Stephen Bowmer
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Stephen Bowmer was the son of Fred and Alice (Wilson) Bowmer who married at Belper in 1905. He was the brother of Wilson, Fred, Lottie, Nora, Fanny, Alec and Winifred Bowmer. Stephen Bowmer and Louie Johnson married at Belper in 1939 and their daughter Millicent was born at Nottingham in 1940.
PORTSMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL Panel 86, Column 3
HMLST 422
HMS LST-422 was a United States Navy LST-1-class tank landing ship that was transferred to the Royal Navy during World War II. As with many of her class, the ship was never named. Instead, she was referred to by her hull designation.
LST-422 had arrived off of Anzio, around 01:00 on January 26th 1944, after sailing through deteriorating weather and high, gale force, winds, and set anchor. With waves at 20 to 30 ft (6.1 to 9.1 m) and continued gale force winds, the LST was blown into a known mine field located around 12 mi (19 km) offshore. At 05:20 an explosion ripped open a 50 ft (15 m) hole in the bottom starboard side of the ship, between the main and auxiliary engine rooms, which immediately ignited the ship's fuel oil supply.
The tank deck was the first to flood, with most of the men of the 83rd asleep on this deck over 400 men were unable to escape. The vehicles on the tank deck, which were fuelled and loaded with ammunition, began to explode, which in turn ignited the gasoline that had been stored on the top deck. With all power lost, it was impossible to contact the engine room and with the fires it was impossible to reach the mess deck where the fire fighting suits and helmets were stored. The auxiliary fire foam motor had been damaged by flying shrapnel and could not be started.
The order was given for the US Army personnel to abandon ship, however, only four life rafts were undamaged, so any floatable loose materials were thrown overboard to assist men that were already in the water.
LST-301 came to assist but many of the men who had jumped into the frigid waters perished before being rescued. LCI-32 also tried to assist LST-422, but struck a mine herself and sunk with a loss of 30 of her crew. Soon the minesweepers Pilot and Strive, along with LST-16, YMS-34, YMS-43, and other YMS craft joined in the rescue and were able to pull 150 survivors from LST-422 and LCI-32 from the storm tossed waters.
Lieutenant Commander Braodhurst, along with eight of his crew, finally abandoned ship at about 06:00. At 14:30 LST-422 broke in two and sank. 31 men were lost including two from Nottingham – Electrical Artificer 4th Class Stephen Bowmer (Wollaton) and Supply Assistant Albert Rhodes (Old Lenton). (Wikipedia)
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