the Kingston desaster

The 126 m long British freighter Thistlegorm was launched in Sunderland (northern England) in April 1940. The English Gaelic name means “blue thistle” (English thistle “thistle”, Gaelic gorm “blue”). Her tonnage was 4.9 GRT, her draught 7.45 m. A steam engine with two boilers with a maximum power of 1850 hp (272 kW) gave the ship a speed of 10.5 knots.

The ship was not built for warlike operations, it lacked effective armor. In response to the situation, the bridge and the superstructure amidships were reinforced with concrete slabs. It was hoped that this would protect the ship from enemy bombs and splitter. This concrete corset did not look good, and the two cannons at the stern, a clear sign of defensive armament, did not suit it either. However, they were necessary protective measures. For her fourth and last voyage, the Thistlegorm left Glasgow, Scotland, in August 1941. On board was a cargo of weapons, ammunition, and equipment, including shells of various calibers, mines, Vickers Universal Carrier tanks, trucks (Ford WOT2,WOT3, WOT1, Bedford MW, Bedford OY, Tilling Stevens TS-19), motorcycles (BSA M-20, Matchless G3L, Norton 16H), aircraft parts, two locomotives, and several railroad cars. The material was destined for the British Army’s 8th Army (later known as the Desert Rats), which was preparing a major offensive (Operation Crusader) against the German Afrika Korps under Erwin Rommel. Because of the threat posed by German and Italian submarines and aircraft, the Thistlegorm took the longer but safer route around Africa. At Aden, Yemen, on September 24, she was assigned to a convoy of 20 ships under the protection of the cruiser HMS Carlisle and sailed north with it through the Red Sea. Since the passage through the Suez Canal was blocked with a wreck, the convoy had to wait at an anchorage (“Safe Anchorage F”) east of the southern tip of Sinai’s Sha’ab Ali reef for the route to be cleared.

After a ten-day wait, the convoy was spotted on the night of October 6, 1941, by a German Heinkel He 111 bomber of 2nd group of Kampfgeschwader 26 (KG26). Together with a second He 111 aircraft, the plane, equipped with two special anti-ship bombs and launched on Crete, had actually been intended to sink the passenger ship Queen Mary, which was being used as a troop transport, but failed to find it. The crew recognized the Thistlegorm as a worthwhile target and attacked it in low-level flight. One or both bombs hit the ship in the aft section at the level of the fourth hold. The hit detonated part of the ammunition cargo and probably the pressurized steam boilers in the engine room. A series of detonations broke off the stern, and the ship sank within minutes. Nine crew members died in the sinking, and the 30 survivors were rescued by the other ships in the convoy. The aircraft that had sunk theThistlegorm was shot down, and the crew became prisoners.