SS Leopoldville (1929) - Discovery of The Wreck

Discovery of The Wreck

In July 1984, Clive Cussler of NUMA discovered the wreck. French maritime officials however claim the location of the shipwreck had always been marked on all maritime charts since its size and location presents a potential hazard to navigation. French Navy UDT teams in Cherbourg had also used the shipwreck as a practice dive location although the circumstances surrounding of the sinking of the SS Leopoldville were not known to them until 1999. Since then all military practice dives have stopped.

In 1997, the 66th Infantry Division Monument was dedicated in Ft. Benning, Georgia in memory of the soldiers who died aboard the Leopoldville and also to those who survived the attack on the Leopoldville but were later killed in action.

In 2005, a memorial was erected in Veterans Memorial Park in Titusville, Florida.

Clive Cussler dedicated his 1986 book Cyclops to the disaster. The dedication reads:

In 1998 the History Channel broadcast the documentary film "Cover Up: The Sinking of the SS Leopoldville" which included interviews with numerous survivors of the sinking of the ship from the 66th Infantry Division and sailors from the US Navy who attempted to save them by pulling them out of the water. The sailors claimed that they arrived after the sinking of the ship and that most of the men who they pulled out of the water had already frozen to death in the water by the time they arrived on the scene.

The soldiers of the 66th Infantry Division were ordered not to tell anyone about the sinking of the ship and their letters home were censored by the army during the rest of World War II. After the war, the soldiers were also ordered at discharge not to talk about the sinking of the SS Leopoldville to the press and told that their GI benefits as civilians would be canceled if they did so.

In 2009, the National Geographic Channel aired a special that recreated the events that led to the sinking and had divers investigating the wreck.

Jack Dixon was a young seaman on board HMS Brilliant, the first destroyer to rescue American seamen abandoning ship on that Christmas Eve 1944. At just 21 years old, he and others crew members battled against the conditions to try and rescue as many sailors as possible. From his web site;

"H.M.S. Brilliant went along the port side of the troopship we had put our starboard fenders over the side; the sea swell was causing a rise and fall of between 8ft and 12ft. The scrambling nets were hanging down the Leopoldvilles's port side and the American soldiers were coming down on to our upper deck. Some men had started to jump down from a height of approximately 40ft. Unfortunately limbs were being broken when they landed on the torpedo tubes and other fixed equipment on the starboard side of the upperdeck; some men fell between the two vessels and were crushed as the two vessels crashed into each other. To avoid any further injuries, if possible, all our hammocks were brought up from our mess-decks below and laid on the starboard upper deck to cushion the fall of the soldiers as they landed. "

There is a memorial in Weymouth UK engraved with: "24 DECEMBER 1944 ENGLISH CHANNEL 802 DIED WHEN THE TROOPSHIP SS 'LEOPOLDVILLE' WAS SUNK BY A TORPEDO OFF CHERBOURG"