History Undercover; The Rohna Disaster

it's been it's been november twenty three nineteen forty three he's an algerian a british merchant ship and her majesty's transport ronan builds its human cargo twenty two hundred american soldiers for the g eyes their new owners are not a comforting sound the steel bucket we're going to be put on ice said the ships ever gonna make it and the only ever were going and it was a case of where we are is an inflow of people who have to be put to use and they

say this just is most collaborative thing i'd ever seen the agency room it's one of many british commercial ships refitted for wartime troop transport the run it was built in nineteen twenty six as a process or with coworkers one hundred wealthy travelers now it takes twenty twenty four destination when no we had no idea where we're going is part of work on china's revision from japan some of the runway sporting twenty nine bomber seen any of it will go

to try to fight the japanese as the men board the runner a top secret conferences in progress in cairo egypt we're allied leaders planned the final defeat of japan the runaways and they roll it was significant she was a ship in a convoy carrying the means for the final thrust against japan the convoy carried the personnel supplies strategy that roosevelt and churchill and championship meeting in cairo are discussing as a means of ending the war with japan november twenty fifth early morning just as the men complete boarding to show that there is a life boat drill i'm wanting to liable for more room one hundred and

one ralph also integrating only one having trouble with golf chip the permanence the romans in all instances no further instructions given on how to launch the movement for more david edition of light rail though we were told deliberately gulf you were in that twenty four hours a day the mediterranean sea join the convoy coming from scotland it is thanksgiving their lives as they head off to serve to

thanksgiving that's right the ronan joins twenty three other ships in the convoy gm's twenty six and takes her position as the second book in a port called the physician known as the coffin corner if obama remains at the columns first ship chances are it will actually hit the second chances of being attacked in the mediterranean he's learned later that we were going to or suicide have a regime in a few of them for that was called the suicide alley for a good reason because just a mile or so sure there are

and so it was an extremely dangerous undertaking mean he has after heavy fighting in the mediterranean civilians of north africa rejoice at the allies victory over the forces of german general or when ronald either tied or changes against nazi germany and fascist italy the cam a convoy is now it will be used the suez canal was a shortcut to asia but they still face the threat of a german baritone madness was an active military theater and so one would have to assume that the attack was at least possible of the problems that anywhere in that in that part of it in that part of the world we didn't take any irony that i would never been in combat before on november twenty sixteen welna has two more lifeboats her loss again the soldiers receive no

instruction on how to handle the books as they ship steams ahead of the men pass the time playing cards barely twelve miles offshore their game is violently interrupted by gunfire and ammo down out of the sun behind this and i was on the port side of our vessel one that below the boat back and i had a pretty good interview about a portal and also now for news on the convoy going to open up one of these years and the

convoy starts exactly the german straight down some all ships fired the plan has been thrilling it's very thrilling to see the way the german plane at the german bombers coming to separate attacks between for thirty and five pm when the second wave departs the men on the ship rejoice german banks and returns in their direction as soldiers on the roma are about to face the fight of their lives robert's history undercover will continue in a moment

historian recovery now

contains both they just one day out of port and already some german bombing this is more about being a religion a revealing image plain worried he'd comes to move the runner with precision and paul reflect forbes but springs the ship's engine on reports about fifteen feet above the water that's been

stable for years listener louis those that was still alive we had a red cross number i saw that then climb over the laying down on a project and haven't had to see if this one boy who has hit up a portal looking out what was happening and this which was a mind blowing and the portal so far it cured and his existing up the explosion knocks out the electrical system leaving the ship of death in the water below decks the men are in total darkness in that moment when my life with a tremendous amount in darkness waiting for we have to wait for a pretext to clear before we could go how

when mailer found it so hard to have the flashlight right i looked out and i couldn't believe what i saw in all direction or perhaps to avoid rocks water and beset been perhaps twelve to fifteen minutes after the runner tilts heavily and starts to say her starboard side is now just twelve feet above the water and reports and fifty feet about her going into how long about that the fbi one of the first things i saw that really startled me in one of the

portland running up with about four or disabled fulfill your water once inflated lifeboats should slide up and provide flotation under the armpits but many soldiers were them too tightly around their waists flip upside down and drown the danger though as host of the ship's crew were responsible for life saving equipment into usable lifeboats for themselves and leave their shipmates behind led to that we're

