The Sinking of HMS Rohna

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On 26 November 26, 1943, a German Hs-293 radio-controlled, rocket-boosted glide bomb hit and sank His Majesty’s Transport (HMT) Rohna off the coast of Algeria, killing 1,149 crew members and passengers, including 1,015 U.S. Army troops; an additional 35 U.S. soldiers subsequently died from wounds. The event constituted the greatest loss of U.S. life at sea because of enemy action.
The day before, Rohna had departed Oran, Algeria, and joined a Gibraltar-to-Suez convoy. Rohna, an 8,600-ton, coal-burning passenger and cargo ship owned by the British India Steamship Company, had been requisitioned by the British for use as a troop transport. On board were Australian and British officers and a mostly Indian crew, an18-man British merchant ship detachment, and the U.S. Army soldiers. The soldiers mostly served in an engineer battalion, a fighter control squadron, and a signal construction battalion, and other support units.
Approximately 30 Luftwaffe bombers, mostly Heinkel He-177A “Greif” (“Griffin”) long-range bombers, attacked the convoy in two major waves. Four Free French Spitfire fighters put up a spirited defense, followed by several British RAF fighters. German bombers dropped many bombs in a horizontal mode, without much success. The He-177As, however, dropped 42 radio-controlled, rocket-boosted, glide bombs. 
Despite the size of the attack, extensive antiaircraft fire from the convoy and use of immense smoke and maneuver spoiled the Germans’ aim. In addition, at least six of the guided bombs were successfully drawn off target by new radio-jamming equipment on some of the convoy escorts. The German operators had to keep both the bomb and the target ship in sight throughout the bomb’s entire flight, a significant handicap. The Germans paid heavily for the attack, losing four of the new He-177As, with the group commander aboard one of them. Three more limped back to base, wrecked. Several other German aircraft were also shot down by antiaircraft fire from the convoy ships—even the Rohna had weapons that contributed to the defense.    
Later, during second-wave attacks, Rohna was hit by a glide bomb, the only one of the 42 launched to directly hit its target. It hit Rohna’s port side, penetrated deep into the ship on delayed fuse, and blew holes in the starboard side, causing it to list to starboard. Approximately 300 U.S. Army troops were killed in the blast or never made it off the ship. The bomb made holes that flooded the engine room, knocking out electrical power, including to the pumps, and started a fire in one of the holds. The blast also destroyed 6 of 22 lifeboats and buckled plates on the port side so that no boats on that side could be launched. Ultimately, only eight lifeboats could be launched. All but two of those were quickly overloaded, swamped, and sunk. Although 101 rafts entered the water, most of the soldiers had to swim. 
Rohna’s anti-aircraft guns continued to fire even as the ship sank. The ship’s Australian master, Captain T. J. Murphy, the chief, 2nd officer, 3rd officer, and four U.S. Army personnel were the last to abandon the ship before she broke up and sank by the stern about 90 minutes after being hit.
The convoy had a preplanned response in the event of the loss of a ship, with specific ships designated to conduct rescues. As the burning and sinking Rohna fell behind the convoy, the Auk-class minesweeper USS Pioneer, under the command LeRoy “Roy” Rogers—immediately swung into action despite continuing German bomb and strafing attacks. Pioneer had barely escaped a bomb strike during the attacks had put up much anti-aircraft fire. Other designated ships also dropped behind the convoy. A British destroyer laid a smoke screen and provided protection against air or submarine attack when the other ships were vulnerable while rescuing survivors. The wind and swirling seas precluded the launching of boats, and rescuers were racing the clock in the gathering darkness as survivors succumbed to hypothermia. 
Pioneer mounted an aggressive rescue effort; her sailors demonstrated extraordinary courage as many dived into the cold water and rough seas, some tied with rope, to assist soldiers who were quickly becoming too weak to climb ropes or cargo nets. Some soldiers were killed by Pioneer’s props or were sucked under the ship as she heaved. Nevertheless, Pioneer’s crew worked into the night, rescuing 606 souls, causing the ship to become top-heavy. Despite the risk, Pioneer’s skipper ordered the use of searchlights and continued rescuing survivors until no more could be found in the dark. Among the survivors was the senior Army officer aboard Rohna. Six of the survivors would die from wounds or the effects of exposure in the water before they could reach hospitals. Additional ships rescued others from the sunken Rohna.
To prevent the Germans from learning how effective the guided bomb had been against Rohna, the incident was classified, and wartime censorship delayed any public knowledge of the casualties. Not until the 1960s were those involved able to gain any information about it. Standard histories of World War II did not mention it. In some cases, veterans of the sinking had difficulty proving that their injuries resulted from the sinking because no publicly available documentation of it existed. In addition, neither the commanding officer of Pioneer, the crew, nor the ship received any formal recognition from the U.S. Navy for their valor in rescuing so many of the survivors (few if any would have survived the night). Not until the passage of a resolution in October 2000 did the soldiers and sailors aboard Rohna and USS Pioneer receive U.S. government recognition for their courage and sacrifice.
Of the 4.5 million U.S. troops transported to Europe during the war, 3,604 were lost, including the 1,015 on Rohna.