Posted by George Connors on December 25, 2013, 1:08 pm
Merry Christmas to all! My uncle, George Joseph Connors, was onboard the SS Christopher Gadsden as a member of the Navy Armed Guard in Dec 1944 as was killed by the V2 rocket that hit the Rex Theater in Antwerp on 14 Dec 1944. Would be very interested in communicating with anyone who may have known him.
Thank you and would like to thank all of you who served in the same capacity.
Best regards,
George Connors Mechanicsburg PA GJConnors@yahoo.com
Re: SS Christopher Gadsden
Posted by Tim Breece on December 16, 2019, 12:33 am, in reply to "SS Christopher Gadsden"
Mr. George Connors,
I am the son of William Carl Breece. My father was indeed next to your uncle George Connors in the Rex theater when the V-2 rocket hit. My father frequently spoke about your uncle George Connors as a close friend and good man. Of the four men (3 armed guard from the ship and my father), only my father was lucky enough to survive the tragedy. My father passed on 9/20/2010, but he always held the memories of the events of the Rex theater and his time on the Christopher Gadsden close to his heart.
Thank you for reaching out to me. I had exchanged some correspondence with your mother prior to your father passing. She told me that your father said that the last thing my uncle said was "take your coat off because when we go back outside you will be freezing" I greatly appreciate what your father and all of the merchant marine's did during the war and which was critical in enabling it to come to a successful conclusion. I followed in my uncle's footsteps and joined the Navy and made a career out of it. Thanks again for reaching out. May you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Re: SS Christopher Gadsden
Posted by Ron Carlson on December 25, 2013, 3:58 pm, in reply to "SS Christopher Gadsden"
George,
As you are aware, this incident was discussed earlier on the Armed Guard message board, beginning with a message dated August 25, 2009, from Howard A. Monical, Sr., who was one of your late uncle's shipmates. See http://members.boardhost.com/armedguard/msg/1251252525.html. That message thread includes a message from you dated today. It also includes a message from me, also from 2009, in which I listed all of the Armed Guard crew aboard CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN upon her return to New York from Antwerp, following the V2 rocket attack of the theater in which your uncle was killed. Mr. Monical was included in that list.
On the Armed Guard crew list, three names were crossed out, without explanation. The three names were that of your uncle, George Joseph Conners, another was a William Freeman Hagerty, Jr., who was also killed in the same incident (as confirmed by another message in the thread referenced above), and the third was Charles William Leng (or Long) who may also have been killed in the attack.
It is possible that Mr. Monicle is still living. His e-mail address as of the 2009 message thread was hamsr@mchsi.com. For a current street address and telephone number for a person with the same name, see http://www.switchboard.com/name/Howard-A-Monical-Sr/Fisher-IL/8xk14w1. Other than Mr. Monical and one other possible surviving crewman noted in my 2009 message, I do not know whether other men from the Armed Guard crew list are still living, nor do I have contact information for any of the men on the list.
The crew list comes from a search of the subscription website Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com). Ancestry.com is more commonly used for genealogical research but I have found that it contains databases on the names of crew and passengers that arrived at U.S. ports of entry over many years aboard ships having made a foreign voyage. There is particularly extensive information for the port of New York through about 1957. If you are interested, Ancestry.com occasionally offers a two-week free trial subscription. You have to enter a credit card number to create an account but if you do the same search I did and cancel your account within 14 days, you would be able to get all of the same information I saw and examine it in greater detail, for free. You could also search for your uncle’s name from earlier voyages, since he may have served in other ships. Subscription details are available on the Ancestry.com home page. It appears that the trial subscription is not currently available (maybe Ancestry.com has been trying to encourage purchase of paid subscriptions as holiday gifts); a regular one-month subscription is $20. So either wait for the trial subscription offer to appear again or pay the $20. Or not.
Good luck.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Thank you for your response. Have some additional information for you. Sitting next to my Uncle in the Rex theater was another crew member of the SS Christopher Gadsden, Mr. Carl Breece. We exchanged some emails in 2010, prior to his passing on 9-20-2010. Noticed that his name was not on the sailing list of Armed Guard members who were onboard when the ship returned to NY in Jan 1945. Best regards,
The civilian merchant marine crew of CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN included a man named William Breece, age 17. (He had the rating of ordinary seaman, part of the deck crew.) I am sure this was the Carl Breece with whom you corresponded. A search of the Social Security Death Index confirms that a William Carl Breece died on the date you note. See http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=3693 to make the same search.
