She sailed scheduled routes between Liverpool and New York until 1932, and was then used as a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea and Northern Europe. The French had a front row seat to the destruction, but the British people were kept in the dark. "[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 147,919 pages of Finding that she was not required for the evacuation from Lorient, the captain of Lancastria, Rudolph Sharp, was sent on towards the port of St. Nazaire, where many more troops were waiting to be lifted, On the way, an air raid damaged Franconia which returned to England for repairs, leaving Lancastria to continue alone. The government feared what the news would do the British nation in the midst of its darkest hour. The notifications are not legally enforceable; hence, news editors could choose not to abide by them but, generally, accede to these notices. And at15:55 on the 17 June the first bombs fell almost simultaneouslyfrom a German bomber causing theLancastriato catch fire and capsize; hundreds would have been killed immediately whilst others struggled in the oil-coveredsea.In a act of pure evil JU 88s weremachine-gunning survivors from the air many of them women and children but amidst the carnage smaller vessels did their best to assist,the anti-submarine trawlerCambridgeshirepicking up no less than 900. About 124,000 troops were assembling and the Admiralty had dispatched some 30 merchant vessels of all sizes to the rescue. On the morning of May 1st 1915 the Lusitania left New York behind. The ship was launched in 1920 as Tyrrhenia by William Beardmore and Company of Glasgow on the River Clyde for Anchor Line, a subsidiary of Cunard. Butas we all look forward to life nearing normality again, some folks will be mulling over normalquestions such aswho will win the Premier League orthe Scottish Premiership, whilst somethoughts may be of a moreexistential nature, i.e, what is life?and where are we going?, etc. May 1936. Lancastria - Remembrance And what do those touched by the catastrophe want now? "No amount of spin can turn the story of the Lancastria into something triumphant.". [49] The day of the 75th anniversary of the loss of Lancastria was marked in the Westminster Parliament on 17 June 2015 at Prime Minister's Questions by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, who was standing in for the Prime Minister. RMS Lancastria (later HMT Lancastria) was a British Cunard liner commandeered by the UK Government for war, sunk on 17 June 1940 during World War II sending 4,000 people to their deaths, possibly many more. Chapter 5 focuses on the actual sinking of the Lancastria while Chapter 11 focuses on its aftermath. Many survivors perished from hypothermia or suffocated on fuel oil. Quite enough disaster for today. In an anecdote somewhat buried in his Memoirs of the Second World War, Prime Minister Winston Churchill recounts a frightful incident that occurred on June 17, 1940. Furthermore, some believe the British government have not revealed all documentary evidence of what happened. The The British government had requisitioned the Cunard ocean liner to continue bringing British Expeditionary Force troops back to Britain following the evacuation of Dunkirk. 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. RMS Lancastria Cunard 1940617 4000 Titanic Lusitania [ ] She was sunk on 17 June 1940 during Operation Aerial. Nevertheless, within hours of disembarking troops at Liverpool on June 14th, Lancastria was reassigned, along with the 20,341 gross tons liner Franconia, to Operation Aerial, the evacuation of British civilians, embassy staff, and support troops from France. Churchill even admitted he forgot to lift the D-Notice because events crowded upon us so black and so quickly. That D-Notice is not set to expire for another twenty years. Late in the afternoon, the Germans launched another air raid. I think Churchill was right when he said 'we don't broadcast this'. Official commemorations of those lost during the disaster were long in coming. The French Government recently placed an exclusion zone around the wreck site. [25] As Lancastria began to capsize, some of those who were still on board managed to scramble onto the ship's underside. [54] Scouting Ireland's national campsite Larch Hill has an anchor memorial to Lancastria, commemorating the legacy of the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland's pilgrimage in 1932. British Expeditionary Force troops back to Britain. This list of sources is concerning as there are at least a dozen sources that would have provided additional information to flesh-out his brief narrative, namely Winston Churchills 1949 The Second World War, Vol. Lancastria Association of Scotland made a further request in 2009. The British Government has refused to make the site a war grave under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 although documents