Warships and troopships sunk involving large loss of life

Warships and troopships sunk involving large loss of life


In some cases multiple ships were lost, and therefore they are classed as one disaster. An example of this is the Battle of Midway where four Japanese front-line carriers were lost with many lives. Entries are shown in descending order of lives lost.


During World War I

HMS Queen Mary
Bouvet

TakachihoHMS Queen Mary (Great Britain) - a battlecruiser which exploded and sank during the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, with a loss of 1,245 men.

HMS Good Hope (Great Britain) - She was sunk 1 November 1914 off the Chilean coast along with HMS Monmouth in the Battle of Coronel by the German armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The entire complement of 900 hands were lost.

HMS Monmouth (Great Britain) - Sunk on 1 November 1914 off the Chilean coast along with HMS Good Hope in the Battle of Coronel. There were no survivors of the ship's complement of 678.

Prinz Adalbert (Germany) - On 2 July 1915, the British submarine HMS E9 torpedoed and badly damaged Prinz Adalbert near Gotland Island. On 23 October 1915, HMS E8 torpedoed Prinz Adalbert 20 mi (32 km) west of Libau. The magazine exploded and the ship sank with the loss of 672 crew. There were only three survivors.

Suffren (France) - The Suffren was returning to Lorient for a refit when, on 26 November 1916, off the Portuguese coast near Lisbon she was torpedoed by U-52. The torpedo detonated a magazine and Suffren sank within seconds, taking the crew of 648 with her.

Bouvet (France) - Sunk by a mine in Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign on 18 March 1915. The Bouvet capsized and sank within two minutes, taking over 600 crew with her.

Pallada (Russia) - On 11 October 1914, the Pallada was torpedoed by the German submarine U-26. The torpedo explosion detonated the ship's ammunition and within a few minutes the cruiser disappeared into the water along with the complete crew of 597. The Pallada was the first Russian warship sunk during World War I.

HMS Goliath (Great Britain) - On the night of 12-13 May 1915, Goliath was anchored in Morto Bay off Cape Helles when she was torpedoed. Goliath began to capsize almost immediately, she rolled over completely and began to sink by the bow taking 570 of the 700-strong crew to the bottom.

HMS Formidable (Great Britain) - On 1 January 1915, the Formidable was torpedoed from the German U-boat U-24 capsized and sank in the English Channel. The total loss of life of HMS Formidable was 35 officers and 512 men out of a total complement of 780.

Action of 22 September 1914

HMS Otranto

HMS Hampshire

HMS Hawke

HMS Natal

Takachiho (Japan) - The Takachiho was struck by three torpedoes launched by an Imperial German Navy S90 torpedo boat on 14 October 1914 during the Battle of Tsingtao. It sank with the loss of 271 men

Heireddin Barbarossa (Ottoman Empire) - The Heireddin Barbarossa was sunk in the early years of World War I on 8 August 1915 in the Dardanelles by the British submarine E11 with the loss of 253 men.

USS Cyclops (United States) - The loss of the ship and 306 crew and passengers without a trace sometime after 4 March 1918 remains the single largest loss of life in U.S. Naval history not directly involving combat. The ship's fate is still a mystery that remains unsolved to this day. No wreckage of the vessel has ever been found.

HMS Irresistible (Great Britain) - Sank after striking a mine while engaged in battle in the Dardanelles on 18 March 1915. The Irresistible lost 150 crew members in the sinking.

RMS Moldavia

During Spanish Civil War

Spanish destroyer Almirante Ferrándiz - sunk by Spanish cruiser Canarias 29 September 1936; 130 killed.

Spanish cruiser Baleares - sunk by Spanish destroyer Lepanto 6 March 1938. 765 seamen killed .

SS Castillo de Olite - sunk by costatal artillery 7 March 1939 near of Cartagena Harbor; 1476 killed.

During World War II

HMAS Sydney with her 645 crewYamato (Japan) - The largest battleship ever constructed, Yamato was destroyed on 7 April 1945 by torpedo planes from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet and others. This battleship was the largest ever built and only 280 of the Yamato's 2,778-man crew were rescued. This was the greatest loss of life in a single warship in World War II.

Bismarck (Germany) - After being hunted by British forces following the sinking of HMS Hood, the Bismarck herself was sunk just three days later on 27 May 1941. Of the 2,200 crewmen aboard, 1,995 sailors lost their lives.

HMS Hood (Great Britain) - The battlecruiser HMS Hood was attacked and sunk by the German battleship Bismarck on 24 May 1941. Of the 1,418 crewmen aboard, only three survived.

