| Hometown | Civilian Occupation |
| Wilmington, Delaware | Shipping clerk for American Vulcanized Fibre Company |
| Branch | Service Number |
| U.S. Army Air Forces | 32364212 |
| Theater | Unit |
| Mediterranean (in transit to China Burma India) | Unassigned aboard H.M.T. Rohna (last prior unit 98th Fighter Squadron) |
| Military Occupational Specialty (Presumed) | Entered the Service From |
| 747 (airplane and engine mechanic) | Cranston Heights, Delaware |
Early Life & Family
Paul Edward Hayden was born in Wilmington, Delaware, on December 24, 1911. He was the 8th and youngest child of Michael F. Hayden (c. 1856–1933) and Mary Amelia Hayden (née Hackbarth, 1870–1942). Hayden was born at the family home, 861 Bennett Street, and records suggest he lived nearly his entire life there. He had four older sisters and three older brothers. Hayden was recorded on census in January 1920, still living at 861 Bennett Street with his parents, three older siblings, and maternal grandmother. His father was working as a tinner at a car shop (probably a railroad car shop).
According to his enlistment data card, Hayden had a grammar school education, while census records stated that he completed three years of high school. The Wilmington Morning News reported that “For twelve years he was a clerk in various chain stores in the city.” The paper added that “Hayden was active in fencing and won several medals in the sport at the Y. M. C. A.”
By the time of the next census in April 1930, Hayden was the last child still living at his parents’ home. He was working as a store clerk, while his father was listed as a pipefitter at an industrial plant. His father died on August 21, 1933. By the time of the next census in April 1940, Hayden was still living at 861 Bennett Street with his mother and working as a shipping clerk for a vulcanized fibre company.
When Hayden registered for the draft on October 16, 1940, he was working for the National Vulcanized Fibre Company at Maryland Avenue and Beech Street in Wilmington. Soon after his mother’s death on August 2, 1942, Hayden moved in with his sister, Mary A. Gartland (1892–1965), and brother-in-law, Edward R. Gartland (1878–1949), at 204 Cranston Avenue in Cranston Heights, a suburb west of Wilmington. He was drafted the following month.
Military Career
After he was drafted, Hayden was inducted into the U.S. Army in Camden, New Jersey, on September 24, 1942. Most men entering the service in Delaware during that period spent about a week at Fort Dix, New Jersey, before transferring elsewhere for training. Private Hayden was assigned to the U.S. Army Air Forces.
According to a statement by his sister, Mary Gartland, for the State of Delaware Public Archives Commission, Hayden attended Class 21-43 at the Academy of Aeronautics, LaGuardia Field, New York; Camp Curtissair in Buffalo, New York; and Seymour Johnson Field, North Carolina.
A document in Hayden’s individual deceased personnel file (I.D.P.F.) provided a service summary with some overlap: Hayden was stationed in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as of October 13, 1942; LaGuardia Field, New York, as of November 1942; Casey Jones School of Aeronautics, Newark, New Jersey, as of December 1942; and Wright Field, New York, as of March 1943. (Curiously, Wright Field was in Ohio, not New York. It is possible that the person filling it out was confused because Buffalo was headquarters of Curtiss-Wright.)
On May 7, 1943, Journal-Every Evening reported:
Pfc. Paul E. Hayden, 204 Cranston Avenue, who was graduated last week from Camp Curtissair, Buffalo, N. Y., where as a member of the Air Forces Technical Training Detachment he has been given specialized instruction in the maintenance and repair of either the famous P-40 pursuit ship or the C-46 Commando, the largest twin motored cargo ship in the world.
Hayden’s sister did not provide full information about his promotions but stated that he was promoted from corporal to sergeant in June 1943.
After leaving Camp Curtissair, Hayden joined the 98th Fighter Squadron, 337th Fighter Group. It is unclear when Hayden joined the squadron and whether he served with any other units beforehand, given his sister’s statement that Hayden was stationed at Seymour Johnson Field. The 98th Fighter Squadron was stationed at Sarasota Army Air Base, Florida, throughout 1943.
The 98th Fighter Squadron was a replacement training unit equipped with the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. Unlike other squadrons which trained stateside and then went overseas together, a replacement training unit did not deploy. Instead, men completed a training program and then transferred out as replacements for other units, usually those already overseas. Sergeant Hayden was dispatched to the China Burma India (C.B.I.) Theater. It appears that during this journey he was part of a shipment of unassigned personnel and not a member of any unit.
