One of the most tragic stories from World War Two, occured on Christmas Eve, 1944. On that night, 2,235 men from the 66th Infantry Division embarked on board the Belgian troopship Leopoldville at Southhampton, England for the journey across the English Channel to Cherbourg, France.

A few minutes before 6:00PM, A German submarine, U-486, fired one torpedo that struck the Leopoldville on her starboard side. Even though his ship was only 5 nautical miles from Cherbourg, the Captain of the Leopoldville anchored his ship rather than try to make port. Her crew began to abandon ship while the troops of the 66th Infantry Division remained in the troop compartments not knowing that the ship was sinking.

At around 7:00PM, the British destroyer, HMS Brilliant, started to remove men from the ship . Other destroyers who had been escorting the Leopoldville, were late in arriving for the rescue operations because of their futile search for U-486. Because it was Christmas Eve, resuce vessels from Cherbourg were scarce and very late in coming. At 8:30, the Leopoldville sank by the stern to the bottom of the English Channel.

There are conflicting reports of how many men died as a result of the lateness of the rescue and the cold winter seas. Some reports indicate that 763 men died while others put it much higher at around 980 or more. Another factor in this tragedy was that since the Leopoldville had made many crossing without incident, her crew became complacent and failed to drill the troops of the 66th Infantry Division in emergency procedures, life boat assignments, and the locations of life jackets. Until she was sunk, the Leopoldville had transported over 125,000 soldiers of the Allied forces.