| SS DEMPO (March 17, 1944)
Dutch passenger liner (16,979 tons) serviced the Holland-Java route with 634 passengers in four classes. Used as a troopship from 1941 but was sunk in the Mediterranean by the U-371(Lt-Cdr. Mehl) A total of 498 US troops on board, died. The Dempo was part of convoy SNF.17. The year before, on October 13, 1943, the U-371 sank the US destroyer, USS Bristol, off Algeria. On May 4, 1944, the U-371 was herself sunk in the Mediterranean north of Constintine by depth charges from 4 destroyers including the American destroyer USS Pride and the British destroyer HMS Blankney. Three of her crew were killed and 48 taken prisoner.
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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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