The H.M.T. Rohna Disaster
The fastest sea route from the eastern United States to India was to pass through the Mediterranean Sea and Suez Canal, about half the distance as crossing both the Pacific and Indian Oceans. However, the shorter route was still a grueling journey. Although soldiers en route to the C.B.I. would be fighting against Japan rather than Germany, the greatest danger they faced on their journey came from German submarines prowling the seas as well as German aircraft operating out of occupied Italy and France.
The first stage of Sergeant Hayden’s journey, from the United States to Oran, Algeria, was uneventful. On November 24 or 25, 1943, he boarded the British transport H.M.T. Rohna. Completed in 1926, the vessel had been converted from a passenger liner to a troopship in 1940. On Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1943, Rohna departed Oran with about 2,201 aboard, including about 1,988 American soldiers and Red Cross workers. Rohna joined an eastbound convoy, KMF-26, which was traveling from Scotland to Egypt. The convoy consisted of 17 merchant ships with 10 escorts.
On the morning of November 26, 1943, KMF-26 was discovered by German reconnaissance aircraft flying out southern France. That evening, the convoy was sailing at 12 knots in the Mediterranean Sea north of Djidjelli (Jijel), Algeria, when it came under attack from about 35 German bombers. The attackers came in two waves beginning at 1640 hours. Eight Allied fighters were on patrol in the vicinity of the convoy and Allied controllers scrambled additional aircraft from fields in North Africa, but they were unable to fully blunt the attack.
Among the attacking aircraft were Heinkel He 177s armed with a deadly new weapon, the Henschel Hs 293 guided bomb. The Hs 293 was dropped from the attacking aircraft and briefly engaged a rocket motor. The rocket only had enough fuel for 10 seconds, after which the bomb glided towards the target, controlled by radio from the launching bomber. The weapon was known to the Allies and during the attack, the convoy’s escorts attempted to jam the radio signals guiding the weapons.
In the face of fierce resistance from both Allied aircraft and antiaircraft fire from the convoy—and possibly, the jamming—most of the German ordnance missed. Only one Hs 293 found its mark. This single bomb, however, which exploded in Rohna’s engine room around 1715 hours, during the second wave, was sufficient to cause tremendous loss of life.
In their book, Soldiers Lost at Sea: A Chronicle of Troopship Disasters, James E. Wise, Jr. and Scott Baron wrote:
As Second Officer Willis recorded in his statement, “The bomb struck the engine room on the port side, just above the waterline. The No. 4 bulkhead collapsed.” The bomb explosion caused extensive damage blowing holes in both sides of the ship so large that one survivor recalled, “you could drive a truck through them.” Fires broke out, and power was lost, resulting in no lights, no communication, and no water pressure. An estimated three hundred men died in the initial explosion. Powerless in the dark, and with no other options, Captain [T. J.] Murphy ordered the ship to be abandoned, though lack of power prevented his order from being broadcast throughout the ship.
Rohna slipped beneath the waves around 1830 hours. Wise and Baron added: “The rescue effort was hampered by failing light, high seas, and the loss of a significant number of lifeboats, both from the initial explosion and subsequent mishandling by troops and crewmen.”
Approximately 1,149 personnel were lost in the sinking, including about 1,015 American soldiers. (Some sources indicate that 35 Americans died of their wounds after rescue, but it is unclear if those men are included in the figures.) The incident represents the greatest loss of American soldiers due to the sinking of any troopship in history. In terms of American losses aboard ships in World War II, Rohna was exceeded only by the loss of the battleship U.S.S. Arizona (BB-39) during the attack on Pearl Harbor and the sinking of the Japanese hellship Arisan Maru.
In addition to Sergeant Hayden, two other Delawareans were killed, both members of Company “B,” 31st Signal Construction Battalion: Sergeant William Alexander Rittenhouse (1916–1943) and Technician 4th Grade Donald Blair Ellis (1922–1943).
A summary of an American investigation included in Sergeant Hayden’s I.D.P.F.
reveal the contributing factors in the extreme loss of life, and the unusual proportion of unrecovered remains, to be:
a. The terrific effect of the explosion.
b. The poor condition of the ship’s equipment and the conduct of its crew.
c. The difficulties encountered in the rescue operations.
The Wilmington newspapers reported on January 22, 1944, that Sergeant Hayden was missing in action. Sergeant Hayden’s status was officially missing in action until he was declared dead on May 5, 1944, in the absence of any evidence that he had survived. Journal-Every Evening announced on May 24, 1944, that Sergeant Hayden’s “Relatives and friends are invited to attend the requiem mass at St. Mary’s Church, on Thursday morning, May 25, at 9 o’clock.”
