seconds later by the second. The smell of cordite became very strong and the ship listed to starboard. Myself and a shipmate tried to make our way to a companionway, but we were unable to proceed as our way was blocked by the Italian prisoners who had escaped and were being fired at by the guards.

We then went below deck making for our quarters to retrieve our lifejackets, passing on the way three dead bodies. They'd been killed by rivets from the hull, which must have come out with the force of a rifle bullet when the ship was struck. Having got my lifejacket I then headed for the boat deck and now alone I found that all the lifeboats were gone except two, which were hanging useless, supported by one fall.

Then I spotted lifelines hanging down the side of the ship, I took a run and jumped for one but missed, and flew out into space, hitting the water and for a moment thinking that I was never going to come up again. Luck was with me though and when I surfaced I was near a Carley Float, which I grabbed hold of.

There were terrible cries and screams from the people in the water as I drifted away from the doomed ship, and it was not long before she stood almost vertical in the water, then slid below the surface, bow first. A few seconds later we heard an underwater detonation as her boilers or the depth charges, which we carried, exploded. After all of this there was no sound in the pitch darkness and it was an eerie lonely feeling until dawn broke and I saw that I was not far away from a lifeboat, which was very full.


I let go of the float and swam to the lifeboat. I was pulled aboard and then for the first time saw sharks and shivered - whilst I was in the water the last thing I had thought about was fish.

In the lifeboat we had a daily ration in the morning of one Horlicks tablet - in the late afternoon one teaspoonful of Bovril Pemmican and at nightfall one dip of rusty water. On the 15 September we saw something on the horizon and thought that rescue was near, then it became clear that the vessel was in fact a U-boat and was towing three lifeboats. he U-boat crew gave us some water and then released the lifeboats and told us to stay together as they had used their radio to inform a rescue ship of our position. This U-boat was later identified as U-156, the one which had sunk us and was commanded by Werner Hartenstein

The submarine left us and headed off with a lot of survivors on the deck as all the lifeboats were full. We saw the U-boat again later that day, now towing a further two lifeboats but this was some distance away. We learnt subsequently that the U-boat Captain had sent a plain message in English to the effect that 'If any ships will assist the shipwrecked crew of the Laconia I will not attack her, providing that I am not attacked by ships or aircraft. I have 193 survivors on board.'

On 16 September U-506 and U-507, together with the Italian submarine Cappellini joined in the rescue operation. The U-156 had 260 men, plus those in the three lifeboats she was now towing, and a white sheet painted with the Red Cross was also displayed. Despite this US aircraft came over and bombed the submarine, killing some of the survivors. U-156 then cut the tow and submerged slowly to give those still on the deck a chance to get into the water. Later on we heard that U-507 had also been bombed and the captain put as many of the 142 survivors into lifeboats as he could.

On 17 September a ship approached. She turned out to be the Vichy French cruiser Gloire; manned by German officers and accompanied by two other ships - Annamite and Dumont d`Urville. At last we were picked up, taken to Casablanca and there handed over to the Germans as prisoners of war.

Taken then to a place called Mediouna, we awaited transport to a prison camp in Germany. Luckily for us the Allied invasion of North Africa was mounted and we were liberated and then taken aboard the invasion ship Anton, bound for the United States, from where I returned to the UK. I worked as an Able Seaman aboard the Dutch ship Westernland (owned by the Holland-America Line).

The saying that 'truth is stranger than fiction' has often struck me when thinking about the 1,600, who perished by explosion, sharks and drowning, together with the four U-boats, three enemy warships searching for survivors while our own allies bombed us!

Footnotes
The commander of U-156, Werner Hartenstein was in command of this boat from September 1941 until 8 March 1943 when she was sunk with the loss of all 53 crew by depth charges dropped by a US Catalina aircraft east of Barbados. During his service Hartenstein sank 19 ships for a total of 92,000 tons and was awarded the Knights' Cross.

Captain Sharp, who was lost with this ship, was also the Master of the Lancastria which was sunk in June 1940 with the loss of over 3,000 servicemen and crew. She was bombed off Saint Nazaire while evacuating troops from France.

SS Arandora Star

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SS Arandora Star was a British registered cruise ship operated by the Blue Star Line from the late 1920s through the 1930s. At the onset of World War II she was assigned as a troop transport and moving refugees. At the end of June 1940 she was assigned the task of transporting German and Italian internees along with prisoners of war to Canada. On 2 July 1940 she was sunk in controversial circumstances by a German U-boat with a large loss of life.

