Leo Vogelsang
Engine Deptartment

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Leo T. Vogelsang, 75, dedicated volunteer on the JOHN W. BROWN since 1991, died at his home in Winfield, Maryland, on April 21, 2003.

August 1944 - At 16 years of age my mother and father signed for me to attend the U.S. Maritime Service training school at Sheepshead Bay, New York. Graduated as an Ordinary Seaman.

Joined the Liberty Ship S.S. JOHN SINGLETON MOSBY, in New York. She was named after the Confederate Mosby's Raiders leader. Sailed to Hoboken, New Jersey,to have welded and riveted steel plates on port and starboard sides to strengthen ship from breaking in half. Joined the National Maritime Union (NMU); the ship belonged to the Isthmian Line.

On watch, I met an Irvington, West Baltimore, #8 street car conductor, who was on watch with the U.S. Navy Armed Guard. I knew him a little. Then we sailed coastwise to Red Bank, New Jersey, for a load of ammunition. We carried roughly 9,500 tons of 105 and 155 ammunition plus fuses.

After loading we joined a convoy bound for England around Ambrose Light. I turned 17 in the Atlantic Ocean. Our convoy had a small British aircraft carrier plus U.S., Canadian and British destroyer escorts. We must have had submarine attacks as planes took off from the aircraft carriers and destroyer escorts dropped depth charges. Convoy arrived off of Isle of Wight, Southhampton, around December 14, 1944. Almost rammed by another ship after we dropped anchor.

Joined another convoy to Antwerp, Belgium, but diverted to Le Harve, France, as a ship struck a mine on the Scheldt River and blocked the channel into Antwerp. Glad we didn't go there as buzz bombs were falling on the city. I believe they were V-1's.

We had to tie up inside the harbor as ships were either sunk or lying on their side. One of them was the French ocean liner, Ile de France. Army DUKWs hauled the ammo ashore. Frenchmen unloaded the ship handling the winches and ammo. The city and seaport were all bombed out. It took us roughly one to two weeks to unload.

German paratroopers were landing outside the City and the "Battle of the Bulge" was raging. They say some French families were harboring German soldiers. I tried to talk to a French girl and her mother pulled her back into their building. The French stevedore boss said why French people were mad was because Allies dropped leaflets for civilians to get out of the city as Americans, British and Canadians were going to bomb Le Harve. The people left the city for a period of time. But when they came back, the Allies bombed the city and killed and wounded a lot of French people.

Couple of days after Christmas 1944 we left Le Harve for Bristol, England, unescorted. There we picked up ballast of sand and rocks to get the ship deeper in the water. Our #2 jumbo boom lifted on an almost-new German Tiger tank that was captured. That tank is on display at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland.

Joined convoy to New York City. Was a thrill to see the Statue of Liberty appearing out of the fog as we approached the city. Stayed home one week and boarded steamer CITY OF NORFOLK to Norfolk, Virginia, where i joined the SS GULF GEM, a tanker owned by the Gulf Oil Company. We loaded with fuel to refuel the destroyer escorts in a convoy to the Mediterranean port of Palermo or Anzio, Italy.

From one of the American destroyer escorts that we refueled, I heard someone holler, "Hey, Leo," from the flying bridge. He was a sailor named Jim Buzzard, a neighbor who lived three blocks from my home in Irvington in West Baltimore.

A couple hundred miles from Gibraltar we developed engine trouble and had to drop out of the convoy to Horta and Ponta Del Gada in the Azores where we discharged our cargo in two tankers and repaired our engines. Portugal and the Azores, which was part of Portugal, were neutral in World War II. They say German submarines and Navy men drank in the same bars together and then beyond the couple mile limit would war against each other again.

Returned to Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Next trip after one week home sailed on SS GULF GEM from Baltimore, Maryland, to Porta La Cruz, Venezuela, unescorted to picked up a cargo of crude oil. A revolution was going on there while we were there. Encountered no enemy submarines. Unloaded at Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. Came back to my home in Baltimore for two weeks.

May 1945 - Joined the U.S. Marine Corps. The war with Japan ended while I was on the rifle range.