HMHS Rewa (His Majesty's Hospital ship) was a steamship originally built for the British-India Steam Navigation Company, but requisitioned for use as a British hospital ship during the First World War. On 4 January 1918, she was hit and sunk by a torpedo from the German U-boat U-55.
On 4 January 1918, Rewa was returning to Britain from Malta with 279 wounded officers aboard. Neutral inspectors from Spain had boarded the ship in Gibraltar to confirm that she had no military function. At 11:15, she was hit by a torpedo 19 mi (31 km) off Hartland Point. The ship took around two hours to sink, allowing all wounded and ship's crew to board lifeboats except for the four engine men who died in the initial explosion.
The sinking of the ship caused outrage in Britain. The German high command denied sinking the ship, instead blaming the explosion on a loose British mine. However, German naval command had entered "total war" in a desperate effort to win the war. In implementing total war, the naval command secretly ordered U-boat captains to sink any Allied ship, including hospital ships, even though it violated Hague Convention X. However, the captain of U-55 Wilhelm Werner — perhaps fearing the consequences of his actions — wrote in the ship's log that he sank a cargo vessel and not a brightly lit and painted hospital ship. After the war, Wilhelm Werner was hunted by Allied command in an effort to charge him for war crimes, but he disappeared, thus avoiding a trial.
I have finally faced it
the well is dry
and we're not gonna make it
out of this war alive
he brings me close and says to me
lets make this a happy ending
and try to stay friends
but you see
if this love affair was happy
then it would not end
And I don't wanna be
one of your friends
if we must break up
then that's where it ends
So please don't come around
bringing me down
listening for your love
I don't hear a sound
please don't come around
bringing me down
tossin' and turnin'
my smile's upside down
Don't invite me out to dinner
don't call me on the phone
you wanted to leave me baby
so won't you leave me alone
And I don't wanna be
one of your friends
if we must break up
then that's where it ends
So please don't come around
bringing me down
listening for your love
I don't hear a sound
please don't come around
bringing me down
tossin' and turnin'
my smile's upside down
It's all or nothing
we'll be one or none
right now you need to know
that I cannot begin again
after what just happened
this ain't no tv show
my heart's completely broke
so...
please don't come around
bringing me down
tossin' and turnin'
my smile's upside down
So please don't come around
bringing me down
and i miss your love baby
and i miss your lovin'
so stay away, staw away, stay away from me
please don't come around
bringing me down
tossin' and turnin'
my smile's upside down