Initially named Arandora, she was built by Cammell Laird & Company, Limited for the Blue Star Line in 1927. As completed the Arandora measured 12,847 gross register tons (GRT), was 512.2 feet long, a beam of 68.3 ft and accommodated 164 first class passengers. She cruised at a service speed of 16 knots. After a refit in 1929, she could accommodate 354 first class passengers, her tonnage was increased to 14,694 gross tons
 
As Arandora she sailed from London to the east coast of South America from 1927 to 1928. In 1929 she was sent to Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Ltd. of Glasgow for refitting. During the refit, her gross tonnage was increased to 14,694 and first class accommodation was increased to 354 passengers. A tennis court was also placed abaft the funnels on the boat deck, and a swimming pool was installed in the after well deck. Upon completion, she returned to service as a full-time luxury cruise ship. At the time of this refit, she was also renamed Arandora Star. The renaming was done to avoid confusion with Royal Mail Ships which typically bore names beginning and ending in 'A'.
 
As a cruise ship, the Arandora Star was based mainly in Southampton, and travelled to many different destinations. These included Norway, the Northern capitals, the Mediterranean, the West Indies, Panama, Cuba, and Florida, to name a few. The Arandora Star also had two unique nicknames because of her colour scheme of a white hull with scarlet ribbon. The nicknames most frequently used were "The Wedding Cake" or the "Chocolate Box".
 
At the onset of World War II, the Arandora Star was refitted and was assigned as a transport ship. She evacuated troops from Norway and from France in June 1940 before undertaking what was to be her final voyage transporting Axis nationals and prisoners of war to Canada.
 
Sinking
 
On 2 July 1940, having left Liverpool unescorted the day before, under the command of Edgar Wallace Moulton, she was bound for St John's, Newfoundland and Canadian internment camps with nearly 1,200 German and Italian internees, including 86 POWs, being transported from Britain. There were also 374 British men, comprising both military guards and the ship's crew. The Italians numbered 712 men of all ages, most of whom had been residing in Britain when Benito Mussolini declared war on 10 June. The ship was bearing no Red Cross sign, which could have shown that she was carrying prisoners, and especially civilians.
 
At 6.58 am off the northwest coast of Ireland, she was struck by a torpedo from the U-47, commanded by U-Boat ace Günther Prien. U-47 fired its single damaged torpedo at Arandora Star. All power was lost at once, and thirty five minutes after the torpedo impact, Arandora Star sank. Over eight hundred lives were lost.

"I could see hundreds of men clinging to the ship. They were like ants and then the ship went up at one end and slid rapidly down, taking the men with her.... Many men had broken their necks jumping or diving into the water. Others injured themselves by landing on drifting wreckage and floating debris near the sinking ship". — Sergeant Norman Price
 
At 0705 hours Malin Head radio received the distress call, which it retransmitted to Land's End and to Portpatrick. Throughout August bodies were washed up on the Irish shore. The first was 71-year-old Ernesto Moruzzi, who was found near Burtonport. Four others were found on the same day, 30 July. During August 1940, 213 bodies were washed up on the Irish Coast, 35 were from the Arandora Star. There were a further 92 unidentified, most probably from the Arandora Star.
 
Lifeboats
 
The modified cruise ship carried fourteen lifeboats, of which one was immediately destroyed upon torpedo impact. Another could not be lowered off its winches, and two were damaged during their launch and thus useless. At least four of the remaining lifeboats were launched with a very small number of survivors. One other lifeboat was swamped and sank shortly after the sinking. Captain Otto Burfeind, who had become an internee after the sinking of his ship, the SS Adolph Woermann, stayed aboard the Arandora Star organizing the ship's evacuation until he was lost when it finally sank.
 
After a brief scout by a Short Sunderland flying boat that was following their SOS distress signal, the Canadian destroyer HMCS St. Laurent arrived to pick up the survivors. There were 586 survivors out of the 1,216 detainees. The sick were taken to Mearnskirk Hospital. One of the survivors was the athletics coach Franz Stampfl.
 
The British War Cabinet received a report on the disaster on 3 July 1940, although its impact was over-shadowed to an extent by the British attack that day on the French fleet at Oran.