D/S Siremalm
Updated Nov. 24-2008

To Siremalm on the "Ships starting with S" page.

Crew List

Torpedoed - 1941:

Jürgen Rohwer says that Siremalm was torpedoed and damaged on March 23-1941 by U-110 (Lemp), position 60 35N 28 25W. I have not seen this episode mentioned in any of my Norwegian sources, but I've received an official report which describes what happened from John Granath, Canada.

Siremalm was on a voyage from Reykjavik to Halifax at the time, having departed on March 21 carrying, among other things, a bag of mail from the Army post office in Iceland. She had a crew of 25 Norwegians. Armament consisted of a 4" gun and 3 machine guns. At 02:30 GMT on the 23rd, when in the position given above, a loud noise was heard on the port side close to the ship. The officer on watch saw a splash in the water followed by a sharp contact on the port side amidships. All bilges were sounded and found to be dry but from the engine room it was reported that there was a big indent in the vicinity of the boiler room. The ship was shelled twenty minutes after what is referred to as "the collision with this submerged object", time given as 02:50 GMT, and she was hit once by a large shell and once by a small shell.

Further examination of the damage later revealed a hole in the port side, possibly made by the large shell, also some smaller damage. They proceeded at highest speed while Radio Operator M. Jørgensen used the W/T to broadcast SSS; attacked by submarine (no answer was received; the message was sent 3 times). The gun was loaded and manned and smoke floats made ready, but the gun was not used for fear of giving away their position and making the ship a target. She continued the voyage while zig-zagging, and arrived Halifax without further incident on Apr. 2, continuing to New York 3 days later, according to Page 1 of the archive documents. The captain also reported that the attacking vessel was showing 2 red lights when last seen.

At the beginning of June-1941, she joined the Sydney, C.B.-U.K. Convoy SC 33, steel and lumber for London.

Related external link:
Uboat. net also has an account of the above attack.

Final Fate - 1941:

In the fall of 1941 Hitler demanded that German U-boats be placed in the Mediterranean, in order to help protect the convoys carrying supplies for the German Africa corps which was advancing towards Egypt. A considerable amount of boats were released, and in the course of the latter part of the year several U-boats had successfully gotten through the straits of Gibraltar, making the passage of north/southbound Atlantic convoys more dangerous for the Allies. Additionally, German Focke-Wolfe bombers and reconnaissance aircraft were operating west of Gibraltar, sinking ships as well as directing the U-boats towards their goals.

Siremalm was in Convoy HG 73 which suffered great losses at the end of Sept. that year*. The convoy was initially shadowed by Italian submarines, though without causing any harm, but it was later located by German aircraft, which then notified the U-boats nearby. Siremalm had departed Gibraltar on Sept. 17-1941 with a cargo of 4000 tons iron ore for Barrow, and according to J. Rohwer, was torpedoed by U-201 (Schnee) on Sept. 27. However, a recent re-assessment of events indicates that the culprit may have been U-124 late on the 26th. See the discussion at Uboat.net's forum starting here - the info on Siremalm is in this reply (both are external links).

She sank immediately, position 49 05N 20 10W (Hocking gives "about 700 miles west of the Bishop Rock"). There were no survivors; 20 Norwegian, 3 Finnish, 1 Swedish and 3 British seamen died (or possibly 21 Norwegians, no Swedish - see misc. notes below).

D/S Varangberg was also sunk in this convoy. (Follow the link to my page about HG 73 for more info on the other ships sunk).

* Note that Siremalm had previously arrived with the U.K.-Gibraltar Convoy OG 72, which had originated in Liverpool on Aug. 19-1941 and arrived Gibraltar on Sept. 1. Siremalm, however, was bound for Cadiz, where she arrived on Sept. 1, having started out from Oban on Aug. 20. From Cadiz, she later proceeded to Gibraltar - see Page 2 of the archive documents. OG 72 will be added to its own individual page in my Convoys section, but in the meantime, the ships sailing in it are named on the page listing ships in all OG convoys.

Crew List - No survivors:
* Konrad Olsen had previously served on Eastern Star (but is not included in the crew list at time of loss).
Stoker Schelderup had served on Mathilda and Stoker Olsen had been on board Spind when sunk the previous month.

Casualties
† Captain Haakon Svendsen	† 1st Mate Peder Nyberg	† 2nd Mate Einar Nicolaysen	† Radio Operator Magne Jørgensen	† Boatswain Stian Rasmussen	† Able Seaman Bjarne Engelsen
† Able Seaman Brynjulf Thu	† Able Seaman Arne Olsen	† Able Seaman Edvin Tollefsen	† Able Seaman Leif Myntevik	† Able Seaman Petti Kivikoski (Finnish)	† Able Seaman Erkki Tompuri (Finnish)
† 1st Engineer Olaf Jensen	† 2nd Engineer Allan Andersson (Swedish**)	† 3rd Engineer * Konrad Olsen	† Stoker Olaf Hansen	† Stoker Kaare Schelderup *	† Stoker Hermod Jensen
† Stoker Gunnar Aktmann (Finnish)	† Stoker Gunvald Olsen *	† Stoker Malbert Johansen	† Stoker Hans Leonard Ness	† Steward Ansgar Falk	† Cook Egil Ragnar Egeberg
† Mess Foreman Arthur Welsh * (British)	† Gunner S. Keyworth (British)	† Gunner ? Hemingway * (British)

* Arthur Welsh is listed as "Boy" on The Commonwealth War Graves Comm. website. I cannot find S. Keyworth, however, there's a Gunner Eric Hemingway listed as having died on the date Siremalm was lost. Additionally, Billy McGee, England has told me that there's a Fireman and Trimmer John Callister Allen commemorated at Tower Hill, Panel 98 - see this page - however, he was not included in the official crew list for Siremalm. All these links are external.

Related external links:
Ships in Convoy HG 73

Stavern Memorial commemorations - 21 are commemorated at this memorial for seamen in Stavern, Norway. **Note that Engineer Allan Andersson, who's listed as Swedish in the Crew list above, is included; in other words, he appears to have been Norwegian.

HG - 73, 19th to 28th September 1941
U-201 | Adalbert Schnee
U-124
U-boat war in the Mediterranean

Back to Siremalm on the "Ships starting with S" page.

The text on this page was compiled with the help of: "Nortraships flåte", J. R. Hegland, "Sjøforklaringer fra 2. verdenskrig", Volume II, Norwegian Maritime Museum, and misc., some of which are mentioned in the text above - (ref. My sources).