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In memory of:

Carpenter Erich Karo

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Merchant Navy emblem

Military service

Age: 34
Rank: Carpenter
Force: Merchant Navy
Unit/Regiment: Canadian Merchant Navy
Division: HS Ramb IV (London, England) (2174)
Birth: January 1, 1908 Bootle, England
Death: May 10, 1942 Mediterranean Sea

Burial/memorial information

Grave reference: Panel 20.
Additional information
An Italian motor vessel (MV) captured by the Royal Navy in the Red Sea, the British Admiralty converted her into a hospital ship (HS) and kept her name. On 10 May 1942, she sailed from Tobruk, Libya, to Alexandria, Egypt, with 360 medical staff and wounded patients. It was attacked by German Ju-88 aircraft. Due to a violent fire, it had to be abandoned and sunk by the Royal Navy's HMS Kipling (F91) off El Alamein, Egypt. The attack killed 155 patients and 10 crew members.

In the Books of Remembrance

Commemorated on:

Page 163 of the Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance.
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HALIFAX MEMORIAL Nova Scotia, Canada

The HALIFAX MEMORIAL in Nova Scotia's capital, erected in Point Pleasant Park, is one of the few tangible reminders of the men who died at sea. Twenty-four ships were lost by the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War and nearly 2,000 members of the RCN lost their lives.

This Memorial was erected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and was unveiled in November 1967 with naval ceremony by H.P. MacKeen, Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, in the presence of R. Teillet, then Minister of Veterans Affairs.

The monument is a great granite Cross of Sacrifice over 12 metres high, clearly visible to all ships approaching Halifax. The cross is mounted on a large podium bearing 23 bronze panels upon which are inscribed the names of over 3,000 Canadian men and women who were buried at sea.

The dedicatory inscription, in French and English, reads as follows:

1914-1939
1918-1945
IN THE HONOUR OF
THE MEN AND WOMEN
OF THE NAVY
ARMY AND MERCHANT NAVY
OF CANADA
WHOSE NAMES
ARE INSCRIBED HERE
THEIR GRAVES ARE UNKNOWN
BUT THEIR MEMORY
SHALL ENDURE.

On June 19, 2003, the Government of Canada designated September 3rd of each year as a day to acknowledge the contribution of Merchant Navy Veterans.

For more information, visit Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

 

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