Posted by Patricia O'Neal on May 18, 2020, 2:47 pm
The tanker Stanvac Calcutta, sailing under a Panamanian flag, was shelled and sunk off the coast of Brazil by the German raider Stier on June 6, 1942. Fourteen merchant mariners and three Navy Armed Guards died during the attack. I have names for the 14 merchant mariners, but can't seem to locate names for any of the three AGs. This site had the best overall information but, for some reason, this particular information was not included. I found the names of six wounded AGs on USMM.org but even there the names of the three dead AGs were not listed. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Re: MV Stanvac Calcutta
Posted by Ron Carlson on May 21, 2020, 12:07 am, in reply to "MV Stanvac Calcutta"
Dear Patricia,
Thank you for your inquiry. In researching the fate of STANVAC CALCUTTA, I see that the Armed Guard website indeed notes three deaths among its Armed Guard crew (per http://www.armed-guard.com/panama.html#calc). This may be in error.
The website American Merchant Marine at War (http://www.usmm.org/), which you consulted to learn the names of the six wounded Armed Guard crewmen, has a different summary of the fate of the Armed Guard crew. Although a little difficult to decipher, http://www.usmm.org/sunkaz.html#anchor29645 shows that there were 14 deaths among the merchant crew; 26 merchant crewmen and nine Armed Guard crewmen (i.e., all of the Armed Guard crew) were interned in Japanese POW camps; and one merchant sailor ended up in a German POW camp.
In short, there were no deaths among the nine Armed Guard crew. Rather the entire Armed Guard crew was interned in Japanese POW camps for the duration of the war. All the men survived their internments and were released at the end of the war. I take the information found at usmm.org likely to be more accurate than that found on the Armed Guard website.
There is additional information about one Armed Guard sailor's experiences both on the ship and while in the POW camp at https://www.armed-guard.com/lvc.html; scroll down the page about half way.
Best wishes.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com