obtained under the Freedom of Information show that it could be done. [51] The front of the medal depicts Lancastria with the text "HMT Lancastria 17th June 1940". [2] She was the sister ship of RMS Cameronia that Beardmore's had built for the same customer the previous year. Two chapters briefly detail the extraction of Allied forces from Europe in Operations Cycle (Le Havre, France), Operation Dynamo (Dunkirk); and Operation Aerial (St. Nazaire, Nantes, Cherbourg, and seven other French ports). Having received an emergency order to evacuate British nationals and troops from France the ship was loaded well in excess of its capacity of 1,300 passengers. RMS Lancastria: 17 June 1940. | Liverpool Ships and Sailors RMS Lancastria and Operation Chariot memorials, St Nazaire. Survivors mark secret wartime disaster that killed 7,000 troops In fact the casualty figures, especiallyin perspective, are moreshocking and although 59 merchant seamen were lost on theLancastria(4), 126 merchant sailors perishedduring the whole of the previous fortnights Dunkirk evacuation. With the outbreak of the Second World War, she carried cargo before being requisitioned in April 1940 as a troopship, becoming the HMT Lancastria. It reformed in 1981 as The HMT Lancastria Association and continues the tradition of a parade and remembrance service at the Church of St Katharine Cree in the City of London, where there is a memorial stained glass window. Other British newspapers then covered the story, including the Daily Herald (also on 26 July), which carried the story on its front page, and Sunday Express on 4 August; the latter included a photograph of the capsized ship with her upturned hull lined with men under the headline "Last Moments of the Greatest Sea Tragedy of All Time". "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. The captain said that he would be able to take 3,000 at a pinch. [39][a] In the face of continued campaigning by relatives, the MoD stated in 2015 that all known documents had long since been released through the National Archives. (accessed 30.05.2020), 5)www.lancastria.org.uk(2019)We will remember them(accessed 02.06.2020), 6) The Independent (p.4 16.06.2015)Families still refused memorial. [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. Ushered down to decks E and F at the very bottom of the ship they nevertheless clutched their life jackets probably entertaining athought thatthesewould make good pillows.Ominously however, the troopswere warnednotto leave their confinedquarters. [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 . 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. Grace's Guide web site design is Copyright 2021 by Grace's Guide Ltd. 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. [citation needed], The Lancastria Association of Scotland began a campaign in 2005 to secure greater recognition for the loss of life aboard Lancastria and the acknowledgement of the endurance of survivors that day. 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. View the catalogue description for. 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. (5). In April 1940, she was one of twenty troopships in Operation Alphabet, the evacuation of troops from Norway, and was bombed on the return journey although she escaped damage. She was bombed at 15:48 by Junkers 88 aircraft from II. Harrois went on to say that when history looks at the retreat in 1940, the evacuation of Dunkirk is the undertaking that most remember. They were told that release under the FOIA would not be given because of several exemptions. Only about 2,500 people survived in the largest single loss of life. At midday Captain Sharp was advised to sail immediately but due to navalreports of a U-boat in the area he decided to await fora destroyer escort,a decision whichwas to seal the fate of manyevacuees. Within hours of berthing at Liverpool, Lancastria was urgently recalled to sea; loud-speaker announcements at the main railway station successfully recalled nearly all the crew members;[16] she arrived in Plymouth on 15 June to await orders. Anchored 11 miles south-west of St Nazaire. All service personnel killed during the Second World War are recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and where known that they lost their lives on the Lancastria. "I think my grandfather was haunted by that," added Mark. Lancastria was hit by three or possibly four bombs. NHF members are being converted to members of the Naval Institute. It was bombed by German armed forces and he was left shipwrecked after surviving TV star Amanda Holden. When he eventually returned to England, he was ordered - along with the other survivors - to not speak a word about the Lancastria. On 17 June 1940, whilst being used as part of Operation Aerial to evacuate civilian refugees and British military personnel from France, it was anchored about 5 miles from the coast of St Nazaire. Because the port has to be accessed along a tidal channel, Lancastria anchored in the Charpentier Roads, some 5 miles (8.0km) south-west of St. Nazaire, at 04:00 on 17 June,[17] along with some thirty other merchant vessels of all sizes. Many lifeboats could not be launched as they had been damaged, and there were only 2,500 life jackets on board. 