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When I went home last Christmas, my mom told me about some papers they found detailing my grandfather’s (who passed away when I was very young) first-hand account of the sinking of the ship he was on in WWII. He was a Captain in the US Army Veterinary Corps, and was involved in the transport of mules from Australia. His ship was sunk by an enemy submarine off the coast of New Caledonia, killing all of the animals on board. The book Mules Go to War was written about the sinking but it’s out of print and difficult to find, however, my mom has a copy that was signed by the author for my grandfather. Something like this really brings WWII history to life for me when I realize that it happened to someone in my own family. The following is an outtake from my grandfather’s report:

At 11:15 P.M. (ship’s time) July 25, 1942, the “Tjinegara” was struck by two torpedoes on the port side near the deep tanks or in No. 4 hatch. The ship almost immediately listed very heavily to the starboard side. We were then some seventy miles off the coast of New Caledonia. The alarm bells were ringing and there was quite a bit of confusion in getting to the life boats. In the rooms and hallways in the lower decks there was quite a lot of brownish smoke. The horses were panicky and neighing very loud, probably associating the smoke with fire, but apparently there was no fire on the ship. The two lifeboats on the starboard side and the two on the stern were the first to be lowered. The two on the port side were last. Due to the starboard list of the ship, they had to be pried over the gangplank. Every member of the crew was safely removed from the ship. Three of the horses escaped through the torpedo hold in #4 hatch and could be heard swimming and nickering for approximately one hour. At approximately 1:15 A.M. July 26, 1942, or about two hours after the first two torpedoes struck, the third one struck in the starboard side somewhere forward. In twenty minutes the Tjinegara started down stern first. Several S.O.S. messages had been sent out before the ship was abandoned. Some five minutes before the ship sunk a PBY Cataline plane came over in search of the submarine, but by that time it had disappeared. The plane signaled that a rescue boat was on the way. The first four life boats were picked up about 10:30 A.M. July 26, 1942 and put ashore in Noumea, New Caledonia. The last two lifeboats were picked up at 8:30 P.M. that night by the U.S.S. Worden, a Navy destroyer.