going to the rhone is twenty two lifeboats six are destroyed by the missile the bottom of one of the remaining boats is so rotten the demands for films right through other events are tied to the ship with cables so west to the frantic soldiers have to come through them with access the wages were frozen and i don't remember any one of the boats going down orderly i saw one go down part way and some would cut a robot one ended that dumped its passengers out into the water below then through world waters and cargo nets over the ship's side and clambered out you don't realize you have a special strengths and i did use that strike to lower myself down the rope and it was bloodied from hand slipping just to see safely many others become entangled in the nets and ropes and go down with the ship

some tried to escape using rubber rafts tragically many of these plunge into the water striking and killing men swimming below open my eyes and that wife rafters over the side and also his coming down and when they hit me and my right wrist and distorted what happened when the oil soon begins to see from the burning show and coats the water and i went under and an orphan and call things by throwing them alive the oily water touches the strings and then goes around

at eighteen thirty hours an hour after the missile strike german planes returned and straight man struggling in the water they are easy targets as flames on the burning ships like this is a very critical of for a bit they be more german comedians working with fishing is by the way except for five rescue ships that stay

behind the rest of the kam if twenty six convoy follows regulations and pushes for steam ahead to say that still remain unchecked sporadically shine search lights on the water to look for survivors strong currents carried them away from patients beyond immediate concerns all of a sudden become real strong and i think that would get me going and drifting along and another board come up alongside of me and i says are you as a lunch with sleepy against their way present you got a stairway says is called water to go to sleep you by moise says and honestly the

next thing i knew i was asleep when he was gone in or just in minutes in fifteen foot sees the us as pioneer a minesweeper comes as a godsend an undergarment that mr cronauer regards a mailer by this time john circle has been in the cold fifty degree water for the dow is that all of sudden there's a pioneer it and i did no way of ocean water way the redheaded sailor is

prevented from the pioneer worked through the night to say and he survived the news going under what you go do your schwimmer you're young man you go a typical the past the way it happened the uss pioneer manages to save six hundred and six of the roast twenty two hundred men we have one like a situation do you think about that i think about that a lot has been a good worker and a closer to take anti i'm like the roots before this is when they're solvent vessels song doesn't want to do then the orphans

when the pioneers stevens back to early morning hours the ship is and herself in a dangerous a bar taken to a british camp and the big they had no idea the big hint there and know we were given blankets sleeping on the ground but it was so nice to be on solid ground nobody can blame women in british uniforms that's when on those that now watch which i had had all they had stopped in ten minutes to six survivors lineup for your business

and at one thousand and fifteen soldiers names are called to which no one answer fb the sinking of verona rivals that of the uss arizona and pearl harbor for the greatest loss of life at sea in world war two but news of the run a tragedy is kept from the public locked in a top secret government files and inside the minds of the men who survived families are left to wonder about the fate of their loved ones well they allies try to determine what insidious new weapon the germans used to destroy the roman

history undercover will continue in a moment history undercover now contains

just a few weeks after the sinking most of the runners survivors barely recovered are ordered to ship us once again from north africa to asia they will build runways and communications networks in the hot jungles of india burma and china many will face combat with the japanese before leaving for asia they receive strict orders not to talk about the tragedy even among themselves and kill anybody anything about what happened that was complete secrecy and therefore nothing's to be certain because it says if you do you give comfort made to the enemy we were told don't try or our whole bunch of course first we'll century and second if you don't try you'll be subject to court martial hot day and i do you know forty three of the growth that we know which way to war so this is

about to host about war department censorship insurers that newspapers did not get the full story of the roma disaster today after the second to grief articles appear in the new york times not destroy his location or the number of them the british government and the us government wanted to people to support for obvious reasons when you know one thousand that he'd of your gi is killed you don't really want to broadcast a two year public because this would be a demoralizing and the like february eighteenth nineteen forty four the front page of the new york times reports that one thousand american soldiers died in the sinking of a troop ship presumably by an enemy submarine attack again the location data and the ship's name are not given

matt the allied governments are not willing to do publicly with the fact that the wrote it was sunk by a mysterious and powerful new weapon holy when patients will survive is the question point of human warfare and with a way ahead of us in the development of that type of a weapon we wondered about that and we knew it had to be very affective to knock out our show the nazis have put tremendous effort into developing new technologies of mass destruction never before seen in war this is one of hitler's wonder weapons a radio controlled rocket propelled

