| Career (UK) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMT Bedfordshire |
| Namesake: | Bedfordshire, England |
| Builder: | Smith's Dock Co. |
| Launched: | 17 July 1935 |
| Acquired: | August 1939 |
| Fate: | Sunk by U-558 on 11 May 1942 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 443 tons |
| Length: | 162 feet |
| Beam: | 27 feet |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
ASDIC |
| Armament: | 1 × 4 inch gun; 1 × machine gun; depth charges |
HMT[1] Bedfordshire was an armed anti-submarine trawler in the service of the Royal Navy during World War II. She was sunk by the Uboat U-558 on 11 May 1942 off the coast of Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, with the loss of all hands.
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Bedfordshire was a commercial fishing trawler built in 1935 by Smith's Dock Co. in Middlesbrough, England and launched at Teesside. In 1939 she was sold to the Admiralty. Converted for anti-submarine patrols, she was armed with a 4-inch gun, machine guns, and depth charges.
After Germany declared war on the United States on 11 December 1941, German U-boats quickly became a serious threat on the East Coast. The United States Navy was ill-prepared to defend against submarine warfare, and U-boats found it easy to pick off commercial shipping vessels, which traveled unescorted. The onslaught began in January 1942, when 35 Allied ships were sunk by U-boats off the American coast.[2]
In March 1942, the Royal Navy sent 24 ships, including the Bedfordshire, to assist the United States Navy with anti-submarine patrols along the East Coast.[3] U-boats continued to terrorize local shipping, and 45 ships were lost between February and April 1942, with US defenses only managing to sink one U-boat (U-85) during that period.[3]
On 10 May, Bedfordshire and HMT Loman[4] were dispatched from their base at Morehead City to search for a U-boat believed to be in the vicinity of Ocracoke Island. The ships were spotted by U-558, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Günther Krech. Later in the evening, Krech, believing his sub had been detected, fired on Loman, but the British ship spotted the torpedoes and evaded them. At 05:40 on 11 May 1942, U-558 fired a torpedo at Bedfordshire, missed, and fired a second, which scored a direct hit and sank her immediately. All 37 men aboard were killed. One young marine crewman, Sam Nutt, 'survived' because he was arrested for a fight and missed boarding the ship in time for its last patrol.
The discovery of the bodies of two British seamen was the first indication to the US Navy that Bedfordshire may have met her end.[5] Although it was eventually presumed that Bedfordshire had been sunk by a submarine, her fate was not confirmed until U-558 was sunk the following year off Cape Finisterre, resulting in the capture of Kapitänleutnant Krech. The Bedfordshire was attached to the US Navy, but her absence had not yet been noted when a Coast Guardsman discovered two bodies on the shores of Ocracoke Island on 14 May. They were identified as Sub-lieutenant Thomas Cunningham and telegraph operator Stanley Craig of the Bedfordshire. The remains of the two servicemen were buried in a small plot next to a cemetery in Ocracoke Village. The Royal Navy flag draped over Cunningham's coffin was one of several that he himself had given to a local man less than a month earlier for funeral ceremonies.[6][7]
Shortly thereafter, two additional unidentified bodies from the ship washed ashore on Ocracoke Island. All four men were buried together on Ocracoke Island in what became known as the 'British Cemetery.' A third unknown seaman of the HMT Bedfordshire washed ashore in nearby Hatteras and was buried next to the body of Engineer Officer Michael Cairns of the British ship San Delfino, which was torpedoed and sunk on 9/4/1942. The two plots also became known as the "British Cemetery." In late May or early June, a fifth body, that of Seaman Alfred Dryden, washed ashore at Swan Quarter, NC. Dryden was buried in Oak Grove Baptist Cemetery at Creeds, Virginia, with three victims of HMT Kingston Ceylonite whose bodies washed ashore nearby.[8]
The two "British cemeteries" on Ocracoke and Hatteras were leased in 1976 in perpetuity to the British government for as long as the interred men rest there. Formal custody is handled by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and it provided the protocol headstones. Regular maintenance, however, is handled by the US Coast Guard and local residents as a gesture of gratitude and respect to the fallen men and an act of comity to the British government. A Royal Navy flag flies over the cemeteries, and a ceremony is held there each year on 11 May to honor the men of the Bedfordshire.[9] Although a private church cemetery, the British Commonwealth War Graves Commission also provided headstones for the four British servicemen interred at the Oak Grove Baptist Church in Leeds, Virginia, including Alfred Dryden of the Bedfordshire.
The wreck of the Bedfordshire was located in 1980 at .[10]