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. Walter assumed, to his dying day in 1989, that Charlie was killed in the sinking. Walter managed to hold on before the animal disappeared. casualties and survivors with related correspondence, and other nominal lists of R.A.F. For other uses, see, Section 36; prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs; Section 40(2); contains personal information; Section 40(3); Release would contravene section 10 of the, According to CWGC Records of identified Burials in France as of 17 June 1940 of "Lancastria" total 1486 (British Army 1449; RAF 33, Location of the sinking of the troopship RMS Lancastria, Church of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas, Liverpool, "BBC - History - World Wars: The 'Lancastria' - a Secret Sacrifice in World War Two", "About Us: History of Scouting in Ireland", "The West Australian (Perth, WA: 1879 - 1954) - 27 May 1936 - p16", "At sea. Wynn cites seven online sources (p. 181), namely the British Newspaper Archive, the Britain at War website, the British section of Ancestry.com, the Militarian Forum, the Forces War Records, the Wartime Memories Project, and the War Graves Records, which appear to have been mistakenly recorded as a .com website rather than .org. Other soldiers, meanwhile, performed acts of bravery and helped civilians while there was "no panic". She was refitted for just two classes and renamed Lancastria in 1924, after passengers complained that they could not properly pronounce Tyrrhenia. Lancastria was free to depart and the captain of the British destroyer HMSHavelock advised her to do so; but, without a destroyer escort as defence against a possible submarine attack, Sharp decided to wait for Oronsay before leaving. We'd like to use additional cookies to remember your settings and understand how you use our services. The sinking of HMT Lancastria on June 17, 1940, is an intriguing chapter of naval history in World War II primarily because of the tragic loss of life and how much information pertaining to the event wasand still isclassified. Some of those left behind were women of the ATS, The story of the brave men rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk in May and June 1940 is well known, but less often told is the story of the nurses on the hospital ships that brought thousands of wounded servicemen back to the safety of England. The article said the soldiers sang popular World War Two songs "Roll Out the Barrel" and "There'll Always be an England" as the ship went down. It also organises the largest memorial service for the victims in the UK. Therefore, destroyers, fishing boats, and other small craft had to ferry the evacuees to Lancastria while being bombed and machine-gunned by the Luftwaffes Junkers Ju 11 bombers of Kampfgeschwader 30. "When we have tried, they (the government) have said it (documents on the Lancastria) are secret. Brogden's account states that one bomb landed close to the funnel and entered No. Just to say a little. As were news reports on the sinking. The RMS Lancastria was hit by three or four bombs dropped from a Junkers JU 88 bomber; 15 to 20 minutes later, she lay a the bottom of the sea. When they reached the water, Jacqueline was kept alive on a floating plank of wood. 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. 79 Years Ago Today;RMS Lancastria is attacked and sunk by the Luftwaffe [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". Captain Sharp estimated 5,500, but one Royal Engineer officer was told that there were more than 7,200 persons aboard. Wynn does not clarify what materials he utilized from these sources and there are no footnotes, in-text citations, or endnotes. Mark, a filmmaker, has spent years researching the next few hours of his grandfather's life. The 20,000-ton liner Lancastria, with five thousand men aboard, was bombed just as she was about to leave. The loss of His Majesty's Troopship Lancastria on 17 June 1940 still resonates 80 years on from the disaster. Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader 30. 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. There were 2,477 survivors. There were multiple air raids and, in addition, the British feared possible U-boat attacks, so Captain Sharp decided to wait for a Royal Navy and/or RAF escort. Another liner, the SS Oronsay, was damaged, so Captain Sharp was advised to depart. Survivors were taken aboard other evacuation vessels, the trawler Cambridgeshire rescuing 900. "We want recognition that this was the biggest sea disaster ever," she said. She was 578 ft. in length and 16,000 gross tons, designed to accommodate 2,200 passengers in three classes. In 2011, a memorial was dedicated in Clydesdale, Scotland, where the ship was built. One Royal Engineers officer reported that he had been told by one of Lancastria's loading officers that over 7,200 people had come aboard. