Upwards of three thousand men perished. It was not an official government order, but the British media followed Churchills lead. She was sunk on 17 June 1940 during Operation Ariel. 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. Even then, the British newspapers toed the patriotic line. Lancastria was sunk on 17 June 1940 off the French port of St. Nazaire while taking part in Operation Aerial, the evacuation of British nationals and troops from France, two weeks after the Dunkirk evacuation. Churchills D-Notice asked all media outlets not to publish any information on the Lancastria sinking. [6] By the mid-afternoon of 17 June, she had embarked an unknown number (estimates range from 4,000 up to 9,000) of civilian refugees (including embassy staff and staff of Fairey Aviation of Belgium), and line-of-communication troops (Pioneers, RASC etc), and RAF personnel. 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. 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. She was first used to assist in the evacuation of troops from Norway. At the end of the day, some 2,477 survivors were picked up from the sea. Hold No. Furthermore, estimates are that 36% of all BEF troops killed in action between September 39 and June 1940 were lost on theLancastria. Others told of retrieving the corpses that washed up on the beaches a few days later. [27] According to Jonathan Fenby in his book The Sinking of the Lancastria, the German aircraft strafed survivors in the water. 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. [51] The medal was designed by Mark Hirst, grandson of Lancastria survivor Walter Hirst. The survivors crowded on the submarines' decks and the towed lifeboats, as the B-24 made several deadly attack runs on U-156. American and Scottish newspapers did print the story, but not until the end of July. The British Government has requisitioned the RMS Lancastria to assist with evacuation of troops from the European mainland. What a story, and how lucky are we,born just after WW2, for the brave men and women, who fought for our freedom, Your email address will not be published. Also he was going to join the Navy in UK, would like to get the facts from the Navy about him signing into the Navy, also his father, my Great Grandfather, signed the India Shipping documents in Belfast, Ireland in 1921, claims, can I make claim for Great Great Grandfathers son, William George Ellason Myers he was born 1899, he lost his things and what else damages stress, we were also Banker, looking for documents to support the opening of the Bank of England, Ireland and Scotland and all Y.M.C.A., in America we were Bank Starter for all Great West Permanent Loans and Savings company of Canada, and I believe London Life and all Permanent Buildings, we were amazing, last known residence in his WILL, residing in the Union Theology College of British Columbia/United Church of Canada, Esquire, Banker and Methodist Minister, named after 4 priests. The liner sank within 20 minutes of being bombed by the Luftwaffe. The missing dead who served in the Navy are commemorated on the naval memorials at Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth, with missing merchant seamen named at the Tower Hill Memorial, and the missing airmen who went down with the ship, listed on the Runnymede Memorial. You. The D-Notice blacked-out details of the incident for 100 years, so it will not be released before 2040. Memorials in statue, plaques, and stained glass can be found in Staffordshire, Liverpool, and London. 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. privacy policy, Need more context? This web publication contains 154,528 pages of The French had a front row seat to the destruction, but the British people were kept in the dark. LANCASTRIA (June 17, 1940) The loss of the Lancastria was the fourth largest maritime disaster of the war. A third boat had its bottom stoved in by landing too fast. Survivor Reg Brown speaks to BBC Coventry & Warwickshire, AI chatbots 'may soon be more intelligent than us', Russia troop deaths hit 20,000 in five months - US, Palestinian hunger striker dies in Israel prison, The 17 most eye-catching looks at the Met Gala, The burden of being cricket legend Tendulkar's son, 'My wife and six children joined Kenya starvation cult', On board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry. [53] St Katharine Cree church in the City of London has a memorial window to Lancastria. 4 hold. Her parents Clifford and Vera Tillyer were working in Belgium when they decided to evacuate. The Lancastria troopship was carrying between 6,000 and 9,000 people when it was sunk by German dive bombers on 17 June 1940. The Lancastria Association names 1,738 people known to have been killed. However, an exact number of Lancastrias casualties may never be known. manufacturing in Britain. Just to say a little. people who designed and built them. 5621230. Unnecessary fittings were removed, she was repainted in battleship grey, the portholes were blacked out, and a 4-inch gun was installed. Shortly afterwards, Lancastria carried troops to consolidate the invasion of Iceland. [22], A fresh air raid began at 15:50 by Junkers Ju 88 bomber aircraft from Kampfgeschwader 30. Many thanks. Now aged 77 and living in Malvern, Worcestershire, she will be joined by her husband, her children and her grandchildren at a ceremony in Saint-Nazaire on 17 June to mark the tragedy. information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the The ship was apparently equipped with sixteen lifeboats and 2,500 life jackets, but many of the boats were damaged from the air attacks while others were unusable because of the ships starboard list and hull angle. Modern estimates suggest that between 4,000 and 7,000 people died during the . document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Naval Historical Foundation 1306 Dahlgren Avenue, SE Washington Navy Yard, DC 20374 1-202-678-4333 info@navyhistory.org. The first boat away was filled with women and children but it capsized on landing in the water and a second had to be lowered for them. Wynn does not clarify what materials he utilized from these sources and there are no footnotes, in-text citations, or endnotes. The ship was among twenty others that participated in the evacuation of 2,653 British, French, and Polish troops from Norway when Operation Alphabet began on May 24,1940. Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader 30. The name Tyrrhenia proved problematic for her passengers to pronounce and was subsequently changed to Lancastria in 1924. Grace's Guide web site design is Copyright 2021 by Grace's Guide Ltd. Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. Please ensure the tag is appropriate for the record. 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. Remembrance. 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. (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. We don't know.". Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader 30. Interestingly, 2040 or 2041 should also be when restricted British documents on the Pearl Harbor attack are made public. At the same time, many soldiers fought a fierce rear-guard. [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). 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. 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. The term RMS dates to 1840 when only the fastest and most reliable ships were contracted by the British government to carry mail. RMS Lancastria was a British ocean liner requisitioned by the UK Government during the Second World War. There is no reliable count of how many people were crammed onto the liner. [42] Early in the 21st century the French Government placed an exclusion zone around the wreck site. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of [59], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}471026N 21915W / 47.17389N 2.32083W / 47.17389; -2.32083 (Location of the sinking of the troopship RMS Lancastria), "Lancastria" redirects here. She was bombed at 15:48 by Junkers 88 aircraft from II. According to some accounts, these were heard to be singing 'Roll Out the Barrel' and 'There'll Always Be an England', though some survivors strongly deny this. Read about our approach to external linking. Video, On board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry, and despite a special Scottish government medal for Lancastria survivors and their families, Serena Williams announces pregnancy at Met Gala, Shooting suspect was deported four times - US media, New record as 4.56m Indians take flights in a day, Japan to ban upskirting in stronger sex crime laws, Met Gala 2023: Stars celebrate Karl Lagerfeld, BP profits of 4bn in three months spark criticism. "It was a bad time - the evacuation from France. You can order records in advance to be ready for you when you visit Kew. NHF members are being converted to members of the Naval Institute. Maintained by Sapere Software. [24] The ship was equipped with sixteen lifeboats and 2,500 life jackets;[19] but many of the boats could not be launched because they had been damaged in the bombing or because of the angle of the hull. 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. 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 ship's official capacity was 2,200 including the 375 man crew. Crew members were either discharged or sent on leave.[15]. Heres how to join! Captain (Capt) Edward Unwin VC, Admiral of the Fleet (Lord) Sir Roger Keyes and ", "Rudolph Sharp (British) Crew lists of Ships hit by U-boats", "More Ripley Lads Back Home How a Ripley Private Escaped", "Lancastria: The forgotten tragedy of World War Two", "Forgotten tragedy: The loss of HMT Lancastria", "Recognition remains sunk without a trace, by Mark Hirst", "Operation Ariel and Falmouth June 1940 Maritime Views", "Victims of HMT Lancastria sinking honoured with memorial", "The National Memorial Arboretum - Welcome to the National Memorial Arboretum website", "HMT. [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. [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 . Those who got away were machine-gunned in the water". But it is a largely forgotten chapter in British history, a fact that leaves survivors and relatives aggrieved. [51] The front of the medal depicts Lancastria with the text "HMT Lancastria 17th June 1940". 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. It was a few weeks after the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from Dunkirk, and Walter and Charlie were still in occupied Europe with an estimated 150,000 other British servicemen. To this day, Adrien, aged 86, has no idea how many people perished, and it is unlikely that he ever will. The Lancastria was the largest loss of life from a single engagement for British forces in World War Two and is also the largest loss of life in British maritime history - greater than the Titanic and Lusitania combined. RMS Lancastria (later HMT Lancastria) was a British Cunard liner commandeered by the UK Government during World War II. [25] As Lancastria began to capsize, some of those who were still on board managed to scramble onto the ship's underside. The Chapter 5 focuses on the actual sinking of the Lancastria while Chapter 11 focuses on its aftermath. After the incident, Admiral Karl Dnitz issued the Laconia Order, henceforth ordering his commanders not to rescue survivors after attacks. ; had they seen them perish or had they seen them escape?. This number far exceeded the amount of life jackets and lifeboats onboard, but this lack of safety equipment ultimately did not matter. 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. Retreat to Victory. Seventy five years on, and despite a special Scottish government medal for Lancastria survivors and their families, relatives want the sinking to be properly remembered. [52] In September 2013, a plaque was unveiled at Liverpool's Pier Head by Lord Mayor Gary Millar commemorating the loss of the ship. The MoD has said it does not plan to send a representative to France. 