As many as 7,000 lost their lives, making it Britain's worst sea . May 1936. RMS Lancastria, Death Toll: 4,000-6,500. Hold No. She was 578 ft. in length and 16,000 gross tons, designed to accommodate 2,200 passengers in three classes. Copyright Historic UK Ltd. Company Registered in England No. Though buried in WWII history, the sinking of the Lancastria reminds us of the sacrifices and loss of thousands of men, women, and children during the war. When Nazi planes dropped their bombs, Walter and Charlie were separated in the chaos. Both the 20,000 ton liner Oronsay and the Franconia were damaged by bombs and strafing, the former had her bridge devastated while the damaged Franconia was able to limp back to England for repairs. Much of this proved heart-breaking as one family were told weeks laterthat their son, previously reported as a survivor, had instead been listed as one of the missing. The British press did then cover the story, including front pages of the Daily Herald (also on 26 July) and Sunday Express on 4 August; the latter included a photograph of the capsized ship with its upturned hull lined with men under the headline "Last Moments of the Greatest Sea Tragedy of All Time". The Lancastria was tasked to bring them home. The government feared what the news would do the British nation in the midst of its darkest hour. Rudolf Sharpe survived the sinking and went on to command the Laconia, losing his life along with many Italian prisoners-of-war on 12 September 1942 when the ship was torpedoed off West Africa, rolling over, and sinking stern first. Many other survivors were machine-gunned in the water by the German planes. The D-notice, or Defence Notice, also called DA-notice (Defence Advisory Notice), was a unique British government instruction devised in 1912. Whatever the case, this event likely remains the largest single-ship loss of life in British maritime history, more than the RMS Titanic, which had an estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard and suffered over 1,500 fatalities. Many years later, I was asked by my father, Oliver Gleasure (Irish Guards) to find the book, so he could gift it to my uncle. It is thought this dog may have belonged to two refugee children, who had boarded the Lancastria after walking through Belgium and France for weeks with the animal. The people living in the area, found bodies washed up on the beaches for weeks after the disaster. She was bombed at 15:48 by Junkers 88 aircraft from II. Eventually, newspapers in New York broke the story at the end of July - five weeks after the disaster. [23] The ship sank at 16:12, within twenty minutes of being hit,[26] which gave little time for other vessels to respond. Captain Sharp estimated 5,500, but one Royal Engineer officer was told that there were more than 7,200 persons aboard. To the glory of God, in proud memory of more than 4,000 who died and in commemoration of the people of Saint Nazaire and surrounding districts who saved many lives, tended wounded and gave a Christian burial to victims. A number of survivors reported that one bomb had gone down the ship's single funnel which is most likely, given the speed with which the ship sank about 1520 minutes. She was two and a half when the ship was attacked. All rights reserved. Many others died from hypothermia, inhaling fuel oil on the surface or drowning. Churchills D-Notice asked all media outlets not to publish any information on the Lancastria sinking. people who designed and built them. A transcript and podcast are available from The National Archives website. 2 held about 800 RAF personnel. Lancastria Association names 1,738 people known to have been killed. She was refitted for just two classes and renamed Lancastria in 1924, after passengers complained that they could not properly pronounce Tyrrhenia. S.S. "LANCASTRIA" : Lists of R.A.F. Lancastria was attacked, apparently by five Junkers Ju 88 dive bombers, and the ship capsized, and sank within twenty minutes mid-afternoon on June 17 off the French port of St. Nazaire. The service, which is attended by survivors and relatives of both victims and survivors together with representatives of the French and Scottish Governments and a number of veterans organisations and is held on the closest Saturday to the anniversary of 17 June each year at St. George's West Church, Edinburgh. There are a number of Commonwealth war graves (some with named dead soldiers from the Pioneer Corps but many commemorated as unknown) in fishing ports on the French islands of le de R and le d'Olron (cemeteries at Saint-Martin-de-R, Saint-Trojan-les-Bains, Saint-Clment-des-Baleines, Ars-en-R and others) with graves dated 17 June 1940. [55], In October 2011, the Lancastria Association of Scotland has erected a memorial to the victims on the site where the ship was built, the former Dalmuir shipyard at Clydebank, Glasgow, now the grounds of the Golden Jubilee Hospital. Captain Sharp estimated he had loaded 5,500 people, but his officers put the