A fact from MS Sinfra appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 16 September 2015 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that when the cargo ship Sinfra was bombed by Allied aircraft in 1943, the German guards machine-gunned the thousands of Italian prisoners on board when they tried to escape the sinking vessel?
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Currently the first paragraph of the section MS Sinfra#Sinking reads as:
On 18 October 1943, 2,389 Italian prisoners were loaded in the cargo hold of Sinfra to be transported to Piraeus on the Greek mainland. There were 204 Germans on board the ship, as well as a cargo of bombs. ... The number of dead is disputed, with estimates ranging from 1,857 or 2,098 killed, up to 5,000 dead. Amongst the survivors were 597 Italians, 197 Germans and 13 Greeks. Some 3% of the Germans on board died in the sinking, while according to conservative estimates close to 77% of the Italians perished.
I do not have access to these sources, so I cannot check for myself. But I am very curious about this '5,000 dead' claim. Is there a source that suggests there were actually double the number of prisoners on board than that quoted at the start of the paragraph?
On a separate point, the second paragraph reads:
The ship had insufficient safety equipment in relation to the number of people on board. ... While rescue efforts were going on, a No. 603 Squadron RAF Bristol Beaufighter strafed a German Dornier Do 24 flying boat which was participating in the rescue. The Do 24 later sank. During the ship's sinking, the German guards on board locked the prisoners in the holds and threw hand grenades at them.
In the overall context of the narrative, I assume that "the ship" I have bolded refers to the Sinfra, but as it comes directly after "The Do 24 later sank", it is quite confusing. I think the sentence should clarify which ship is being referred to. AtHomeIn神戸 (talk) 00:29, 17 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed, that from the figures provided it doesn't appear that there were anywhere near 5,000 people aboard the MS Sinfra. If so, the number of dead could not be close to 5,000 unless that number includes people aboard other ships who died as a result of the English attack on the convoy and the actions of the German guards. Evidently the English also attacked while rescue operations were underway and may have caused additional deaths at that time. More research is needed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.162.249.170 (talk) 00:53, 17 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
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