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. In 2011, a memorial was dedicated in Clydesdale, Scotland, where the ship was built. Captain Rudolf Sharpe later lost his life when the ship he commanded, the Laconia, was sunk. View the catalogue description for. The French Government recently placed an exclusion zone around the wreck site. Moutiers people never talk, never talked about the Lancastria, but about the cemetery of the British. It was not until 2006 that the French government afforded the site official legal protection as a war grave. 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. The government feared what the news would do the British nation in the midst of its darkest hour. It also organises the largest memorial service for the victims in the UK. An estimated 400 Scots were amongst the 4,000 killed with the Lancastria was attacked and sunk. manufacturing in Britain. Around 700 missing from the British Expeditionary Force are commemorated on the Dunkirk Memorial. They had no chance because the ship went down in 15 minutes. However, themovetowardswar went initially quite slowly. They were told that release under the FOIA would not be given because of several exemptions. 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. Lancastria Association names 1,738 people known to have been killed. [58], After a postponement because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a commemorative service was held at Church of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas, Liverpool on 27 June 2020. [18], Early in the morning, three RNVR officers came aboard to ask how many troops Lancastria could take. 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. Frank Holden Snr was on board the luxury transatlantic cruise liner Lancastria in 1940. 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. You need to sign in to tag. She sank around 5 nautical miles south of Chmoulin Point in the Charpentier roads and around 9 nautical miles out of St. Nazaire. The evacuees were in several western French ports including Lorient and St. Nazaire on the Loire River. Returning to Glasgow, the captain requested that surplus oil in her tanks be removed, but there was insufficient time before she was ordered to Liverpool for a refit. In the words of Mark, his grandfather's fight ended when the "mad man sank beneath the waves". 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. "No amount of spin can turn the story of the Lancastria into something triumphant.". And it is this sparsity of records, together withChurchills newsblackout whichhas taken years for the facts to materialise, even though pressure from a post-war survivors association the HMT Lancastria Association has continued to ask questions such as: which survivors saw who on board? When he eventually returned to England, he was ordered - along with the other survivors - to not speak a word about the Lancastria. casualties and survivors with related correspondence, and other nominal lists of R.A.F. RMS Lancastria, Death Toll: 4,000-6,500. [citation needed], A memorial on the sea-front at St Nazaire was unveiled on 17 June 1988, "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". Required fields are marked *. [20] People were crowded into whatever spaces were available including the large cargo holds. Lancastria survivor Charles Napier with a copy of the newspaper which reported the news of the Lancastria sinking. 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. She was the sister ship of RMS Cameronia that Beardmore's had built for the same customer the previous year. 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". [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. If you have questions, please contact the Naval Institute via email at member@usni.org or by phone at 800-233-8764. . She was sunk off the French port of St. Nazaire while taking part in Operation Ariel, the evacuation of British nationals and troops from France, two weeks after the Dunkirk evacuation. The evacuation of more than 300,000 Allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk, between May 26th and June 4th 1940, After the Dunkirk evacuation, pockets of military personnel were left behind in France who had to make their way to the French ports for evacuation as best they could. As the families reflect on their loss, it appears their frustrations will remain. 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. Harrois went on to say that when history looks at the retreat in 1940, the evacuation of Dunkirk is the undertaking that most remember. 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. 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 . information and 239,789 images on early companies, their products and the Captain Sharp estimated the number to be 5,500. The Ministry of Defence said all known documents relating to the Lancastria have been available at the National Archives at Kew since the early 1970s. [2] Why don't they recognise it? Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and This was the date on which, the RMS Lancastria was sunk off the French port of Nantes, with an unknown loss of life. Wynn states that there were 2,488 survivors and a minimum of 2,385 perished. Most populous nation: Should India rejoice or panic? In his memoirs, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote 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 (p.192). text of this web site is available under the Creative 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. He passed away four years ago, the last Scottish survivor to die. Or, you can request a quotation for a copy to be sent to you. Not a member of the Naval Institute? Many . There are no actual transcripts of these speeches, but they have been reconstructed from Churchills notes given to Charles Eade. Kate Murphy Schaefer is an undergraduate history instructor who studies the human impact of wars and revolutions. Lancastria survivor Charles Napier with a copy of the newspaper which reported the news of the Lancastria sinking. 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. Jacqueline Tanner is one of a handful of people who was on the Lancastria and is still alive.