henschel to ninety three designated be a chance to ninety three meda one escaped a secure because it and what the germans to know how successful they were with that dang thing and more time you don't want to you want to do the enemies were weapon affects appraisal forms a large estate is serious business he was serious blow you prefer as they not know when i was little about those possibly survive or step uncomfortable built by germany's financial company dhs to ninety three has eleven hundred pounds of explosives with a top speed of three hundred and seventy five mph it is designed to pierce right through the halls of merchant vessels like the rome until july three that was guided by the bombardier of the line and he had what we would call a joy stick with one of the videogames and heroes job was to guide the

missile or blue rocket or whatever tours the show also known as a glider on the hs two ninety three has wings and a tail you know roughly twelve feet in length and it carries a propulsion system of liquid rocket few mounted on its underbelly is a radio john risk of big auto plant with you and they had that thing soul well engineered that that guy's side and the plane could control illinois yeah yeah yeah he called it stayed on course once it got down to the water level it leveled off and headed straight for us at

creating get your gun margot does point up throw flack in the sky and it wasn't much good for granted something like that concerned that news of the destructive force of germany's new weapon will discourage the allies and bolster not seem around the allied governments wrapped around a sinking in tight secrecy it will take more than fifty years after the war for families to victory remember will continue in a moment fb history undercover now

continues to register and american vote for the families of those who die on the run in the search for the truth becomes a very personal quest to jim bennett is only fifteen when his beloved older brother robert goes to war and is assigned to the roma in early december of nineteen forty three the bennett family receives government

only an almost recall to the moment when the telegram came in which it would fund the war department which it was stating that he was missing in action nancy still it holds her newborn baby girl in her arms when she bids farewell to where young husband james easily fell i ever had planned we were i was seventy two years at when we marry and visser recent third at the memorial forty three were sayings and they notified me by telegram came to say you know that lindsay steely us their new cinemax of not merely the twenty seven and the day before the warren well you know any other he's a winner that would be notified a wartime board of inquiry investigates the run a sinking to determine the status of those missing in action and then there was a few

months later i think in the spring early spring of forty four a followup telegram came that indicated that he was presumed dead that was just about the only information that i'm aware of my family ever receiving and then the second i got them they tell me that they would bring him to buy it was recovered they would bring it back to record in marketing which would've been our mellow and then it would be my expense to bring him on call in nineteen forty eight three years after the war ends the quartermaster general in washington dc concludes in a report that the eight hundred and twenty nine romans soldiers missing in action are and recoverable in november nineteen forty nine the military officially closes the case but for the founders of those listed as an recoverable has is far from i just

couldn't believe it that he was going to iraq the government because they wouldn't tell me anything they just tried telling me say could tell me and as long as the war continued it is still well i'm thinking maybe he was still alive you know and they would find him over their capture something many wasn't true i used often think that you know when when i would hear about the po down because then i often wondered if maybe he was one of them and i think i really hope the waters and it's sunday he would be found and the narrator now the government tells eva and her mother few details about how james steely died even survivors of the disaster can't get their own government to believe their story after i got out of the service in nineteen forty five that applied through the veterans administration and the guy in the office served recently my tale of all annie savoy get back to you

and they're about a month went by before he finally got back to me and he says i'm sorry but there is no information on that anywhere says it must be a fabrication it's so hard to believe that somebody who live through something like that and tell about it and nobody really viewing million available to pitch in or goes no records on that some believe that because the role is not even mentioned in world war two history that the government must be involved in a cover on there was no real acknowledgment by the allied governments or the allied participants that they're the attack resulted in and accept a loss we're we felt that there something was hidden some there's some reason for the secrecy i don't really believe that the english government and the american government

help been involved in a vast conspiracy to keep the dues of the road away from the american public i think it was a bureaucratic hogwash and we're talking about an enormous return to a war the paper records were talking with people scattered all people none of this is being automatically digitally transfer anything of that sort of talk about pieces of paper being collected and accumulated hither thither and yon says if you know that it's no wonder that the things get into things get sometimes get shuffled out of sight or lost in the shuffle many years this was a

massive undertaking the administrative papers of all these individuals despite the obstacles the rumors survivors refused to let their story go down with their ship and they route to gain their rightful place in history recovery will continue in a moment history undercover malcontents

