Captain Rudolf Sharpe later lost his life when the ship he commanded, the Laconia, was sunk. Many . RMS Tyrrhenia RMS Tyrrhenia was built in Glasgow by William Beardmore and launched in 1922; she began work for Cunard as a passenger liner crossing the Atlantic. 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. 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. He never saw his friend Charlie again. 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. Walter was in the water for around four hours before he was picked up. Two other bombs landed in No. [17] Troops were ferried out to Lancastria and the other larger ships by destroyers, tugs, fishing boats and other small craft,[18] a round trip of three or four hours, sometimes being machine-gunned by German aircraft, although apparently without casualties. Frank Holden Snr was on board the luxury transatlantic cruise liner Lancastria in 1940. 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). 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. "[30] Rudolph Sharp survived the sinking and went on to command the RMSLaconia, losing his life on 12 September 1942 in the Laconia incident off West Africa. Information about the Lancastria sinking might be restricted by the Official Secrets Act. She was first used to assist in the evacuation of troops from Norway. 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. We have not forgotten. 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? [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". He believes Walter and Charlie found some life jackets on the Lancastria to use as pillows on the way home. [6] [3], The immense loss of life was such that the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, immediately suppressed news of the disaster through the D-Notice system,[33] telling his staff that "The newspapers have got quite enough disaster for today at least". 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. Around lunchtime, on the 17th, there was an air raid. The 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.. "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. (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. With the outbreak of the Second World War, she carried cargo before being requisitioned in April 1940 as a troopship, becoming the HMT Lancastria. British Expeditionary Force troops back to Britain. Raye Dancocks explains . He passed away four years ago, the last Scottish survivor to die. It was fourth English pounds. Around 700 missing from the British Expeditionary Force are commemorated on the Dunkirk Memorial. [51] The medal was designed by Mark Hirst, grandson of Lancastria survivor Walter Hirst. casualties and survivors with related correspondence, and other nominal lists of R.A.F. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 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 we have tried, they (the government) have said it (documents on the Lancastria) are secret. Jun 17 1940 Sinking of the RMS Lancastria A fresh air raid began before 4 pm. 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. 2 held about 800 RAF personnel. 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. 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. The survivors crowded on the submarines' decks and the towed lifeboats, as the B-24 made several deadly attack runs on U-156. It is likely that the bodies of these men were recovered from the Bay of Biscay by French fishermen and brought back to their home ports to be interred. The captain said that he would be able to take 3,000 at a pinch. 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. [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. 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. Her normal complement in troopship configuration was 2,180 including 330 crew; however, Captain Sharp had brought 2,653 men back from Norway, so he replied that he could take 3,000 "at a pinch". This web publication contains 154,528 pages of The Lancastria, a pre-war Cunard cruise liner, was requisitioned by the Admiralty and turned in to a war-time troop ship. I can't think, after all of these years, it can still be a secret. This shrouded details of the disaster in secrecy as Churchill wanted to cover up the grisly details of the loss of life from an already severely demoralized British public. It was in the 1970s a challenge, but I eventually, after many disappointing follows, found a second hand copy, with a book dealer. 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. However, themovetowardswar went initially quite slowly. It was only attended by 10 people. Estimates of the loss range between 3,000 and 5,800 fatalities. Jacqueline Tanner is one of a handful of people who was on the Lancastria and is still alive. She made her maiden voyage, Glasgow-Qubec-Montreal on 19 June 1922. American and Scottish newspapers did print the story, but not until the end of July. 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. You can order records in advance to be ready for you when you visit Kew. As many as 7,000 lost their lives, making it Britain's worst sea . 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. 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. 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. casualties and survivors with related. Read about our approach to external linking. This was the date on which, the RMS Lancastria was sunk off the French port of Nantes, with an unknown loss of life. 