Technology and Operations
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The SS Ceramic Incident
Posted by:
Don Baker
()
Date: March 12, 2001 04:31AM
Hi Finn
I have found four references to the sinking of the SS Ceramic:
(1) “Twelve Million Tons Under the Sea†by Rear Admiral D. V. Gallery
(2) “Hitler’s U-boat War – The Hunted†by Clay Blair
(3) “Lone Wolf†by Dr. Timothy P. Mulligan
(4) “Tenth Fleet†by Ladislas Farrago
They reveal a very interesting and heartbreaking incident of the war.
The SS Ceramic was a 15 knot British passenger steamer of 18,713 tons. On 23 Nov 1942 she departed Liverpool for Sydney with intermediate stops scheduled. She carried 625 people on this run:
264 – Crew
14 – DEM (similar to USN Armed Guards manning two deck guns)
165 – Military Personnel
30 – Nurses
152 – Civilians (90 men, 50 women, 12 children)
She carried a cargo of mixed government stores and some aircraft parts. Most of the civilians were returning home to Australia from England and the military personnel were going to new postings. By 6 Dec Ceramic had left the convoy and was sailing alone about 600 miles northwest of the Azores. Late that afternoon U-515/Henke picked her up and began to manuever into firing position. Approximately 0000 that night (6/7 Dec) Henke fired two torpedoes. Both struck Ceramic, one exploding in the forward section and the other was a dud. Ceramic stopped engines. At 0018 Henke fired a third torpedo which was a hit. Capt. Elford issued “Abandon Ship†orders. At this time gale force winds were blowing with heavy seas and the listing of the ship was hampering the lowering of the lifeboats. As they were attempting to clear the ship, Henke fired a fourth torpedo at 0038 which killed many on deck and in the boats. At 0100 Henke fired a fifth torpedo which broke Ceramic’s back and she went under a few minutes later. Ceramic had radiod a distress call after the first hit which was monitored by U-515. Henke departed the scene at high speed following his fifth shot, expecting armed escorts to soon appear. According to Henke’s account he believed he had sunk a troop ship.
At 0730 the morning of the 7th, BDU requested Henke return to the scene and obtain more information on Ceramic. At 1147 Henke replied he was turning around and returning to the scene of the sinking. From this point on the accounts in “Lone Wolf†and “Twelve Million Tons†differ somewhat in the details of Henke’s actions upon his return. Both the Mulligan and Gallery accounts are in agreement that U-515 picked up a Sapper Munday of the Royal Engineers and took him aboard. Mulligan’s account claims Munday was the only person found alive amidst the wreckage in the heaving and storm tossed seas. Gallery’s account relates that several survivor’s made it to the side of U-515 but were not picked up. (Who at this time would really know what Henke found upon his return – you can take your pick) In any event all four references are in agreement that Munday was taken to Germany aboard U-515 and later in 1943 took part with Henke in a Radio Berlin propaganda broadcast.
On 11 Dec HMS Enterprise, under typhoon-like weather conditions, arrived at the site of Ceramic’s sinking and found nothing. All except Sapper Munday had died either on the ship or in the water after the ship sank.
U-515 was sunk on 9 April 1944 off the Azores by US Navy carrier Task Group 21.12 operating out of Norfolk, VA. Henke was taken aboard USS Guadalcanal and interrogated by Capt. Gallery. At this time Gallery had never heard of Henke and knew nothing about him or the Ceramic sinking. Henke was making demands and complaining about his accomodations aboard Guadalcanal and Gallery finally having enough of it told him if he didn’t like his treatment that he would turn Henke over to the British when we got to Gibraltor. Gallery states in his writings this was only a bluff to shut Henke up but the threat caused Henke to change his mind about how badly he was being treated (he wanted one of the officer’s cabins and permission to dine in the officers mess neither of which Gallery would permit) and then stated he would prefer to remain on the Guadalcanal rather than be turned over to the British. Gallery’s Chief Master at Arms was keeping an eye on Henke and the two of them got into a conversation down in the brig in which Henke related a story as to how the BBC had made a broadcast accusing him of being a war criminal in the sinking of Ceramic and threatening to hang him if they caught him. The CMAA relayed this story to Gallery. This was the first Gallery had ever heard of the Ceramic and he used the information to get Henke to sign an agreement to give information in return for his not being turned over to the British. In his book, (Ref 1., pg. 266) Gallery states that he did belive the British had made such a broadcast ( which the British denied) and that further, he Gallery did not believe any of the stories having to do with machinegunning of Ceramic survivors (these were his views when he wrote the book in 1956).