The merchant marine crew, whose names I did not list, included several men age 20 or younger, including two who were just 16. (There were also men in their 30s and 40s; the oldest was 50.) It is possible that some of those younger men are still living but again I would have no contact information. By necessity the merchant crew and the Armed Guard crew often worked very closely and no doubt friendships developed during voyages. Typically the merchant crew would have nearly a 100% turnover at the end of a voyage whereas the Armed Guard crew might remain intact or nearly so for several consecutive voyages, so Armed Guard and merchant sailors often quickly lost contact.
On 24 March 1943, my Grandfather, BM2 George W. Boston, USN, was aboard the SS Christopher Gadsden, when it was sunk by torpedoes and strafing. That is according to naval records, I t was returning from Algeria.
Is that true? I was told my grandfather was the only survivor.
I only today discovered your message but would like to respond to it, however belatedly.
From what I have found, SS CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN was constructed by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 46 days between November 15 and December 31, 1942. She survived the war and was scrapped in either 1969 or 1970; two sources differ on the year she was scrapped. See http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergencylarge/wwtwo/northcarolina.htm and scroll to hull number 50. Also see www.mariners-l.co.uk/LibShipsC.html and scroll to the name of the ship. This rules out the loss of the ship in March 1943 and the matter of a lone survivor.
Another web page, listing ships sunk or damaged in chronological order during World War II, shows that no ships were lost on 24 March 1943 or for several days before or after. See www.usmm.org/sunk43.html. Interestingly, CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN appears on that same list on 30 March 1943. However the type of damage or loss is noted as “Unknown” and there were no crew deaths listed, although one Armed Guard sailor was injured.
From yet another source I found that CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN was in convoy TE-19X between Gibraltar and Philippeville (now Skikda), Algeria, between March 16 and March 20, 1943. She apparently remained in Philippeville until March 28, then departed in convoy ET-16, arriving in Oran, Algeria, on March 31. These convoy operations and intervening port visit include the dates of March 24 and March 30, the first date being the one you note as the date the ship was sunk and the second being the date on which something may have happened aboard the ship per www.usmm.org/sunk43.html. However the records of the two convoys contain no indication that anything unusual befell the ship on either date. See http://convoyweb.org.uk/ports/index.html?search.php?vessel=CHRISTOPHER%20GADSDEN~armain; detailed information for the two convoys are linked from this page. The ship eventually returned to the United States in convoy GUS-6, departing Oran on April 10 and arriving in Hampton Roads (i.e., Norfolk, Virginia) on April 28, 1943.
In short I can find no evidence to confirm your statements about the loss of CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN while your grandfather was aboard, nor that he was the sole survivor of a sinking. To be sure even original records can contain errors, but whether a given ship sank on or about a given date seems not to be a matter that is easily disputed when independent sources indicate the ship continued to sail long after that date. So a question might be whether there was an incident involving your grandfather aboard a different ship and/or on a different date.
If you wish to pursue this further, you may be able to obtain a copy of your grandfather’s military service record which should indicate the ships to which he was assigned and the applicable dates. Please see this page from the Armed Guard website: http://armed-guard.com/searchmil.html. In particular see section A.1. Records of Individuals - U.S. Military. You will have to contact the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO, a facility operated by the U.S. Archives. Provide as much identifying information as possible about your grandfather. The links on this web page will take you to the necessary pages of the Records Center web site. There may be a fee for obtaining the information but the Records Center staff will not begin research without informing you of any charges. In addition to the ships to which he was assigned and corresponding dates, your grandfather's military service record may contain such information as enlistment date, discharge date, training, illnesses or injuries (which might point to a shipwreck experience or other onboard event), any decorations or medals earned, etc.
Note that someone such as yourself, who is not next of kin to your grandfather, may not be able to obtain his full service record. (Next of kin = parent, spouse, sibling, child.) If there is someone still living in your family who is next of kin to your grandfather, presumably your grandmother, mother/father or an aunt/uncle, it would be best if the request to the Records Center was submitted by that person. You can do the legwork of research, completing forms and otherwise preparing the request but the request should be signed by that person. If there is no longer a person who is next of kin still living, then make the request yourself and hope for the best.
Good luck.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com
Thank you once again. I appreciate all the information you have provided. One last question please, my Father Albert Michael Connors was also an Armed Guard crew member but I have no idea which ship(s) he served on. It is my belief that he left the Armed Guard in late 1945 early 1946, tried civilian life for a while, did not like it and enlisted in the the Air Force in 1947 and stayed in that branch for 27 years retiring in 1974. He passed on June 7, 1981.