When i got interested in World War 2, i was told that my Grandmother's Brother was killed during the war, i was told that he drowned on a ferry that was sunk(They didnt know), but when i decided to search for what happened to him, my grandmother said he was a "Jungmann" as we say in Norway(It's a grade between deck boy and Ordinary Seaman).

He was on a convoy headed for England or America, this was in 1943-1944(My Grandmother said it was most likely in 1944) It was attacked and he went down with the ship, the ship was from the Oslo Company.

Other than this there is not much to tell, any information will be really helpful.

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Vegar

Can you at least supply his name and maybe the name of the ship he was on? That would give us a fighting chance of finding something.

Good luck.

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Lou

My Grandmother cant't remember what the name of the ship was, his name was Harald Skålnes.

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Vegar

I believe he was on board of the Brant County which wa storpedoed by an U-Boot

His name is on the casualty list among with other Norwegians.






D/S Brant County - Norwegian Merchant Fleet 1939-1945



Brant County joined the Halifax portion of the slow eastbound Convoy SC 121 in Febr.-1943 in order to head back to the U.K. (Bonneville and several others were sunk), but returned to port, later joining Convoy HX 228, which originated in New York on Febr. 28. Brant County, however, joined this convoy from Halifax on March 4, taking station 135. Both these convoys had several other Norwegian ships as well; follow the links for more information. There's also a cruising order for HX 228, misc. reports, and an analysis of U-boat operations in 4 eastbound convoys sailing around the same time. (Here is the analysis for HX 228).
On March 10 an intense battle ensued between U-boats and escorts, resulting in the British destroyer Harvester being sunk by U-432, but the French corvette Aconit took revenge by sinking the boat (Harvester and Aconit had previously sunk U-444).
Meanwhile, several ships were torpedoed within the convoy. 36 men, including the captain and 8 passengers, died when Brant County was torpedoed by U-86 (Schug, see * below) in the early morning hours of March 11-1943. She was bound for Newport with a general cargo as well as 670 tons explosives in No. 1 and No. 2 holds, and a large amount of carbide in No. 3 hold. When the torpedo detonated in the cargo of carbide, it was immediately set on fire.




What follows is an excerpt from the Commodore's report:
"03:55Z - Brant County (135) torpedoed 51 53N 28 40W. The ship fired two white rockets. Burst into flames, the fire was like an "inferno" and lit everything up like daylight. I could see the whole convoy and escorts ahead and on both wings.
04:13Z - W.T. message received "SSS de T.R. 135 Brant County torpedoed". (The operator who sent this message was a very brave, cool and gallant gentleman).
04:15Z - Brant County blew up with a tremendous explosion, throwing debris hundreds of feet into the air. (The scene was indescribable)."
The survivors were picked up half an hour later by the British Stuart Prince, another ship in the convoy. Stoker Ferdinand Olsen was badly burnt and died shortly thereafter. The survivors were landed in Liverpool on March 16, where the maritime hearings were held on March 23-1943, with the 2nd mate, the 2nd engineer, the 3rd engineer, Able Seaman Fjelle and Able Seaman Heimstad appearing.

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more about the ship here with picture of the explosion and the captain

http://www.slekt.net/tng/histories/0...T%20COUNTY.doc

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Thank you so much Skipper! I never knew he was a sailor, i was just told that he drowned when a ferry was sunk, but nothing else. My grandmother has allways wanted to know how he died, i hope she wont be so sad

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Friends are like potatoes, when you eat them, they die.

Best Regards

Vegar

Skipper that's a tremendous post. I don't know how you did it, but was masterful.

__________________
"Faint heart never won fair maiden", so I say "Go for it!"

Lou

The work was done by the good people who put those articles on line. Finding those is a matter of knowing how to use a search engine, a bit of luck and..... well I returned from Lorient last August so I have been reading quite a bit about U-Boote sinking allied merchants ships lately and remembered a few things here and there that orientated my search. Anyway glad I could help, isn't this one of the goals of this forum ?

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It sure is

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Friends are like potatoes, when you eat them, they die.

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Vegar

I wish i could find out where in the ship he died, but that would be asking too much...

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Friends are like potatoes, when you eat them, they die.

Best Regards

Vegar

Well there were several survivors, so maybe one of those is still alive. Also I assume there must be a casualty report. You could ask the administrator from the mentionned websites for information.

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I cant find out how to contact him, it is only the search feature and more...

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Friends are like potatoes, when you eat them, they die.

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Vegar

Hang on, I'll give it a try and will be back later

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Bloody well done mods.

Thank you so much for your help Skipper!

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Friends are like potatoes, when you eat them, they die.

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Vegar

It's part of this link , here is the address

Visitors' messages 2009 - warsailors.com

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There was also a planecrash where i lived before, think you could help me with that? I started a thread and all the info is there: German Planecrash at Toska, Norway

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Friends are like potatoes, when you eat them, they die.

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Vegar

This is what it says on the website you sent me Skip: Please note that I am unable to assist with information regarding people.

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Friends are like potatoes, when you eat them, they die.

Best Regards

Vegar

It's still worth a try. I suppose they have no time to helps with personnal quests etc... but if they would just tell you where they found the info they already have , you could dig further from there.

I will also have a look on your other thread , but that seems a lot harder. Have you tried the Luftarchiv site?

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No, but i found another site and i going through every year, but there are alot of crashes on Herdla airport.

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Friends are like potatoes, when you eat them, they die.

Best Regards

Vegar