IN THE NEWS

NJ, Home News Tribune Nov. 10, 2023 - ‘Rohna Classified’ to honor sailors of deadliest naval attack Five years ago, Jack Ballo stumbled upon a box of 23 yellowed handwritten letters from Sgt. Joseph Pisinki, Ballos' wife's great-uncle. Most were written 80 years ago to Pisinki's mother, Mary, during his service in World War II. They spoke of the young soldier's experience far away from his home in Middlesex County. Click here for full story

ND, The Bismark Tribune June 26, 2023 - Tillie Bobby of Port Sanilac, Michigan, knew that her North Dakota-raised uncle was killed during World War II, but until recently much of the rest of his life was a mystery to her. Ralph Sitter was born and raised in Strasburg, moved to Washington state for work and then joined the military, which Click here for full story

NJ, The Star Ledger May 31, 2023 - Saga of devastating attack on ship in World War II finally yields its secrets The destruction of the HMT Rohna is described as one of the worst wartime tragedies in U.S. history - that virtually no one ever heard Click here for full story

ME, Portland Press Herald May 30, 2023 - Officials hushed up sinking of WWII ship with Maine servicemen aboard Georgianna Anctil received the first telegram from the War Department in late December 1943, telling her that her son Ronaldo L. Anctil was missing in action somewhere in the North Africa area. Five months later, she received a second telegram. Click here for full story

NJ, Asbury Park Press May 29, 2023 - Film tells stories of NJ men killed in hushed-up WWII attack The stories are eerily the same. John Gray's wife left the walkway light on to their Hollywood Avenue home in West Long Branch in hopes that her husband would walk through the door. He never did. A soldier disobeyed a court martial warning and told the family of Thomas Disbrow of Neptune that he died trying to save Click here for full story

MA, The Salem News, November 24, 2022 - Now 99, he survived World War II's 'best-kept secret' Saul Gurman was in the kitchen of his Beverly home one night 22 years ago when he heard the authoritative voice of NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw coming from the TV in the other room. “And now for the best-kept secret of World War II,” Brokaw announced. “The sinking of the Rohna.”Gurman dashed into his den to hear the news. But in fact, the best-kept secret of World War II was no secret at all to Saul Gurman. As a 20 Click here for full story

United Kingdom Family Tree, November 3, 2022 - HMT Rohna: What really happened and why the secrecy? It was when American filmmaker Jack Ballo discovered a 75-year-old box of letters in his attic that his curiosity was piqued. Looking into the context of the letters he realized that he had stumbled on a WWII disaster that had been a closely guarded secret at the time. “The greatest loss of US life at sea was left out of the history books, along with the story of the British and Indian crew killed in the secret WWII Click here for the full story.

MN, Minneapolis Star Tribune May 28, 2022 - 'Hushed-up' WWII ship attack claimed the lives of nine Minnesotans. When word came in early 1944 that Army Air Corps Cpl. Ervin Curtis Eidem had gone missing in action in the Mediterranean Sea, his wife, June, held out hope in Minneapolis. "He was a strong swimmer and she thought he'd just show up," said June's daughter, C.J. Wanser. "Maybe he was injured and didn't know how to get home." Just 21, Eidem had gone from South High School in Minneapolis to Click here for the full story.

NJ, The Record May 27, 2022 - Returned mail was first vague clue that NJ loved ones died in WWII troop ship bombing. As a young girl, Susan Gorman was fascinated by an old cookie tin stuffed with mysterious treasures — ribbons from a military uniform, faded black-and-white photographs, coins from China and a paper ticket for admission to a movie in an Army tent that read: “Admit one survivor.” The items were from her father's time in the U.S. Army during World War II. John Vangi, who grew up in Hoboken and lived in Jersey City after returning home from the war, was one of the lucky ones. Click here for the full story.

FL, Pensacola News Journal January 2, 2022 - Two Survivors of WWII disaster meet Before meeting last month in a suburban Lake Worth Beach senior living complex, Herman Vinnet and Robert Firstman hadn’t been together since November 1943, when they found themselves dog-paddling in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea after their military transport ship was struck by a German missile. Click here for the full story.

MD, The Baltimore Sun, May 30, 2021 - Left in the Dark - The U.S. hushed up the sinking of a transport ship during World War II. A Baltimore sergeant’s family is just now learning his fate. Denise Sharp is a go-to-historian for her extended family, and her knowledge of the Sharp and Doerer clans of greater Baltimore is encyclopedic. But one question lingered in her mind for years. Her late father, Donald Doerer, fought in Europe during WWII and he rarely spoke about his Click here for the full story.

MI, The Detroit News, May 30, 2021 - A short War, a long mourning: Niece misses Detroit WWII vet she never knew. Redford woman’s father never recovered after uncle died in catastrophic but little-known troopship sinking that claimed 1015 American lives. Bill Schneider’s war lasted two days. The battle to learn what happened to him lasted decades. He was Darlene Stanley’s uncle, though they never met. He was her father’s little brother, Click here for the full story.

