Thread: Nino Bixio

Originally Posted by Brian S

The Nino Bixio was torpedoed by H.M.Sm. Turbulant at 15:30hrs on the 17th of August 1942 .Position 36:35N - 21:34E . She was carrying 5,000 Allied P.O.W.

My figures show there were 230 Commonwealth Casualties,118 of them from New Zealand. The ship was also carrying French P.O.W.in one of the Holds that was torpedoed.

The Italian Destroyer Saetta took her in Tow and arrived at Navarino two days later. Some of the survivors were taken to Greece by the T.Bs.Polluce and Calliope.

Are you looking for somebody on there Brian ? heres a list of names .... but they say one name was mentioned twice .... hence only 117 !

NEW ZEALAND DISASTERS AND TRAGEDIES - THE SINKING OF THE NINO BIXIO - 1942

Annie

NINO BIXIO (August 17, 1942)

Italian troop transport (7,137 tons) sunk in the Mediterranean between Libya and Sicily, by the British submarine HMS Turbulent. She was carrying New Zealand prisoners of war and around 400 French P.O.W.s captured in North Africa. The Nino Bixio was hit by two torpedoes, one exploding in the prisoners hold and killing many. The injured were brought up on deck and attended to by medical officers. The badly damaged Nino Bixio was taken in tow by one of its escorting destroyers and towed to Navarino in southern Greece. There the dead prisoners were buried, the rest being shipped, via Corinth, to a prisoner of war camp near Bari in Italy. A total of 118 New Zealanders lost their lives.

Originally Posted by liverpool annie

Are you looking for somebody on there Brian ? heres a list of names .... but they say one name was mentioned twice .... hence only 117 !

NEW ZEALAND DISASTERS AND TRAGEDIES - THE SINKING OF THE NINO BIXIO - 1942

Annie

Thanks for that Annie,
the casualty list was originally created when the book"No Honour No Glory"was being researched in the mid 80s. The Co Authors Spence Edge and Jim Henderson enlisted the help of the C.W.G.C. to compile a list of New Zealand Casualties with D.O.D. 17/8/42.

I had a list prepared by C.W.G.C. in the late 90s and sent a copy to New Zealand. This could have been used as Ptes. LANG and POI are duplicated on my list . This still leaves me with 96 with no known grave and 19 buried in Athens with the D.O.D. as 17th. There were also three who died of wounds some days later.

I had a further problem creating a total casualty list as the Troopship The Princess Marguerite was sunk on the same day. This gives the casualties with no known grave from both sinkings to show when trying to form some idea of who had died on which ship. The C.W.G.C. were unaware of the incidents at the time the Registers were created.
As said a true total figure for the incident is difficult due to the French casualties not being recorded by C.W.G.C. There were just 7 known who were serving with the S.A.S.

Files containing enquiries into those lost in such sinkings was only opened last October.

Sorry Geoff,
there were also 38 Australian Casualties.Two of them R.A.A.F. All are Remembered at El Alamein.

The Nino Bixio was patched up and Towed to a Channel near Venice and sunk as a Blockship. She was raised in the early 1950s and totally refurbished so she could be used again. In the 1960s she visited New Zealand where a Service of Rememberance was held on her fore Deck. Survivors were present.

I recall Geoff spoke to one of the survivors here in Melbourne or am I getting mixed up? Spidgeman? WOuld be interesting to know more about her post war "career". Maybe, just maybe she wasn't scrapped?

Moment torpedoes struck still burns for survivor - New Zealand news on Stuff.co.nz

Though it was 66 years ago, the 89-year-old Wellington man still has vivid memories of the day the 8000- tonne Nino Bixio was torpedoed in the Mediterranean by a British submarine.

Three thousand Allied prisoners were crammed into the holds of the Italian freighter when it sailed from Benghazi, in Libya, for Italy.

Mr Watkins, whose company had been captured by Germans at El Alamein, says the Kiwi, Australian, British, Indian and South African prisoners were packed in like cargo as the Nino Bixio sailed in convoy.

He was in the ship's No1 hold, which took a direct hit from one of the torpedoes. An estimated 118 fellow Kiwis and 39 Australians died in the blast.

It was 4.15pm and Mr Watkins says he was playing cards with fellow prisoners at the time. They were lucky to be sitting close to a bulkhead high in the hold.

The bodies of some who were close to where the torpedo struck were blown high into the ship's rigging; others were killed when cargo decks collapsed.

Yet more died when a second torpedo hit the ship's engine room.

"It was no laughing matter, I can tell you. There was a lot of swearing and yelling and jumping around," says Mr Watkins.

Quite a few jumped overboard but most stayed on board when they realised the ship was not going to sink.

Mr Watkins says he and other stretcher bearers were sent down into the smoke-filled hold and had to walk over the dead to get the wounded out.

The ship was towed to Greece, from where most of the prisoners were shipped to prison camps in Italy where they stayed till the war ended.

Remarkably, the Nino Bixio was repaired and continued in service after the war. It even made several voyages to New Zealand.

Mr Watkins, who has spent most of his retirement helping to compile information on prisoners of war, believes he is one of the last survivors of the Nino Bixio.

The only other he knows of is Englishman Bob Rogers, who now lives in Palmerston North.

Originally Posted by Antipodean Andy

I recall Geoff spoke to one of the survivors here in Melbourne or am I getting mixed up? Spidgeman? WOuld be interesting to know more about her post war "career". Maybe, just maybe she wasn't scrapped?

Moment torpedoes struck still burns for survivor - New Zealand news on Stuff.co.nz

Yes the mans name is Bill Rudd.
I have been in touch with him for some years along with a friend in New Zealand ; Charles Watkins.There may be an Article in The Dominion Post today as they interviewed Charles a few days ago.

When the ship called in the New Zealand Port it was noticed some of her plates were Rippled where she had been caught in the ice at some time.

Originally Posted by Brian S

Yes the mans name is Bill Rudd.
I have been in touch with him for some years along with a friend in New Zealand ; Charles Watkins.There may be an Article in The Dominion Post today as they interviewed Charles a few days ago.

When the ship called in the New Zealand Port it was noticed some of her plates were Rippled where she had been caught in the ice at some time.

Sorry Andy,
didn't read the attachment. What hasn't been said is that 47 members of the British Army died on the ship. 36 Remembered at El Alamein and 11 buried in Greece.
Both Bill and Bob Rogers Escaped into Switzerland. Bob who served with the D.L.I. wrote his story in "Sixty Bonus Years".

An interesting post, Brian detailing another tragedy of war.

Cargo ship NINO BIXIO official number 2327 built in 1941 by Ansaldo at yard no. 323, Sestri Ponente for S.A.Cooperativa di Nav Garibaldi, Genoa

She continued in service after the torpedoing as already mentioned and was eventually broken up in La Spezia on 28th November 1970.

There is a photo reference to her at this link NINO BIXIO

Regards