Somewhere on the ocean floor off Algeria in the
Mediterranean Sea lies a once proud passenger liner. Whether it
is lying on its port or starboard side or even erect we do not know….
but what we are aware of is a gaping hole at the water line on the
port side caused by a torpedo from a German submarine which resulted
in the liner capsizing. A few hundred nautical miles away on the
same Mediterranean seabed there also lies a U-Boat sunk by depth
charges. Both these wrecks are only two of thousands that litter
the sea beds throughout the oceans of the world, testament to the
famous saying by Scotland’s National Bard Robert Burns…”
Mans inhumanity to man”
To a casual diver coming across these casualties
of World War 2 they would merely be rusting hulks. He would not
know they were intertwined by history.
The liner was SS Strathallan 23,722 tons, built
at Barrow-in-Furness, owned by the Peninsular&Orient Steam
Navigation Company Ltd and requisitioned by the War Office as
a troopship during the war. Its last Captain was J.H.Biggs CBE
The submarine was U562 built at Hamburg 1940. She
had been on patrol in the Mediterranean Sea scouting for Allied
shipping targets when she was depth charged and sunk by two British
Destroyers
The common denominator the hypothetical diver would
not know about, U562 was the U-Boat that torpedoed and sank the
graceful liner Strathallan at 2.30am on 21st December 1942 and
then suffered the “Poetic Justice” of being depth
charged and sunk by HMS Isis and HMS Hursley eight weeks later
off the coast of Libya February 1943. Onboard Strathallan were
over 4000 British and American troops, 250 Queen Alexandra Military
Nurses and 872 crewmembers including the Commodores of the Fleet
Staff and Royal Navy DEMS Gunners. She was a mere 18 hours from
port of disembarkation Algiers when the torpedo struck.
There was no publicity or news reports about the
stricken ship. Obviously in wartime, information that could be
useful to the enemy was severely censored.
Troops were dispersed, crews were re-allocated and
people just got on with the war. the Strathallan becoming just
another war casualty of thousands where loss of life was a daily
occurrence.
But she lived on in the memories of survivors. Here
and there magazine and newspaper articles told the story of some
one or other who was onboard Strathallan when the torpedo struck.
Because of the yearnings of 81-year-old former Leading
Aircraftsman Jim Gormley (RAF Regiment) of Kirkintilloch East
Dumbartonshire, who was at the water line on G Deck when the torpedo
exploded, to learn about the fate of the ship and casualties this
Web Site has come into being.
With the assistance of his next-door neighbour computer
enthusiast Robert Kennedy of Kirkintilloch and Les Jones of Neilston
(both Scotland) an investigation took place by placing requests
for information in newspapers and writing to the Ministry of Defence
and other Public Offices the results were astonishing. Included
in this Web Site is the Official Report to the Admiralty on the
torpedoing of Strathallan by the ships master and extracts from
the U562 Commanders (Kapitanleutnant Horst Hamm) log book at the
exact time he fired the fatal torpedo. It is published verbatim
in German to give the actual words written by the submarine captain.
a historic document indeed.
We have actual survivors reports and also people
who were on convoy ships.
The Strathallan Story is dedicated to these fine
men and women onboard who were on their way to war in North Africa
as part of Operation Torch…. the invasion of Morocco….
Tunis and Algeria…. eventually pushing the Afrika Korp right
out of the Mediterranean.
A special mention to Jim Gormley (survivor) has
to be said who made this web site happen for posterity’s
sake so that relatives around the world can learn about these
extra-ordinary brave men and women and can share in the memories
of their forefathers who contributed to saving the world from
the horrors of Nazi Germany. We are indebted to Jim for his exclusive
memories.
We just have to study the Holocaust
for evidence of the depravity we faced.
LEST WE FORGET.