For more information about the sinking of the HMT Rohna and the loss of over 1,000 US troops, please check out the following links and books.

www.rohnaclassified.com

www.rohnasurvivors.org

Rohna Memories, Book 1 and 2, Michael Walsh

Sinking of the Rohna, by Don Fortune

Forgotten Tragedy, by Carlton Jackson

Allied Secret: Sinking Rohna, by Carlton Jackson

The Rohna Disaster, by James Bennett

Attack on the US Convoy KMF-26, by Hams Dochtermann

The SS Rohna was built in England for the British India Steam Navigation Company as a passenger and cargo ship and launched in 1926. She was designed for use between major ports in India and Singapore. She was about 461 feet long, beam of 61 feet with a 33 foot draft and weighed 8,602 GRT. She had 2 steam engines with a cruise speed of 12.5 knots. As designed, she carried 281 First Class, 33 Second Class, 100 Third Class passengers with 5,000+ deck passengers (this was reduced to 3,800+ in 1931). She could carry about 4,700 tons of cargo, with a crew of 195. She was taken over by the Royal Navy in 1940 to become HMT Rohna (His Majesty’s Transport). This meant British officers were in charge with a small detachment to man defensive guns. Through April 1943 she mainly sailed the Indian Ocean in support of the British military. After that she traversed the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea and supported Allied forces in N. Africa and the invasions of Sicily and Italy.

At 12:30 on 25 November 1943, Rohna and 4 other troop ships left Oran, French Algeria. Three hours later they joined convoy KMF-26 as it was traveling from Britain to Alexandria, Egypt. About 16:30 on the 26th, the Luftwaffe attacked with bombers and torpedo planes. During this attack, about 30 of the relatively new Henschel Hs 293 radio guided bombs were used. Many of these guided bombs were near misses, but Rohna took a direct hit to her port side engine room. This caused her to lose power and fires broke out. She sank in about 90 minutes. Of the over 2,000 total on board, 1,138 men were lost, 1,015 were US personnel. The convoy, per orders, kept going east. One of the heroes in this tragedy was the Minesweeper USS Pioneer, AM-105. Despite her small size and crew, about 100, she was able to rescue over 600 survivors. However, the USS Pioneer has never been officially recognized or decorated for her rescue operations, which started while the air attack was still ongoing.

Richard J Adam