(This was going to be a Christmas Eve post, but since Christmas Eve is also Cat Blogging Friday, I thought I’d get this out today.)
What with all the (well-deserved) hype attending the 60th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, let it not be forgotten that at least 802 American soldiers lost their lives on Christmas Eve, 1944, when the U-486 torpedoed the troopship Leopoldville in the English Channel just short of Cherbourg. George Duncan’s Maritime Disasters of World War II has one of the better summaries of what happened that I’ve seen:
An 11,509 ton Belgian troopship carrying US soldiers across the English Channel to France, a trip she had done twenty four times before. On this Christmas Eve the ship carried 2,235 men of the US 64th Infantry Regiment of the US 66th Infantry Division which had left New York on November 14th. The troops were to relieve the 94th Division already fighting the ‘Battle of the Bulge’. When the ship was about five miles from Cherbourg, a torpedo fired from the German U-boat the U-486 (Oblt. Gerhard Meyer) hit the ship which sank soon after. Official records put the number of men lost at 802. The 66th Infantry Division alone, lost 14 officers and 748 men, but the exact number is not known due to the hurried departure at 9am from Pier 38 at Southhampton and the unorganized boarding procedures. As no life jackets were issued, the men of the Leopoldville died in the freezing 48 degree waters of the English Channel.
Most of her crew, Africans from the Belgian Congo, took off in the lifeboats, deserting the troops on board. Her commander, Captain Limbor, was the only officer lost. The few survivors were rescued by the escort destroyer HMS Brilliant and transferred to the St. Nazaire/Lorient area but 493 bodies were never found, presumably going down with the ship. The wreck of the Leopoldville lies on her port side in 180 feet of water in a remarkable state of preservation, in an area now used for testing nuclear submarines. The Allied Governments covered up the story of the tragedy for over 50 years, relatives being told simply that their loved ones were ‘Killed in Action’. In 1996, Britain de-classified the files relating to the disaster. A memorial to the Leopoldville can be seen at Sacrifice Field at Fort Benning in Georgia, dedicated on November 7, 1997. The U-486 was sunk on April 12, 1945, northwest of Bergen, by a torpedo from the British destroyer HMS Tapir. Her entire crew of 48 men, died.
(URL to the memorial photo added by me)
My connection with the Leopoldville is two-fold. First, I know a survivor from the 66th Division who’s been like an uncle to me all my life. And second, my father was supposed to be on the Leopoldville that night, but opted as squad leader to go on the supply ship with his squad’s Jeep.
A website devoted to the Leopoldville is here.