SS Henry Bacon The Liberty ship SS " Henry Bacon " was the last allied ship sunk by the Luftwaffe in World War II . Twenty two crew members and seven members of the United States Navy Armed Guard lost their lives in this action . The vessel was named after Henry Bacon , the American architect who designed and built many monuments and settings for public sculpture , including the Lincoln Memorial in Washington , D . C . The " Henry Bacon " was one of the thirty - eight merchant ships in convoy RA - 64 , which departed Kola Inlet , Murmansk , North Russia bound for Loch Ewe , Gourock , Scotland on Friday , 17 February 1945 . The crew complement under Captain Alfred Carini was forty - one merchant seamen and twenty - six US Navy Armed Guard . The " Henry Bacon " was in ballast and carrying nineteen Norwegian civilian refugees , including women and children , as passengers . Before the convoy set sail , news had been received of a German attack on Norwegian patriots living on the island of Sørøya , in the approaches to the former German naval anchorage at Altafjord . The British Royal Navy had sent four destroyers to the scene and had rescued 500 men , women and children . These refugees were distributed among the ships of the convoy for passage to England . On the afternoon of the Saturday , 18 February , the weather deteriorated to force 8 on the Beaufort scale , and the escort carriers were unable to operate aircraft . That night the storm intensified with winds gusting up to sixty knots ( 110 km / h ) with a heavy sea and swell . The convoy split up and began to disperse . The storm continued through Sunday , 19 February . On 20 February , the storm abated and the escort vessels started to round up the scattered ships . At 4 am the convoy had been detected by aircraft , and by 9 am twenty - nine of the ships were back on station with four still straggling . Then , on 22 February , the convoy ran into one of the worst storms ever recorded in the Barents Sea . Once again the convoy began to split up and was blown apart . The weather deteriorated to Beaufort scale force 12 with winds at 70 to 90 knots and temperatures 40 below zero . During this storm , one of the main springs on the " Henry Bacon " s steering gear was broken , and the retaining pin was sheared . This damage caused the " Henry Bacon " to drop out of the convoy to effect repairs . Around 1500 GCT on 23 February 1945 , the " Henry Bacon " was some 50 to 60 nautical miles astern of the main convoy when she was attacked by twenty - three Junkers Ju 88 and Ju 188 ' s torpedo bombers of Luftwaffe Group KG26 , out of Bardufoss , Norway , some 250 miles ( 400 km ) away . The Germans were on their way to attack the main convoy , and thought they could finish the lone straggler easily . The " Henry Bacon " was armed with eight 20 mm anti - aircraft guns , with a 5 inch ( 127 mm ) gun aft and a 3 in ( 76 mm ) gun forward . The ship ’ s Naval Armed Guard gunners fought the attacking planes for over an hour , shot down five planes , damaged at least four others and managed to defend against several torpedoes by causing their detonation before they reached the ship . At 1520 GCT , one torpedo struck the starboard side of the No . 5 hold , and detonated the aft ammunition magazine . A large hole was torn in the hull . The rudder , propeller and steering engine were destroyed . The ship settled by the stern and sank within an hour . This action helped save the main convoy , as most of the German planes were forced to return to base owing to battle damage , low fuel , and low ammunition . The " Henry Bacon " was abandoned at 1600 GCT at 67 . 38N 05 . 00W . Lifeboats # 1 and # 2 were launched safely . The # 3 boat capsized while being lowered , and because the davits to the # 4 boat had been damaged in the storm , this boat was also lost . Three of the four life rafts had been released prematurely and had drifted away . The two surviving lifeboats were filled to capacity with all of the Norwegian passengers and some members of the crew . This left a number of crew members stranded aboard the " Henry Bacon " . When this situation became known to Chief Engineer Donald Haviland , he insisted that he would give his place in the lifeboat to a younger crew member and died with the ship . That crew member ' s name was Robert Tatosky . For his sacrifice , Chief Engineer Haviland was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal , the highest award for the men of the Merchant Marine . The Bosun , Holcomb Lammon , collected dunnage from the deck and lashed it into a makeshift life - raft . Six Armed Guard and five merchant crew owe their lives to this raft . Lammon also died with the ship , and he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal . The survivors were rescued by crew members from three British destroyers , HMS " Zambesi " , HMS " Oppotune " and HMS " Zelast " . By this time the men in the water were so cold they were unable to help themselves , so the British sailors had to jump into the freezing sea with ropes tied around their waists to help them . When it was over , all of the Norwegian civilians had survived , nine Naval Armed Guard gunners , and two Navy signalmen were lost at sea . Captain Carini and fifteen fellow Merchant Marine crewmen were also lost . In 1946 , Captain Carini was posthumously awarded the " Krigskorset med Sverd " or Norwegian War Cross with Sword . This is Norway ' s highest military award for gallantry and he is one of only two Americans , and 126 foreigners to have received this award . Some of the surviving crew members from the " Henry Bacon " were taken first to Iceland and then to Scapa Flow . There , King Haakon VII of Norway presented them with the Norwegian War Medal , but not before they were interrogated as suspected German spies who had been planted in the water later , since no one believed that anybody could have survived two hours in the freezing waters . The survivors returned to the United States on the , where they arrived at Newport News , Virginia , on 20 March 1945 .