| Notes |
- The following information is from "A Mess of Lammons" by Elmer Burns Lammon
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General Notes: Personal Info via phone and letter from sister, Barbara Jem Lammon Helland (1996).
Killed during WWII; lost at sea.
Note from son, Mark A. Lammon:
My father's name was spelled Holcombe on his birth certificate but my mother said that he didn't like the "e" and usually spelled it Holcomb.
[The following article is from "The Lookout", dated June, 1945. Conveyed to me by Mark A. Lammon - EBL]
Fifteen American Heroes
Fifteen American merchant seamen, including the vessel's master, lost their lives but all 19 Norwegian refugees who were aboard were saved when the Liberty ship HENRY BACON was sunk by German planes off the Norway coast recently, the War Shipping Administration reported. The heroism, seamanship and self-sacrifice of the American crew brought a fervent expression of appreciation from Crown Prince Olav and the Norwegian High Command in London to whom the refugees related details of their escape from death in Arctic waters. After carrying 7,500 tons of war cargo to Murmansk, Russia, the HENRY BACON, named in honor of the famous architect who designed the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, started home in 'convoy. As passengers she carried 19 of several hundred Norwegian refugees who were being evacuated with the convoy to the United Kingdom.
Off the coast of Norway the war freighter twice lost contact with the convoy because of heavy weather and finally became the target of more than a score of enemy planes. Witnesses report five were shot down by the Navy armed guard of the ship before an aerial torpedo plunged into the hold under the No. 5 hatch. The vessel began settling at once but until she went down her guns kept firing. When the order to abandon ship was given one of the four lifeboats was smashed in lowering and another had been damaged by weather and capsized. Two were successfully launched, one carrying the 19 refugees and a few crewmen and the other, 15 crewmen and seven gunners. All these and other survivors who had jumped overboard or had taken to rafts were later picked up by British naval craft. All senior officers having been lost in the sinking, Joseph L. Scott, acting third officer, of 144 Main Street, Norway, Maine, makes the official report on the loss of the HENRY BACON. He related that the master, Capt. Alfred Carini, of 4415 Thirty-fourth Avenue, Long Island City, N. Y. went down with his ship. He was last seen on the bridge.
Other heroic actions reported by Scott were:
Robert J. Hunt, purser, whose mother, Mrs. Mary Scott live sat 422 Arlington Street, Greensboro, N. C., might have saved his own life had he not stopped to give first aid to a wounded gunner.
Donald F. Haviland, chief engineer, whose next of kin is his sister, Mrs. F. McGrath, 51 Kensington Road, Weymouth, Mass., was safe in a lifeboat but chose to give his seat to a younger man and returned to the sinking ship. He was not seen again.
Holcomb Lammon, boatswain, of 1005 Montgomery Street, Mobile, Ala., saved the lives of many before losing his own, Scott reports.
From Crown Prince Olav, commander-in-chief of the Norwegian Forces, Vice Admiral Emory S. Land, USN, retired, War Shipping Administrator, has received the following letter:
"I am in receipt of a communication from the Norwegian High Command in London commending highly the spirit, loyalty and ability of the officers and crew of the vessel HENRY BACON, of the United States commercial fleet.
"On receipt of this heroic tale I find it incumbent upon me to express to you, Sir, my appreciation and admiration of the outstanding discipline and self-sacrifice displayed by the officers and crew of the HENRY BACON, in pact with the finest tradition of American sailors."
Taken from U.S. Merchant Ships Sunk or Damaged in World War II
"SS Henry Bacon, Aerial Torpedo, Sunk 2/23/45,
Casualties: Liberty Crew 15, Armed Guard 7"
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The following are excerpts from the recently published (2001) book, "The Last Voyage of the SS Henry Bacon". I have included every instance in which Holcombe Lammon is mentioned in the book, along with, I hope, enough of the surrounding story to give the reader an idea of what is going on. The two Merchant Marine crewmen of interest to us are Holcombe Lammon, Jr., and his younger brother, Allen. - EBL, Jan 2002]
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"On November 19 the Bacon docked in New York where additional minor repairs were completed. Shipping articles were signed on November 21, 1944. Boatswain [bos'n] Holcomb Lammon Jr. signed on the Bacon that same day. Lammon previously had served on two other ships, the SS Azalea City [December 18, 1943-March 3, 1944] and the SS Jerome K. Jones [April 3, 1944-June 12, 1944]. On June 12 the Jones came under air raids and attacks by U-boats five or six times. He was an experienced hand."
