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I am researching detailed events, places, personalities, diaries, letters, official reports, newspaper cuttings or photographs associated with any of these Second World War ships involved in the Battle of the Atlantic:
British passenger liner S.S. Ceramic German U-boat U-515 United States carrier USS Guadalcanal and escorts Chatelain, Pillsbury, Flaherty and Pope Portugese destroyer Dão British cruiser HMS Enterprise A German Kriegsmarine type IXC U-boat, U-515 was commanded by Kapitänleutnant Werner Henke between February 1942 until its sinking in the Atlantic on 9 April 1944 north of Madeira and west of the Azores following attacks by aircraft from American carrier USS Guadalcanal and depth charges and gunfire from other US warships - Pope, Chatelain, Flaherty and Pillsbury. Kptlt. Henke and most of his crew were taken prisoner and he died apparently attempting escape from Fort Hunt, Virginia, USA in June 1944. Earlier in the U-boat war, on the night of 6/7 December 1942, U-515 had sunk former White Star liner Ceramic (then a Shaw Savill & Albion passenger liner) steaming independently from Liverpool, England to Australia via St Helena and South Africa. Heading towards its first port-of-call at St Helena, the ship was struck by several torpedoes fired from U-515. More than 650 civilians, military personnel and crew died in the sinking, west of the Azores, even though many had taken to lifeboats and rafts. There was one survivor, Eric Munday, of the Royal Engineers who was taken on board the U-boat and eventually landed in France at Lorient some weeks later. He spent the remainder of the war as a POW.
The British cruiser HMS Enterprise and the Portugese destroyer Dão both set out to search the area for survivors, but were driven back in typhoon conditions by Force 12 winds and extremely heavy seas. The Dão itself suffered considerable storm damage in its rescue attempt. The names of the entire crew lost from Ceramic can be seen at the Merchant Navy Memorial at Tower Hill, London, England, close by the Tower of London. Relatives can email me for a copy of a JPEG photograph showing all four bronze panels commemorating the names of Ceramic's last crew.
I have temporarily taken down most of the material from this site pending the creation of a new SS Ceramic site with Clare Hardy.
To go to the Clare's initial webpage, just click on this link to go straight there.
SS Ceramic: Click the book cover to reserve your copy
 Click HERE to View the S.S. Ceramic Guestbook Click HERE to Sign the Guestbook
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