Defence Equipped Merchant Ships

George Pearce (DEMS Gunner) served aboard various DEMS Ships in WW2, getting torpedoed the once with SS Yoma (image below). His son Jim tells me that George also served aboard SS City of Lyons, SS Queen of Adelaide, SS Yoma, SS Leopoldville, SS Slemish, SS Empire Highway, SS British Zeal, SS Empress of Scotland. He was torpedoed 17/4/43 in the Mediterranean off Derna whilst on SS Yoma with great loss of life, he survived (died 1990). The U Boat responsible was the U-81 (Which also sank the Ark Royal in 41).

This page is about the SS Leopoldville, 11509 tons, a DEMS equipped, passenger vessel. On the 24th December 1944, the SS Leopoldville was arriving at Cherbourg (5 miles offshore) with SS Cheshire, carrying American troops from Southampton. The SS Leopoldville was torpedoed at 1754 hrs on 24th December 1944 and eventually sunk, with great loss of life, in the Channel, in 1944, ferrying American troops across to France. It was her 25th crossing of the Channel, in a small convoy, with SS Cheshire from Southampton to Cherbourg. http://www.history.com/content/leopoldville. The SS Slemish was sunk on 23rd December 1944. George bore a charmed life, although he was on neither of the latter two when they went down. George passed away in 1990. Jim Pearce would like to hear from anybody connected with these vessels. He can be contacted on pearce.gj - at - hotmail.co.uk - if you replace the -at- with @ you have his email address.

The U Boat involved was the U-486, a schnorkel fitted U Boat, captained by Oblt. Gerhard Meyer. (2 ships sunk for a total of 17,651 GRT. 1 warship sunk for a total of 1,085 tons. 1 warship a total loss for a total of 1,085 tons). U Boat.net reports that The troopship was transporting 2235 American soldiers from regiments of the 66th Infantry Division. The ship finally sank 2 1/2 hours later. Everything that could went wrong; calls for help were mishandled, rescue craft were slow to the scene and the weather was unfavourable. 763 American soldiers died that night, making this the worst loss an American Infantry Division suffered from a U-boat attack during the war. The nickname of this US Division was the Black Panthers. On the 12th April 1945 the Leopoldville, and the soldiers aboard, were revenged by British Submarine HMS Tapir, who sank the U-486, near Bergen, Norway with all hands.

As with Exercise Tiger, the allied authorities, embarrassed by their failures, decided to cover it all up and listed all the dead as "killed in action". It was not until 1996 that the files were opened to the public. Clive Cusslers book, The Sea Hunters, includes eye witness accounts, and includes the story of the discovery of the wreck, by divers.

Since 1940 the Leopoldville had transported over 120,000 men safely to their destinations, including the captured crew of U-570 and had crossed the English Channel 24 times, never being hit by enemy fire. Her crew had adjusted admirably to the change from more refined passenger service to bare-bones troop transport, and her current captain, Charles Limbor, had been in command since 1942.

History: Built: 1929 - John Cockerill SA, Hoboken, Antwerp. Completed in August 1929 as Belgian steam passenger ship Leopoldville.

In 1937 lengthened. In May 1940 converted by the Ministry of War Transport to a troop transport.

Merchant Navy Day.com would like invite all families and relatives, friends and companions, to submit the names of their loved ones to the commemoration page for 3rd September in recognition of their contribution to the years 1939-1945.

www.merchantnavyday.com