ss Mohamed Ali El-Kebir

My interest in the circumstances of the sinking of ss Mohamed Ali el-Kebir was stimulated by Mr Ian Wilson, an authority on Irish shipwrecks, who suggested that it would be a fruitful area to research. Graves of casualties from the ship can be found along the Western Irish seaboard, and the combination of their different units and services, and the critical war situation of summer 1940, make it a particularly significant event.

I had earlier investigated the sinking of HMS Racoon, a WW I destroyer, which was wrecked off Malin in January 1918. The details of this tragedy had alerted me to the many untold stories of heroism and sacrifice, for which evidence is present in every graveyard and record office in the country.

Most people are aware of war heroes and as a boy growing up during the war I placed them on a pedestal. I am only now beginning to appreciate that our freedom arises more from the sacrifice made by the many hundreds of thousands of unsung heroes, often in the most unremarkable circumstances. They deserve a higher regard!

If anyone can add to the story told here I should be very pleased to hear from them. I am grateful to the following for providing information:

• Mr Ian Wilson
• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The Admiralty Library
• The Public Record Office
• The Guildhall Library
• Portsmouth Evening News
• Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Cardiff
• Colonel J E Nowers, Royal Engineers Museum
• Major T R Lill, Royal Logistics Corps Museum
• Liverpool Maritime Museum
• Mr Kenneth King
• Commander Alec Dennis RN
• Mr Brian J Crabb
• National Archive, Dublin
• Military Archive, Cathal Bruagh Barracks, Dublin
• Aberdeen City Council Archivists
• Glasgow University Archive
• Mr Richard Wardle
• The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany
• Major Mike Dickie
• Herr Horst Bredow
• Miss J M Wraight (Admiralty Library)
• Mr Michael Burke
• Major John Harrison
• Mr Martin Hearn
• Mr Duncan Warren
• Miss J Bandy (Army Historical Branch)

and to the survivors, families and friends who responded to an appeal for information in the Aberdeen Press and Journal, and the Navy News.

Mr Phil Smith, whose father is a survivor, shared the information he had put in an 80th birthday scrapbook about his father’s merchant navy career. My thanks also go to him for his valuable contribution and painstaking efforts in the production of this final presentation.

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