Don't know what you call a major troop ship but America suffer several troopships disasters during the war, but all against Germany:
All descrition listed in this post are from
http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/maritime.html
USAT DORCHESTER
(February 3, 1943)
Ex coastal luxury passenger ship of 5,649 tons converted to a troop carrier, sunk by torpedo from the U-223 (Kptlt. Karl-Jung Wächter) The Dorchester was bound for the American base in Greenland from St. John's, Newfoundland, with 902 passengers and crew on board when attacked at 0355hrs about 150 miles south of Cape Farewell. Of the passengers, most were U.S. troops. In addition she carried 1,000 tons of cargo. Escort ships of the Greenland Patrol rescued 229 persons from the stricken vessel, 132 by the Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba, and another 97 rescued by a sister ship, the Commanche. In all, 672 souls were lost including 404 soldiers. Hundreds of dead bodies, kept afloat by their lifejackets, were picked up from the sea. On board the Dorchester were four Army chaplains of different denominations who helped distribute life jackets and help the injured. When the storage locker was empty they removed their own life jackets and handed them to the next man in line. As the ship went down, survivors in the water could see the four chaplains standing on the sloping deck, arms linked and praying while awaiting their fate. A special Medal for Heroism was authorized by Congress and along with the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Service Cross, were posthumously awarded to the four chaplains.
SS HENRY R. MALLORY
(February 9, 1943)
Part of the 69 ship UK bound North Atlantic convoy SC-118, the American ex-passenger liner Mallory (6,063 tons) built in 1916, was attacked and sunk by a torpedoes from the German submarine U-402 (Forstner) part of a twenty U-boat pack. The Mallory was enroute from New York to Reykjavik, Iceland, and had parted from the convoy just before the attack. Eleven ships in the convoy were later sunk. Of the 494 passengers and crew on board the Mallory, including 381 US troops, 34 armed guards, 2 civilians and a crew of 77 of which 39 members were lost, a total of 272 men perished. The 224 survivors were rescued four hours later by the US Coast Guard cutter Bibb, which picked up 205 men, three of whom died on board, and by the escort USCG Ingham, which saved 25 men, two of whom died later.
HMT ROHNA
(November 26, 1943)
British liner/troopship of 8,602 tons, carrying 2,193 passengers, including 1,988 US troops, 7 Red Cross personnel and a crew of 198, sailed from Oran, Algieria, bound for Bombay, India, via the Suez Canal. She joined the convoy KMF 26 which consisted of 24 ships in six columns, four ships in each column and escorted by seven British destroyers. Between Algiers and Phillopville the convoy was attacked by around 30 Heinkel 177 bombers of 11/KG-40. The Rohna was hit by a HS 293 'glider bomb' (the world's first guided missile) The troopship, crewed by Indian seamen under British officers and captained by an Australian, was owned by the British India Steam Navigation Company. The ship sank in less than 30 minutes taking 1,015 US troops and 102 crew members to a watery death. Between 10.30 PM and midnight, rescue ships, including the minesweeper SS Pioneer, the Red Cross ship Clan Campbell and the Rohna's sister ship HMT Rajula, reported ‘sailing through a sea of floating bodies’. Just over 900 survivors were rescued. Eight of the Heinkel 177s were shot down during the attack. Survivors were landed at Phillopville and taken care of by a British army unit. For reasons of national security details of this tragedy were kept secret for many years. (The Rohna survivors web page is located at.... <
www.whidbey.net/rohna/rohna.htm> )
SS DEMPO
(March 17, 1944)
Dutch passenger liner (16,979 tons) serviced the Holland-Java route with 634 passengers in four classes. Used as a troopship from 1941 but was sunk in the Mediterranean by the U- 371 (Lt-Cdr. Mehl) A total of 498 U.S. troops on board, died. The Dempo was part of convoy SNF.17.
SS PAUL HAMILTON
(April 20, 1944)
Liberty Ship, part of Convoy UGS-38 which had formed in Norfolk, Virginia, sunk by aerial torpedo from a Junker Ju-88 bomber about thirty miles off the coast of Cape Bengut, Algeria. The plane came in low and launched its torpedo about 150 feet from the Paul Hamilton which also carried a volatile cargo of high explosives and bombs. The ship simply disappeared from the surface of the sea after a violent explosion which threw debris hundreds of feet high into the air. A total of 580 men (47 Merchant Marine crew, 29 Armed Guards and 504 Army Air Force personnel, including 154 men of the 831st Squadron, lost their lives) There were no survivors, only one body was ever recovered, that of 2nd. Lt. Austin Anderle. This was the largest casualty list of any Liberty ship during the war. During the same action, the escort destroyer USS Landsdale was sunk with a loss of 47 lives. Another ship was sunk and two more damaged bringing the total deaths in this disaster to 627.
