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SS WAIMARAMA (August 11-13, 1942)
British merchant ship of 11,100 tons, loaned from the Shaw Savile Line and now part of the fourteen ship convoy Operation Pedestal to the relief of the besieged island of Malta. The 'Operation Pedestal' convoy was the most bombarded convoy in the entire war. The Waimarama was sunk by German Junkers 88 dive bombers off Cape Bon. Direct hits by four bombs ignited aviation fuel stored in cans on her deck. The ship exploded in a sheet of flame and smoke. In less than five minutes the ship was gone. Of her crew of 107, only 27 men survived.
A total of 209 ships in 61 convoys, made the journey to and from Malta from July 9, 1940, to December 31, 1942. Thirty of these ships were lost, resulting in the deaths of 264 seamen. (Britain lost 22 ships, USA 4 ships, Holland 2 and Norway 2).
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On weald of Kent I watched once more
Again I heard that grumbling roar
Of fighter planes; yet none were near
And all around the sky was clear
Borne on the wind a whisper came
'Though men grow old, they stay the same'
And then I knew, unseen to eye
The ageless Few were sweeping by
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