Had he survived WWII Malcolm Allan would have become my uncle in-law on the marriage of my maternal uncle George to Malcolm’s sister Florence. Sadly, he did not survive the war, dying aboard the petroleum tanker San Delfino when it was torpedoed by a German submarine near Cape Hatteras in 1942.
During WWII the school leaving age in Scotland was at the age of 14. As such, when Malcolm left school, he was quickly drafted, not into the armed services, but into the Merchant Marine. After his first transatlantic voyage as a cabin boy, he was so terrified by his experience that while on leave, he refused to go back to sea. The local police came to his home, arrested him and he was forced to go to sea once more, this time aboard the MV San Delfino, an 8,072-ton tanker built in the UK in 1938.
Before the war, the tanker San Delfino worked routes from Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico, and the East Coast of the United States to the United Kingdom. At the outbreak of World War II, San Delfino underwent conversions to add a 4-inch deck gun mounted at the stern and four machine guns located both fore and aft. The vessel also carried two Hotchkiss machine guns and a Lewis machine gun, making it a formidable opponent to any U-boat.
Soon after Germany declared war with the United State on December 11, 1941, the German U-boat commander, Vizeadmiral Karl Dönitz, began plans to strike a swift and devastating blow on the United States’ eastern seaboard. His plan was called Operation Paukenschlag, also known as Operation Drumbeat. In late December, five U-boats set sail, and the first torpedo strike occurred on January 11. In early April 1942, Operation Drumbeat continued with a fourth wave of U-boats, including U-203, which arrived off the East Coast shortly after a fuel stop in the Azores.
In the early morning hours of April 9, 1942, as U-203 patrolled the waters, it spotted San Delfino traveling alone from Houston, Texas to Halifax, Nova Scotia and on to the United Kingdom. U-203 fired one torpedo, striking the starboard side near the number two or number three tank, instantly igniting some of the 11,000 tons of aviation fuel carried by San Delfino. A second explosion erupted, possibly from either the ammunition cargo or the weapons on board. Flames ignited all over the vessel.
The call to abandon ship was made and two lifeboats were lowered. One of the lifeboats, however, got caught in the current and was dragged into a pool of burning fuel, horrifically killing the 24 crew members and four gunners in the boat. Malcolm was in the second lifeboat. He was only 17 when he died. The master, 19 crew members and two gunners in the other lifeboat were picked up by HMS Norwich City (FY-229) and taken to Morehead City, North Carolina. Of the 50 crew members on board, 28 lost their lives because of the attack.
MV San Delfino lies in 110 feet of water at 35°23’52.04″N, 75°6’57.92″W off Cape Hatteras on the east coast of the USA. She is now a popular dive sight, and my uncle’s grave.
