Sunk at position 33.03N,
22.04E - Grid CO 5498
The Yoma had left Tripoli on 16th June in Convoy GTX 2, 14 ships including 3
troop ships, bound for Alexandria. The Yoma was the leading ship of the
third column, with two ships astern of her. The next morning, 17th June, was
fine, clear and sunny with “light airs”. Around 0730 the ship was heading
east at 6½ knots when she was struck by a torpedo from a U-boat, causing the
after engine room bulkhead to collapse and the boiler room, engine room and
number 5 hold to flood immediately. An eye witness on board recalled,
“Although the explosion was loud, it was not as loud as I would have
expected. The vessel was ‘lifted’ by the explosion, and settled rapidly by
the stern. I was in the Wireless Room at the time. I came out onto the
bridge, but could see nothing owing to the steam which enveloped the
ship…Nos. 3 and 4 hatches were blown away, and clouds of coal dust were
thrown high into the air, smothering everything, including myself. I heard
the Master order “abandon ship” and hurried to my lifeboat…” After wrestling
with the lifeboats, he found that “by this time the Yoma was well down by
the stern and the next thing I knew she sank under my feet and I found
myself in the water…as the boat rose I saw a lot of men on the foc’sle head:
they would not jump into the water,…as the bow lifted a number of them lost
their footing and fell onto the bridge, many others being dragged under by
the ship.” Although I tend to trust eye witness reports, do not trust them
as exact. Time goes on and memory fades .......... another witness to the
same event would probably have seen things differently.Due to it being
around breakfast time, most of the men were below decks and, in the scramble
for the ladders, the No2 Mess Deck ladders collapsed. The convoy had to
steam ahead as it was too dangerous to linger with submarines in the
vicinity. So men were in the water for some time before they were picked up
by a couple of mine sweepers, one of which was HMAS Lismorre. According to
its website, this Australian ship had been sent to the Eastern Mediterranean
Fleet to take part in “Operation Husky”, the invasion of Sicily. The
Lismore, several other Australian ships and some Royal Navy ships were part
of the 2nd Escort Group, responsible for escorting large convoys in the
Mediterranean and the Atlantic. The convoys were attacked constantly both by
air and u-boats based in the Italian ports. This is not to be confused with
the 2nd Support Group, commanded by Capt Johnnie Walker RN who successfully
hunted U Boats in the Bay of Biscay. The U boat involved was the U-81. The
same U boat that had sank the Ark Royal, but with different Captains.
World War Two - The War Sea http://www.secondworldwar.org.uk/yoma.html |