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. On the other hand,somewhatcynically,anMOD spokeswoman inWestminster said there is no formal event being organised adding that the government did not commemorate events willy-nilly. (6). Lancastria: The forgotten tragedy of World War Two - BBC News Others told of retrieving the corpses that washed up on the beaches a few days later. He passed away four years ago, the last Scottish survivor to die. Wesalute them all. people who designed and built them. [38], In July 2007 another request for documents held by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) related to the sinking was rejected by the British government. 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. The term RMS dates to 1840 when only the fastest and most reliable ships were contracted by the British government to carry mail. Mr H J Cooper is quoted in the Chelmsford Chronicle on 28 June: "I am afraid thousands died, but tell the world they sang 'Roll out the Barrel' as they died. Shortly afterwards, Lancastria carried troops to consolidate the invasion of Iceland. Furthermore, estimates are that 36% of all BEF troops killed in action between September 39 and June 1940 were lost on theLancastria. [45][46], After the war, the Lancastria Survivors Association was founded by Major Peter Petit, but this lapsed on his death in 1969. "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.". personnel, Have you found an error with this catalogue description? The RMS Lancastria was a British ocean liner, owned by the Cunard Line. If you provide contact details, we will be in touch about your request within 10 working days. Required fields are marked *. Hold No. Flashback in maritime history: RMS Lancastria: Worst Loss of Life on a Oxford University-trained historian and author of more than a dozen books Jonathan Fenby stated that 1,738 perished (Fenby 2005, p. 247), but as there are no official figures published, there are great discrepancies in the numbers calculated by a variety of authors, and other estimates range from 2,000 to 9,000. [7] On 10 October 1932 Lancastria rescued the crew of the Belgian cargo ship SS Scheldestad, which had been abandoned in a sinking condition in the Bay of Biscay. Kate Murphy Schaefer is an undergraduate history instructor who studies the human impact of wars and revolutions. RMS Lancastria (later HMT Lancastria) was a British Cunard liner commandeered by the UK Government during World War II. [33], However, there were earlier reports of the sinking and the scale of the disaster from survivors in local British newspapers. Years later, he helped Mark to piece together the stories of the Lancastria. Walter Hirst hardly spoke to his family about the Lancastria, The Lancastria was a Cunard liner before the Second World War, Winston Churchill ordered a media blackout on the sinking, Survivors of the Lancastria, who were all ordered not to talk about the sinking, Mark Hirst (left) became friends with Charlie Napier (right), who served with Mark's grandfather Walter, The Lancastria, pictured in Greenock, and its resting place in French waters, Jacqueline Tanner (centre), with her father Clifford and mother Vera, pictured drinking tea in Plymouth after being rescued from the Lancastria, Jacqueline, pictured in 1949 as she laid a wreath at the cenotaph in Whitehall on behalf of the Lancastria Survivors Association, The Lancastria memorial in the grounds of the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, On board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry. Read about our approach to external linking. [48], The Lancastria Association of Scotland has members throughout the UK, France and the rest of Europe as well as members in North America, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. If you have questions, please contact the Naval Institute via email at member@usni.org or by phone at 800-233-8764. RMS Lancastria - Encyclopedia Britannia This year the ceremony was considerably toned down due to the coronavirus pandemic. The British Government has requisitioned the RMS Lancastria to assist with evacuation of troops from the European mainland. She sank around 5 nautical miles south of Chmoulin Point in the Charpentier roads and around 9 nautical miles out of St. Nazaire. [citation needed], In June 2010 to mark the 70th anniversary of the sinking, special ceremonies and services of remembrance were held in Edinburgh and St. Nazaire. Please ensure the tag is appropriate for the record. 