count at nearer 7,200. She was originally sent to Quiberon Bay as part of Operation Aerial, which was the evacuation of the remainder of the British Expeditionary Force which had been cut-off to the south of the German advance through France, amounting to some 124,000 men, mostly logistic support troops, from various ports in western France. The ships captain was instructed to take on as many passengers as possible, so estimates for the number of souls aboard on June 17 range between 5,000 and 7,000. She sailed scheduled routes from Liverpool to New York until 1932, and was then used as a cruise ship in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe. Why don't they recognise it? British Expeditionary Force troops back to Britain. The Lancastria Association Victim registers 1,738 deaths. Not a member of the Naval Institute? About 124,000 troops were assembling and the Admiralty had dispatched some 30 merchant vessels of all sizes to the rescue. [3] It is the greatest ever loss of life in the sinking of a single British ship, claiming more lives than the combined losses of the RMS Titanic (1,523 passengers and crew) and RMS . Many lifeboats could not be launched as they had been damaged, and there were only 2,500 life jackets on board. RMS Lancastria was a British ocean liner requisitioned by the UK Government during the Second World War. Many men jumped into the sea wearing life jackets and broke their necks when they hit the water, others were killed as they hit the hull of the ship. Lancastria survivor Charles Napier with a copy of the newspaper which reported the news of the Lancastria sinking. casualties and survivors with related. Even then, the British newspapers toed the patriotic line. . In his memoirs, Churchill stated that he had intended to release the news a few days later, but that events in France "crowded upon us so black and so quickly that I forgot to lift the ban". The Lancastria was carrying up to 9,000 troops when it was bombed by German planes and sunk outside the port on 17 June 1940. A senior lecturer in British politics at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris, Thibaud Harrois, said that the German advances in 1940 caught almost everyone by surprise and led to the Battle of Dunkirk. RMS Lancastria (centre) at Funchal, Madeira, c. 1930. [27] According to Jonathan Fenby in his book The Sinking of the Lancastria, the German aircraft strafed survivors in the water. The Lancastria Tragedy: Sinking and Cover-Up, June 1940. Lancastria was hit by three or possibly four bombs. RMS Lancastria In the article there is this paragraph: When German aircraft began strafing survivors in the water [citation needed], the fuel oil which had leaked into the sea ignited, and was quickly transformed into a flaming inferno [citation needed]. This was the date on which, the RMS Lancastria was sunk off the French port of Nantes, with an unknown loss of life. It is the worst single loss of life in British maritime history and the bloodiest single engagement for UK Chapter 5 focuses on the actual sinking of the Lancastria while Chapter 11 focuses on its aftermath. The MoD has said it does not plan to send a representative to France. He passed away four years ago, the last Scottish survivor to die. Four chapters are personal accounts from survivors or their close relatives. This page was last edited on 18 June 2018, at 16:21. The medal ribbon has a grey background with a red and black central stripe, representative of the ship's wartime and merchant marine colours. If you don't have an account please register. RMS was a sign of distinction and quality. [21], At 13:50, during an air-raid, the nearby Oronsay, a 20,000-ton Orient Liner, was hit on the bridge by a German bomb. 2: Their Finest Hour , Geoffrey Bonds 1959 Lancastria, John Wests 1988 The Loss of Lancastria, Brian Crabbs 2002 The Forgotten Tragedy: The Story of the Loss of HMT Lancastria, Jonathan Fenbys 2005 The Sinking of the Lancastria: Britains Greatest Maritime Disaster and Churchills Cover-up, Jacques Perruchon and Jacques Leroux 2005 Juin 1940 sur les ctes charentaises: ces trangers qui ont refus notre dfaite, Hugh Sebag-Montefiores 2006 The Sinking of the Lancastria in Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man, Jonathan Fenby and James Goodes 2008 The Sinking of the Lancastria, John Hanleys 2013 The Last Boat, Chair of the HMT Lancastria Association Raye Dancocks 2011 The Lancastria a Secret Sacrifice in World War Two, Graham Frasers 2015 Lancastria: The forgotten tragedy of World War Two, and the Lancastria Archive. [19] By the mid-afternoon of 17 June she had embarked an unknown number (estimates range from 4,000 up to 9,000)[4] line-of-communication troops (including Pioneer and Royal Army Service Corps soldiers) and Royal Air Force personnel, together with about forty civilian refugees, including embassy staff and employees of Fairey Aviation of Belgium with their families. The Lancastria, a pre-war Cunard cruise liner, was requisitioned