SS Athenia
Encyclopedia
The S.S. Athenia was the first British
ship to be sunk by Nazi Germany
in World War II
.
, Ltd., and was launched at Govan
, Scotland
in 1923. She was built for Anchor-Donaldson Ltd.'s route between Britain
and Canada
. For most of her career she sailed between either Glasgow
or Liverpool
, and Quebec
and Montreal
. During the height of winter, she operated as a cruise ship. After 1935, her owners became the Donaldson Atlantic Line Ltd.
Athenia measured 13,465 gross tons
, was 526.3 feet long and had a 66.4 foot beam (160.4m x 20.2m). She had two masts and a single funnel. She carried 516 cabin class passengers and an additional 1,000 in 3rd class. She was a twin propeller vessel powered by steam turbine
s, with a top speed of 15 knots.
for Montreal
on 1 September 1939, via Liverpool and Belfast, carrying 1,103 passengers, including more than 300 Americans, and 315 crew. She left Liverpool at 13:00 on 2 September, and on the evening of 3 September was 60 mi (96.6 km) south of Rockall
(250 miles/400 km northwest of Inishtrahull, Ireland
), when she was sighted by the commanded by Oberleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp
around 16:30. Lemp later claimed that the fact that she was a darkened ship steering a zigzag course which seemed to be well off the normal shipping routes made him believe she was either a troopship or a Q-ship or an armed merchant cruiser. U-30 tracked the Athenia for three hours until eventually, at 19:40, when both vessels were between Rockall
and Tory Island
, Lemp ordered two torpedoes to be fired. The first struck home and exploded, while the second misfired. Athenia began to settle by the stern.
Several ships, including , raced to the site of the attack. The captain of Electra, Lt. Cdr. Sammy A. Buss, was Senior Officer Present, so he took charge. He sent the destroyer on an anti-submarine sweep of the area, while Electra, another destroyer
, , the Swedish
yacht
Southern Cross, the 5,749 ton Norwegian
tanker
MS Knute Nelson, and the American freighter SS City of Flint, rescued the survivors. Between them, about 981 passengers and crew were rescued. The German liner en route from New York to Murmansk
, also received Athenias distress signal, but hardly surprisingly ignored it. The City of Flint took 223 survivors on to Halifax, and the Knute Nelson landed 450 at Galway
.
Athenia remained afloat for over fourteen hours after being torpedoed, until she finally sank stern first at 10:40 the following morning. Of the 1,418 aboard, 98 passengers and 19 crew members were killed. The toll in lives included fatalities caused when the torpedo struck, and from accidents and other misadventures during the evacuation.
Most of the fatalities occurred in the engine room and after stairwell, where the torpedo hit, though other sources dispute this.
Some died later when one of the lifeboats was crushed in the propeller of the Knute Nelson.
In this case No. 5A lifeboat came alongside the empty tanker and made fast astern of No 12 lifeboat against advice, and only 15 feet from the tanker's exposed propellor. Once No. 12 lifeboat was emptied it was cut adrift and began to sink. This fact was reported to the bridge of Knute Nelson. For some reason the ship's telegraph was then put at full ahead, and 5A lifeboat's warp parted under the strain, resulting in the lifeboat falling back into the fast revolving propellor. This caused about 50 deaths. A second accident occurred at about 0500 hrs when No. 8 lifeboat capsized in a heavy sea below the stern of the yacht Southern Cross causing ten deaths. Three passengers were crushed to death while attempting to transfer from lifeboats to the RN destroyers. The other fatalities were due to falling overboard from Athenia and her lifeboats, or to injuries and exposure. Twenty-eight of the dead were American citizens, which led to German fears that the incident would bring the US
into the war.
A Canadian girl, 10-year old Margaret Hayworth, was included among the casualties, and was the first Canadian to die as a result of enemy action. Newspapers widely publicized the story, proclaiming "Ten-Year-Old Victim of Torpedo" as "Canadians Rallying Point", and set the tone for their coverage of the rest of the war. A thousand people met the train that transported her body back to Hamilton, Ontario
, and there was a public funeral attended by the mayor of Hamilton and the city council, as well as the Lieutenant-Governor, Albert Edward Matthews
, Premier Mitchell Hepburn
, and the entire Ontario cabinet.
