Identity
Person No.
24657
Service No.
72952
Last Name
First Name
Humfrey Ewan
Initials
H E
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
40
Military Service
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause of Death
Killed in action, torpedoed and sunk in the North Sea while evacuating UK and Belgian soldiers, airmen and civilians from Ostend on the last day of the Battle of Belgium. As Abukir slowly headed west for England, Luftwaffe aircraft bombed her for an hour and a half but failed to hit her. Then at 0115 hrs on 28 May a 44-knot (81 km/h) Kriegsmarine E-boat, S-34 commanded by OLt.z.S Obermaier, attacked her off Nieuwpoort near the Westhinder or the Noordhinder light vessel. Abukir's Captain, Rowland Morris-Woolfenden, took a zigzag course by which the coaster avoided two torpedoes from S-34. The coaster sighted S-34 off her port bow 20 minutes later. Morris-Woolfenden changed course to ram the torpedo boat, but with a top speed of only 8 knots (15 km/h) Abukir was too slow. S-34 fired two more torpedoes. The first missed, but the second hit the coaster amidships, blowing her in two. Abukir burst into flames and sank within a minute. She was the first Allied ship to be sunk by an E-boat
Grave Reference
Location
Country
Locality
Cemetery
Coordinates
Additional Information
Notes
Son of Ernest and Nora Symons; husband of Joyce Dorothy Symons, of Que Que, Southern Rhodesia. Author of at least three books "Two roads to Africa", "How to Pass the Driving Test" and "Monte Carlo Rally"
Citation
Unknown
External Source
Unknown
South African War Graves Project