Early Pacific War casualty, KIA 8th December 1941.

**Bob Lyons** · 10-02-2017, 04:03 AM

Hi,

Just wanted to share some family history, my uncle Jack Lyons was serving as a 'Messman' onboard the M.V. Donerail sailing from Melbourne,
Australia, to Vancouver, British Columbia when they unfortunately crossed paths with the Japanese submarine I-10 near Truk, on the 8th of
December 1941 (some reports state the 9th because of the international date line). The submarine submerged (it was night time), and when
it re-surfaced, they shelled the Donerail, and she sank with some loss of life, my uncle was killed during the initial shelling, however the survivors
took to the lifeboats, and then suffered a very long stint adrift on the open sea before coming ashore on an island in the Truck region and were
interned by the Japanese until the end of the war.

Uncle Jack left the Australian Merchant Navy, which he joined in 1939, to then join the US Merchant Navy for the trip on the Donerail, which turned
out to be unfortunately his last trip, he was just short of his 21st birthday when he was killed.

Post-war, his mother was given the US Merchant Marine Medal for his sacrifice, and I have mounted the medal with his Australian Merchant Navy awards,
so I thought I would share some images of an often overlooked part of the war, namely those that served in the Merchant Navies of the world....

-Bob

**Bob Lyons** · 10-02-2017, 04:05 AM

Re the Donerail....

**Bob Lyons** · 10-02-2017, 04:08 AM

He initially served on-board the SS Taroona, and she survived the war.....

**Bob Lyons** · 10-02-2017, 04:10 AM

Some clippings from the press at the time....

**Bob Lyons** · 10-02-2017, 04:14 AM

Documents.....

**Bob Lyons** · 10-02-2017, 04:16 AM

And after all of these years, I was lucky enough to find his very last letter home, which was in an old box of papers
that one of my cousins still had.....

Here is the letter, and some of the death notices from the time....

-Bob