When Grand Admiral Raeder
first heard of the sinking of the Athenia, he made inquiries and was told that no U-boat was nearer than 75 mi (120.7 km) to the location of the sinking. He therefore told the US chargé d'affaires in good faith that the German Navy had not been responsible. When, on 27 September, U-30 returned to Wilhelmshaven, Lemp reported to Admiral Dönitz
that he had sunk the Athenia in error. Dönitz at once sent Lemp to Berlin, where he explained the incident to Raeder. In turn, Raeder reported to Hitler, who decided that the incident should be kept secret for political reasons. Raeder decided against court-martialling Lemp because he considered that he had made an understandable mistake, and the log of the U-30, which was seen by many people, was altered to sustain the official denials. A month later the Voelkischer Beobachter, the Nazi party's official newspaper, published an article which blamed the loss of the Athenia on the British, accusing Winston Churchill
, then First Lord of the Admiralty, of sinking the ship to turn neutral opinion against Nazi Germany. Raeder claimed to not have known about this previous to publication and said that if he had known about it, he would have prevented it appearing.
In the US, 60% of respondents to a Gallup poll believed the Germans were responsible, despite their initial claims that the Athenia had been sunk by the British for propaganda purpose, with only 9% believing otherwise. Some anti-interventionists called for restraint while at the same time expressing their abhorrence of the sinking. Boake Carter
described it as a criminal act.
Some were not completely convinced that Germany was in fact responsible. Herbert Hoover
expressed his doubts, saying, "It is such poor tactics that I cannot believe that even the clumsy Germans would do such a thing", while North Carolina
senator Robert Rice Reynolds
denied that Germany had any motive to sink the Athenia. At best, he said, such an action "could only further inflame the world, and particularly America, against Germany, with no appreciable profits from the sinking." He added that Britain could have had a motive - "to infuriate the American people".
It was not until January 1946, during the case against Admiral Raeder at the Nuremberg trials, that a statement by Admiral Dönitz was read in which he finally admitted that Athenia had been torpedoed by U-30 and that every effort had been made to cover it up. Lemp, who claimed he had mistaken her for an armed merchant cruiser, took the first steps to conceal the facts by omitting to make an entry in the submarine's log, and swearing his crew to secrecy.
of 1930 which allowed all warships including submarines to stop and search merchant vessels, but provided that passengers and crew must be transferred to a "place of safety" as a priority if it was decided to sink their ship. Although Germany was not a signatory to this treaty, the German 1936 Prisenordnung binding their naval commanders copied it almost verbatim.
(1940), directed by Mitchell Leisen
and starring Claudette Colbert
and Ray Milland
, had a sequence involving the torpedoing of the liner.
The sinking of the Athenia is mentioned in the song "Rollerskate Skinny," written by Rhett Miller, and performed by his band The Old 97's.
In The Man Who Could Not Shudder
, Dr. Fell announces the end of story by showing his audience a newspaper bearing headline "LINER ATHENIA: FULL LIST OF VICTIMS". He means to say that the war has begun and now not much bothering about the mystery needs to be done.
Recent extensive research concerning the incident appears in Cay Rademacher's 2009 book Drei Tage im September - die letzte Fahrt der Athenia, 1939 published by Mareverlag, Hamburg.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
ship to be sunk by Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Description
Athenia was built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering CompanyGovan
Govan is a district and former burgh now part of southwest City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south bank of the River Clyde, opposite the mouth of the River Kelvin and the district of Partick....
, Ltd., and was launched at Govan
Govan
Govan is a district and former burgh now part of southwest City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south bank of the River Clyde, opposite the mouth of the River Kelvin and the district of Partick....
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
in 1923. She was built for Anchor-Donaldson Ltd.'s route between Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. For most of her career she sailed between either Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
or Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, and Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
and Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. During the height of winter, she operated as a cruise ship. After 1935, her owners became the Donaldson Atlantic Line Ltd.
Athenia measured 13,465 gross tons
Gross tonnage
Gross tonnage is a unitless index related to a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage...
, was 526.3 feet long and had a 66.4 foot beam (160.4m x 20.2m). She had two masts and a single funnel. She carried 516 cabin class passengers and an additional 1,000 in 3rd class. She was a twin propeller vessel powered by steam turbine
Steam turbine
A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....
s, with a top speed of 15 knots.
Sinking
Athenia, under Captain James Cook, departed GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
for Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
on 1 September 1939, via Liverpool and Belfast, carrying 1,103 passengers, including more than 300 Americans, and 315 crew. She left Liverpool at 13:00 on 2 September, and on the evening of 3 September was 60 mi (96.6 km) south of Rockall
Rockall
Rockall is an extremely small, uninhabited, remote rocky islet in the North Atlantic Ocean. It gives its name to one of the sea areas named in the shipping forecast provided by the British Meteorological Office....
