| History | |
|---|---|
  United Kingdom | |
| Name |
|
| 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) |
TSS Amsterdam was a passenger and freight vessel built for the London and North Eastern Railway in 1930. [1]
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]
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] This included transporting the 51st Highland Division and Princess Louise's Kensington Regiment from Southampton to Le Havre in April 1940 as part of the British Expeditionary Force. [4]
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. [5]
By 19 July 1944, she had been converted to a Hospital Carrier ship. [6] On 7 August 1944, she was sunk by a mine while taking casualties from Juno Beach, Calvados, France. [7] A total of 55 patients, ten Royal Army Medical Corps staff, 30 crew and eleven prisoners of war were killed. [8] [9]
Seventy five wounded soldiers were carried up and delivered into lifeboats, but two of the nurses, Dorothy Field, 32, and Mollie Evershed, 27, went back below and went down with the ship. They are the only two women whose names are on the British Normandy Memorial, with 22,000 men. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
HMS Queen Emma was a commando troop ship of the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Built as a civilian passenger liner in 1939 by De Schelde at Vlissingen, she was named the MS Koningin Emma, after Queen Emma of the Netherlands, and operated by Stoomvaart Maatschappij Zeeland (SMZ) between Flushing and Harwich, along with her sister ship, MS Prinses Beatrix. After fleeing to Britain after the German invasion in 1940, she was requisitioned by the British Ministry of War Transport, renamed HMS Queen Emma and converted to a troopship at Harland and Wolff's yard in Belfast. During the war her main role was transporting British Commandos, and she participated in the Lofoten Islands Raid and the Dieppe Raid. She had the advantage of a high speed that allowed hit and run operations. Later designated as a Landing Ship, Infantry (Medium) she took part in the landings in North Africa, Sicily and Normandy. She operated in the Indian Ocean, and in the Dutch East Indies after the end of the war. In 1946 Queen Emma was returned to her owners and continued to operate as ferry from the Hook of Holland until 1969, when she was scrapped in Antwerp, Belgium.
MS Togo was a German merchant ship that was launched in 1938. Requisitioned by Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine as Schiff 14, in April 1940 she participated in the invasion of Norway; in August 1940 was converted to a minelayer as part of the German plan to invade England; then from June 1941 she began conversion to the armed auxiliary cruiser (Hilfskreuzer) HSK Coronel.
GHQ Liaison Regiment was a special reconnaissance unit first formed in 1939 during the early stages of World War II. The regiment's headquarters were at The Richmond Hill Hotel in Richmond, Surrey ; its base was at Pembroke Lodge, a Georgian house in Richmond Park, London.
Valliquerville is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
HMS Sansovino was an infantry landing ship in service with the Royal Navy during the late stages of the Second World War.
Empire Capulet was a 7,044 GRT cargo ship which was built in 1943 for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). In 1946 she was sold and renamed Hesione. She served until 1960 when she was scrapped.
The Kensington Regiment is a unit of the British Army, which originated in the Volunteer Rifle Corps' movement of the 1850s. In 1908 it became a battalion of the London Regiment in the Territorial Force. It was an infantry regiment from 1908 to 1940, a heavy fire support unit from 1940 to 1945, and has been a unit of the Royal Corps of Signals since 1945.
HMS Princess Beatrix was a commando troop ship of the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Built as a civilian passenger liner in 1939, she was named the MS Prinses Beatrix, after Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands, and operated by Stoomvaart Maatschappij Zeeland (SMZ) between Flushing and Harwich, along with her sister ship, MS Koningin Emma. After fleeing to Britain after the German invasion in 1940, she was requisitioned by the British Ministry of War Transport, renamed HMS Princess Beatrix and converted to a troopship at Harland and Wolff's yard in Belfast. During the war her main role was transporting British Commandos, and she participated in the Lofoten Islands Raid and the Dieppe Raid. She had the advantage of a high speed that allowed hit and run operations. Later designated as a landing ship, infantry (medium) she took part in the landings in North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, and southern France. In 1946 Princess Beatrix was returned to her owners and continued to operate as ferry from Hook of Holland until 1969, when she was scrapped in Antwerp, Belgium.
The Duke of York was a steamer passenger ship initially operated by the London Midland and Scottish Railway which saw service from 1935 to 1964. She was renamed HMS Duke of Wellington for the duration of World War II.
MV Derrycunihy was a British cargo ship impressed as a military transport during the Second World War. She was sunk off the Normandy beaches with great loss of life in 1944.
TSS Vienna was a passenger vessel built for the Great Eastern Railway in 1894.
TrSS Munich was a passenger vessel built for the Great Eastern Railway in 1908.
TSS Train Ferry No. 1 was a freight vessel built for the British Army War Office in 1917.
TSS Train Ferry No. 2 was a freight vessel built for the British Army War Office in 1917.
TSS Malines was a passenger vessel built for the Great Eastern Railway in 1921.
TSS Vienna was a passenger and freight vessel built for the London and North Eastern Railway in 1929.
TSS Prague was a passenger and freight vessel built for the London and North Eastern Railway in 1929. The first group of Kindertransport refugees to arrive in the UK did so aboard the Prague, in December 1938.
HMS Nith was a River-class frigate of the Royal Navy during World War II. In 1948, she was transferred to the Egyptian Navy and given the name Domiat.
TSS Princess Maud was a ferry that operated from 1934 usually in the Irish Sea apart from a period as a troop ship in the Second World War and before being sold outside the United Kingdom in 1965. She was built by William Denny and Brothers of Dumbarton on the Firth of Clyde for the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). When the LMS was nationalised in 1948 she passed to the British Transport Commission and onward to British Rail in 1962. She was sold to Lefkosia Compania Naviera, Panama in 1965. Renamed Venus she was for service in Greek waters. It is understood she saw use as an accommodation ship in Burmeister & Wain, Copenhagen.
Lily McNicholas was an Irish nurse who volunteered in the Second World War. On 7 August 1944, McNicholas survived the sinking of the Amsterdam; a hospital carrier transporting casualties to Britain from Normandy, France. The incident was widely reported in the press after the London Gazette announced that McNicholas and two other nurses were to be awarded the M.B.E. for their heroic actions.
