[48], Lancastria is represented at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire by a sessile oak tree and a plaque. RMS Lancastria was a British ocean liner requisitioned by the UK Government during the Second World War. In a letter to The Times last month, campaigners said the government should do more. There were 2,477 survivors. 3 holds while a fourth landed close to the port side of the ship, rupturing the fuel oil tanks, though even with this damage, the ship should have stayed afloat for longer unless the report of the bomb in the funnel was true. You can order records in advance to be ready for you when you visit Kew. I of course ,read it before giving it to my father. Even then, the British newspapers toed the patriotic line. On the day the Lancastria sank, Walter - who was from Dundee and serving with the Royal Engineers - was in the company of his friend Charlie Napier from Inverurie. Others told of retrieving the corpses that washed up on the beaches a few days later. 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. She sank around 5 nautical miles south of Chmoulin Point in the Charpentier roads and around 9 nautical miles out of St. Nazaire. 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". This web publication contains 147,919 pages of When he eventually returned to England, he was ordered - along with the other survivors - to not speak a word about the Lancastria. . A third boat had its bottom stoved in by landing too fast. 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. Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and As the families reflect on their loss, it appears their frustrations will remain. 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. 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. 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. In 2006, 14 additional wrecks sunk at the Battle of Jutland were designated as war graves, but Lancastria was not. [10][11][12] The passengers on this voyage included Admiral of the Fleet Roger Keyes, Field Marshal William Birdwood and Commodore Edward Unwin. 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. Harrowingenough in itself the grey-paintedship was anchored out in the Loireestuarywith personnel ferried out in various small boats itcan be well-imagined thatthese hungry, traumatisedand wounded peoplewere so relieved to be transportedto asafe place.But asmore and more embarkedbelow decks the vessel became hopelesslyovercrowded, indeed a communique was sent stating that the ship should embark as many as possible irrespective of international rules (1). Hold No. As were news reports on the sinking. LANCASTRIA (June 17, 1940) The loss of the Lancastria was the fourth largest maritime disaster of the war. [23] As the ship began to list to starboard, orders were given for the men on deck to move to the port side in an effort to counteract it, but this caused a list to port which could not be corrected. 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. "The trouble with the story of the Lancastria is it doesn't fit with the grand narrative of that period - the miraculous evacuation of Dunkirk, and the Battle of Britain," reflects Mark Hirst. The ferrying trip took three to four hours. [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 . But if we could ask a questionwouldnt it be revealing to haveaskedthe servicemen aboard If theywould have gone to war willy-nilly (too bad they didnt have theopportunity to refuse). Ian Harvey is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE. "As the French Government has provided an appropriate level of protection to the Lancastria through French law and it is formally considered a military maritime grave by the MoD, we believe that the wreck has the formal status and protection it deserves.". 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. Upwards of three thousand men perished. HMT Lancastria Association, 17 June 1988.. About 124,000 troops were assembling and the Admiralty had dispatched some 30 merchant vessels of all sizes to the rescue. Anchored 11 miles south-west of St Nazaire. 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. If you provide contact details, we will be in touch about your request within 10 working days. [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. There are no actual transcripts of these speeches, but they have been reconstructed from Churchills notes given to Charles Eade. Many thanks. 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. Many . The people living in the area, found bodies washed up on the beaches for weeks after the disaster. (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. RMS Lancastria (later HMT Lancastria[ Note 1]) was a British Cunard [ 2] liner commandeered by the government for war, sunk on 17 June 1940 during World War II with the loss of over 4,000 lives, possibly many more [ 3]. Under the British Official Secrets Act, the report on the Lancastria cannot be published until the year 2040. Some survivors claimed that a bomb had gone straight down a funnel, others thought bombs hit No, 4, 2, and 3 holds. Lancastria 17th June 1940 & Operation Aerial", "NMC Lay a wreath at the Memorial for The Lancastria", "The 75th anniversary of the sinking of HMT Lancastria", "Lancastria: Service for Britain's worst maritime disaster", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=RMS_Lancastria&oldid=1152389814, Sunk by German Bombers on 17 June 1940 off, This page was last edited on 29 April 2023, at 23:38. Some may have called it a humiliating defeat but to this day the Dunkirk Spirit is still an oft-used expression to describe endurance under extreme pressure. Harrois went on to say that when history looks at the retreat in 1940, the evacuation of Dunkirk is the undertaking that most remember. 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. 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. When the British troop ship 'Lancastria' was sunk in June 1940, some 5,000 people died - but news of the disaster was kept from the British public. Shortly afterwards, Lancastria carried troops to consolidate the invasion of Iceland. I've briefly mentioned the experience of four survivors during this talk: Major Plunkett, Wing Commander MacFayden and Captain Rudolph Sharp, Master, as well as his Steward. When they reached the water, Jacqueline was kept alive on a floating plank of wood. [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. [20] People were crowded into whatever spaces were available including the large cargo holds. 