(250 miles/400 km northwest of Inishtrahull, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
), when she was sighted by the commanded by Oberleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp
Fritz-Julius Lemp
Fritz-Julius Lemp was a Kapitänleutnant with the Kriegsmarine during World War II and commander of , and . He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...
around 16:30. Lemp later claimed that the fact that she was a darkened ship steering a zigzag course which seemed to be well off the normal shipping routes made him believe she was either a troopship or a Q-ship or an armed merchant cruiser. U-30 tracked the Athenia for three hours until eventually, at 19:40, when both vessels were between Rockall
Rockall
Rockall is an extremely small, uninhabited, remote rocky islet in the North Atlantic Ocean. It gives its name to one of the sea areas named in the shipping forecast provided by the British Meteorological Office....
and Tory Island
Tory Island
Toraigh is an inhabited island 14.5 km off the northwest coast of County Donegal, Ireland. It is also known in Irish as Oileán Thoraigh, Oileán Thoraí or Oileán Thúr Rí.-Language:The main spoken language on the island is Irish, but English is also understood...
, Lemp ordered two torpedoes to be fired. The first struck home and exploded, while the second misfired. Athenia began to settle by the stern.
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
, , the Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
yacht
Yacht
A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...
Southern Cross, the 5,749 ton Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
tanker
Tanker (ship)
A tanker is a ship designed to transport liquids in bulk. Major types of tankship include the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, and the liquefied natural gas carrier.-Background:...
MS Knute Nelson, and the American freighter SS City of Flint, rescued the survivors. Between them, about 981 passengers and crew were rescued. The German liner en route from New York to Murmansk
Murmansk
Murmansk is a city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It serves as a seaport and is located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland...
, also received Athenias distress signal, but hardly surprisingly ignored it. The City of Flint took 223 survivors on to Halifax, and the Knute Nelson landed 450 at Galway
Galway
Galway or City of Galway is a city in County Galway, Republic of Ireland. It is the sixth largest and the fastest-growing city in Ireland. It is also the third largest city within the Republic and the only city in the Province of Connacht. Located on the west coast of Ireland, it sits on the...
.
Athenia remained afloat for over fourteen hours after being torpedoed, until she finally sank stern first at 10:40 the following morning. Of the 1,418 aboard, 98 passengers and 19 crew members were killed. The toll in lives included fatalities caused when the torpedo struck, and from accidents and other misadventures during the evacuation.
Most of the fatalities occurred in the engine room and after stairwell, where the torpedo hit, though other sources dispute this.
Some died later when one of the lifeboats was crushed in the propeller of the Knute Nelson.
In this case No. 5A lifeboat came alongside the empty tanker and made fast astern of No 12 lifeboat against advice, and only 15 feet from the tanker's exposed propellor. Once No. 12 lifeboat was emptied it was cut adrift and began to sink. This fact was reported to the bridge of Knute Nelson. For some reason the ship's telegraph was then put at full ahead, and 5A lifeboat's warp parted under the strain, resulting in the lifeboat falling back into the fast revolving propellor. This caused about 50 deaths. A second accident occurred at about 0500 hrs when No. 8 lifeboat capsized in a heavy sea below the stern of the yacht Southern Cross causing ten deaths. Three passengers were crushed to death while attempting to transfer from lifeboats to the RN destroyers. The other fatalities were due to falling overboard from Athenia and her lifeboats, or to injuries and exposure. Twenty-eight of the dead were American citizens, which led to German fears that the incident would bring the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
into the war.
Aftermath
The sinking caused dramatic publicity throughout the English-speaking world. The front pages of many newspapers running photographs of the lost ship alongside headlines about Britain's declaration of war. As an example, the Halifax Herald for 4 September 1939 had a banner across its front page announcing "LINER ATHENIA IS TORPEDOED AND SUNK" with, in the center of the page, "EMPIRE AT WAR" in outsized red print.A Canadian girl, 10-year old Margaret Hayworth, was included among the casualties, and was the first Canadian to die as a result of enemy action. Newspapers widely publicized the story, proclaiming "Ten-Year-Old Victim of Torpedo" as "Canadians Rallying Point", and set the tone for their coverage of the rest of the war. A thousand people met the train that transported her body back to Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
, and there was a public funeral attended by the mayor of Hamilton and the city council, as well as the Lieutenant-Governor, Albert Edward Matthews
Albert Edward Matthews
Albert Edward Matthews was the 16th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.Matthews was born in Lindsay, Ontario. He worked as an investment broker in Toronto and rose to the position of director. Matthews served as Ontario's 16th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1937 to 1946...