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. [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. "I think that is probably the reason he never went to any of the company reunions. RMS Lancastria Cunard 1940617 4000 Titanic Lusitania [ ] RMS Lancastria was a British ocean liner requisitioned by the UK Government during the Second World War. 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 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. Is climate change killing Australian wine? She was sunk on 17 June 1940 during Operation Aerial. In 2006, 14 additional wrecks sunk at the Battle of Jutland were designated as war graves, but Lancastria was not. The people living in the area, found bodies washed up on the beaches for weeks after the disaster. Retreat to Victory. Copyright 2011-2022 Naval Historical Foundation. Late in the afternoon, the Germans launched another air raid. 1912-05-28 RMS Laconia Passenger List Steamship Line: Cunard Line Class of Passengers: Second Cabin Date of Departure: 28 May 1912 With the sea thick with oil, German planes strafed survivors trying to keep afloat. [22], A fresh air raid began at 15:50 by Junkers Ju 88 bomber aircraft from Kampfgeschwader 30. She was bombed at 15:48 by Junkers 88 aircraft from II. Those who survived the incident were instructed not to speak about their experience. 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. 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. Grace's Guide web site design is Copyright 2021 by Grace's Guide Ltd. 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. Policy. As were news reports on the sinking. [47] The Lancastria Association of Scotland was formed in 2005 and holds its annual service at St George's West Church in Edinburgh. But it is a largely forgotten chapter in British history, a fact that leaves survivors and relatives aggrieved. RMS Lancastria, Death Toll: 4,000-6,500. Many lifeboats could not be launched as they had been damaged, and there were only 2,500 life jackets on board. 4 hold. Kate Murphy Schaefer is an undergraduate history instructor who studies the human impact of wars and revolutions. While there were 2,477 survivors, it is . [8] In 1934 the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland chartered Lancastria for a pilgrimage to Rome. But with wearisome slowness theU.K. government stillhasntacknowledgedthe sacrifice, although to its credit the Scottish parliament commissioned aLancastriasurvivors medal, plus a memorial in Glasgow where the ship was built. 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]. 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. [48], Lancastria is represented at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire by a sessile oak tree and a plaque. 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. He was a very quiet man, and his recalling of the Lancastria tended to come only after a couple of pints.". Having received an emergency order to evacuate British nationals and troops in excess of its capacity of 1,300 passengers, mode. At the same time, many soldiers fought a fierce rear-guard. [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. Another liner, the SS Oronsay, was damaged, so Captain Sharp was advised to depart. British and Allied evacuation vessels took Lancastrias survivors aboard, the trawler HMT Cambridgeshire alone rescuing nearly 900 souls. 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. The Germans ordered their submarines to dive, abandoning many survivors. 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. RMS was a sign of distinction and quality. This year the ceremony was considerably toned down due to the coronavirus pandemic. text of this web site is available under the Creative The medal is in recognition of the endurance of survivors and ultimate sacrifice of the victims. Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. 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. Please ensure the tag is appropriate for the record. [13][14], At the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Lancastria was in the Bahamas. Hold No. I of course ,read it before giving it to my father. [55], In October 2011, the Lancastria Association of Scotland has erected a memorial to the victims on the site where the ship was built, the former Dalmuir shipyard at Clydebank, Glasgow, now the grounds of the Golden Jubilee Hospital. [43] The campaign received support from all parties, but the MoD said that such a move would be "purely symbolic" and have no effect. The French had a front row seat to the destruction, but the British people were kept in the dark. She made her maiden voyage, GlasgowQuebec CityMontreal, on 19 June 1922.[6]. Enter the tag you would like to associate with this record and click 'Add tag'. Those who got away were machine-gunned in the water". [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. [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. I think Churchill was right when he said 'we don't broadcast this'. Captain Sharp estimated the number to be 5,500. Whatever the case, this event likely remains the largest single-ship loss of life in British maritime history, more than the RMS Titanic, which had an estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard and suffered over 1,500 fatalities.
