On February 6, 1945 the Peter Silvester was torpedoed by the German submarine U-862 in the Indian Ocean, (34°19′S99°37′E / 34.317°S 99.617°E / -34.317; 99.617),[6] about 900 miles (1,400 km) miles west of Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia. Both torpedoes struck on the starboard side at the #3 hold. It was reported that one torpedo went straight through the ship while the other detonated in the hold which ruptured the deck forward of the bridge and blew off the hatch cover. This led to flooding of the hold and the engine room. The ship was then hit at 17.10 hours by two more torpedoes on the starboard side at the traversebulkhead between holds #2 and #3. The eight officers, 34 crewmen, 26 armed guards and 107 US Army troops abandoned ship in four lifeboats and six rafts. Soon after, the ship was hit by a coup de grâce at the #1 hold. This caused the ship to break in two. The forward section sank immediately, while the after section stayed afloat and was last seen deep in the water in the evening of February 8th.[1] At the time of its sinking, the ship was carrying 2,700 tons of US Army supplies, in addition to 317 mules bound for Burma.[7]
Searches were conducted by all available aircraft from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), United States Navy (USN), and ships of the USN, Australian and British navies. Within two days, 15 survivors in a lifeboat were picked up by the American steam merchant Cape Edmont and landed at Fremantle, Australia on February 12, 1945. The following day (February 13), 80 survivors on six rafts, and 12 survivors in a lifeboat, were picked up by USS Corpus Christi and brought to Fremantle after five days. On February 16, a Consolidated B-24L Liberator (A72-124), of 25 Sqn RAAF crashed at RAAF Cunderdin, while taking off to search, killing five of its 10 crew members.[8] 20 survivors in a third boat were picked up on February 28, 1945 by HMS Activity (D 94) and landed at Fremantle on March 2, 1945.[9] The last 15 survivors in another boat, adrift for 32 days, were rescued on March 9, 1945 by USS Rock (SS 274) and landed at Exmouth Gulf. The last lifeboat carrying 1 crewmen, 7 armed guards and 25 troops was lost.[1]