, Premier Mitchell Hepburn
Mitchell Hepburn
Mitchell Frederick Hepburn was the 11th Premier of Ontario, Canada, from 1934 to 1942. He was the youngest Premier in Ontario history, appointed at age 37....
, and the entire Ontario cabinet.
When Grand Admiral Raeder
Erich Raeder
Erich Johann Albert Raeder was a naval leader in Germany before and during World War II. Raeder attained the highest possible naval rank—that of Großadmiral — in 1939, becoming the first person to hold that rank since Alfred von Tirpitz...
first heard of the sinking of the Athenia, he made inquiries and was told that no U-boat was nearer than 75 mi (120.7 km) to the location of the sinking. He therefore told the US chargé d'affaires in good faith that the German Navy had not been responsible. When, on 27 September, U-30 returned to Wilhelmshaven, Lemp reported to Admiral Dönitz
Karl Dönitz
Karl Dönitz was a German naval commander during World War II. He started his career in the German Navy during World War I. In 1918, while he was in command of , the submarine was sunk by British forces and Dönitz was taken prisoner...
that he had sunk the Athenia in error. Dönitz at once sent Lemp to Berlin, where he explained the incident to Raeder. In turn, Raeder reported to Hitler, who decided that the incident should be kept secret for political reasons. Raeder decided against court-martialling Lemp because he considered that he had made an understandable mistake, and the log of the U-30, which was seen by many people, was altered to sustain the official denials. A month later the Voelkischer Beobachter, the Nazi party's official newspaper, published an article which blamed the loss of the Athenia on the British, accusing Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, then First Lord of the Admiralty, of sinking the ship to turn neutral opinion against Nazi Germany. Raeder claimed to not have known about this previous to publication and said that if he had known about it, he would have prevented it appearing.
In the US, 60% of respondents to a Gallup poll believed the Germans were responsible, despite their initial claims that the Athenia had been sunk by the British for propaganda purpose, with only 9% believing otherwise. Some anti-interventionists called for restraint while at the same time expressing their abhorrence of the sinking. Boake Carter
Boake Carter
Harold Thomas Henry Carter , aka Boake Carter, was an American national news commentator in the 1930s and early 1940s. He was born in Baku, Russian Empire , where his father, Thomas Carter, worked for a British oil company...
described it as a criminal act.
Some were not completely convinced that Germany was in fact responsible. Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
expressed his doubts, saying, "It is such poor tactics that I cannot believe that even the clumsy Germans would do such a thing", while North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
senator Robert Rice Reynolds
Robert Rice Reynolds
Robert Rice Reynolds was a Democratic U.S. senator from North Carolina between 1932 and 1945. Almost from the outset of his Senate career, "Our Bob," as he was known among supporters back home, acquired distinction as a passionate isolationist and increasingly as an apologist for Nazi aggression...
denied that Germany had any motive to sink the Athenia. At best, he said, such an action "could only further inflame the world, and particularly America, against Germany, with no appreciable profits from the sinking." He added that Britain could have had a motive - "to infuriate the American people".
It was not until January 1946, during the case against Admiral Raeder at the Nuremberg trials, that a statement by Admiral Dönitz was read in which he finally admitted that Athenia had been torpedoed by U-30 and that every effort had been made to cover it up. Lemp, who claimed he had mistaken her for an armed merchant cruiser, took the first steps to conceal the facts by omitting to make an entry in the submarine's log, and swearing his crew to secrecy.
Legality of sinking
As Athenia was an unarmed passenger ship, the attack was in violation of the London Naval TreatyLondon Naval Treaty
The London Naval Treaty was an agreement between the United Kingdom, the Empire of Japan, France, Italy and the United States, signed on April 22, 1930, which regulated submarine warfare and limited naval shipbuilding. Ratifications were exchanged in London on October 27, 1930, and the treaty went...
of 1930 which allowed all warships including submarines to stop and search merchant vessels, but provided that passengers and crew must be transferred to a "place of safety" as a priority if it was decided to sink their ship. Although Germany was not a signatory to this treaty, the German 1936 Prisenordnung binding their naval commanders copied it almost verbatim.
Questioning of sinking
Following the sinking of Athenia, some conspiracy theories were floated among pro-Axis and anti-British circles. For example, one editor in Boston's Italian News suggested the ship had been sunk by England's mines and blamed on German U-boats to draw America into the war. The claims appear unfounded.Popular culture
While no movie was ever made regarding the full story of the sinking, the film Arise, My LoveArise, My Love
Arise, My Love is a 1940 American romantic comedy film made by Paramount Pictures, directed by Mitchell Leisen, written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Jacques Théry, and starring Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland....
