‘AS IF THEY WERE ANGELS’
Darien native tells story of World War II shipwrecks and father’s survival
DARIEN — In 1942, the late Henry “Hank” Strauss left his small apartment in Greenwich Village with his seabag over his shoulder.
Strauss was a first class seaman, and he was to be stationed on the Pollux, a Navy ship, at the start of World War II.
Little did he know, not long after, he’d be tucking a photo of his wife, Joan, into a life jacket to make sure she knew he was thinking of her as he drew his last breath.
On the last trip, not long after Pearl Harbor, Feb. 17, 1942, boats called the Wilkes and the Truxton were assigned to escort the Pollux through waters that might have contained German U Boats.
The crew of Wilkes, escorting the Pollux, recorded a wrong directional signal. The boats ultimately headed into a vicious storm. Strauss described it with hail, snow and high winds, with “no sights.”
A combination of miscommunication by the Wilkes crew, the weather, and the cold impacting the ship’s navigation systems led to the worst — the Pollux hit a 200-foot cliff at approximately 4 a.m.
Further along the coast, the Truxton had also collided with land.
Above them, the small mining towns of St. Lawrence and Lawn, Newfoundland — which would prove to be the home to “angels” for many of the survivors.
Darien resident Jan Raymond and her sister, former Darien resident, Terry Strauss, said their father, Henry, had kept the details of the shipwreck to himself for years.
Raymond was born on the one-year anniversary of the shipwrecks and her parents didn’t tell her that at first.
She said she watched “Victory at Sea” all the time with her father and he never spoke about it — until Raymond was in eighth grade.
The sisters knew their father had been in a shipwreck and had long-time impact from frost bite in his toes — details came out in bits and pieces.
A book about the shipwrecks came out in 1979 but Terry Strauss said interestingly, it was not released initially in the United States. This led to conversations starting about the shipwrecks.
The book, “Standing into Danger” by Cassie Brown, was well-researched, Strauss said, and she got in touch with many of the survivors.
The rescue
Members of the Truxton crew reached the shore and tied a rope to a rock. Two of them were able to scale the 300-foot frozen cliff using only their elbows and knees as their hands were frostbitten, and Ed Bergeron set on foot to find help. Ninety minutes later he located a mining shack.
What happened next was a force that can only be described as herculean. Residents of the two small mining and fishing villages banned together and sprang into rescue mode. The mine was closed down and all the 150 to 200 miners spent the days orchestrating a rescue operation.
Rescuers described the scene — sailors had to swim against the current rough conditions, through spilled oil. Many of them were young men in the early 20’s — some crying for their mother.
The sailors holding on to the hull of the boats also were reluctant to swim for it and rescuers urged them to get through.
Each time the sea waved over the ship, there were a few less holding on.
Betty Anne Drake, the niece of one of the rescuers, said the toughness of the residents of St. Lawrence and Lawn, having dealt with poverty and living off the land, and the need to survive helped instill in them the determination to rescue these men.
Once they reached the beach, the rescuers used ropes to pull the men up the 300-foot cliff.
Henry Strauss was certain he was going to drown. He kept going under and those trying to save him kept losing the rope due to the oil spill making it slippery.
Finally, the rescuers realized the only way to get Strauss up was to use one of the rescuer’s bodies as a “winch,” turning the rope around his body.
Eventually, just over 200 survivors were rescued. On the Truxton, 46 out of 110 were recovered. The Pollux lost 93 crew members and 140 were rescued.
Darryl Rogers, a cousin of one of the rescuers,
said it was unfortunate that they went ashore, but it was fortunate they went ashore in Newfoundland.
“You’re talking harsh climates? These men were the harshest of men. They grew up in these climates. They knew what they were getting into,” he said.
Women also played a critical part in the rescues — who responded with blankets, food and medicine. They comforted the freezing men with hot rocks and tried to wash off the oil.
The men were taken into homes in the villages to be fed and cared for while awaiting the Navy
pick up.
Strauss describe the people of Newfoundland as “unbelievable.”
“They had taken such incredible risks to save us,” he said.
The documentary
When the towns of St. Lawrence and Lawn invited the survivors back “home” 46 years later, in 1988, Terry Strauss accompanied her parents to document the events which would later become part of the film.
The motorcade was accompanied by “Any vehicle that had wheels in this town” according to one resident. It was led by fire trucks. The entire towns were also decorated from one end to the other with Christmas lights — in August.
Strauss said the reunion was “extraordinary.”
She said both towns had been holding memorials every year for the shipwrecks since the end of World War II on Feb. 18.
“It so important to those towns, and the children of those towns. We were really fortunate survivors and rescuers were still alive. The mines were not ventilated, and safety precautions were not strong,” Strauss said.
She said at the moment of the reunion, both the rescuer and the survivor thought of each other as the hero.
“I knew I had to make a film,” Strauss said.
She also pointed out that a lot of those who lost loved ones never understood the true circumstance of the shipwreck from the Navy and many of those lost are buried in unmarked graves.
Strauss described the impact of the two shipwrecks on the towns as multi-generational. There are two roads in St. Lawrence named for the two lost ships, Truxton and Pollux Roads.
The film, “... As If They Were Angels,” shows survivors going back to the scene of the shipwreck and recalling the details of the rescue.
One survivor, Lanier Phillips, recalled his concern as the women
cleaned the oil off his skin that they would realize he was Black and turn him away or prioritize his fellow white sailors, given what he had been used to in the United States at that time. But if anything, he said it was the opposite.
“They did more than save my life. This entire community showed me that I was being treated like a human being and not a Black man,” Phillips said.
During the documentary, Joan is filmed personally thanking the man who rescued Henry, Jimmy Drake, and introduces Terry, behind the camera, saying she wouldn’t “have her,” if he hadn’t rescued Henry.
In the film, Henry Strauss thanked the communities for what he called a rebirth for those who survived the shipwreck.
Strauss’ father, Henry, after living in Darien for 60 years, died in 2013 in California at the age of 98. Her mother, Joan, died in 2011 at the age of 94.
Despite the shipwreck, Strauss never lost his love of sailing. He sailed all over the world, according to his daughters, and was a member of Noroton Yacht Club. It was one of the reasons the family settled in Darien.
Strauss completed the film in 2018, 30 years after the reunion. She’s held screenings in St. Lawrence and Lawn, and it’s been broad cast in Canada and at other screenings.
The film was an official selection of the Heartland International Film Festival, LA Femme International Film Festival, and Mill Valley Film Festival.
She said the reaction has been both laughter and tears, as well as inspiration.
Terry Strauss said she feels the point of the film is “We are all capable of being people like that.”
She said the film inspires people to believe this “is what we can do and who can be for the sake of people we don’t even know, its connected to the caring and the humanity in each of us.
“That’s really the story — that it gets told. Many people say to me it’s more important to have this story now more than ever,” she said
“I knew I had to do it. I feel it was a gift to be able to do it. I feel I was very fortunate,” she said.
“... As If They Were Angels,” can be viewed in iTunes, Google Play and Amazon.