The sinking of the troopship Leopoldville on Christmas Eve 1944 resulted in the loss of nearly 800 US servicemen in the icy waters of the English Channel - just 5 miles off the coast of Cherbourg France, and relatively few Americans have ever heard of the tragedy. That is because the military feared that news of the losses would hurt morale, and so all of the survivors were instructed to keep the a secret. Many of the families that lost a loved one that night - did not learn the circumstances of how their family member died - until records were finally made public in the 1990's.