Carl Monk Survived Sinking of the SS Leopoldville on Christmas Eve 1944-- Part 2: A Secret for Too Long

June Monk learned that her husband Carl and the other survivors of the sinking of the SS Leopoldville were told to keep it secret.  But word got out many years later after the events surrounding the sinking were declassified.

Around 1994, some of the survivors began talking about it.  Allan Andrade, a retired New York City police investigator wrote a book about it called "Leopoldville: A Tragedy Too Long Secret."

Despite the book and works by other authors and documentaries it is still one of the least-known events of World War II.  (I had never heard of it before.)

Andrade has helped in the formation of the Leopoldville Memorial Association and is historian for  the Leopoldville.org website.

--GreGen

Carl Monk Survived Sinking of SS Leopoldville on Christmas Eve 1944-- Part 1

From the December 24, 2020, Trib Live "Manor World War II veteran survived little-known Christmas Eve disaster off French coast" by Jeff Himler.

Carl Monk, like many WW II veterans, rarely spoke of what happened to him during the war.  He had a small scar near his left elbow that he received while fighting with his infantry unit in France and a brief tale of surviving a German U-boar attack on his transport ship SS Leopoldville on Christmas Eve 1944 about five miles from its destination, Cherbourg, France.

"All he ever said was the boat was torpedoed," said his widow, June Monk, 95, of Manor, Pennsylvania.  "He told me  somebody puled him out of the water and laid him on the deck of a small French ship."

"He never wanted to go on a large ship after that."

After her husband's death at age 85, in 2008, June Monk learned just how lucky her husband had been to be among the survivors of the torpedoed SS Leoploldville.  The Beligian vessel, a former passenger liner, was transporting  more than 2,000 members of the  U.S. Army's 66th Division from Southampton, England, to join the fighting in France.

The transport's sinking claimed the lives of 763 Americans, including more than 80 Pennsylvanians.  Area casualties included two local boys, Pfc. Glenn Elvin Lowry and PFC. Jack Nevin Lowry, twin brothers and  1942 graduates of Rostraver High School.

The incident is considered to be the largest military catastrophe to strike an infanrty division attacked by a submarine in U.S. History.

--GreGen