The WW2 Story of the Transport Ship Skramstad. She was attacked by British planes during Operation Leader in Norway. Also included is an excerpt from German Soldier who was on board when it happened. Story down in comments.

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1. The Skramstad was a Norwegian ship that was under German requisition. She was bombed and set on fire by British aircraft on October 4th, 1943, off Bodo, Norway during Operation Leader. The fire could not be controlled ,and the ship ran ashore and was wrecked. She was carrying German troops at the time.

   Operation Leader was a successful air attack conducted against German shipping in the vicinity of Bodø, Norway, on 4 October 1943, during World War II. The raid was executed by aircraft flying from the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Ranger, which was attached to the British Home Fleet. The American airmen located many German and Norwegian ships in this area and are believed to have destroyed five and damaged another seven. Two German aircraft searching for the Allied fleet were shot down as well. Three American aircraft were destroyed in combat during the operation and another crashed while landing.

   “The aircraft also bombed the 4,300 GRT Kriegsmarine troop ship Skramstad (a Norwegian cargo ship requisitioned with her crew by the German occupying authorities), which had some 850 German soldiers embarked and was protected by two escorts. Skramstad was severely damaged and beached, burning for days. The number of casualties on board this ship are unclear, with some sources stating that 200 of the troops died while others report that only one Norwegian sailor and a few German soldiers were killed. The Norwegian resistance movement claimed after the attack that around 360 Germans had been killed in the bombing of Skramstad, while the official German reports state that 37 soldiers died”

   Excerpt from German soldier :

   A new day, October 4, 1943, appeared. It could have been around 0930 to 1000 hours local time when on the port side we suddenly saw a steamer burning. Our own convoy stopped and from the burning steamer, which we recognized as the La Plata, we were asked by light signals if we had a doctor on board. We hardly came to understand what had happened when we heard our familiar whistle and the command “air raid alarm, everybody below deck.” We hastened down the ladder.

   Air raid alarm under the circumstances didn’t mean anything good. Then we heard somebody yell “life jackets.” Up to now, we hadn’t heard anything about life jackets. Then we heard, “What do we need life jackets for, we good, healthy soldiers born in the year 1925?” (Pure idiocy, of course.)

   But the yelling stopped right away, because the “music” started. Somebody strafed our ship with machine gun fire, and we could hear the sound of the shooting and see sparks through the trap door. A detonation outside the ship somewhere in the water provoked a huge wave that splashed against the side of the ship. “God punish England and the damned Allies,” was the answer of the soldiers. (That was a chosen and meaningless expression a soldier would always use when something became adversary to him during his training.)

   We didn’t have to wait long after this swaggering because a tremendous bang, a burst, made everything tremble.

   The light went out, darkness, even the sparingly small opening of the trap door. Dead still, outside also. Somebody had caught our Skramstad, we were hit.

   I found myself without any luggage, just my steel helmet, climbing the ladder and I faced a captain with a pistol pointed at me point blank. He motioned me with the pistol and in a loud voice he commanded me to go midships.

   I climbed over the destroyed field kitchen, (which had unfortunately spilled its contents — the pea soup — all over the deck) over the mid-hatch, through the fire and the smoke, and I suddenly found myself at the gangway. Without any emotion, without really thinking about anything, no fear or questions, I ran down the gangplank into a lifeboat.

   Next we were dragged, together with two other lifeboats, away from the ship by a motorboat towards a rock island about 200 meters away. During that short trip our lifeboat was dangerously taking on water, because its air filled floating pontoons were all riddled with bullet holes. My steel helmet served us well as a water scoop and we arrived, a bit wet, on the saving shore.

   A glance at the Skramstad showed a sad picture. The gangplank was afire. At the bow, many ropes were dangling and lots of my comrades tried to lower themselves down to the lifeboats. Not so smart and mostly dutiful comrades tried to carry their complete equipment with them, including the heavy rifle and, because of being overweight, they came down faster than they wanted, hit the comrades below them, and everybody ended up in the drink.

   We heard ominous explosions on the Skramstad. Less and less comrades used the still open road to safety. On top of that, we heard the noise of an airplane above us. Thank goodness, it was a German one, who was probably observing and documenting the event.

   About 110 to 120 comrades were stranded on those rocks. It was our home until 2400 hours that night. Before us the red glow of the burning Skramstad. We were rescued by a steamer from the Hurtig line who brought us to Bodö. Goodbye comrades, you who will stay forever on the Skramstad.

   We survived.”

   Photo is from my collection