SS Suez Maru

Suez Maru
History
Japan
Name: Suez Maru
Owner: Yamashita Kisen K. K (1919-1932) - Kuribayashi Shosen K. K (1932-1943)
Builder: Uraga Dock Company
Launched: 1919
In service: 1919-1943
Out of service: 29 November 1943
Fate: Torpedoed and sunk 29 November 1943
General characteristics
Type: Passenger-cargo ship
Tonnage: 4,645 tons[1]
Length: 109.7 m
Beam: 15.5 m
Draught: 8.7 m
Speed: 10.5 knots

SS Suez Maru was a Japanese passenger-cargo ship, used as a hell ship, which was torpedoed by submarine USS Bonefish on 29 November 1943, carrying 548 Allied POWs of which many drowned and the rest were shot by the Japanese.

Service history

Suez Maru sailed on 25 November 1943 with 548 POWs (415 British and 133 Dutch) from Ambon bound for Surabaya. The POWs were all sick men from the work-camps on the Moluccas and Ambon. Twenty men were on stretchers. There were also several hundreds of sick and wounded Japanese soldiers on board.[2]

On 29 November 1943 , near Kangean Island east of Madoera Island, the ship was torpedoed by USS Bonefish, unaware of the presence of Allied POWs. Many of the POWs drowned in the holds of the ship, but between 200 and 250 escaped from the holds and jumped into the water. Minesweeper W.12 only picked up the Japanese survivors. Then Captain Kawano Usumu, commander of W-12, decided that his ship could not carry any more survivors and ordered Lt. Koshio to machine-gun all surviving POWs in the water,[3] All were killed. There were also some 69 Japanese casualties which went down with Suez Maru. A memorial to the 414 British POW's aboard the Suez Maru, who were murdered by the Japanese was dedicated on 29 November 2013 at the National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas, Staffs. [4] [5] A Detailed account of the ship, the sinking and subsequent atrocity, along with the trial documents and descriptions can be found in the book; The Suez Maru Atrocity- Justice Denied!. [6]

References

  1. ↑ "Suez Maru (+1943)". Wrecksite. Retrieved 2016-10-29.
  2. ↑ "SUEZ MARU Tabular Record of Movement". Combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 2016-10-29.
  3. ↑ Cressman, Robert (2000). "Chapter V: 1943". The official chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-149-3. OCLC 41977179. Retrieved 2007-11-29.
  4. ↑ https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g186376-d1379697-i85874696-National_Memorial_Arboretum-Lichfield_Staffordshire_England.html
  5. ↑ http://www.thenma.org.uk/
  6. ↑ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Suez-Maru-atrocity-Japanese-hell-ship/dp/0954272501/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500031868&sr=8-1&keywords=the+suez+maru+atrocity
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