MA, The Gardner News, June 1, 2021 - City opens a permanent bridge to its honored past The former Pleasant Street bridge has been renamed in honor of a local World War II hero who was killed in 1943 when his ship, the HMT Rohna, was sunk by the Germans. The Corporal Lawrence L. Lukasevicius Memorial Bridge was officially unveiled during a ceremony attended by state and city lawmakers, and members of the Lukasevicius family, on May 31. Click here for the full story.

IL, Pekin Daily Times, May 31, 2021 - Delavan farmhand perished in WWII 'secret disaster,' one of 1,015 soldiers killed On Nov. 25, 1943, Pvt. 1st Class James W. Knowles of Delavan boarded the British transport ship HMT Rohna in Oran, French Algeria. Rohna was part of a 24-ship convoy bound for the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations to support the Allied war effort against Japan. According to Pvt. 1st Class Knowles’ nephew and namesake, James A. Knowles of Philadelphia, Click here for the full story.

PA, Courier Times, May 28, 2021 - Remembering the Rohna: 'Where did you guys come from? You’re supposed to be dead.' William Dobbs didn’t miss the boat. But the ship the young soldier was assigned to take from North Africa to the China-Burma-India theatre during World War II, His Majesty’s Transport Rajula, had to turn back to port. It couldn’t keep up with its sister ship, HMT Rohna, in a convoy crossing the Mediterranean. Click here for the full story.

MA, Jewish Journal, May 2020 - On Memorial Day, honoring a WWII Chelsea hero who refused to go down with the ship Saul Gurman will soon turn 97, and he spends his days at the house where he has lived for 62 years overlooking Lynch Park in Beverly. But at some point this Monday, on Memorial Day, Gurman will pause and remember the muffled cries of the wounded, the faces of the dead, and the darkness that fell on the cold waters of the Mediterranean where he clung to life one late November evening 77 years ago. Click here for the full story.

LA, Evangeline Today, May 31, 2020 - Family of lost WWII soldier Murphy Fontenot shares information “PFC Murphy Fontenot of the U. S. Air Corps, Engineers Division has been reported missing in action since November 26 in the African Theatre of War, according to a telegram from the War department received by his wife, the former Earline Tremie, yesterday,” as reported in the December 30, 1943, edition of the Ville Platte Gazette. Young Fontenot was inducted one year ago this week Click here for the full story.

LA, Evangeline Today, May 25, 2020 - HMT Rohna is sunk during WWII killing two from Evangeline Parish This year marks the 75th Anniversary of the end of World War II. Most events about the war have been chronicled by historians and Hollywood alike. However, secrets of the war are still emerging. The latest secrets revolve around the British transport ship HMT Rohna. The Rohna transported troops and supplies across the Indian Ocean from present day Sri Lanka and Bombay, India. Click here for the full story.

PA, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 25, 2020 - Death on the high seas: Two Western Pa. soldiers remembered in 1943 troopship disaster One day in 1945, after the end of World War II, a soldier in uniform and his wife showed up at the door of the Kitch house in Greenville, Pa., Mercer County. The family had a gold star in the window for Lt. Harry Kitch, missing in action at sea since November 1943. The soldier talked quietly to Harry’s parents. He told them of their son’s heroism. Click here for the full story.

DE, Delaware Online, May 25, 2020 - HMT Rohna: More than 1,000 Americans died in a little-known World War II attack in 1943 With nearly 2,000 American soldiers on board, many in their first days of action, the HMT Rohna left North Africa on Thanksgiving Day 1943 to support allied forces against Japan in what's often called the "forgotten theater." The next day, Germany launched its first radio-guided Click here for the full story.

OR, The Bulletin, May 25, 2020 - Filmmaker searching for Oregon families of victims in WWII attackFour men from Oregon were killed during World War II in one of the deadliest attacks at sea in U.S. history, and their families may have never known the whole story. The HMT Rohna, a British transport ship carrying American soldiers, was hit on Thanksgiving Day 1943 by a German missile off the coast of North Africa. It was the first radio-guided missile ever used against the U.S., killing 1,015 American troops, including the four men from Oregon. Click here for the full story.

NJ, Sentinel, December 26, 2019 - South River resident creates documentary uncovering HMT Rohna attack Over 75 years ago, a German radio-guided missile hit the HMT Rohna transport ship, killing 1,015 United States Army soldiers, including South River resident Sgt. Joseph Pisinski. Today, resident and filmmaker Jack Ballo is co-producing “Rohna: Classified,” a documentary that will tell the story of the nation’s largest loss of troops at sea by enemy action. Click here for the full story.

