WW II B.E.F Troop Ships

[rsel]

Hi All,
   After a recent visit to the West Sussex records office i found a document that implies that the unit my grandfather was in (5th Bn Royal Sussex Regiment) was sent to France as part of the B.E.F during WW II on the S.S. Amsterdam from Southampton to Cherbourgh. I have tried googling for information on a ship of that name, but most entries come up for an S.S Niew Amsterdam, which was a dutch ship that they gave to the British government in late 1940 to use over in the Caribbean. I did find one refernce to a 'British Railways S.S. Amsterdam' which included a picture which looks to be the right sort of period, but does not give any dates.
  Does anybody know of a good source of information on ships that would have been used at the start of the war for troop transport, where i might find details on this S.S. Amsterdam ?

Thanks

Richard

[percy porter]

Neiw Amsterdam is mentioned a few times in NZ military history of WWll.

Have a look here.
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/search/search.html?page-length=10&text=Niew+Amsterdam&submit=Search

Alan NZ

[kyt]

Hi Richard

I don't have much info on her but she was an L&NER ship, built in the late 1930s, that was requisitioned for war service at the beginning of the war. She was then converted to a hospital ship (thus called a HMHS Amsterdam) and was sunk off Juno Beach (hit a mine) on 7 August 1944 whilst evacuating wounded. 55 wounded, 10 medics and 30 crew were lost. Some German POWs were also lost.

K

[rsel]

Neiw Amsterdam is mentioned a few times in NZ military history of WWll.

Have a look here.
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/search/search.html?page-length=10&text=Niew+Amsterdam&submit=Search

Alan NZ

Thanks Alan,  that sort of confirms that this was not the ship I am looking for

Richard

[rsel]

Hi Richard

I don't have much info on her but she was an L&NER ship, built in the late 1930s, that was requisitioned for war service at the beginning of the war. She was then converted to a hospital ship (thus called a HMHS Amsterdam) and was sunk off Juno Beach (hit a mine) on 7 August 1944 whilst evacuating wounded. 55 wounded, 10 medics and 30 crew were lost. Some German POWs were also lost.

K

Thanks K, that sounds like the ship I want. L&NER was a railway company wasn't it ?


Richard

[ShaunJ]

Photo for sale on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/RP-L.N.E.R.-Steamer-AMSTERDAM_W0QQitemZ200243048250QQcmdZViewItem?IMSfp=TL0807311143r16432

Sinking in 1944

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/39/a4368639.shtml

Poster http://www.rootschat.com/links/044c/

[rsel]

Thanks ShaunJ