Do any of you have, or know where to obtain, photographs of merchant vessels from WW2?
I was putting together a history of convoy OS44 which sailed from Liverpool to Freetown in March 1943 for my uncle.
He was a newly commissioned RN officer on his way to Mombasa to work on Japanese code breaking and travelled on MV Copacabana.
Being in the convoy, he never knew a great deal of what was going on during the passage to Freetown but he remembered the convoy being attacked while en route.
I was able to do some research and found which convoy he was on and I found all the details of the ships attacked and sunk etc.
Sadly, my uncle died a couple of weeks before I was able to complete my research but his sons have asked me to continue with my research as they were unaware of this part of their father's history.
I have found details of the U Boats that took part in the attacks, the names and details of the ships sunk etc and I am looking for a photo of the MV Copacabana. This ship was a Belgian ship and I think she was scrapped in the 1950s.
So, if anyone can help I would be very grateful.
Incidentally, there was a bit of a twist to the story;
My uncle had been away studying Japanese and the art of code breaking and had not seen my father (his brother) for a couple of years as my father had joined the Royal Navy and had been away for some time. They were at one time both in the River Mersey but in different ships as convoys were being assembled. My uncle's convoy arrived in Freetown one morning and in the same afternoon my father's warship arrived, having sailed from Liverpool later but having travelled a lot faster. My uncle got a message to my father arranging to get together for a beer that evening. Before that could happen, there was a signal that U Boats had been spotted in the South Atlantic near to the coast of Africa so my father's ship was sent out immediately to deal with them. They didn't see each other again for the beer until 1946!
Thanks
Kelvin