NJ, Home News Tribune, June 14, 2019 - HMT Rohna attack: Film uncovers secrets of WWII ship disaster It was a box of yellowed letters that caught Jack Ballo's attention. Moving things around the attic to make room, Ballo found them in his wife's great-aunt's boxes. Pauline Pisinski had died a few weeks before on Jan. 4, 2018 at the age of 99. And her things had been stored — like so many others — in the attic. Ballo's wife's family lived in the same house on Obert Street in South River for more than 100 years, with he and his wife Barbara in residence for eight. Generation Click here for the full story.

NJ, Bridgewater Courier News, June 14, 2019 - HMT Rohna: Remembering the 77 NJ men who died in the WWII attack One thousand fifteen men from 48 states died in the attack on the HMT Rohna on Nov. 26, 1943. The Tri-State area was hit especially hard. New York saw the most casualties with 133, while Pennsylvania lost 95 men. Seventy-seven men from New Jersey died, including six soldiers from Middlesex County, four from Union and two from Somerset. The Rohna was one of 24 ships of Convoy KMF-26 off the coast of Tunisia. Three ships stayed behind to pick up survivors. But, it was dark, the Click here for the full story.

NJ, New Jersey Stage, June 12, 2019 - Kickstarter Campaign For Documentary on WWII Cover-Up After finding a box of 75 year old letters in his attic, filmmaker Jack Ballo decided to do a search for the author of those letters, Sgt. Joseph Pisinski. He then discovered a WWII scandal that even the most dedicated historians never knew. Ballo wants to tell the story in the documentary Click here for the full story.

PA, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 27, 2019 - A WWII naval disaster, the deadliest in U.S. history and one of its darkest secrets When the Rohna sank in the Mediterranean on Nov. 26, 1943, it took more than 1,000 Americans with it, most from the Army Air Corps. But family members were kept in the dark for years about what happened. “That happened to me,” he told her that night. That’s how Darlene Berube learned her husband survived the sinking of the HMT Rohna, the greatest loss of troops Click here for the full story.

PA, Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette, May 27, 2019 - A little-known WWII catastrophe: 1,015 lost after a radio-guided bomb took out the Rohna Two famous shipwrecks mark the beginning and end of America's involvement in World War II: The USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the USS Indianapolis in July 1945 after delivering components of the atom bomb to Tinian. But a third sinking in the middle of the war, worse than the second and nearly as bad as the first, remains largely unknown. Click here for the full story.

CT, The Bulletin, May 25, 2019 - The Rohna: WWII tragedy at sea, long hidden, comes to lightIt It was the greatest loss of U.S. lives at sea in war, but few have ever heard of it. That’s because the sinking of the HMT Rohna in the Mediterranean Sea in 1943 by a secret German weapon, a radio-guided missile, was long classified. Survivors were threatened with court martial if they ever spoke of what happened and families of the 1,015 deceased were never told the truth.Filmmaker Jack Ballo is hoping to, Click here for the full story.

CT, Connecticut Magazine October 22, 1918 - Remembering the Rohna, a WWII Sea Disaster “We want them known. We want the story known — it should be,” says West Havener Joe Weber, a retired teacher. The Rohna “is second to the Arizona” in lives lost, “and millions of people every year go to the Arizona,” Weber says. “Our goal is to make it known in some small way.” “It’s an amazing national story.” Weber, who first learned about the Rohna through his involvement with the city’s, Click here for the full story.

CA, A long-time Huntington Beach resident is on a mission to inform the American public about this nation's deadliest disaster on the high seas, and the U.S. government's lengthy attempts to cover up the catastrophe. Janet Sidoti Delude also has a compelling, personal motivation for speaking up: Her father was aboard the British troop transport HMT (His Majesty's Transport) Rohna, which was sunk by a German Click here for full story.

SEATAC, Wash. – Ludger Dochtermann was uncomfortable as he scanned the room full of retired World War II veterans gathered for a memorial anniversary. They were there to remember the 1,149 soldiers who died in 1943 when the British ship HMT Rohna sank following an attack by German bomber pilots. Dochtermann, a fisherman from Kodiak, Alaska, was there to apologize. Click here for full story.

In 1942 Dan Middleton joined the Army Air Corps instead of the Navy because he didn’t want to be sunk at sea. A year later, on Nov. 26, 1943, the day after Thanksgiving, he was aboard the HMT Rohna, an English ship with an Indian crew, on his way to the CBI (China, Burma, India) Theater of Operation. The transport was hit by an experimental German guided bomb off the coast of Algiers in the Mediterranean. Click here for full story.

(Sun-Sentinel 1993) - I was an 18-year-old private in World War II when luck of the draw kept me from joining 1,015 other American soldiers who perished in official secrecy after the British troopship Rohna was sunk in the Mediterranean Sea on the day after Thanksgiving, 1943. As the 50th anniversary approached for one of the worst losses of life in U.S. maritime history, Rohna survivors still could not not get straight answers from the Pentagon. Click here for full story.