Sergeant Hayden’s name is honored on the Tablets of the Missing at the North Africa American Cemetery in Tunisia and at Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle, Delaware. He was also honored on a plaque commemorating Cranston Heights servicemembers installed in 1945 at the corner of Newport-Gap Pike and Capitol Trail (Kirkwood Highway).
Notes
Address
204 Cranston Avenue is no longer an extant address. It is unclear if the street was renumbered or whether part of it was removed during development.
Last Unit
Sergeant Hayden’s I.D.P.F. listed the 98th Fighter Squadron as his last unit and American Battle Monuments Commission records do not list any unit for him at all. That suggests Sergeant Hayden went overseas as an unassigned replacement and would have been assigned as needed once he arrived in the China Burma India Theater. Indeed, other than the members of the 322nd Flight Control Squadron, all U.S.A.A.F. personnel aboard the ship were part of unassigned replacement shipments.
Destination
Various sources list KMF-26’s destination in Egypt as Alexandria or Port Said.
Date of Death
Officially, Sergeant Hayden’s date of death was November 27, 1943. He and most of the other victims most likely died on November 26, 1943, though the last of the survivors were rescued early on November 27.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to the Delaware Public Archives for the use of their photo.
Bibliography
“Anti-Aircraft Action by Surface Ships.” November 28, 1943. World War II Command Files. Record Group 38, Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
“British SS ROHNA, Bombing and Sinking of by radio-controlled glider bombs.” January 14, 1944. World War II Command Files. Record Group 38, Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
Certificate of Death for Mary A. Hayden. Delaware Death Records. Bureau of Vital Statistics, Hall of Records, Dover, Delaware. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSMB-LSHF-8
Certificate of Death for Michael Hayden. Delaware Death Records. Bureau of Vital Statistics, Hall of Records, Dover, Delaware. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DWGQ-QVB
“Convoy KMF.26.” Arnold Hague Convoy Database website. http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/kmf/index.html
“Death Notices.” Journal-Every Evening, May 24, 1944. https://www.newspapers.com/article/138806203/
Draft Registration Card for Paul Edward Hayden. October 16, 1940. Draft Registration Cards for Delaware, October 16, 1940 – March 31, 1947. Record Group 147, Records of the Selective Service System. National Archives at St. Louis, Missouri. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2238/images/44003_01_00003-00196
“Convoy KMF 26 (‘ANNEX’) Enemy Air Attack on with Glider Bombs and Torpedoes.” December 6, 1943. World War II Command Files. Record Group 38, Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRHM-GLG
“Four Soldiers Listed Missing.” Journal-Every Evening, January 22, 1944. https://www.newspapers.com/article/138800720/
Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GR6W-SVC
“Ft. DuPont Head To Be Speaker At Plaque Rite.” Journal-Every Evening, March 15, 1945. https://www.newspapers.com/article/138793883/
Gartland, Mary. Individual Military Service Record for Paul Edward Hayden. Undated, c. 1946. Record Group 1325-003-053, Record of Delawareans Who Died in World War II. Delaware Public Archives, Dover, Delaware. https://cdm16397.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15323coll6/id/19079/rec/2
Holveck, Brandon. “Greatest Loss of Life at Sea.” The News Journal, May 25, 2020. https://www.newspapers.com/article/138801281/
Individual Deceased Personnel File for Paul E. Hayden. Individual Deceased Personnel Files, 1939–1953. Record Group 92, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774–1985. National Archives at St. Louis, Missouri. Courtesy of U.S. Army Human Resources Command.
McDonald, Shuford W. “Unit History 98th Fighter Squadron, 337th Fighter Group AAF, Sarasota Army Air Base, Sarasota, Florida.” October 21, 1943. Reel B0281. Courtesy of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.
“Out Men and Women In Service.” Journal-Every Evening, May 7, 1943. https://www.newspapers.com/article/138805141/
Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89MR-MSKS
“Three Army Men From This Area Listed As Missing.” Wilmington Morning News, January 22, 1944. https://www.newspapers.com/article/138800318/
Wise, James E., Jr. and Baron, Scott. Soldiers Lost at Sea: A Chronicle of Troopship Disasters. Naval Institute Press, 2004. https://archive.org/details/soldierslostatse0000wise/page/n1/mode/2up
World War II Army Enlistment Records. Record Group 64, Records of the National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives at College Park, Maryland. https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=893&mtch=1&cat=all&tf=F&q=32364212&bc=&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=2987034
Last updated on May 4, 2024
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