Description
A Battle of the Atlantic Casualty Group of 3 awarded to Chief Engineering Officer Clifford Austin Powell, Merchant Navy, who was Killed in Action about the 25th March 1942 with the loss of S.S. Trendinnick comprising, 1939-45 Star, Atlantic Star, 1939-45 War Medal, unnamed as issued, and Ministry of Transport Condolence/Bestowal slip (Clifford A. Powell). Very fine, mounted for display.
Clifford Austin Powell was born in 1902 in Monmouthshire and had joined the Merchant Navy by 1923; his first ship was the S.S. Fotina where he served as 4th Engineer.
In 1941 he joined the S.S. Trendinnick (Hain Steamship Company) as Chief Engineer and completed 3 voyages in her before embarking on her for the last time on the 31st December 1941. She had made passage to New York and had loaded with “Government Stores” leaving New York on the 18th March 1942 bound for Table Bay and Bombay. Nothing more was ever heard of the S.S. Trendinnick or her crew of 40 Seamen and 6 Gunners. She was considered lost by enemy action on or about the 25th March 1942.
It is now generally believed that she was sunk by the Italian submarine Pietro Calvi SE of Bermuda. The Submarine Pietro Calvi, commanded by Commander Longobarelo, had sunk 5 ships of the coast of Brazil between the 25th March and the 12th April 1942. On the 12th Pietro Calvi attacked Convoy SL115 the sloop H.M.S. Lulworth forced Pietro Calvi to the surface with Depth Charges and then began a gun dual with the surfaced submarine, Pietro Calvi firing two torpedoes at Lulworth, both of which missed. The German U-boat, U-130, (Cdr Kals) unsuccessfully attacked H.M.S. Lulworth which disengaged the action with Pietro Calvi and proceeded to attack U-130. Pietro Calvi eventually sank, 35 survivors were picked up.
Chief Engineer Clifford Powell was 39 years old when he died, he was the son of George and Elizabeth Powell and the husband of Ethel Mary Powell of Barry, Glamorgan. He is commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial panel 110.
Sold with file of research, 3 photographs of S.S. Trendinnick, and a photograph of his name on the Tower Hill Memorial.
