1944 — Apr 16, US tanker Pan Pennsylvania torpedoed by U-boat ~200M east of NYC– 25

–25 American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
–15 crew
–10 armed guard
–25 Clancey. HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in [WW] II, Chapter VI 1944.
–15 crew
–10 armed guard
–25 Helgason. Ships hit by U-boats. “Pan Pennsylvania – American Turbine tanker.” uboat.net.
–15 crew (2 officers and 13 crewmen)
–10 armed guards
–25 Moore. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking. 1983. Table extracted by armed-guard.com.
–15 crew
–10 armed guard

Narrative Information

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
“Date Ship Type Cause Result Location Deaths
“04/16/44 Pan Pennsylvania Tanker Torpedo Sunk NAtlantic Crew 15; AG 10.”

Clancey. HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in [WW] II, Chapter VI 1944:
“16 April, Sun. — ….
“Atlantic….
“U.S. tanker Pan Pennsylvania, in United Kingdom-bound convoy CU 1, is torpedoed by German submarine U-550 150 miles east of Ambrose Light, 40°05’N, 69°40’W, and abandoned. Ten of the 31-man Armed Guard sailors perish in the action, as do 15 of the 50-man merchant complement; survivors are picked up by destroyer escorts Joyce (DE-317) and Peterson (DE-152). Later, destroyer escort Gandy (DE-764) is damaged when she intentionally rams German submarine U-550 off Nantucket Shoals, 40°09’N, 69°44’W, and teams with Peterson and Joyce to sink the U-boat. During the action, shells from the destroyer escorts set afire Pan Pennsylvania’s abandoned wreck…”

Helgason. Ships hit by U-boats. “Pan Pennsylvania – American Turbine tanker.” uboat.net:
“Name Pan Pennsylvania
“Type Turbine tanker (T-3)
“Tonnage 11,017 tons
“Completed 1943 [November] – Welding Shipyards Inc., Norfolk VA
“Owner National Bulk Carriers Inc., New York
“Homeport Wilmington
“Date of attack 16 Apr 1944
“Nationality American
“Fate Sunk by U-550 (Klaus Hanert)
“Position 40° 07’N, 69° 24’W – Grid CA 6231
“Complement 81 (25 dead and 56 survivors).
“Convoy CU-21
“Route New York (15 Apr) – Barry, Wales
“Cargo 140,000 barrels of 80 octane gasoline and aircraft as deck cargo
“History ….
“Notes on event At 14.05 hours on 16 April 1944 the Pan Pennsylvania (Master Delmar
Melum Leidy) in station #72 of convoy CU-21 was hit by one torpedo from
U-550 about 200 miles east of New York. The torpedo struck on port side
in the #8 tank, causing an explosion that blew a large hole in the side, ruptured the #7 tank and disabled the steering gear. The tanker soon went
down by the stern and listed to port about 30°. The master was not able to reach the engine room to order the engines stopped, while some of the nine officers, 41 crewmen and 31 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) on board panicked and tried to launch two lifeboats while the ship was still making headway. The master halted those at one boat, but the other was launched and capsized, throwing the occupants into the sea. After ascertaining the damage the tanker was finally stopped at 14.20 hours and the remaining men abandoned ship in the last two usable lifeboats and three rafts.

In the meantime, USS Gandy (DE-764), USS Joyce (DE 317) and USS Peterson (DE 152) had brought U-550 to the surface in the counter-attack and sank her. The latter two then picked up the survivors of the tanker about two hours after the attack and landed them in Londonderry on 26 April. Two officers, 13 crewmen and ten armed guards were lost, the most of them when the lifeboat capsized but three were crushed when they attempted to launch a lifeboat on the weather side and some drowned after jumping overboard.

The Pan Pennsylvania later capsized and was bombed and sunk by Allied aircraft two days later at 40°24N/69°37W.”

Note: uboat.net has information on twenty-eight of those onboard accessible at:
https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/crews/ship3236.html

Moore. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking. 1983. Table extracted by armed-guard.com:
“S.S. Pan Pennsylvania…Torpedoed 4/16/44…Tanker…Crew 15, AG 10.”

Sources

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of Ships Sunk or Damaged during 1944. Accessed 5-30-2021 at: http://www.usmm.org/sunk44.html#anchor412649

Clancey, Patrick (transcriber and formatter for HTML). HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in World War II, Chapter VI: 1944. Accessed 5-30-2021 at: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-Chron/USN-Chron-1944.html

Helgason. Ships hit by U-boats. “Pan Pennsylvania – American Turbine tanker.” uboat.net. Accessed 5-30-2021 at: https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/3236.html

Moore, Captain Arthur R. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking: A History of the Staggering Losses Suffered By the U.S. Merchant Marine, Both in Ships and Personnel, During World War II. American Merchant Marine Museum 1983 (1st edition), 1990. Table extracted by armed-guard.com. Accessed 5-30-2021 at: https://www.armed-guard.com/sunk.html