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SS Fort Athabaska
Devastating attack on Bari The SS Fort Athabasca was a merchant ship owned by the Canadian Government but registered in Great Britain. She was owned by a crown corporation, Wartime Merchant Shipping Ltd., which chartered them to the British Ministry of War Transport.
On 2nd December 1943 the Fort Athabasca was in dock at Bari, ready for departure carrying 76 tons of cargo, mail and 2 captured German 1000 rocket bombs. It was part of a large allied convoy of tankers, ammunition ships and supply vessels at anchor in Bari.
Twenty German planes attacked the docks and when one of the ammunition ships was hit and blew up, it started a domino effect, ship after ship caught on fire. The ship next to the Athabasca blew up, and despite the crews heroic efforts, the 2 German bombs exploded killing 46 men out of her complement of fifty six.
Devastating attack on Bari
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Those known to have sailed in SS Fort Athabaska during the Second World War 1939-1945. - Greaves Thomas. Frmn/Tr. (d.7th Dec 1943)
The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please
Add a Name to this List
Records of SS Fort Athabaska from other sources.
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The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
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Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. |
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Want to know more about SS Fort Athabaska? There are:0 items tagged SS Fort Athabaska available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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Frmn/Tr. Thomas Greaves SS Fort Athabaska (d.7th Dec 1943) Thomas Greaves died aged 20, aboard his ship in an air raid on Bari Docks. He was born in Jarrow in 1923, the son of Thomas and Jane Greaves (nee Keegans) of Primrose.
Thomas is buried in Bari War Cemetery and is commemorated on the WW2 Roll of Honour Plaque in the entrance of Jarrow Town Hall.
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