Fuso (Japan) - On 25 October 1944 as a result of torpedoes launched by USS Melvin in the Battle of Surigao Strait, causing the loss of possibly all of her crew of 1,400.

USS Indianapolis (USA) - The heavy cruiser Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine on 30 June 1945 while sailing to the Philippines from Guam, after delivering components for the "Little Boy" atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Of the 1,196 killed, 300 died on board and 317 were rescued. The others died from exposure and shark attacks, reported to be the largest number of shark attacks in human history. They were floating, some just in life jackets, on the open sea for four days before being rescued.

USS Arizona (USA) - While docked in Pearl Harbor, the battleship Arizona was attacked by Japanese torpedo and dive bombers on 7 December 1941. 1,177 crewmen were lost out of a complement of 1,400. The wreck continues to lie at the floor of the harbor, where she remains a memorial to all those who perished on that day.

Tirpitz (Germany) - On 12 November 1944, Tirpitz was attacked by Lancaster bombers from 9 and 617 Squadrons armed with Tallboy bombs. The battleship sank west of Tromsø, Norway, with a loss of 1,000 of her crew of 1,700.

Bretagne (France) - The super-dreadnought battleship, and pride of the French navy, exploded and sank on 3 July 1940 in the Battle of Mers-el-Kébir as a result of gunfire from the British warships Hood, Valiant, and Resolution. 977 men were killed.

HMS Dasher - Royal Navy escort aircraft carrier which sank in 1943 after an internal explosion, killing 379 out of a crew of 528.

HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse (Great Britain) - On 10 December 1941, 3 days after Pearl Harbor, the two capital ships were sent to intercept Japanese landings in Malaya, but were sunk by Japanese aircraft based in Saigon. 840 sailors were lost, 513 on battlecruiser Repulse and 327 on battleship Prince of Wales. Winston Churchill said when he heard about the sinkings: "In all the war, I never received a more direct shock...".

HMS Royal Oak (Great Britain) - During one of the earliest successes enjoyed by the German Navy in World War II, the veteran battleship HMS Royal Oak was torpedoed and sunk while anchored at the Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, on the morning of 14 October 1939, with a loss of 833 lives, by the German submarine U-47 (1938) commanded by Lieutenant Commander Günther Prien.

Chiyoda - sunk with her entire crew of around 800 in 1944, possibly the largest vessel to be lost with all hands in World War II, since there is uncertainty about whether there were survivors from Fuso (see above).

HMS Gloucester (Great Britain) - On 22 May 1941, Gloucester was attacked by German Stuka dive bombers and sank during the Battle of Crete with the loss of 722 men out of a crew of 807.

HMAS Sydney (Australia) - The light cruiser was sunk by the German ship Kormoran on 19 November 1941 with the loss of all 645 sailors on board, making it the largest allied vessel to be lost with all hands during World War II.



The survivors of Z27, T25 and T26 interned in the Curragh CampZ27, T25 and T26 (Germany) - In the Bay of Biscay, on 28 December 1943, Z72, a Kriegsmarine destroyer and two torpedo boats, T25 and T26 were waiting to escort Alsterufer, a blockade runner which had come from Japan. The Royal Navy knew the German positions and had already sunk the Alsterufer. The cruisers HMS Glasgow and HMS Enterprise shelled and sank Z27, T25, and T26 from over the horizon. In one of the most extraordinary rescues of the war, the 142 ft (43 m) neutral Irish coaster MV Kerlogue rescued 168 survivors from the three ships' 700 crew.

HMS Courageous (Great Britain) - On 17 September 1939, the aircraft carrier Courageous was torpedoed. She capsized and sank in 15 minutes, with the loss of 518 of her crew.

Yahagi (Japan) - On 7 April 1945, the cruiser Yahagi was heavily damaged capzised and sank after being attacked by aircraft from United States Task Force 58. Of her crew of 736 on board, 445 were killed.

HMS Dunedin (Great Britain) - On 24 November 1941, HMS Dunedin was in the Central Atlantic northeast of Recife, Brazil when she was sunk by two torpedoes from the German submarine U-124. Only four officers and 63 men survived out of a crew of 486.

HNLMS De Ruyter (Dutch) - On 27 February 1942, HNLMS De Ruyter along with HNLMS Java and other allied cruisers and destroyers led a defeat against Japanese warships in an attempt to stop the Japanese invasion fleet in the battle of Java Sea. 345 of their crews lost their lives.

Ilmarinen (Finland) - On 13 September 1941, mines became entangled on the Ilmarinen's paravane cable. When the ship turned, the mines hit the ship and were set off, sinking the ship in seven minutes. Only 132 of the crewmen survived and 271 were lost.