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. This web publication contains 154,528 pages of [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. It was too much for the people to take. [35] The story was finally broken in the United States by the Press Association on 25 July,[36] in The New York Times, and the next day in Britain by The Scotsman, more than five weeks after the sinking. A resident of Ile de Noirmoutier, Michel Adrien, who was six at the time, remembers the bodies spilling out from the sea, some still warm. 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. Help us improve catalogue descriptions by adding tags. All Digitized Passenger Lists For the RMS Laconia Available at the GG Archives. NHF members are being converted to members of the Naval Institute. Your email address will not be published. Many others died from hypothermia, inhaling fuel oil on the surface or drowning. [31], There were 2,477 survivors, of whom about 100 were still alive in 2011. Kate Murphy Schaefer is an undergraduate history instructor who studies the human impact of wars and revolutions. At the outbreak of the Second World War she was requisitioned for use as a troop carrier and was refitted in New York, her company colours painted over in battleship grey. And what do those touched by the catastrophe want now? [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. It was used until 1993, when the name was changed to DSMA-Notice (Defence and Security Media Advisory Notice). Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. This number far exceeded the amount of life jackets and lifeboats onboard, but this lack of safety equipment ultimately did not matter. useful bibliography and discussion. She was sunk on 17 June 1940 during Operation Ariel. [3][4], The ship was launched in 1920 as Tyrrhenia by William Beardmore and Company of Dalmuir on the River Clyde for the Anchor Line, a subsidiary of Cunard. We'd like to use additional cookies to remember your settings and understand how you use our services. Two other bombs landed in No. 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. 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. The medal is in recognition of the endurance of survivors and ultimate sacrifice of the victims. 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. Seventy five years after the sinking of the Lancastria - Britain's worst maritime disaster in history - why is the tragedy largely forgotten? The D-notice, or Defence Notice, also called DA-notice (Defence Advisory Notice), was a unique British government instruction devised in 1912. Accompanying Lancastria was the 20,341-ton liner, Franconia. They were told that release under the FOIA would not be given because of several exemptions. [40] On 17 June 2010 (70th anniversary of the sinking) Janet Dempsey gave a lecture at The National Archives entitled "Forgotten Tragedy: The Loss of HMT Lancastria". 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. [25] As Lancastria began to capsize, some of those who were still on board managed to scramble onto the ship's underside. 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. 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. All rights reserved. They had no chance because the ship went down in 15 minutes. [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. 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 [email protected]. Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader 30. [42] Early in the 21st century the French Government placed an exclusion zone around the wreck site. Around 700 missing from the British Expeditionary Force are commemorated on the Dunkirk Memorial. Alchetron Crew members were either discharged or sent on leave.[15]. You need to sign in to tag. She was sunk on 17 June 1940 during Operation Aerial. [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. 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. casualties and survivors with related. When Nazi planes dropped their bombs, Walter and Charlie were separated in the chaos. This record has not been digitised and cannot be downloaded. You. Within four months of the outbreak of World War II, Lancastria was requisitioned by the Admiralty as His Majestys Troopship (HMT) Lancastria under the command of Captain Rudolph Sharp. The [23] The ship sank at 16:12, within twenty minutes of being hit,[26] which gave little time for other vessels to respond. Is climate change killing Australian wine? [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). "When we have tried, they (the government) have said it (documents on the Lancastria) are secret. Captain Rudolf Sharpe later lost his life when the ship he commanded, the Laconia, was sunk. [33], However, there were earlier reports of the sinking and the scale of the disaster from survivors in local British newspapers. 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. 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. Lancastria Association names 1,738 people known to have been killed. [7][9] In May 1936, she undertook a specially commissioned cruise to visit war memorials at Malta, Salonika, Gallipoli and Istanbul. Three direct hits caused the ship to list first to starboard then to port and she rolled over and sank within twenty minutes. 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. Every nook and cranny, including her massive holds, was packed with people. I think Churchill was right when he said 'we don't broadcast this'. 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. There is no reliable count of how many people were crammed onto the liner. It is famously known that the battle ended with the enormous undertaking of evacuating the British troops from French soil. View the catalogue description for. The French had a front row seat to the destruction, but the British people were kept in the dark. "[40], All service personnel killed during the Second World War are recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and were known that they lost their lives on Lancastria; 1,816 burials are recorded, over 400 of them in France. Eyewitness Emile Boutin (whose stories are included in the online Lancastria archive) wrote, Sometimes one body arrived, sometimes 16 arrived at once other times there were four days, five days without anything. The citizens of Moutiers buried the victims behind a sea dike, where they stayeduntil the end of the war.
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