(1940), directed by Mitchell Leisen
Mitchell Leisen
Mitchell Leisen was an American director, art director, and costume designer.-Film career:He entered the film industry in the 1920s, beginning in the art and costume departments...
and starring Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...
and Ray Milland
Ray Milland
Ray Milland was a Welsh actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend , a sophisticated leading man opposite a corrupt John Wayne in Reap the Wild Wind , the murder-plotting...
, had a sequence involving the torpedoing of the liner.
The sinking of the Athenia is mentioned in the song "Rollerskate Skinny," written by Rhett Miller, and performed by his band The Old 97's.
In The Man Who Could Not Shudder
The Man Who Could Not Shudder
The Man Who Could Not Shudder, first published in 1940, is a detective story by John Dickson Carr featuring his series detective Gideon Fell...
, Dr. Fell announces the end of story by showing his audience a newspaper bearing headline "LINER ATHENIA: FULL LIST OF VICTIMS". He means to say that the war has begun and now not much bothering about the mystery needs to be done.
Recent extensive research concerning the incident appears in Cay Rademacher's 2009 book Drei Tage im September - die letzte Fahrt der Athenia, 1939 published by Mareverlag, Hamburg.
Famous people on the Athenia
- Richard Stuart LakeRichard Stuart LakeRichard Stuart Lake was a long serving territorial provincial and federal level politician from Saskatchewan, Canada.-Territorial politics:...
Former Saskatchewan Lieutenant-Governor and federal politician. - Hannah Baird, a civilian waitress from Montreal, was the first Canadian killed in the war.
- James A. Goodson, notable fighter pilot of the RCAF and later USAAF.
- Judith EvelynJudith EvelynJudith Evelyn was an American stage and film actress. She was born Evelyn Morris in Seneca, South Dakota.Evelyn appeared on Broadway in the following plays:* The Shrike as "Ann Downs"...
, American stage and film actress (Craig's WifeCraig's WifeCraig's Wife is a 1925 play written by American playwright George Kelly, uncle of actress and later Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly. It won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Harriet Craig was played by Chrystal Herne....
) - Andrew AllanAndrew AllanAndrew Allan , born in Scotland, was the national head of CBC Radio Drama from 1943 to 1955. He oversaw the work of some of the finest talents of the day – writers and actors such as Lister Sinclair, Mavor Moore, W.O...
, head of CBC RadioCBC RadioCBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...
Drama, fiancé of Judith Evelyn - Prof. John H. LawrenceJohn H. LawrenceJohn Hundale Lawrence was an American physicist and physician best known for pioneering the field of nuclear medicine. -Background:John Hundale Lawrence was born in Canton, South Dakota...
, American physicist and doctor - Charles Wharton Stork, American writer and essayist (Day Dreams of Greece)
- Thomas Finley, head of Loomis ChaffeeLoomis ChaffeeThe Loomis Chaffee School is a premier coeducational boarding school for grades 9–12 and postgraduates located on a 300-plus acre campus in the Connecticut River Valley in Windsor, Connecticut, six miles north of Hartford...
in Windsor, ConnecticutWindsor, ConnecticutWindsor is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, and was the first English settlement in the state. It lies on the northern border of Connecticut's capital, Hartford. The population was estimated at 28,778 in 2005.... - Nicola Lubitsch, then ten-months-old daughter of film director Ernst LubitschErnst LubitschErnst Lubitsch was a German-born film director. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch."In 1947 he received an Honorary Academy Award for his...
(accompanied by a nurse) - Carmen SilveraCarmen SilveraCarmen Blanche Silvera was a Canadian-born British comic actress of Spanish-Jewish descent who moved to Coventry with her family when she was a child...
, Canadian-born British actress - Barbara Cass-Beggs, British-Canadian teacher, writer and music scientist
- Daphne Sebag-Montefiore, relation to Moses MontefioreMoses MontefioreSir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, Kt was one of the most famous British Jews of the 19th century. Montefiore was a financier, banker, philanthropist and Sheriff of London...
See also
- Laconia incidentLaconia incidentThe Laconia incident was an abortive naval rescue attempt in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. On 12 September 1942, , carrying some 80 civilians, 268 British Army soldiers, about 1,800 Italian prisoners of war, and 160 Polish soldiers , was struck and sunk by a torpedo from Kriegsmarine...
- RMS LusitaniaRMS LusitaniaRMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship entered passenger service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907 and continued on the line's heavily-traveled passenger service between Liverpool, England and New...
- MV Wilhelm Gustloff
- SS General von Steuben