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[The following is an account of what happened after some crewmen of the Henry Bacon, docked at Murmansk, Russia, had stowed away a couple of Russian girls with the intention of taking them to England. - EBL]
? The lieutenant began an investigation "and they were found in number 5 hold... well stocked with blankets and provisions, supplied by Merchant mess boys." They were taken to Sippola's cabin, where they were questioned. They didn't provide much resistance, even though they knew they would be sent to the salt mines. Lieutenant Sippola had taken away the knives the women had secreted in their long felt boots. They remained under guard until they were reluctantly turned back to the Soviets. No one at the time said they knew how the women got aboard. Some theorized that they worked as checkers - comparing the cargo being unloaded with their clipboard lists - during the day. "The last day of unloading," Normand Croteau suggested, "they never got off.... The only thing the crew had to go on about who brought them aboard was by identifying the provisions and blankets. Knowing that whoever brought them aboard wouldn't use his own blankets-but someone else's-we didn't prejudge anyone."
The true story of the Russian women was not told until David Goodrich decided to come clean - years later:
"Mike Norris and I met two sisters-about 17 - 18. They lived in a boxcar; blankets and straw for a bed. They wanted to get to England, [so] we dressed them up in overcoats and wool hats we got from fellow crew members. It was snowing hard, and we got past the Russian guards at shipside; got up the ladder and crawled along the deck to the chain lockers. No one saw us. We went to the steward and told him what we had done. He gave us food for them. We got them out of the locker and put them in number 5 hold. It was warm next to the shaft alley. The next morning we heard a commotion on deck. The girls climbed down the ladder out of the hold and were being brought to the captain to be interviewed. A tugboat came alongside with military officers and a female crew. The girls would not turn Mike and I in, [but] the Russians would not let the ship leave until someone confessed. Mike and I decided to admit it to the captain. The Russians wanted to put us in a salt mine in Siberia, but we were away from the dock, so got away on a technicality. As the girls started down the gangway, the first one was grabbed and thrown in the hold. The second one jumped in the sea. The Russian crew only laughed and did nothing. She was turning blue. Our bos'n [Holcomb Lammon] jumped from the ship and rescued her. She was thrown in with her sister. About two hours later we received a signal that they had been sent to a labor camp. I think it was then I understood what Communism
was all about."
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[One really needs to read the book to appreciate the following account, but I will try to summarize the situation. After a valiant battle with 23 German JU-88 torpedo bombers off the coast of Norway, a torpedo fatally hit the Henry Bacon. Because of the ship's having taken on 19 Norwegian refugees and having had several lifeboats damaged through various causes, there were not enough lifeboats to accommodate all of the passengers and crew. All of the refugees were put aboard the first lifeboat. - EBL]
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? When Captain Carini ordered the launching of the second and only remaining lifeboat with Joe Scott in charge, he expressed optimism about the Bacon. "She won't sink, she won't sink," he said repeatedly. "She's a good ship." Belief again overshadowed reality. The captain believed the ship would stay afloat a long time. He thought that the British destroyers would reach them in time. What he didn't know was that the ships were about sixty miles away - about a two-hour run for a destroyer. And, by the time they arrived, the Henry Bacon would be gone for about an hour and forty minutes. Even though he held out hope that the Bacon would not sink, when the men gathered to board the last lifeboat, Carini watched carefully to make sure that the Navy gunners who had performed so magnificently on the guns just a few minutes before would get their share of seats. Oiler Woodie Pozen explained that at first "no one volunteered to go toward that lifeboat as they were afraid they might take someone's place. Finally some of the Navy boys got in, followed by members of the crew." Bos'n Holcomb Lammon, 23, and his brother Allan, a 19-year-old deckman, were present at the launching, and a choice befitting a biblical Solomon was made. It was decided that one brother should board the last lifeboat and the other should stay. Holcomb remembering his duties and responsibilities, decided to stay; Allan, thinking of his brother's wife and children, with great reluctance agreed to be the one to leave.