Ladislas Farago sheds some light (Ref. 4, pgs. 152 – 156) on the so called “BBC†broadcast which Henke had attributed to the British. OP-16-W, an operation attached to ONI, was making propaganda broadcasts by a “Commander Norden†which were aimed at the U-boat crews. These broadcasts were in the same vein as the “Lord Haw Haw†broadcasts by the Germans aimed at the Allied troops. The Japanese also played this game with broadcasts the Allies attributed to a woman called “Axis Sallyâ€. Information derived from intelligence operations was used to try to create an impession that the enemy knew all about your operations, even using personal names and information to create morale problems. Farago wrote many of the scripts used in the Norden broadcasts. He describes monitoring the Radio Berlin broadcast by Henke and Munday giving the German version of the Ceramic sinking. In response Farago wrote a “Commander Norden†script in which he called Henke a “war criminalâ€. It is more than likely that this was the broadcast Henke heard but which he referred to in his discussion with Guadalcanal’s CMAA as a “BBC†broadcast. Farago’s book was written many years after Gallery had passed on and probably explains why Gallery believed the British had made such a broadcast.
In any event, it is clear Gallery did not accuse Henke of machinegunning survivors and in fact defended him on this charge. He further states, “Henke’s torpedoing of the “Ceramic†and leaving the survivor’s to drown seems ruthless and brutal, but our own submarine skippers in the Pacific operated in the same way. They had to, just as Henke had to. That’s the only way you can wage war with submarinesâ€. His closing statement on the Ceramic/Henke affair bears repeating here; “If there is any moral at all to this tale, it is one we refuse to admit in this country – that war is a grim business.â€
I hope this provides some useful information for our discussions on this forum.
Don Baker
I have found four references to the sinking of the SS Ceramic:
(1) “Twelve Million Tons Under the Sea†by Rear Admiral D. V. Gallery
(2) “Hitler’s U-boat War – The Hunted†by Clay Blair
(3) “Lone Wolf†by Dr. Timothy P. Mulligan
(4) “Tenth Fleet†by Ladislas Farrago
They reveal a very interesting and heartbreaking incident of the war.
The SS Ceramic was a 15 knot British passenger steamer of 18,713 tons. On 23 Nov 1942 she departed Liverpool for Sydney with intermediate stops scheduled. She carried 625 people on this run:
264 – Crew
14 – DEM (similar to USN Armed Guards manning two deck guns)
165 – Military Personnel
30 – Nurses
152 – Civilians (90 men, 50 women, 12 children)
She carried a cargo of mixed government stores and some aircraft parts. Most of the civilians were returning home to Australia from England and the military personnel were going to new postings. By 6 Dec Ceramic had left the convoy and was sailing alone about 600 miles northwest of the Azores. Late that afternoon U-515/Henke picked her up and began to manuever into firing position. Approximately 0000 that night (6/7 Dec) Henke fired two torpedoes. Both struck Ceramic, one exploding in the forward section and the other was a dud. Ceramic stopped engines. At 0018 Henke fired a third torpedo which was a hit. Capt. Elford issued “Abandon Ship†orders. At this time gale force winds were blowing with heavy seas and the listing of the ship was hampering the lowering of the lifeboats. As they were attempting to clear the ship, Henke fired a fourth torpedo at 0038 which killed many on deck and in the boats. At 0100 Henke fired a fifth torpedo which broke Ceramic’s back and she went under a few minutes later. Ceramic had radiod a distress call after the first hit which was monitored by U-515. Henke departed the scene at high speed following his fifth shot, expecting armed escorts to soon appear. According to Henke’s account he believed he had sunk a troop ship.
