The loss of the LANCASTRIA was also the most . We have not forgotten. But it is a largely forgotten chapter in British history, a fact that leaves survivors and relatives aggrieved. [23] The ship sank at 16:12, within twenty minutes of being hit,[26] which gave little time for other vessels to respond. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. 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. Information about the Lancastria sinking might be restricted by the Official Secrets Act. Upwards of three thousand men perished. These were dangerous journeys, along roads blocked with refugees and under bombardment by enemy aircraft. [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. 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. The evacuees were in several western French ports including Lorient and St. Nazaire on the Loire River. 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. The RMS Lancastria was a British Cunard liner sunk on June 17, 1940 during World War II with the loss of an estimated 4,000 plus lives. The name Tyrrhenia proved problematic for her passengers to pronounce and was subsequently changed to Lancastria in 1924. The D-Notice blacked-out details of the incident for 100 years, so it will not be released before 2040. The D-notice, or Defence Notice, also called DA-notice (Defence Advisory Notice), was a unique British government instruction devised in 1912. casualties and survivors with related. 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. Is climate change killing Australian wine? He passed away four years ago, the last Scottish survivor to die. 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. 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. At 1:50 pm the nearby [SS Oronsay |Oronsay]] a 20,000-ton Orient liner, was struck on the bridge, the Lancastria was free to depart and advised by the captain of the British destroyer Havelock to leave, but without a destroyer escort against possible submarine attack, Sharp decided to wait. I of course ,read it before giving it to my father. British and Allied evacuation vessels took Lancastrias survivors aboard, the trawler HMT Cambridgeshire alone rescuing nearly 900 souls. The Lancastria Association names 1,738 people known to have been killed. [33], However, there were earlier reports of the sinking and the scale of the disaster from survivors in local British newspapers. privacy policy, Need more context? Chapter 4 Secret Session Speeches by Churchill provides extracts of five speeches made between June 20th 1941 and December 10, 1942, including one made in response to the sinking of HMT Lancastria on June 17, 1941. 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. 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. 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. While there were 2,477 survivors, it is . 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. The speed at which the vessel sank meant that there was little time for other ships to react. Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader 30. He was a very quiet man, and his recalling of the Lancastria tended to come only after a couple of pints.". Maintained by Sapere Software. 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. 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. In a letter to The Times last month, campaigners said the government should do more. [2] Modern estimates suggest that between 4,000 and 7,000 people died during the sinking the largest single-ship loss of life in British maritime history. A third boat had its bottom stoved in by landing too fast. The medal ribbon has a grey background with a red and black central stripe, representative of the ship's wartime and merchant marine colours. The Lancastria, a pre-war Cunard cruise liner, was requisitioned by the Admiralty and turned in to a war-time troop ship. Approximately four thousand men, women, and children were buried beneath the waves. Enter the tag you would like to associate with this record and click 'Add tag'. A transcript and podcast are available from The National Archives website. [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). Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader 30. 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. Not a member of the Naval Institute? When he eventually returned to England, he was ordered - along with the other survivors - to not speak a word about the Lancastria. But Charlie had also survived. 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. "[37] Private Ronald Herbert Yorke (Sherwood Foresters) is quoted in the Ripley and Heanor News on 5 July: "Hundreds of my pals were imprisoned below. 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. Rudolph Sharp survived the sinking and went on to command the RMS Laconia, losing his life on 12 September 1942 when that ship was torpedoed and sunk off West Africa. 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. Frank Holden Snr was on board the luxury transatlantic cruise liner Lancastria in 1940. The Lancastria Tragedy: Sinking and Cover-Up, June 1940. Furthermore, some believe the British government have not revealed all documentary evidence of what happened. Every nook and cranny, including her massive holds, was packed with people. The Lancastria was a Cunard Anchor Line ocean liner built by William Beardmore and Company and launched on the 31st of May 1920. When Nazi planes dropped their bombs, Walter and Charlie were separated in the chaos. She was sunk on 17 June 1940 during Operation Aerial. Last updated 2011-02-17. [42] Early in the 21st century the French Government placed an exclusion zone around the wreck site. 