DOB/DOD: October 10, 1921 (Hartford, CT) – February 2, 1943; 21 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Unmarried
LOCAL ADDRESS: 190 Hawthorn Street, Hartford
SERVICE NUMBER: Z-268197
FAMILY: Born to Carl H. [Army veteran] (1889-1961) and Elizabeth M. Pollock Linde (1890-1969). Two brothers, George E. [Navy veteran] (1926-2015) and David J. [Coast Guard veteran] (1929-2009). One sister, Marion E. (1923-2008).
Hartford Public High School Class of 1939
Merchant Marine Academy Class of 1944
CIRCUMSTANCES: At 0304 hours on February 2, 1943, the S.S. Jeremiah Van Rensselaer (Master Lucius Whitfield Webb, lost) in station #45 (last ship in the extreme port column) of convoy HX-224 was torpedoed by U-456. The ship had been in station #11 but had performed poorly, keeping station and keeping her station about once in seven nights; she managed to catch up in the daytime, and consequently, her position was changed. Two torpedoes struck on the port side in the #1 hold. The explosion created an 8-by-30-foot hole, blew the hatch cover off, scattered cargo overboard, and started a fire. A short time later, a third torpedo struck on the port side at #4 hatch and blew a truck standing on deck into the water, and also started a small fire. The engines were secured, and some of the eight officers, 34 crewmen, 28 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in, and eight 20mm guns), and one passenger abandoned ship, panicked; they tried to launch three lifeboats, but two capsized in the rough seas. Eight men got away in a boat, and others jumped overboard and swam to three rafts, but the harsh weather and cold water caused most men to die from exposure.
Only one officer, six crewmen, and 17 armed guards survived. 23 survivors and three bodies were picked up after five hours by the British rescue ship Accrington and landed at Gourock. A boarding party from the US Coast Guard cutter USS Ingham (WPG 35) later boarded the ship and noted that she could have been saved, but the watch below left the boilers’ fire lit, which burned the boilers out. The vessel was scuttled by gunfire at 1300 hours. The boarding party also found one man, who never left the ship, and took him to the escort vessel. One week later, two bodies were recovered from a raft by FFL Lobelia (K 05).
The fate of U-456
Sank in a diving accident on May 12, 1943, in the North Atlantic north of the Azores, in position 46.39N, 26.54W, while facing the British destroyer HMS Opportune after being badly damaged by a Fido homing torpedo from a British Liberator aircraft (86 Sqn RAF/B). 49 dead (all hands lost). [FDS/NHB, October 1989].
