Killed minutes from end of war

Sinking in the Firth of Forth of last merchant ship of the Second World War to be commemorated

A commemoration is to be held in Anstruther to mark the loss of the last merchant ship sunk by Germany just minutes before the official end of the Second World War.

At 10.40pm on May 7 1945, the cargo ship S.S. Avondale Park – built in Pictou, Nova Scotia and on passage from Hull to Belfast – was sunk in convoy 1.5 miles south east of the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth.

The torpedo was fired by the Type XX111 German submarine U2336 commanded by Kapitanleutnant Emil Klusmeier.

Another torpedo sank the Norwegian ship, Sneland1. Within minutes, the war in Europe ended.

U2336 was depth charged by the convoy escort but escaped in the early hours of VE Day, May 8 1945.

Chief engineer George Anderson and engine room donkeyman William Harvey died when the torpedo struck the Avondale Park’s engine room.

On Sneland 1, seven men were killed: Captain Johannes Laegland, Alf Berenson, Tormod Ringstad, Otto Skaugen, Simon Johanson, Nils Konradsen and William Ellis, aged 17, of Hull.

These were the last sinkings by a U-boat in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Some 35,000 British and allied merchant seamen lost their lives between the sinkings of the RMS Athenia in 1939 and the S.S. Avondale Park in 1945.

Those lost in this attack were among the most poignant and pointless casualties of all. The order for U-boats to cease hostilities had been given three days earlier by Reichsadmiral Karl Doenitz, Hitler’s successor.

As the survivors of this last U-boat attack were taken to the Flying Angel Mission in Methil for showers and first aid, the country celebrated victory in Europe, and the families of those killed put out flags for their safe return.

To commemorate the significance of these events and to mark the wartime contributions of the three nations involved — Canada, which built and owned the S.S. Avondale Park, Norway, which contributed men and ships to the Battle of the Atlantic, and Britain, whose crew sailed the S.S. Avondale Park — Anstruther Town Centre Working Group is mounting a commemorative plaque on the sea wall at Anstruther.

The project has been supported by Kilrenny, Anstruther and Cellardyke Community Council, Fife Council, Fife Charities Trust, Anstruther Improvement Association, the Community Kist, Anstruther, Bristol Merchant Navy Association, Sydney Rapley, Pam Harper and Celia Turnbull. The story was researched and the plaque designed by Town Centre Working Group member Glenn Jones.

Chief engineer George Anderson died in a torpedo attack three days after U-boats were ordered to stand down.