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"Chakdina" was built in 1914 at the outbreak of WW1. On 13 January 1940 it was requisitioned by Admiralty as an armed boarding vessel. On the late afternoon of 5 December 1941 the SS Chakdina had left Tobruk Harbour, Libya, carrying around 380 wounded Allied soldiers, 100 German and Italian Prisoners of War and 120 crew away from grossly overcrowded hospitals. A number of other Allied soldiers also boarded the ship in order to be transported back to Egypt. The Chakdina had been commandeered by the Royal Navy and was acting as a hospital ship. At least 123 New Zealanders were aboard the shop when it set sail. Just after 9pm (21.35 hours) an enemy plane (Italian S.79 torpedo bomber) released a torpedo, which exploded in one of the after holds of the Chakdina which sank within three and a half minutes. There was little chance of escape unless you weren't wounded or badly wounded, and were positioned away from the blast. Around 400 men were drowned, 80 of them New Zealanders and almost all of these survivors of the fighting at Sidi Rezegh and Belhamed. The sinking of the Chakdina was the only major calamity in the evacuation of New Zealand wounded during World War II (Debbie McCauley, 2017).
This project is for the profiles of those who were on board the SS Chakdina, whether they died or survived.