When I began to take stock of things I realised that the hatch cover on Number 2 hold was gone and it could only have gone upwards. The bodies were then taken away and buried in either local cemeteries or makeshift cemeteries and largely without coffins because they didn’t have the wood to make them. Now following on so closely from the losses that they’d incurred at Dunkirk, the strain that was placed by this operation on the Navy and the Air Force to provide boats and air cover for such a huge operation over such a huge area was unimaginable. In many instances, soldiers were fending for themselves, and even trying to get to ports using Michelin maps that they’d purchased from local shops.

The RMS Lancastria was a British Cunard liner sunk by enemy action on 17 June 1940 with the loss of an estimated 4,000 plus lives.. Less than 25 minutes later she was gone, and thousands of people were in the oil coated water mingling with the dead, being choked by oil, and being dragged down by their heavy uniforms. Unfortunately the ship had rolled further to port and the man struck the propellor housing before entering the sea.” – W. J. Hocking, RA/RAOC/REME, “We got burnt on arms, hands and body and when I came to there was panic. To view this media, you will require Adobe Flash 9 or higher and must have Javascript enabled. Left the ship by lifeboat, was picked up by French trawler after about one hour.’. Ladies and gentlemen, the Lancastria is so recent an event that any one of those men could have been sitting with us here today. Campaigners who want to uncover what really happened during the sinking of the RMS Lancastria - Britain’s worst maritime disaster - are calling on survivors to come forward for a documentary film. She evacuated 2,600 troops, and suffered a very near miss from German bombers, and at the time, her crew thought that she was very overloaded. It was out duty to look after them, as I was a butcher boy in Civvies Street. I took the megaphone, hearing my voice booming out strangely over the dying ship ‘Clear away the boats now… Your attention please… Clear away the boats now.’ The Lancastria quaked under my feet, a last gesture of farewell.” There were over 200 men in the unit and we all had to board the many lorries that were sent for us, each of these lorries had a metal U in the tail gate to enable us to board and get off easier. At one point a large Labrador dog swam past which I later discovered belonged to some Belgian refugee children who did not survive the sinking.” Really the beginning of the end for the Lancastria was heralded with the fall of France in May 1940. My grandfather Sgt Major Charles Frederick Pott (RASC) was a survivor of the Lancastria . While none of this forgives the blackout on news of the Lancastria, it does explain why Churchill may have genuinely forgotten to lift the ban. Consequently a decision was taken on the 25 May to evacuate British and French troops from that port. Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated. Walter Hirst and Albert Nadin’s full accounts can be read, along with many others at Lancastria Archive. By 14 June, the situation in France was getting much, much worse. After a while a message was passed to me to go up to my lounge at once, as the place was in turmoil.’, ‘My lounge was, for trooping, reserved to Warrant Officers and Sergeants, and I found the place so packed with them that I could hardly make my way to the bar, and they were all shouting for drinks. History may have chosen to forget the Lancastria but the survivors and their relatives never forgot each other, and I’ve been informed, this morning [17 June 2010], that at 11 o’clock, a wreath was actually taken out and laid over the wreck of the Lancastria by the Association. The Germans had dropped 4 bombs on the ship right into the hold, rumour had it one was a direct hit down one of the funnels. Your email address will not be published.

I am now 87 and live with my wife of 63 years in Cranham. She sank with all on board in less than twenty minutes.

my grandad was killed on the lancastrian and i would love to pay my respects. More bones and lots of military clothing, and in these clothes that had really deteriorated and were damaged we collected the wallets of these poor men who’d drowned, to identify them, and then the many bones; we never collected them, it was not possible. I was surrounded by men in similar condition, and even when our own aircraft flew over and dropped rafts for us we were too weak to struggle to them. Wing Commander MacFayden fared slightly better being in the water for between half an hour and three quarters of hour, before being picked up by a French tug and then transferred to the Orinsay.

I climbed the ladder to the deck and most of the men on board were dead, I was one of the few standing. hello im going to st nazaire in august this year. So, the news actually came to light five and a half weeks later. I joined them as more people tried to get aboard. But as I looked over to see how they had done I saw that they appeared to be unconscious or dead. For very many hours afterwards men were pulled from the water. Major Plunkett, of the matter of fact war diary, of the Royal Veterinary Corps, had assumed the role of a medical officer on board a rescue trawler, and reported the 150 men were on board. Eyewitness accounts vary as to how long she took to sink, but Captain Fuller, master of the John Holt, timed her demise at just 24 minutes. With one or two others I climbed through a porthole and dropped into the water.” –Kenneth Clowes, RAOC, “There did not appear to be panic, but there was great confusion. These files testify to years of work by the War Office trying to identify those on board the Lancastria. He stripped naked and swam through the oil and managed to be recovered by another ship , a Royal Navy Destroyer I believe . We got rafts over the side and lowered the lifeboats. Well, a very, very sweeping statement would be that it was troops and civilians being evacuated from France ahead of a very rapid German advance, but in short, we just don’t know who, or how many people. So, why is it such a significant maritime disaster? Operation Cycle took place from Le Havre and involved the evacuation of 11,000 British troops and 26,000 Allied troops, and this took place from 10 June to the early hours of 13 June. They found themselves in an ever decreasing pocket around the port. We could see out on the horizon a huge liner which small boats were being used to ferry men out to it. At 3:45, the ship’s ARP alarm was sounded, and a JU 88, of the Kampf geschwader dreizig gruppe zwei piloted by Peter Stahl flew over the Lancastria and dropped four bombs, all of which hit the Lancastria with fatal consequences. It prompted the formation of the Survivors Association, which held an annual service of remembrance and a parade. I was elected to do the cooking, we also did general duties and square bashing to keep fit. He is still of sound mind although very frail. Archives, Open He states that for a time he could do nothing to help himself but manage to recover once he was aboard HMS Havelock. I was in the water and oil for more than four to five hours.

Subscribe now for regular news, updates and priority booking for events.Sign up, All content is available under the Open The loss of the Lancastria was Britain’s worst maritime disaster. Those subsequently rescued, reported that those clinging on were singing ‘Roll out the barrel’ and ‘There’ll always be an England’ as they waited for the ship to slip between the waves. If you wish to re-use any part of a podcast, please note that copyright in the podcasts and transcripts in some cases belongs to the speakers, not to the Crown.

“She was going down fast. The NAFFI was looted by our men so not to leave any food or stores behind for the enemy. I was absolutely amazed that a story this incredible could be this obscure. We didn’t know later that the name of the liner was the Lancastria, it wasn’t a war ship but a liner, but we didn’t care, as we were so glad to be going home. Pulling men out of the water was difficult and exhausting work, and the small craft found it difficult to manoeuvre through the oil slick. I put my hand to my head; most of my hair had been blown off. After that we expected an air attack at any time.’ He then goes on to say that the crew were going to their air raid precaution stations from 2:00pm, but there were so many people on board that there was actually nowhere for anyone to take any cover.

Well, we all know of the great loss of life on board the Titanic. You can find help on how to download and listen to our podcasts in our quick guide to getting started. Walter Hirst, 663 Artisan Works Company, Royal Engineers, “I was on G deck, in the hold, when the bomb struck. As one went under you could see the legs of other survivors thrashing up and down.” disaster, hmt lancastria, maritime, rms lancastria, second world war, ships, sinking, transcribed, WW2. She’d spent hours on the Clyde where she was supposed to be refitted, and then been moved to Liverpool for a routine re-fit and to have 1,407 tons of surplus fuel oil removed from her tanks.

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