Comments by "John Burns" (@johnburns4017) on "History that Punches You in the Gut | TIK Q&A 26" video.

  1. From a personal point of view, reading about the sinking of the ship my uncle was killed on. It was a Belgian mechantman, the Gandia, sunk by U135 in January 1942 in the North Atlantic. Of a crew of 78, all took to the lifeboats with none killed by the explosion. Two of the four lifeboats were wrecked as the ship rapidly turned on sinking, with the men being sucked under with the ship. 46 were in two lifeboats in below freezing temperatures, snowstorms and little fresh water & food. One lifeboat was spotted after 14 days by a American destroyer, the USS Bernadou. The other lifeboat was spotted by a Portuguese trawler after 26 days. Four survived in one lifeboat of 28 men, 10 in the other of 18 men. The dead men froze to death, one being a 15 year old cabin boy from Liverpool. Survivors had frostbite. As men died they stripped them of their clothes and handed them around the surviving men, placing the naked bodies overboard. The crew was mainly Belgian with English, Dutch, Canadian and French. Seeing a photo of the lifeboat brings it home. Albert Mr. Hubert, the officer in charge of one lifeboat said to the the New York Times: "It was a gallant but doomed band of men. The twenty eight men in our boat...knew there wasn't enough food and water. But we prayed and sang hymns and refused to give up hope. There were eighteen Belgians, one Frenchman and nine Englishmen at the beginning. But those of us who lived saw wounds, hunger, thirst and cold take twenty four men, one by one....But men willingly gave up their rations to those weaker than themselves. They say there is an animal streak in all men. That's a damn lie." The story: http://gandiaship.com/index.htm
    1