HMHS Newfoundland

HMHS Newfoundland was a British hospital ship. She served during the Second World War and was sunk in an air attack in the Mediterranean.

Career

Newfoundland spent the first part of the Second World War carrying wounded troops from the UK to Canada, and bringing the rehabilitated troops back home. Her sailings usually took her from Liverpool to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

In April 1943 Newfoundland repatriated some Allied servicemen from Lisbon to Avonmouth (Bristol) in England. Amongst them was Flight Lieutenant John F. Leeming RAF, who had been captured with Air Marshal Owen Tudor Boyd (as his Aide-de-Camp) in 1940. His escape plan from Vincigliata PG 12 prisoner of war camp in Italy was by cleverly faking a very bad nervous breakdown case. He succeeded so well that the international Medical board, with Swiss and Italian doctors, unhesitatingly accepted his case. As he describes in his book ^[1] 'In the late afternoon (18 April 1943) we went aboard the British hospital ship Newfoundland,which was lying at the quay ready to sail for England. I walked quickly up the gangway, and as I felt my two feet touch the ship's deck I looked up - I suppose I am too sentimental - at the flag flying from the masthead. "Done it!" I said aloud.'

After the Allied invasion of Italy in September 1943, HMHS Newfoundland was assigned as the hospital ship of the Eighth Army, and was one of two hospital ships sent to deliver 103 American nurses to the Salerno beaches on 12 September. The hospital ships were attacked twice that day by dive bombers, and by evening they were joined by a third hospital ship. Concerned by a number of near misses, it was decided to move the ships out to sea and anchor there for the night. All three ships were brightly illuminated and carried standard Red Cross markings to identify them as hospital ships, and their protection under the Geneva Convention.

Sinking

At 5:00 a.m. on 13 September while under the command of Captain John Eric Wilson O.B.E, she was struck by either a Fritz X or a Henschel Hs 293 air launched anti-ship missile 40 nautical miles (74 km) offshore of Salerno. It struck on the boat deck, abaft of the bridge. The ship fortunately was only carrying two patients and 34 crew members. Communications were lost but, more importantly, the fire fighting equipment was completely shattered. The USS Mayo came alongside to rescue the patients, and also put a party onboard to help with damage control. By now the ship had caught fire. There was another explosion and it became clear that the oil tanks had also caught fire. The injured crew left the boat and 12 crew members battled the fire for a further 36 hours. The ship was beyond repair and was towed further out to sea and intentionally sunk by the USS Plunkett. Of the people on board, six of the British staff nurses and all of the medical officers had been killed. The Luftwaffe's reasons for attacking HMHS Newfoundland have never been known. One theory has been put forward that the American nurses were mistaken for troops because of their green uniforms.

References

• Info About Ship And Crew

Bibliography

• Monahan, Evelyn; Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee (2003). And If I Perish: Frontline U.S. Army Nurses in World War II. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0375415149. OCLC 51978030.