Horror on Christmas Eve '44: The Sinking of the Troopship SS Leopoldville

Posting this one here because it's personal.

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​Christmas Eve, 1944. The SS Leopoldville was torpedoed a few miles from France. It was carrying the 66th Division to war from England. The cowardly crew deserted the GIs, failing to spread the word that the ship was sinking. There weren't enough lifeboats or life vests. The crew members took their luggage and even birdcages with them. The Royal Navy had to abandon the initial rescue out of U-boat fears. This is not a happy Christmas story.

763 American soldiers died that night in freezing water. Help was long in coming as the US Navy patrol boat crews were drinking & partying, the engines cold. But they did come and saved who they could. The Royal Navy also returned when the U-boat threat abated.

The rescue was horrific. Men splattered on decks after jumping from the stricken troopship. Others were crushed between the hulls. Drowning and hypothermia was a blessing.

My grandfather was being pushed underwater by a panicking soldier without a life vest who couldn't swim. Nearly drowned himself, he was forced to beat the man and hold him under the water until he stopped trying to climb on my grandfather. So he killed a man in self-defense in the water. All on Christmas Eve.

No crewmen faced repercussions for their failures. The captain did go down with his ship. The incident was classified during the war and then forgotten about until long after the war. The 66th Division took more casualties in the sinking than they did from the Germans.