This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Sgt Duane Kimbrow (Skip)
to remember
Kay, Lawrence Lew, 2nd Lt.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Tangshan
Last Address Seattle, Washington
Casualty Date Nov 26, 1943
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Drowned, Suffocated
Location Mediterranean Sea
Conflict WWII - European Theater of Operations/Tunisia Campaign (1942-43)
Location of Interment North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial - Carthage, Tunisia
2nd Lt. Kay born in China, raised in Washington State. He attended the University of Washington and Lingan University in Canton, China, (about 1935-6) a school where his sister also attended at that time. He attended the Harvard Business School, graduating in 1940.
He entered the Army Air Corps at Fort Myer, Virginia on 16 December 1942. He was assigned to the 322nd Fighter Control Squadron, Army Air Corps, based at Bradley Field, Connecticut.
In early November 1943, his unit was sent to North Africa en route to the CBI at Kunming, China with the 14th Air Force.
On 26 November 1943, he was a passenger aboard the British troopship, the HMT Rohna, sailing in an armed convoy from Oran, Algeria en route to Assam, India via the Suez Canal, then on to Kunming, China.
During the late afternoon hours, off the coast of Algeria, the convoy was attacked by about 30 German Luftwaffe Heinkel He-177A heavy bombers carrying Henschel Hs 293 radio-guided, rocket-boosted glide bombs. One of these struck the ship, causing it to sink, killing 1138 men. 1015 of these men were American.
This event, known as the Rohna Disaster, was not acknowledged at the time and for many years thereafter, and remained essentially a secret of WWII.
He remains Missing in Action, lost at sea.
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Note: Bradley Field was primarily used as a training base for fighter aircraft, including the training of Chinese airmen. In China, the 322nd was subordinate to the 51st Fighter Group, 69th Composite Wing, 14th Air Force. The unit was responsible for providing radio, air-to-ground and point-to-point communications as well as homing of aircraft.