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. "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.". Ordering and viewing options This record has not been digitised and cannot be downloaded. 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. Alchetron Unnecessary fittings were removed, she was repainted in battleship grey, the portholes were blacked out, and a 4-inch gun was installed. 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. 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. Early on the morning of the 17th June 1940 three Royal Navy Reserve officers came aboard and asked her captain, Rudolph Sharp, how many people the Lancastria would be able to uplift. [7][9] In May 1936, she undertook a specially commissioned cruise to visit war memorials at Malta, Salonika, Gallipoli and Istanbul. [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. 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. Late that afternoon, she was packed with servicemen, air force personnel, embassy staff, and their families and some civilians with their families. In 2005, Fenby wrote that estimates of the death toll vary from fewer than 3,000 to 5,800 people although it is also estimated that as many as 6,500 people perished, the largest loss of life in British maritime history. Others told of retrieving the corpses that washed up on the beaches a few days later. Hold No. 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. [45][46], After the war, the Lancastria Survivors Association was founded by Major Peter Petit, but this lapsed on his death in 1969. 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. This number far exceeded the amount of life jackets and lifeboats onboard, but this lack of safety equipment ultimately did not matter. 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 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. 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. [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. There is no reliable count of how many people were crammed onto the liner. As the 100th anniversary of the RMSTitanic sinking took place in 2012, fresh calls were made for "official recognition" of the loss of Lancastria by the British Government. [29] Capt WG Euston recommended several of his crew for awards, including Stanley Kingett for "making repeated journeys in a lifeboat to pick up exhausted men from the water while under machine-gun fire from enemy planes", and William Perrin for "keeping up continuous machine-gun fire in an attempt to prevent enemy planes machine-gunning men in the water. The site of the sinking is not an official War Grave safeguarded by The Protection of Military Remains Act of 1986 because the British have no jurisdiction over the French territorial waters where Lancastrias wreck lies, but the French government has provided an appropriate level of protection to the site, prohibiting diving on the wreck, for example. Many . 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. When the Lancastria was hit, Jacqueline's family managed to escape by running through the ship shouting "baby here, baby here". Three direct hits caused the ship to list first to starboard then to port and she rolled over and sank within twenty minutes. The 20,000-ton liner Lancastria, with five thousand men aboard, was bombed just as she was about to leave. 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. Captain Sharp estimated he had loaded 5,500 people, but his officers put the count at nearer 7,200. The medal is in recognition of the endurance of survivors and ultimate sacrifice of the victims. It highlighted claims from the New York Sun newspaper on the sinking, with 500 feared dead. The RMS Lancastria was a British ocean liner, owned by the Cunard Line. The Government did not do so as it was within French territorial waters, outside the jurisdiction of the Act. When this news came to me in the quiet Cabinet Room during the afternoon, continued Churchill, I forbade its publication, saying The newspapers have got quite enough disaster for today at least.. The people living in the area, found bodies washed up on the beaches for weeks after the disaster. The letter added: "These relatives do not have a clear understanding of what happened as documentary evidence, they are told, remains unavailable; and possibly will not be revealed until 2040, which is of no comfort; indeed it adds to their distress as the relatives, themselves, will not be alive.". Listing Includes Date Voyage Began, Steamship Line, Vessel, Passenger Class and Route. [52] In September 2013, a plaque was unveiled at Liverpool's Pier Head by Lord Mayor Gary Millar commemorating the loss of the ship. Many lifeboats could not be launched as they had been damaged, and there were only 2,500 life jackets on board. Ian Harvey is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE. It was only attended by 10 people. 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. Winston Churchill issued a D-Notice on the day of the sinking of the RMS Lancastria. [25] As Lancastria began to capsize, some of those who were still on board managed to scramble onto the ship's underside. [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. Seventy five years after the sinking of the Lancastria - Britain's worst maritime disaster in history - why is the tragedy largely forgotten? The loss of His Majesty's Troopship Lancastria on 17 June 1940 still resonates 80 years on from the disaster. 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. 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. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of View the catalogue description for. S.S. "LANCASTRIA" : Lists of R.A.F. Read about our approach to external linking. The casualties and survivors with related correspondence, and other nominal lists of R.A.F. Quite an official statement to ponder. Under the British Official Secrets Act, the report on the Lancastria cannot be published until the year 2040. Mark, a filmmaker, has spent years researching the next few hours of his grandfather's life. A spokesman added: "The sinking of the HMT Lancastria remains the United Kingdom's greatest maritime disaster and, although it occurred over 70 years ago, the sacrifice of many thousands of servicemen and civilians, and the endurance of those who were saved that day, must never be forgotten. The death toll accounted for roughly a third of the total losses of the British Expeditionary Force in France. Osborne said of the sinking: "It was kept secret at the time for reasons of wartime secrecy, but I think it is appropriate today in this House of Commons to remember all those who died, those who survived, and those who mourn them. Walter ended up in the water and saw a dog swimming away from the wreckage. RMS Lancastria was a British ocean liner requisitioned by the UK Government during the Second World War. She was sunk on 17 June 1940 during Operation Aerial. Yes,it was a long time ago but tokeep football supporters stillinterested perhaps there are parallels between the 1939-40 season and this years 2019-20 competition for both were abandoned early. Lancastria was hit by three or possibly four bombs. Estimates of the loss range between 3,000 and 5,800 fatalities. [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. Walter was in the water for around four hours before he was picked up. 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. To this day, Adrien, aged 86, has no idea how many people perished, and it is unlikely that he ever will. [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. 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. Estimates of total survivors were hard to quantify though. Many lifeboats could not be launched as they had been damaged, and there were only 2,500 life jackets on board. Four chapters are personal accounts from survivors or their close relatives. 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. 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. Many survivors perished from hypothermia or suffocated on fuel oil. This of course would mean ignoring virtually all safety rules and regulations. This year the ceremony was considerably toned down due to the coronavirus pandemic. 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. Introduction:Aday which isprobably more in peoples minds due to resumption of the Premier League footballseasonrather than the commemoration of Britains worst maritime tragedy a disaster which took the lives of an estimated 3000 to 5800 sailors, soldiers, airmen and civilians. [citation needed], The MoD stated in 2015 that "as the French Government has provided an appropriate level of protection to 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. Read tagging guidelines. Captain Sharp estimated the number to be 5,500. [20] People were crowded into whatever spaces were available including the large cargo holds. Walter managed to hold on before the animal disappeared. Lancastria survivor Charles Napier with a copy of the newspaper which reported the news of the Lancastria sinking. RMS Lancastria was a British ocean liner requisitioned by the UK Government during the Second World War. NHF members are being converted to members of the Naval Institute. 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. 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. 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. 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. You can order records in advance to be ready for you when you visit Kew. 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. Harrois went on to say that when history looks at the retreat in 1940, the evacuation of Dunkirk is the undertaking that most remember. 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. Kate Murphy Schaefer is an undergraduate history instructor who studies the human impact of wars and revolutions. If it can be proved that Captain Sharp ignored the Ministry of Defence instructions not to exceed the maximum loading capacity of 3000 persons, grounds for compensation claims could be enormous. Many other survivors were machine-gunned in the water by the German planes. [34], The sinking was announced that evening during the English-language Nazi propaganda radio programme, Germany Calling by its presenter William Joyce, better known as "Lord Haw-Haw"; however his claims were notoriously unreliable and had little public credence. RMS Lancastria and Operation Chariot memorials, St Nazaire. personnel, Have you found an error with this catalogue description? The rest were rescued under continued air attack by the devotion of the small craft.. As many as 7,000 lost their lives, making it Britain's worst sea . 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 notifications are not legally enforceable; hence, news editors could choose not to abide by them but, generally, accede to these notices. 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. Lancastria Association of Scotland made a further request in 2009. Shortly afterwards, Lancastria carried troops to consolidate the invasion of Iceland. In April 1940, she was reconstructed as a troopship and under the command of Captain Rudolph Sharp, she was sent off to aid the evacuation of British troops and citizens from France. If you provide contact details, we will be in touch about your request within 10 working days.
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