大象传媒

The date was the 2nd October 1942,I was serving on the H.M.S.Saladin,one of the very old British destroyers of the R&S -{1916} class,we spent most of our time at sea as convoy escort during the Battle of the Atlantic.On this particular date we were at sea with other destroyers as escort to the Queen Mary,during this period she was transporting American troops to the U.K.
We and other destroyers as part of the escort force, were ahead of the Queen Mary to protect her from attack by German U-boats,in addition to this she also relied on altering course and maintaining a high speed ,this made it difficult for a U-boat to get into a position to launch a torpedo.On this occasion she also had the added protection of H.M.S.Curacao,a cruiser sailing close by to protect her from possible attack by German aircraft.
As I remember it the weather was fine,sea calm and good visibility,my watch had closed up to our stations and I was mast head look-out,after a period of time I saw a black cloud near to the Queen Mary and reported this to the bridge,we immediately turned to head towards the Queen Mary but shortly after we must have had orders to continue on our original course,this we did with the Queen Mary following.I believe we were not far from the Irish coast as in due course we reached the Clyde and there saw the Queen Mary close up;she had a hole in her bows that I think must have been the size of a bus.
I understood later that we had a suspected U-boat close by and the Queen Mary had altered course and unfortunately rammed the Curacao,the cruiser sank immediately with the sad loss of the watch below deck,about 330 men,escort ships managed to pick up survivors from the upper deck.
The Queen Mary carried thousands of American troops across to this country.I do not know how this accident happened but of course the safety of the troops would have been paramount'
In 1946 I was again in the Atlantic returning to this country to my demobilisation from the Royal Navy,as we got close to the U.K.I remember looking over the side at the sea and thinking of the many sailors that went down with their ship following this tragic accident.
The ship I was on for the journey home was the Queen Mary,her last journey as a troop ship.

R.H.Callcut

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