Warsailors Forums

Hello,

I'm looking for a crew list of British Merchant Navy personnel who escaped from internment in Sweden and return to the UK on ships that were part of the blockade bust Operation RUBBLE. My Great Uncle, William Johnston b. 6 Feb 1919 was crew on the Romanby when it was sunk on 10 Apr 1940 and was subsequently interned. Both myself and my father have conducted extensive research over the years but have never actually confirmed which ship he was on during the run back to the UK. It was always assumed to the the Elizabeth Bakke but we've never seen any crew and extra crew lists.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Kind regards

Rhys

There was an article on this site some time ago, which may be helpful:

https://www.warsailors.com/freefleet/kvarstad.html

Good hunting
Phil

You may also be able to get some help by contacting Riksarkivet (National Archives of Norway). They hold all of Nortrasips archives. Though I’m not positive they would have the names of foreign nationals who took part in this operation, it’s worth a try.

Have you tried British archives? That might be your best bet for Operation Rubble and names of those who took part, other than Norwegians.

I do have crew lists for Operation Performance, including names of seamen from Romanby, but this took place the following year https://www.warsailors.com/freefleet/kvarstad2.html so won’t be of much help, unless this is the operation your great uncle took part in? But you say you’ve done extensive research so I assume you’re sure it was Rubble. Thought I’d mention it anyway, just in case