LEOPOLDVILLE
(December 24, 1944)
An 11,509 ton Belgian troopship carrying US soldiers across the English Channel to France, a trip she had done twenty four times before. On this Christmas Eve the ship carried 2,235 men of the US 64th Infantry Regiment of the US 66th Infantry Division which had left New York on November 14th. The troops were to relieve the 94th Division already fighting the "Battle of the Bulge". When the ship was about five miles from Cherbourg, a torpedo fired from the German U-boat the U-486 ( Oblt. Gerhard Meyer) hit the ship which sank soon after. Official records put the number of men lost at 802. The 66th Infantry Division alone, lost 14 officers and 748 men, but the exact number is not known due to the hurried departure at 9am from Pier 38 at Southhampton and the unorganized boarding procedures. As no life jackets were issued, the men of the Leopoldville died in the freezing 48 degree waters of the English Channel. Most of her crew, Africans from the Belgian Congo, took off in the lifeboats, deserting the troops on board. Her commander, Captain Limbor, was the only officer lost. The few survivors were rescued by the escort destroyer HMS Brilliant and transferred to the St. Nazaire/Lorient area but 493 bodies were never found, presumably going down with the ship. The wreck of the Leopoldville lies on her port side in 180 feet of water in a remarkable state of preservation, in an area now used for testing nuclear submarines. The Allied Governments covered up the story of the tragedy for over 50 years, relatives being told simply that their loved ones were 'Killed in Action'. In 1996, Britain de-classified the files relating to the disaster. A memorial to the Leopoldville can be seen at Sacrifice Field at Fort Benning in Georgia, dedicated on November 7, 1997.
Against the Japanese, I found the following troopship disasters (more than 100 dead), the worst being the British one. I have not listed the numerous British troopship losses agaisnt the Germans.
CAPE SAN JUAN
(November 11, 1943)
U.S. freighter torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-21. The ship was sailing from San Francisco to Townsville, Australia, with 49 crew, 41 gunners and 1,348 US Army troops on board. Sixteen men were killed when the torpedo hit and a further 114 drowned while they abandoned ship. The liberty ship Edwin T. Meredith picked up 443 survivors and brought them to Noumea, in New Caledonia. The survivors rescued by the destroyer USS McCalla were transferred to the USS Dempsey for medical care before being transported to Suva in the Fiji Islands. Attempts to scuttle the Cape San Juan with gunfire failed and the ship remained afloat for another two days before sinking on the 13th.
KHEDIVE ISMAIL
(February 12, 1944)
Egyptian transport of 7,513 tons requisitioned as a troopship while docked at Bombay in 1940. The ship was carrying 1,511 people including 178 ships crew, 996 men of the 301st Field Regiment, East African Artillery, 271 Royal Navy personnel and a detachment of 19 British Wrens. Also on board were 53 nursing sisters with one matron and 9 WTS girls (Women's Transport Service). While enroute from Mobasa, Africa, to Colombo, Ceylon, in convoy KR-8, the ship was torpedoed in the Indian Ocean. It took only 1 minute 40 seconds for the ship to sink taking 1,297 of her passengers and crew with her. There were only 214 survivors from the vessel, a victim of the Japanese submarine I-27 commanded by Lt-Cdr Fukumura. The I-27 was then blown apart by torpedoes fired from two of the escort destroyers, HMS Petard and HMS Paladin.
THOMAS NELSON
(November 20, 1944)
US merchant ship, at anchor with twenty other ships in Dulag Bay, was attacked by a Japanese suicide plane that had dived through a barrage of anti-aircraft fire to crash on her deck. The explosion and fire caused the deaths of some 140 US army enlisted men, navy gunners and merchant navy crewmen.
KYLE V. JOHNSON
(January 12, 1945)
US Liberty ship enroute to Lingayan Gulf in convoy when the convoy was attacked off the west coast of Luzon by six or seven Japanese suicide planes. One of the kamikazes crashed into the starboard side of the Johnson and ploughed its way through the steel hull and into the lower hold crowded with hundreds of US troops. The Johnson did not sink but after the fires were extinguished she managed to rejoin the convoy. In her lower hold were 129 dead men. The Kyle V Johnson survived the war and was scrapped in 1975 at Panama City.