in nineteen ninety three fifty years after the ship sinks the shell of secrecy around the run and begins to cry early on after nineteen ninety two ninety three i decided that i would say three go toward foreigners was a fight the people conflate well i have an election those who lost loved ones know that how they love and met their fate and the other one was to have a memorial dedicated over the years survivors and families of their fallen comrades keep in touch ft in nineteen ninety three they get together along with men of the rescue ship pioneer for the first time rona survivors can finally thank that to save their lives and that died at this

historic run out for granted it may be completely happy to be able to say thank you to a million or hostile rigidity at a cattle show up should go to special presidential citation there are more heroes they were loving brothers and that's more than a year or a good day i always thought the heroes amended sacrificed his life for someone will sue the story on mostly comedy row there were jobs in nineteen ninety three radio commentator charles osgood learns of the reunion and broadcast a story about that on nov twenty six exactly fifty years to the day after the runa sandvik on thursday with george about the sinking and allied ship in world war two it was so messed up that there's never been a book warrior tv program about

the most americans don't know whatever happened he was telling about this incident in world war two that was close to the anniversary of the inmates this ship had been bombed in the mediterranean off or land north africa i knew my brother had been there and i knew he'd been on a ship and that i had been a disaster something and i turned to my wife would say to me and said that sounds vaguely familiar i wonder if there's a connection jimmy that had contacts passed it refers to run a survivor as they help to piece together his brother's final hours enable him to find some closure to robert's death for fifty years i could tap save that i always had a dream a recurring dream and this dream was one in which i'd be traveling around the world some place

and and it was always just la you know i always knew you were still alive and the same dream over and over and it wasn't until i started to write my book and saw documentation that actually said that he was on the casualty list that actually those dream stopped happening any longer so apparently i inadvertently gave myself to get there jim bennett starts a website to help others find out about their lost loved ones the site gives a background summary of the roma disaster band includes memorial stories products a reference library casualty list and a survivor lets a next of kin pages included for those searching for information on a family member who perished they would receive email letters and they were just wonderful they were letters

emails from relatives who had never in their fifty five years or so known what happened to their loved one on the internet james gees do his granddaughter nancy barnes the full story of james is there it took me eighteen hours to find out something that happened almost fifty years ago but she said no contact to me they've had ample opportunity to find her to tell her you know even though my father was the scale ice age is is that i had been the unknown and had been a part of history i might've been primed to know that my father died on that ship for his country as adam on memorial day nineteen ninety six at fort mitchell national cemetery and sealy

alabama roll no survivors dedicate a memorial plaque to their fallen comrades we've had we had become an entity that can speak with one voice which we did with a letter writing campaign that brought hundreds of letters enter the congress jim bennett meets with his congressman jack metcalf and tells them about the runner amazed at what he hears metcalf writes a congressional resolution to recognize and honor all those who served on the raw i'm asking for resolutions for la and for some survivors had to fight for years to prove that the romans even existed let alone that survivors might be do some recognition with the passing of the congressional resolution the men of the realm are finally get the honor they deserve fifty seven years after the ship

sank last year and then after the revolution has been knocked over by the house by the senate and that was like i think i think understandable and i mean the crown jewel of the whole row of fire to have something like that the people finally recognize what did happen to run a disaster is now part of the historical record but for the families of some survivors and those who died it will never be fully resolved mom has told that she used to live near the cincinnati train terminal and she'd see all these soldiers get off the train coming home and she used to fantasize that maybe one day my dad would get off that train and he'd be coming out too or c and i receive them through the

mail the information that they and we have received in the west well let's hope i would like to know now at the annual one is that the government in our release you know in reading about the conditions of that ship that they were an arm at ages made me feel terrible ii i just hope and pray that my father was one that went first and he didn't have to suffer and then he was at one floating in that ocean waiting for somebody to come again and so the families of these men may never fully understand what the truth was kept hidden for so long the men who survived the tragedy find solace in the bonds that have been forged ever said there is a legacy demanding and our own role at the beautiful friendship that had been formed by making the equation that we have made and

i had my german giersch difference in the last eight nine years some gullible bomb between all of the same lowery and for sale and i guess tourist this is a feeling that's unexplained now that it's going down in history and being in the black mark of history another blank page i'm glad that i have after more than half a century the run lost and forgotten for so long is now found matches a

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