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Official reports stated that there were more than thirty men stranded aboard the Henry Bacon without lifeboats or rafts. Goodrich puts the number at "about twelve." All crewmen had been warned that no human could survive in the Arctic Ocean in the winter for more than a short time, about five minutes when the water was 38 degrees Fahrenheit. Two of the more ingenious men-Bos'n Holcomb Lammon and Gunner's Mate Frank Reid-began making rafts even before the last lifeboat was launched. They used the heavy 12-by-12 inch beams left on the deck of the Bacon, previously used to cradle the locomotives that they had carried to Murmansk, Clyde Loar remembered. The lumber was located in the chain room. "We figured that the men would need something to climb on when the Bacon went under," Reid explained. Working independently but assisted by other crew members, each man formed a rectangle with four beams and lashed the ends together with rope. Heavy planks from the hatches and deck were tied on for a covering. It was a Herculean task considering how little time they had. After completing their rafts, both Lammon and Reid turned them over to others. Lammon, a veteran of the SS Azalea City and the SS Jerome K Jones, made his way to the main deck forward and, giving no thought to saving himself, concentrated on assisting other members of the crew to get clear of the ship. "His endeavors in the short time between our torpedoing and the time he jumped over the side no doubt saved many lives," Third Mate Scott stated in his official report to the US Navy.
?
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Howard Gray, a 17-year old Merchant Marine wiper, recalled, "The sea was so rough it was impossible to maneuver the boat back to pick up anybody. It was all we could do to keep from being swamped." Scott said, "My heart sank very low when we were on the crest of a high wave and I could see the bow of the Henry Bacon going down. The next time we rode high, the Henry Bacon had sunk; how many went down with her I didn't know. Oh, how I wish I could have saved more lives." In a deposition made by Joe Scott on March 23, 1945, he indicated the following casualties: Captain Alfred Carini, Chief Engineer Donald F. Haviland, Lynn R. Palmer, "he was with the captain on the bridge just before the ship sank and probably went down with the ship..." Carl D. H. Fubel, "... just as the boilers blew up shortly before the vessel sank. Walker said that the ventilator blew up and parts of it smashed in Fubel's head. He believes that Mr. Fubel was killed instantly..." Robert J. Hunt, "...had been feeling very sick for some days before we were torpedoed. He jumped over the side just before the Henry Bacon went down. Before leaving the ship, he had rendered first aid to one of the gun crew..." Holcomb Lammon, " ... was last seen on the main deck forward, endeavoring to improvise a life raft. He jumped over the side just before the vessel sank..." Robert Cramer, was last"... seen jumping over the side of the ship..." Frederick C. Funken, "...was seen jumping over the side of the ship..." Donald P. Schiesher, "... some of the crew informed me that this man froze to death and his body slipped off [the improvised raft] into the water..." Edgar B. Snyder, "...suffered from a cold for about a week [before the Bacon sank]. He jumped over the side of the ship just before she sank..." Joseph E. Provencal, "... while [he] was being lifted out of the water by one of the destroyers, he lost his grip and drifted into the screws of the propeller...." John W. Mastracci, "... died of exposure [on an improvised raft] ?Cornelius Kearns, "...he was standing [on the starboard side of number 3 hatch} just before the ship upturned and sank..." George W. Shipka, "...froze to death on the improvised raft..." and James Martin, "... the captain of the destroyer Opportune informed me that this man was last seen in the water alongside the destroyer. They could not reach him as his body drifted away. Jerome Gerold stated in an official report that "four Navy men were lost while being hoisted aboard the destroyer Opportune by hooks. They had on kapok life jackets which seemed to be entirely inadequate for any strain by these hooks, as a result of which these life jackets ripped and the four men were lost." In the same document, Gerold said he saw Sippola "in the water hanging to a piece of wood. When the destroyer came alongside they threw him a line. He let go of the piece of wood to grab the line but failed? He went down and was not seen after that." He attested that four members of the gun crew, Armstrong, McQuistion, Lomelino, and Frank Reid, were also witnesses.
