TSS ''Amsterdam'' was a passenger and freight vessel built for the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

in 1930.

History

The ship was built by John Brown on Clydebank. She was one of an order for three ships, the others being and . 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.

War Service

In September 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War, the ship was requisitioned by the Ministry of War Transport for troop transport. This included transporting the

51st Highland Division The 51st (Highland) Division was an infantry division of the British Army that fought on the Western Front in France during the First World War from 1915 to 1918. The division was raised in 1908, upon the creation of the Territorial Force, as ...

and Princess Louise's Kensington Regiment from Southampton to Le Havre in April 1940 as part of the British Expeditionary Force. 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 The 2nd Ranger Battalion, currently based at Joint Base Lewis–McChord south of Seattle, Washington, United States, is the second of three ranger battalions belonging to the United States Army's 75th Ranger Regiment. History World War II For ...

Pointe du Hoc La Pointe du Hoc () is a promontory with a cliff overlooking the English Channel on the northwestern coast of Normandy in the Calvados '' department'', France. Pointe du Hoc was the location of a series of German bunkers and machine gun posts. P ...

on D-day. By 19 July 1944, she had been converted to a Hospital Carrier ship. On 7 August 1944, she was sunk by a mine while taking casualties from

Juno Beach Juno or Juno Beach was one of five beaches of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 during the Second World War. The beach spanned from Courseulles, a village just east of the British beach Gold ...

, Calvados, France. A total of 55 patients, ten

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

staff, 30 crew and eleven

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

were killed. 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 The British Normandy Memorial is a war memorial near the village of Ver-sur-Mer in Normandy, France. It was unveiled on 6 June 2021, the 77th anniversary of D-Day, and it is dedicated to soldiers who died under British command during the Norm ...

, with 22,000 men.

References

1930 ships Steamships of the United Kingdom Ships built on the River Clyde Ships of the London and North Eastern Railway Maritime incidents in August 1944 {{Merchantship-stub

History

War Service

See also

References