Norman Thomas YOUNG

ABT 1916 - 13 Sep 1942

• BIRTH: ABT 1916
• DEATH: 13 Sep 1942 [3372]
• BURIAL: [3373]
• OCCUPATION: Able Seaman C/JX 248880, H.M.S. President III
  for Royal Navy
• EDUCATION: Sloane Grammar School, Hortensia Road, Chelsea, London
  

• MARRIAGE: 1939, Fulham, London, England [5322] [5321]

                       __
                      |  
 _Richard YOUNG ______|
|                     |
|                     |__
|                        
|
|--Norman Thomas YOUNG 
|  (1916 - 1942)
|                      __
|                     |  
|_Harriet ____________|
                      |
                      |__
                         

INDEX

[3374] Norman was an Able Seaman in the Royal Navy, serving as a gunner on the merchant ship S.S Empire Stevenson during the Artic convoys to Russia in the 2nd World War. The 44 ship Convoy PQ-18 left Loch Ewe, Scotland on the 2nd September 1942. On the 13th September, South-West of Bear Island in the Arctic Ocean, a group of German Heinkel HE-III torpedo aircraft attacked the Convoy; flying in line abreast of the Convoy they simultaneously dropped their torpedoes hitting eight ships, including the Empire Stevenson which blew up and sank in position 76' 10N 10' 05E killing all 59 crew and DEMS gunners. In all thirteen ships were lost to air attack and U-boats from PQ-18.

On the loss of the S.S. Empire Stevenson from "Lost Voices Of The Royal Navy" by Max Arthur (Hodder, 2005). Ordinary Seaman Dick Wilder, R.N., recalls serving on the destroyer Impulsive escorting PQ 18 when the convoy was attacked by 28 Heinkel 111 torpedo-bombers, 17 Ju 88 torpedo-bombers and 20 Ju 88 dive-bombers.

"With more than forty aircraft, each carrying two torpedoes, inevitably some torpedoes found their target. One of the first ships to be hit was the Empire Stevenson. The torpedo detonated her cargo of munitions and she went up in a tremendous explosion, a yellow flash, then a great red cloud ascended to a height of more than 3,000 feet. The next astern, the Wacosta, bore the brunt of the blast which devastated her upper works, then, as she steamed on, the burning remains of the Empire Stevenson descended, much of it falling on Wacosta. Whether she could have withstood this onslaught will never be known because she was then struck by a torpedo. Other ships fatally hit were Afrikander in column 9 and Oregonian, Macbeth and Sukhona in column 10, also John Penn in column 7 and the lead ship in column 4, Empire Beaumont."

[3373] burial:Grave/Memorial Reference 57,1. on Chatham Naval Memorial.

[5322] marr:GRO ref. Sep. Qtr. 1A 1605 Fulham, London

[3372] [S-S009] Family knowledge

[5321] [S-S113] Index

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