Submarine Pings

Two American ships one was towing the other. The one that was being towed was turning up like a cork screw and apparently had been hit by a torpedo. So we were sent along side to take the wounded off and just as we got along side, we were getting pings all night that there were submarines in the vicinity. There was a big class destroyer there and why she didn’t drop any depth charges, I don’t know. But anyway the submarine, we didn’t know it until we saw it, the two torpedoes that the submarine let go went over the towing line from one ship to the other. I guess the skipper on the submarine thought we were moving. We weren’t. We were just going along side taking the wounded off. We were told to get the hell out of it, so we got out of it and we saw another ship coming into, the Sanatoria. She came in to take over.

Mr. Rogers recalls a close call during a rescue operation.

Eli Rogers

Eli Rogers was born in Newfoundland on February 16, 1919. The son of a locomotive engineer he enlisted with the Navy when he was 21 years old. Mr. Rogers served on many ships in the Navy with the Royal Navy Rescue unit.