At 0730 the morning of the 7th, BDU requested Henke return to the scene and obtain more information on Ceramic. At 1147 Henke replied he was turning around and returning to the scene of the sinking. From this point on the accounts in “Lone Wolf†and “Twelve Million Tons†differ somewhat in the details of Henke’s actions upon his return. Both the Mulligan and Gallery accounts are in agreement that U-515 picked up a Sapper Munday of the Royal Engineers and took him aboard. Mulligan’s account claims Munday was the only person found alive amidst the wreckage in the heaving and storm tossed seas. Gallery’s account relates that several survivor’s made it to the side of U-515 but were not picked up. (Who at this time would really know what Henke found upon his return – you can take your pick) In any event all four references are in agreement that Munday was taken to Germany aboard U-515 and later in 1943 took part with Henke in a Radio Berlin propaganda broadcast.
On 11 Dec HMS Enterprise, under typhoon-like weather conditions, arrived at the site of Ceramic’s sinking and found nothing. All except Sapper Munday had died either on the ship or in the water after the ship sank.
U-515 was sunk on 9 April 1944 off the Azores by US Navy carrier Task Group 21.12 operating out of Norfolk, VA. Henke was taken aboard USS Guadalcanal and interrogated by Capt. Gallery. At this time Gallery had never heard of Henke and knew nothing about him or the Ceramic sinking. Henke was making demands and complaining about his accomodations aboard Guadalcanal and Gallery finally having enough of it told him if he didn’t like his treatment that he would turn Henke over to the British when we got to Gibraltor. Gallery states in his writings this was only a bluff to shut Henke up but the threat caused Henke to change his mind about how badly he was being treated (he wanted one of the officer’s cabins and permission to dine in the officers mess neither of which Gallery would permit) and then stated he would prefer to remain on the Guadalcanal rather than be turned over to the British. Gallery’s Chief Master at Arms was keeping an eye on Henke and the two of them got into a conversation down in the brig in which Henke related a story as to how the BBC had made a broadcast accusing him of being a war criminal in the sinking of Ceramic and threatening to hang him if they caught him. The CMAA relayed this story to Gallery. This was the first Gallery had ever heard of the Ceramic and he used the information to get Henke to sign an agreement to give information in return for his not being turned over to the British. In his book, (Ref 1., pg. 266) Gallery states that he did belive the British had made such a broadcast ( which the British denied) and that further, he Gallery did not believe any of the stories having to do with machinegunning of Ceramic survivors (these were his views when he wrote the book in 1956).
Ladislas Farago sheds some light (Ref. 4, pgs. 152 – 156) on the so called “BBC†broadcast which Henke had attributed to the British. OP-16-W, an operation attached to ONI, was making propaganda broadcasts by a “Commander Norden†which were aimed at the U-boat crews. These broadcasts were in the same vein as the “Lord Haw Haw†broadcasts by the Germans aimed at the Allied troops. The Japanese also played this game with broadcasts the Allies attributed to a woman called “Axis Sallyâ€. Information derived from intelligence operations was used to try to create an impession that the enemy knew all about your operations, even using personal names and information to create morale problems. Farago wrote many of the scripts used in the Norden broadcasts. He describes monitoring the Radio Berlin broadcast by Henke and Munday giving the German version of the Ceramic sinking. In response Farago wrote a “Commander Norden†script in which he called Henke a “war criminalâ€. It is more than likely that this was the broadcast Henke heard but which he referred to in his discussion with Guadalcanal’s CMAA as a “BBC†broadcast. Farago’s book was written many years after Gallery had passed on and probably explains why Gallery believed the British had made such a broadcast.
In any event, it is clear Gallery did not accuse Henke of machinegunning survivors and in fact defended him on this charge. He further states, “Henke’s torpedoing of the “Ceramic†and leaving the survivor’s to drown seems ruthless and brutal, but our own submarine skippers in the Pacific operated in the same way. They had to, just as Henke had to. That’s the only way you can wage war with submarinesâ€. His closing statement on the Ceramic/Henke affair bears repeating here; “If there is any moral at all to this tale, it is one we refuse to admit in this country – that war is a grim business.â€
I hope this provides some useful information for our discussions on this forum.
Don Baker
| Subject | Written By | Posted |
|---|---|---|
The SS Ceramic Incident
|
Don Baker | 03/12/2001 04:31AM |
|
RE: The SS Ceramic Incident
|
Steve Cooper | 03/12/2001 01:08PM |
|
RE: The SS Ceramic Incident
|
Don Baker | 03/12/2001 03:04PM |