M/T Italia

To Italia on the "Ships starting with I" page.

Crew List

Final Fate - 1940:

Italia left Port Arthur on May 21-1940 with a cargo of 13 000 tons petrol (aviation fuel?) and some general cargo, and arrived Bermuda on May 27 to wait for a convoy. She left again on May 31 with Convoy BHX 47, the Bermuda portion of Convoy HX 47. She was initially bound for Milford Haven, but was later informed by the escort that there had been a change of destination and she was to proceed to Manchester. According to an excerpt of Italia's log the ships that were going to the west coast were detatched from the convoy south of Ireland on the afternoon of June 14, and headed towards St. Georges Channel with only one escort. Shortly afterwards, word came that a straggler had been torpedoed (this was probably Balmoralwood?) and the escort departed to assist, so it looks like the ships had no escort when U-38 (Liebe) attacked. Italia was hit in the early hours of June 15-1940 (23:50, June 14 ship's time) by a torpedo from this U-boat, position 50 37N 08 44W, off the west coast of England. She was struck between tank No. 10 and the engine room, immediately setting the after part on fire, with the flames spreading forward and across the water at a tremendous speed. 8 men jumped overboard; the electrician managed to get out through the porthole of his cabin and swam for life to get away from the flames.

Amidships, boats were partly lowered, and lifebelts thrown out to those who were in the water. The officers amidships waited as long as they could in the hope that more people from the after part would be able to come foreward, but had to abandon ship in the already lowered boats when the seas started to wash over the main after deck; the captain, the 3rd mate, the helmsman and lookout (Able Seaman Olaf Eikland) in the port boat and the 1st mate, steward and radio operator in the starboard motorboat. A 3 hours search for survivors found the 9 men who had jumped overboard, but 19 were gone, including almost the entire engine crew. Some had survived the initial attack, but had died in the flames after having jumped overboard.

A few hours later a French trawler was observed, and some of the men who had no clothes on boarded, but when it turned out the trawler's crew had no clothes to give up, it was decided to go back to the lifboats and wait for a British warship that was seen steering their way. When they left the trawler they spotted a lifeboat with all the survivors from Erik Boye, which had been torpedoed shortly after Italia. They took this boat in tow, then steered towards the British HMS Fowey which picked up the 16 survivors from Italia as well as Erik Boye's survivors (this ship had no casualties). They were landed in Plymouth on June 16 and were later accommodated at the Royal Sailors' Rest in Devonport.

Rohwer, and some other sources say this ship, as well as the Canadian Erik Boye were torpedoed and sunk while in Convoy HX 48. This is incorrect (HX 48 would not have reached that area on that date; it arrived Liverpool on June 20). Rohwer also disagrees slightly with the tonnage I've entered above, saying Italia was 9973 gt, as does Charles Hocking, who gives the position for her sinking as "about 60 miles west of the Scilly Isles". Roger Jordan says Italia sank in position 50 41N 08 52W. The position given in my own text above is from an excerpt from Italia's logbook.

Captain Hallén later commanded M/T Britannia (he died in 1997, age 94).

Erik Boye (formerly a Danish ship) is listed at the website of the Naval Museum of Manitoba, see the last external link below.

Crew List:

Survivors
Captain Karsten Hallén	1st Mate Olaf Andersen	2nd Mate Nils Løvold	3rd Mate Sigurd Aanonsen	Radio Operator Tor Mønnes	Able Seaman Olaf Eikland
Able Seaman Thorvald Henriksen	Able Seaman Rolf Juell	Ordinary Seaman Sidney Markussen	Deck Boy Odd Holm	Deckboy Reidar Steffensen	Electrician Olaf Larsen
Pump Man Jan Nauman	Oiler Kaare Andersen	Steward Olaf Gundersen	Cook Egil Andersen
Casualties:
† Carpenter Andreas Møller	† Boatswain Georg Olsen	† Able Seaman Karl Nilsen	† Ordinary Seaman Jan Beyer (Dutch)	† Ordinary Seaman Conrad Schermele (Dutch)	† Deck Boy Knut Diebitsch
† 1st Engineer Henry Alstad	† 2nd Engineer Georg Salvesen	† 3rd Engineer Lorentz Lauritzen	† 4th Engineer Martin Boger	† Mechanic Olav Karlsen	† Mechanic Erling Beckstrøm
† Mechanic Wilhelm Wilhelmsen	† Oiler Lars Ugland	† Oiler Halvor Aabakk	† Engine Boy Frank Magnussen	† Engine Boy Tor Aune	† Galley Boy Knut Olsen
† Mess Boy Gerhard Fuchs

Related external links:
Stavern commemorations - The 17 Norwegians are commemorated at this memorial for seamen in Stavern, Norway.

U-38 | Heinrich Liebe

Canadian WW II Merchant ship losses - Naval Museum of Manitoba.

Back to Italia on the "Ships starting with I" page.

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "The World's Merchant Fleets", R. W. Jordan, "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "The Allied Convoy System", Arnold Hague, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Norwegian Maritime Museum, Volume I, and misc. (ref. My sources).