R.M.S Lancastria (Tyrrhenia) sinking 17th June 1940
This photo is one of many taken by Frank Clements (please take a look at his web page at lancastria.org.uk) on the day at least 4000 people lost their lives during the evacuation of allied and British forces and many refugees when the RMS Lancastria sank after being attacked near the French port of Saint Nazaire on 17th June 1940.
Figures for the dead are an estimate but anything up to 9000 could have been on a ship built to carry 2500 passengers and 500 crew .
My dear uncle Walter was one of the lucky ones who managed to jump off it after it was dive bombed by German airplanes. The ship suffered a direct hit by one bomb which penetrated the the funnel, exploding deep inside the hull. After a long time in the water ( several hours) swimming in a lake of diesel oil from the ships ruptured bunker fuel tanks and burning debris under constant attack from enemy aircraft he was picked up by a rescue boat.
Service personal that survived including Walter were sworn to secrecy
about the horror of losing so many people at sea and because of
fears that it would damage British morale at such a critical time in
our history ( on the day that France fell to the Germans , just after
the decision in May to sink the French fleet to stop it falling into
German hands which cost the lives of nearly 2000 French sailors and
dreadful injury to survivors) Churchill took the unusual step of
banning the press from reporting it ( known as a" D" notice
preventing sensitive or secret information affecting national security
being published for one hundred years).
It was eventually made known in an article in the New York Times in
July.1940 and if it wasn,t for the fact that Frank Clements exchanged
a pair of socks for film for his empty camera these photographs
would not have been taken.
I have never seen any reference to it in history books and apart from these photos its hardly ever mentioned by the mainstream UK media or press even now, so its rightful place in history is forgotten or denied and as a combination of the two, unknown to the public at large , despite being the worst loss of life in British Maritime history.
The French government plus the Royal and British Merchant Navy and various support organisations including The Lancastria Association hold a ceremony each year and lay a wreath at the place where it was sunk in honour of the people that died.
The official report of the sinking is still listed as
"classified and secret " by the MOD under the Official
Secrets Act and will not be made known to the general public until
2040 although there is some speculation that the original document no
longer exists .
In fact it is believed Churchill removed its D notice status at some
point after the disaster but the War Office decided to keep it out of
the public domain.
The government maintain that " almost all documents" are available for examination at the Public Records office .
Source www.lancastria.org.uk website.
Comments and faves
daviddb (36 months ago | reply)
Thanks for the links and the interesting history ; I've just been reading some first hand accounts of this incident from a couple of people who were on destroyers involved in the same evacuation. They're in a very readable anthology of WWII destroyer memoirs called , unimaginatively 'Destroyer' ( I suppose it does what it says on the tin...) edited by Ian Hawkins and published in paperback by Conway. ISBN 10:1 84486 008 6. I expect you could find it quickly enough on abebooks.com
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Seen on your photo stream. (?)
fpo22p (36 months ago | reply)
Thank for the info daviddb.
Vera, Chuck & Dave added this photo to their favorites. (34 months ago)
tedman1973 (27 months ago | reply)
My late Grandfather was one of the survivors of this disaster and he only survived because he was a good swimmer. Thank you for posting this photo, may we never forget their sacrifice.
fpo22p (27 months ago | reply)
From the number of views this photo has had a lot of people feel the same.
Trecpeter added this photo to his favorites. (20 months ago)
markwood1969 (15 months ago | reply)
my grandfather was not so lucky
JAMESB1798 (9 months ago | reply)
On doing some reach found out my grandfather also killed aboard lancastria ps their is a new medal for family commerating lancastria
web site contact@Lancastria.Org
jamesb1798@Googlemail.Com