SS Amsterdam (1930)

TSS Amsterdam was a passenger and freight vessel built for the London and North Eastern Railway in 1930.[1]

For other ships with the same name, see SS Amsterdam.

History
United Kingdom
Name:
  • 1930-1941: TSS Amsterdam
  • 1941-1944: HMHS Amsterdam
Operator:
Builder: John Brown, Clydebank
Yard number: 529
Launched: 30 January 1930
Out of service: 7 August 1944
Identification: British Official Number 161037
Fate: Struck a mine and sank, 7 August 1944
General characteristics
Tonnage: 4,220 gross register tons (GRT)
Length: 350.8 feet (106.9 m)
Beam: 50.1 feet (15.3 m)
Depth: 26 feet (7.9 m)

History

The ship was built by John Brown on Clydebank. She was one of an order for three ships, the others being Vienna and Prague. She was launched on 30 January 1930.

On 14 October 1932, she brought Prince George, Duke of Kent back from his tour of Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.[2]

War Service

In September 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War, the ship was requisitioned by the Ministry of War Transport for troop transport.[3] By 1944, she had been converted to a LSI(H) - Landing Ship Infantry (Hand-hoisting). She carried elements of the United States 2nd Ranger Battalion to Pointe du Hoc on D-day.[4]

By 19 July 1944, she had been converted to a Hospital Carrier ship.[5] On 7 August 1944, she was sunk by a mine while taking casualties from Juno Beach, Calvados, France.[6] A total of 55 patients, ten Royal Army Medical Corps staff, 30 crew and eleven prisoners of war were killed.[7][8]

Seventy five wounded soldiers were carried up and delivered into lifeboats, but two of the nurses on board went back below and went down with the ship. They are the only two women whose names are on the memorial, with 22,000 men.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]

See also

References
  1. Duckworth, Christian Leslie Dyce; Langmuir, Graham Easton (1968). Railway and other Steamers. Prescot, Lancashire: T. Stephenson and Sons.
  2. "The Prince's Return". Derby Daily Telegraph. England. 14 October 1932. Retrieved 6 November 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. http://forums.clydemaritime.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=7462
  4. Page 614. Sand and Steel: The D-Day Invasions and the Liberation of France. By Peter Caddick-Adams. Oxford University Press, 2019
  5. http://forums.clydemaritime.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=7462
  6. wartimememoriesproject.com/ww2/ships/ship.php?pid=6121
  7. "HMS Amsterdam II [+1944]". wrecksite.eu. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  8. Haws, Duncan (1993). Britain's Railway Steamers – Eastern and North Western Companies + Zeeland and Stena. Merchant Fleets. 25. Hereford: TCL Publications. ISBN 0-946378-22-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  9. http://www.fallenheroesofnormandy.org/Servicemen/Detail/24723
  10. http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/hospital-ships-photographs.7989/page-2
  11. http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/missing-presumed-dead-lost-at-sea.16590/
  12. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-cambridgeshire-48541538/d-day-two-female-nurses-honoured-among-22000-men
  13. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/3064607/EVERSHED%2C%20MOLLIE
  14. http://www.harwichanddovercourt.co.uk/the-war-years/
  15. https://www.facebook.com/NormandyMTrust/videos/261668788169037/


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