Kapitaanleutnan Gunther Prien

"INSENSITIVE REMARKS "

Little did they know of the impending disaster that was shortly to befall them, and the highly insensitive and provocative remarks by the then Duke of Devonshire at the inquiry afterwards did little to console or comfort the families of the bereaved, when he remarked: "It seemed desirable both to husband our resources and get rid of useless mouths and so forth"!
The Arandora Star slowly made her way past the Point of Ayre, then the Isle of Man, where Cesare Camozzi's brother-in-law, Alessandro Gentili, was to be interred in Douglas. He returned home to his family after the war, a changed and broken man.
Sailing at 15 knots, the Mull of Kintyre was soon in the distance and about 3 a.m. on the 2nd of July, 1940, the Arandora Star passed Malin Head, heading towards Bloody Foreland and out into the Atlantic.

Luigi Beschizza , survivor

"PRIEN'S PREY"

But it was not to be. Unknown to Captain Moulton and his officers, the German submarine U47 with her naval hero skipper, Kapitaanleutnan Gunther Prien - the man who sailed into Scapa Flow Naval Base and sank the Royal Oak and was decorated personally by Adolf Hitler - was heading back to his home port of Kiel when an officer on watch spotted the Arandora Star.

U47 had only one damaged torpedo left and after some emergency repair work Gunther Prien hoped that another successful hit would add to his many successes.

At 7 a.m. the Arandora Star was hit amidships near the engine room and, within half an hour, she was gone with the loss of 682 lives. Malin Head radio station picked up the SOS distress call and alerted other marine radio stations in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The rescue operations were under way and many of the internees who were rescued were sent on the next available troopship to Australia. Their nightmare was to continue.

Of Cesare Camozzi, he was gone. His body was washed ashore near Malin Head towards the end of July, 1940. The Coastal Seawatch, under the guidance of District Nurse Mary Lynch, of Pound Street, Carndonagh, organised the removable to the District Hospital, Carndonagh, for the post mortem, identification and then burial in the local cemetery.

Cesare's sister, Mrs. Antonetta Gentili, received a letter on l9th August, 1940, from Fr. Daniel Reid, P.P., St. Macartan's, Carndonagh, informing her of his death and where he was buried.

Andrea Pini and Luigi Beschizza in 1945, both survivors

The good and kind people, of Carndonagh saw to it that a proper headstone was made and erected by the late Eddie Doherty (M), undertaker and headstone maker. Cesare Camozzi's grave is not many yards away from where Eddie's old workshop used to be, behind the wall opposite the Colgan Hall. The inscription reads: "In memory of Cesare Camozzi, born 2nd November, 1891, Iseo Italy. Died at sea, July 1940. "Arandora Star"."
It was that inscription that intrigued me, growing up in Carndonagh. What story lay behind the circumstances of his death? Had he any family? If so, where were they? and did they know where he was buried?

Part 4
"INVALUABLE HELP"

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