by the Admiralty and turned in to a war-time troop ship. We place some essential cookies on your device to make this website work. We have not forgotten. Help us improve catalogue descriptions by adding tags. You can order records in advance to be ready for you when you visit Kew. No one can be sure of just how many lives were lost in the attack; she had spent all the morning embarking as many people as she could and estimates range from there being 5,000 to 9,000 people on board, of which less than 2,500 survived. Many will then travel to France for the service at Saint-Nazaire on Wednesday, with no major event planned in the UK. However, therewas no such light-heartedness for 800 RAF personnel of the ranks. [32] In 2005, Fenby wrote that estimates of the death toll vary from fewer than 4,000 to 6,500 people although it is also estimated that as many as 7,000 people perished, the largest loss of life in British maritime history, sometimes it is considered the second worst loss of life at sea (though with the estimates of the worst shipwrecks like the Goya also being 7,000, it is unknown which is worse. Many . A large number of men who jumped over the side were killed by hitting the side of the hull or had their necks broken by their life jackets on impact with the water. They question why, after all this time, the area of the sinking - which is in French waters - is not designated a British war memorial site. [44], The missing British military dead from the sinking of Lancastria (those whose bodies were not recovered or were unable to be identified) are commemorated on a number of Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorials (those identified were buried in cemeteries and are marked with Commission headstones). On Saturday, 13 June, relatives of those who were on the Lancastria will gather for a ceremony at the Scottish memorial at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, near to where the ship was built. Read tagging guidelines. It was used until 1993, when the name was changed to DSMA-Notice (Defence and Security Media Advisory Notice). German bombing raids shifted the focus away from the sea and onto the mainland, and the nations attention also shifted to fresh challenges and atrocities. Even when coupled with the sinking of the RMS Lusitania off the south coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915 by German which killed 1,195, leaving 761 survivorsLancastria would apparently exceed the combined death total. "Nearly 2,500 are known to have been saved - and more may be in enemy hands - from a total 5300 aboard the transport Lancastria, which, it was admitted in London yesterday, was sunk on June 17 by the enemy during the evacuation of the BEF from France,' it read. She was the sister ship of RMS Cameronia that Beardmore's had built for the same customer the previous year. Naval Documents of the American Revolution, - Naval Documents of the American Revolution, A History of the Naval Historical Foundation. Mark - a former broadcast journalist and co-founder of the Lancastria Association of Scotland - has studied the life of his grandfather Walter Hirst, who survived the sinking. [56][57] The site of Lancastria wreck lies in French territorial waters and is therefore ineligible for protection under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986; however, at the request of the British Government, in 2006 the French authorities gave the site legal protection as a war grave. The testimony of an engineering officer, Frank Brogden, who was in the engine room at the time contradicts this. Jun 17 1940 Sinking of the RMS Lancastria A fresh air raid began before 4 pm. The RMS Lancastria was a British Cunard liner sunk by enemy action on 17 June 1940 with the loss of an estimated 4,000 plus lives. [28], Survivors were taken aboard other British and Allied evacuation vessels, the trawler HMTCambridgeshire rescuing 900. The loss of the LANCASTRIA was also the most . Only about 2,500 people survived in the largest single loss of life. [4] Many families of the dead knew only that they died with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF); the death toll accounted for roughly a third of the total losses of the BEF in France. Though more people died on the Lancastria than on Titanic and Lusitania combined, the story is little more than a footnote in the history of WWII. We'd like to use additional cookies to remember your settings and understand how you use our services. They included Pioneer and Royal Army Service Corps, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Royal Engineers, and Royal Air Force personnel, some Polish and Czech troops, civilian refugees, embassy staff, employees of Fairey Aviation of Belgium and their families. The initial cover up at the time of the war is perhaps understandable, because it could be used as propaganda by the Germans. [48], Lancastria is represented at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire by a sessile oak tree and a plaque. She