Queen Mary sinks cruiser

2nd October 1942: In a little known episode a tragic mistake at sea leads to the sudden death of over 300 men

Normandie, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth in New York in 1940, docked due to the war. The Normandie would be destroyed in an accidental fire, the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary would become the mainstay for conveying troops to Europe.

Operation Bolero - the plan to bring hundreds of thousands of US servicemen to Britain for the invasion of Europe - was now getting into to full swing. The U-boats posed a threat but the use of the great ocean going cruise liners steaming at full speed on a zig zag course meant that this could mitigated.

The 81,000 ton RMS Queen Mary was used as a troopship throughout World War II and usually crossed the Atlantic without an escort, relying on her speed to evade the U-Boats. During the war she was painted light grey and known as the ‘Grey Ghost’.

In October 1942 the RMS Queen Mary, holder of the Blue Riband record speed in crossing the Atlantic, was bringing around 15,000 men of the US 29th Division to Britain. As she came north of Ireland on the 2nd October 1942 she was joined by HMS Curacoa, providing an anti-aircraft escort for the last leg of the journey into Scotland.

The 5,000 ton Ceres class cruiser HMS CURACOA.