In a document from the Office of the Chief of Naval Personnel, the list of Armed Guard grew to include: Sippola, Allard, Burr, Harlacher, Mayden, Potvin, and Rubley. "The date of such determination [of death] be fixed as of 15 May 1945, the date on which information conclusively established their deaths?." Normand Croteau was also listed as missing in action, but that error was later corrected. When he was deposed, night cook and baker George Bartin remembered: "Aside from Lynn R. Palmer, whom I saw dead in the water [He recalled that Palmer's body "was motionless, his head hung forward and foam was coming from his mouth?. I understand that the doctor on the British destroyer informed the crew not to pick up anyone in the water who was foaming at the mouth."], I know of three others in the crew who died in the water before I was rescued. They were: Purser Robert J. Hunt, "about twenty minutes after I was in the water, I saw this man let go of a piece of timber to which he was clinging...he drifted away from me...; Able-bodied Seaman Frederick C. Funken, "about one hour after I saw Mr. Hunt, I saw this man motionless in the water. He was foaming at the mouth...his
body drifted away from me...; Bos'n Holcomb Lammon, "was clinging to the same timber that I was... because of the excitement of seeing the rescue ship, he let go of the timber and as soon as he did so, his body submerged and never came to the surface again. He had discarded his life preserver some time before....
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RESCUE
? Pozen said. "Then I looked up and saw the crosstrees of the destroyer. I waved my arms like the devil. With wonderful maneuvering the captain of the destroyer, which I later found was HMS Zambesi, got to us." Burbine disagreed with the hand waving. "We were unable to stand up when they set us on the deck [of the Zambesi]. Our clothes were frozen to our bodies, and had to be cut off. We were so frozen, we couldn't use our hands to reach for the ropes."
"Burbine and the Navy man (Silas Doe) were able with the aid of a few sailors from the destroyer to get aboard," Pozen continued. "I had hold of the heaving line which they had thrown to me. They told me to tie it around myself, but my hands were so numb and I was so exhausted that I called to them and told them I couldn't make it." But, they would not let him perish. "They yelled down to me, 'Hold that line; don't let go!'" One of the destroyer's crew members, whose name Pozen would never know" came down a Jacob's ladder onto the raft and tied the line around me. I weighed so much with all my wet gear on that it took fifteen or twenty men to pull me aboard.
"Four men grabbed me, one by each arm and one by each leg and carried me facedown into the shower room. Then they took off all my clothes, put blankets on me and took me, to a bench and made a bed for me. Later the doctor came in and asked me how I felt, but I was too dazed to know. "Then they brought in George Bartin, night cook and baker. They sat him on the table. He was frothing at the mouth and had a vacant stare in his eyes. I called his name, but he didn't answer. Finally they put him into bed and that was the last I saw of him until the next day."
Bartin had had a rough time of it. He and Bosun Holcomb Lammon were submerged in the Arctic for several hours and shortly before the destroyers appeared they were clinging to the same piece of timber. "Because of the excitement of seeing the rescue ship," Bartin related years later, "he (Lammon) let go the timber and as soon as he did so his body submerged and never came to the surface again. He had discarded his life preserver some time before."
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The Meritorious Service Citation attached to Holcomb Lammon's official record states, "He worked indefatigably until the last moment and then jumped over the side. He was not among those rescued. His courage, skill and determination to save lives, without thought to his own safety, will be a lasting inspiration to all seamen of the United States Merchant Marine." Lammon was awarded the Mariner's Medal posthumously.
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1921 - 1945 (23 years)
