Thsitlegorm
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Thistlegorm
was sunk by German planes 6.October 1941 under a journey
from Glasgow to Alexandria with supplies,
vehicles,locomotives and ammunition for the British 8th
Army in Egypt. She arrived the Red Sea but the traffic
northwards through the Suez-canal was so overloaded that
they could not proceed immediately. Because two ships had
collided further north in the canal, the whole transit
area was also more or less blocked. In the mean time
German intelligence had received information that the
British troopship Queen Mary was in the area with 1200
soldiers on board. 5.October two Heinkel HE 111 from II \
KG 26 arrived in the northern part of the coastline in
search of her. On their way back to base they spotted
Thistlegorm laying at anchor and attacked. Two bombs hit
her behind the bridge and ignited part of the ammunition
and the stern was torn apart. Both of the
locomotives she transported flies over board together with
other parts of the cargo. She start to sink and the crew
quickly abandon ship. At 01:30 she disappear in the deep
at Sha`ab Ali. Four men of the crew perished in the
sinking, while five of the nine Royal Navy men died. The
wreck was found by Jaques Cousteau in 1956 and they filmed
the wreck which was shown later in the movie " The Living
Sea " on National Geographic Channel. The wreck rest today
on her keel on a depth of 10 to 30 meter near Ras
Muhammad.
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 Picture: Painting of Thistlegorm Originally from skovheim.org 
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