Posted on 01/28/2026 5:39:43 PM PST by NKP_Vet
The Belgian troopship SS Léopoldville had just slipped beneath the English Channel after being hit by a torpedo. Gerald Howard went down with the ship. The 23-year-old rifleman nearly drowned under the frigid water like hundreds of his comrades. He fought his way back to the surface.
"I was on the ship until it went down," Howard recalled decades later. "It pulled me down, and when I came up I saw a life raft. They said 'You can't get on.' I said, 'Like hell I can't.'"
Howard woke up around midnight in a hospital in Cherbourg, France. He was among the lucky ones. On that Christmas Eve in 1944, a German U-boat torpedo killed 763 American soldiers just five miles from the French coastline. Nearly 500 bodies were never recovered from the water.
The U.S. government buried the story for decades. It was the deadliest U-boat attack on American soldiers sent to fight in World War II.………
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
Now I don’t feel so bad about the ending of Das Boot.
The Germans did it to us. We did it to the Japanese.
War is hell.
War is hell.
Indeed.
The MV Wilhelm Gustloff sank on January 30, 1945, in the Baltic Sea after being hit by three torpedoes fired from the Soviet submarine S-13. It was carrying over 10,000 German refugees and military personnel fleeing the Red Army during Operation Hannibal. The tragedy resulted in over 9,000 deaths, marking it as the deadliest maritime disaster in history.
By the way, best current estimates put Russian military dead at about 325,000 and Ukrainian military dead at about 140,000 since February 2022.
Flip the numbers, and I might believe it.
It tears me up to think of these, mostly young, guys who never got a chance to do what they had volunteered and trained for, much less to live out their real lives post-war. What a sad way to go.
Volunteered?
By this time in the war they were drafting you before you could volunteer.
I had five uncles in the war. None of them “volunteered.” That stuff wore off as soon as the telegrams started coming home all around them.
Being drafted doesn’t make you a coward. They fought just as good as the “volunteers.” But don’t kid yourself that every red blooded American rushed down to the recruiting office on their 18th birthday.
My great grandma was on the SS Athenia when the Huns blew it up. I got lucky. Lousy hun bastards (ht Patton)I did love living in germany though. Loads of fun.
The Lancastria, evacuating troops from France early in the war had a much greater loss of life. News of it was suppressed.
proud to be a koolade drinker ?
All over... what?
An old grudge?
The war would never have started if Trump "won" in 2020.
A chunk of the blame can be laid to the US Army Air Force. The Germans didn’t pick up survivors because of the Lacona incident.
Time to upgrade many of those awards to Silver Stars and MOH. They deserve far better than Soldiers Medals, a relatively mid level award.
Unlikely, Ukraine cant absorb those losses. It is interesting rhat Russia says it is “recruiting”
Over 400k per year and uet can only make meters gains
Says the one with the red lips and tongue 😂
Three years from now, President Gavin Newsom won't allow Putin to make a deal.
lol to both, pitin will not survive a “deal” all the blood and treasure for part of Ukraine which is more militarized than ever
And grease ball newsome, he won’t even get the nomination he will flame out as bad as camel toe
That's a real possibility. Abigail Spanberger or Wes Moore.
Keep an eye on them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.