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. In the following day's paper, again on page five, there was a more detailed article. Heres how to join! All rights reserved. The loss of the LANCASTRIA was also the most . It was too much for the people to take. Lancastria memorial plaque at Liverpool Pier Head. RMS Lancastria was a British ocean liner requisitioned by the UK Government during the Second World War. The Lancastria Tragedy comprises an introduction, eleven numbered chapters, and a concluding chapter titled In Closing, as well as endmatter including an About the Author section, Sources, and a three-page Index of proper nouns. 4 hold. Due to the imposition of the D-Notice, survivors and the crews of the ships that had gone to the aid of Lancastria did not discuss the disaster at the time due to the fear of court martial. RMS Lancastria was a British ocean liner requisitioned by the UK Government during the Second World War. At the end of the day, some 2,477 survivors were picked up from the sea. But it is a largely forgotten chapter in British history, a fact that leaves survivors and relatives aggrieved. Captain Sharp estimated the number to be 5,500. You will need a reader's ticket to do this. On the 16th June, she anchored at the Loire Rivers mouth about 5 miles south-west of St. Nazaire, in the company of around 30 other merchant vessels of every size and shape. I think the tag '' should be removed from: Subscribe now for regular news, updates and priority booking for events, All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated, AIR - Records created or inherited by the Air Ministry, the Royal Air Force, and related bodies, Division within AIR - Records of the Royal Air Force, AIR 35 - Air Ministry: British Air Forces in France: Registered Files, About our When Nazi planes dropped their bombs, Walter and Charlie were separated in the chaos. A transcript and podcast are available from The National Archives website. Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader 30. Two other bombs landed in No. The RMS Lancastria was hit by three or four bombs dropped from a Junkers JU 88 bomber; 15 to 20 minutes later, she lay a the bottom of the sea. RMS Lancastria - en-academic.com Read about our approach to external linking. Unnecessary fittings were removed, she was repainted in battleship grey, the portholes were blacked out, and a 4-inch gun was installed. 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. Officials at the time chose to ignore the Lancastria disaster, as it was deemed a failed evacuation, and it was almost overshadowed by the news of the French surrender to the Germans. Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. She was ordered to sail from Nassau to New York for refitting as she had been requisitioned as a troopship, becoming HMT Lancastria. Footballers, just like many other blokeswere drafted orenlisted with local teams sending gifted players such as Liverpools Tom Cooper and Evertons reserve goalkeeper William Reidwhilst Preston North EndsTom Finney served in the Royal Armoured Corps.In fact,629 professionalfootballers had joined theservices by April 1940.By this time the British Expeditionary Force (BEF)wassent to France,but afterrelatively little action throughout the winter of 1939 the army faced its toughest battle which ended in theDunkirk evacuation, an event which although essentially a British defeat,didsavethe majority of British troops andforged a new optimism for the nation. There are 1,472 names on his list of the deceased, extracted from the War Graves website, but theCommonwealth War Graves Commission records 1,816 burials with more than 400 in France (Fenby 2005, p. 234) and the Lancastria Association identifies 1,738 individuals that died aboard the ship . Hold No. Having received an emergency order to evacuate British nationals and troops in excess of its capacity of 1,300 passengers, mode. Refitted in 1924 for two classes and renamed Lancastria, she travelled the route from Liverpool to New York and back, but in 1932 was reassigned to cruise in the Mediterranean and through northern European waters. Charles C. Kolb, PhD, is a USNI Golden Life Member. 1,816 burials are recorded, over 400 of them in France. Their names may be lost to history, but they are not forgotten. One can understand media censorshiptoensurethat morale wasnt impacted butwhile people in Britain were unaware of the tragedy, French citizens around the coast could not escape it as bodies washedashore all summer, all along ahundred kilometres of coastline.More and more appeared along the sand dependent upon tides and summer storms.But despite German rulings the French localscontinued to give decent Christian burialsalthough,onceagain, identificationrecords weresparse. The Lancastria Tragedy: Sinking and Cover-Up, June 1940 RMS Lancastria Memorial in Liverpool Furthermore, estimates are that 36% of all BEF troops killed in action between September '39 and June 1940 were lost on the Lancastria.