| TORPEDO ON EAGLE BEACH |
| Between 1928 and 1953 the area inland from Eagle Beach was the site of a small oil refinery owned by The Shell Oil Company. To the left of Eagle Beach there was a long finger pier which served both lake tankers bringing crude to the refinery as well as ocean going tankers which took out finished product. The map below shows the location of Eagle Beach on Aruba |
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| That pier can be seen in the third photograph, below, which shows American and Dutch military looking at the torpedo. |
| When U-156 attacked the Texaco tanker "Arkansas" she was tied up at the Eagle refinery pier. U-156 fired three torpedoes at the ship, one hit the ship, one went out to sea and the other torpedoes ran up on the beach. These are photos of this torpedo on Eagle Beach. |
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| Here you see a Army sentry standing guard over the torpedo. In the background a tug is hauling what looks like a torpedoed tanker. |
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| Here you see a man inspecting the torpedo. Note cigarette in his mouth, maybe to calm his nerves. This man is not identified. |
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| This is a copy of the photograph that was in an article was published in Life Magazine, March 2, 1942. In the photo above you can see the Eagle Pier in the background. |
| When Dutch Marines tried
to disarm the torpedo it exploded, killing four of the marines.
They were:
DE MAAGD, Dirk Adrianus Cornelis – born in Tholen, Holland in 1895; Torpedo Demolition Major. JOOSSE, Pieter – born in Arnhem, Holland; 2nd Lieutenant in Curacao. KOOYMAN, Leonardus – born in Den Haag, Holland on March 3, 1917; 1st Class Marine. VOGELENZANG, Johannes – born in Dordrecht, Holland on November 18, 1916; 2nd Class Marine. The remains of these four men were taken to Holland and buried there. |
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