was sunk on 17 June 1940 during Operation Aerial. Because of the losses of the other requisitioned transports, Captain Sharp postulated, based on the figure of 2,653 men he had rescued during Operation Alphabet that his ship could accommodate 3,000 persons. "When we have tried, they (the government) have said it (documents on the Lancastria) are secret. My late uncle Richard Gleasure, an aircraft technician, was due to be on the SS Lancastria, rescue ship , but as his air force colleges were leaving with a full aircraft, several yelled to him to RUN, Quick,, as they then pulled him onto an already taxing plane through the floor door, he was saved. VideoOn board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry, I didnt think make-up was made for black girls, Why there is serious money in kitchen fumes. "[50], In June 2008, the first batch of commemorative medals was presented to survivors and relatives of victims and survivors; the HMT Lancastria Commemorative Medal, which represented "official Scottish Government recognition" of the Lancastria disaster. This web publication contains 154,528 pages of Raye Dancocks explains . privacy policy, Need more context? Almost 50 years later, a memorial was erected in St. Nazaire, reading: Opposite this place lies the wreck of the troopship Lancastria sunk by enemy action on 17 June 1940 whilst embarking British troops and civilians during the evacuation of France. Other soldiers, meanwhile, performed acts of bravery and helped civilians while there was "no panic". The U.S. Those who survived the incident were instructed not to speak about their experience. "[30] Rudolph Sharp survived the sinking and went on to command the RMSLaconia, losing his life on 12 September 1942 in the Laconia incident off West Africa. In 1924 she was refitted for two classes and renamed Lancastria after passengers complained that they could not properly pronounce Tyrrhenia; (viz: RP /tjurini/ as per the crew's nickname of the ship: the "Old Soup Tureen". After receiving news of the Lancastria disaster, Churchill had placed a D-notice on the incident, forbidding any knowledge of the sinking reaching an already demoralized public. Late in the afternoon, the Germans launched another air raid. However, he was told to embark as many as possible. Wynn has previously authored and co-authored books for the Your Towns & Cities in the Great War series published by Pen & Sword in addition to half a dozen non-fiction books and crime thrillers.. They had no chance because the ship went down in 15 minutes. Some survivors claimed that a bomb had gone straight down a funnel, others thought bombs hit No, 4, 2, and 3 holds. The British government had requisitioned the Cunard ocean liner to continue bringing British Expeditionary Force troops back to Britain following the evacuation of Dunkirk. Required fields are marked *. Harrois went on to say that when history looks at the retreat in 1940, the evacuation of Dunkirk is the undertaking that most remember. text of this web site is available under the Creative The Lancastria was a Cunard Anchor Line ocean liner built by William Beardmore and Company and launched on the 31st of May 1920. LANCASTRIA (June 17, 1940) The loss of the Lancastria was the fourth largest maritime disaster of the war. About 4,000 men, women and children lost their lives when the Lancastria sank 20 minutes after it was bombed by the Germans near the French port of Saint-Nazaire on 17 June 1940. 2023 BBC. The rest were rescued under continued air attack by the devotion of the small craft.. Information about the Lancastria sinking might be restricted by the Official Secrets Act. Launched on the Clyde, Scotland, in 1920 by William Beardmore and Co as the Tyrrhenia for the Anchor Line, a subsidiary of Cunard, the 16,243 ton, 578 foot long liner could carry 2,200 passengers in three classes. They were told that release under the FOIA would not be given because of several exemptions. The ship's official capacity was 2,200 including the 375 man crew. A third boat had its bottom stoved in by landing too fast. [52] The inscription on the rear of the medal reads: "In recognition of the ultimate sacrifice of the 4000 victims of Britain's worst-ever maritime disaster and the endurance of survivors We will remember them". At the same time, many soldiers fought a fierce rear-guard. Many drowned, were choked by the oil, or were shot by the strafing German aircraft. Walter managed to hold on before the animal disappeared. The Mr Napier is also wearing the Lancastria commemorative medal which was awarded by the Scottish Government in June 2008 in recognition of those who were aboard the vessel that day. Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. "But the lack of recognition and acknowledgement in the subsequent years that has left many survivors and relatives of victims feeling their sacrifice was worth less than the big heroic events of the Second World War.".
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