USS Pioneer (AM-105) - Convoy Assignment

Convoy Assignment

Pioneer trained her crew and experimented with newly developed gear in the Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay, and the Potomac River before joining a Mediterranean-bound convoy at New York on 14 May 1943, for the first of four escort voyages from New York or Norfolk, Virginia, to North African ports. In November she took up patrol and escort duty within the Mediterranean.

On 26 November 1943, while bound east from Oran, Pioneer's convoy was attacked by German bombers. They hit a British troopship HMT Rohna (with over 2,000 US servicemen aboard) and set her afire; Pioneer stood by, continuing to fire on the attacking aircraft while conducting the rescue of 606 soldiers and crewmen from Rohna. The ship (with its crew of roughly 100 sailors), however, was never given any recognition for the rescue of over 600 HMT Rohna survivors. To this day (June, 2007), The Rohna Survivors Organization continues to try to have the Pioneer recognized for this extraordinary rescue operation.