This site is dedicated to the men & women who served their countries so bravely.
Somewhere on the ocean floor of Algeria in the Mediterranean Sea lies a once proud passenger liner the SS Strathallan. Learn about the fate of this amazing troopship.
Survivors/Relatives/Convoy personnel in relation to the torpedoing of SS Strathallan in The Mediterranean Sea on 21st December 1942.
Read Amazing Survivor reports.
Learn about her sister ships.
Contact comrades and relatives throughout the world and share memories.
The Story
Churchill v Hitler
Read Robert Kennedy’s own words on Sir Winston Churchill and the evil leader of the 3rd Reich – Adolf Hitler. What strategic plans did Churchill put into place to defeat this madman and what part did our allies play.
Disaster
U-Boat 562
When was the SS Strathallan torpedoed? Learn about U-Boats and see where she sank. Learn about the dreaded predator and see the actual German log book recording the attack early on that fateful morning.
El Elemein
Operation Torch
Follow Operation Torch, the invasion of Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco & North Africa as the Allies drove home the advantage following the 8th Army’s magnificent victory at El Alemein, about our allies and how they helped.
Thank you for keeping this website so that all relatives and friends can read stories from WW2 and in particular the events that took place with the SS Strathallan.
ReplyThank you for your comments David.I will try and keep the website online as long as I am able.
ReplyI would like to mention my father, John Fredrick Thomas Johnson who was on board when the Strathallan was hit. He was with the RASC unit. Fortunately he was able to clamber on board a destroyer because at the time he couldn’t swim. He remembered having to climb numerous ladders in order to reach the main deck. He left his pipe and his mouth organ behind in the evacuation. On his 85th Birthday, one of his grand children ( Dan) gave him a pipe and mouth organ as a Birthday present. He was in tears.
ReplyMy father who will be 94 in November was a survivor of the stricken Strathallan. Do you know how many survivors are still alive and has there ever been a reunion?
ReplyHi,
ReplyThere was a re-union a few years ago but I am unsure if there will be another. I have details of the person that organised this, I would be happy to provide if you email me direct.
Les
My father was on the strathallan when it was torpedoed. He remembered a destroyer returning
ReplyI have been researching World War I service men from the Dowerin district of Western Australia. It seems Herbert Hamilton, who served with the AIF between 1914 and 1917 and was wounded on 25 April 1915 at Gallipoli, was on the Strathallan and lost all his papers. I assume he was crew, as there does not seem to be a record of his enlisting in the Second World War, and when writing to request replacement papers uses his WWI number. Lovely to find more information, thank you.
ReplyEdward Ellsberg’s book No banners, no bugles seems to have an in depth narrative of the last hours of the Strathallan. He was a salvage officer and he gives a detailed account of fighting the onboard fires after the ship was abandoned
ReplyMy Grandad Percival Biddlecombe (98 years old) is a survivor of the Strathallan. He was talking to me about it just today 23/12/2017. He was reminiscing about how him and his fellow soldiers were sitting on deck after the torpedo hit singing hymns and Christmas carols while they awaited rescue. It has been great to find this web site and be able to read about this chapter of my family history
ReplyClearing a relatives house , I came across a small penknife with a picture of a ship on one side & ” T.S.S. Strathallan ” on the other . It piqued my curiosity somewhat .
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