On 20 December 1939, the heavy cruiser USS TUSCALOOSA (CA-37) arrived at Ellis Island, NYC, with 579 survivors from the scuttled German cruise liner COLUMBUS. With the outbreak of World War II Europe in September 1939, President Roosevelt had ordered the US Navy to establish the Neutrality Patrol, in order to monitor the movement of all warships in the Atlantic Ocean within 300 miles of the United States. The outbreak of hostilities found the German liner COLUMBUS on a tourist cruise in the Caribbean. After refueling in Veracruz, Mexico, the COLUMBUS left port on 14 December 1939 and prepared to make a run for home. On 16 December, the USS TUSCALOOSA left Norfolk, Virginia, and two days later found herself monitoring the COLUMBUS, some 200 miles off the coast of Delaware. On 19 December, the British destroyer HMS HYPERION, with battle ensigns flying, located the COLUMBUS and fired two shots across the ocean liners bow. With no other options available, Captain Daehne ordered that the COLUMBUS be scuttled. With the exception of two of his crew, who went down with the ship, Captain Daehne and 578 German sailors and tourists took to the lifeboats as their liner burned and sank. The captain of the HMS HYPERION then radioed the USS TUSCALOOSA, asking if she would pick up the survivors. So instead of being picked up as POWs by the HYPERION, the men and women from the COLUMBUS were picked up as shipwrecked mariners by the USS TUSCALOOSA. The bulk of the survivors were put up in the cruisers seaplane hangar that had been cleared out to facilitate its use as a large berthing area; and the women were berthed in sick bay. The TUSCALOOSA took the survivors to New York—the only port equipped to handle such a large and sudden influx—and disembarked them at Ellis Island the following day. After the United States entered WWII, the survivors of the COLUMBUS became prisoners of war, held at POW camps in New Mexico and California, and all returned safely to Germany following the war. Meanwhile, the USS TUSCALOOSA went on to earn 7 battle stars for her service in WWII. Never damaged in battle, she led a charmed life compared to her six sister ships, three of which were sunk and three others heavily damaged.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 13:17:10 +0000
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