110th army troop royal engineers,East Lancashire.

[safecontractor]

Since my posts last year in August 2015, I have visited Western France again and been to a number of places around, but as yet not actually to, St Nazaire. As I'm going again this year, I do intend to visit St Nazaire and wondered if anyone has any detailed information, pictures, locations, addresses etc., about the time spent there by the 110th prior to their evacuation in 1940.

You all probably know that the RMS Lancastria was sunk on 17th June, 1940, off St Nazaire, with the greatest loss of life ever, in British naval history ( estimated between 6000 and 9000 souls) and this was, apparently, as best I can establish, only some 7-8 hours before the 110th were evacuated from the same port... it must have been chaos and terrifying in those hours.

There are memorials to this sinking in Pornic ( where we stay ) and also in St Nazaire itself, which I will visit this year, and any details / snippets will be greatly appreciated. Any info / photos I glean whilst there I'll be pleased to post on here.

Regards .... Topper

[Drew5233]

Get a copy of The Sinking of the Lancastria by J Fenby. It's only a few quid on Ebay.

The number killed will never be know but I'd reckon 6 to 9 thousand is probably quite exaggerated. There was around 2,500 survivors and around 2,000 know to have died, I'd expect another 2 to 3,000 to have perished below deck.

St Nazaire has a great museum inside the former U-Boat pens.

You might want to visit Kew and get a copy of the Company war diary. It contains nearly 160 various pages covering Sept 1939 to June 1940, June is quite detailed and lists locations and the dates elements of the company left France along with the names of the ships they left on. Unfortunately I'm not allowed to post any of the pages from it on here.

[ScouseBoy]

There is also a "Lancastria"   web site.

Also a book called "The forgotten tragedy  story of the Lancastria"  which I think is a better book than the other one suggested above.

[safecontractor]

Thanks again for the prompt replies and info ....... We're pretty much up to speed on the Lancastria following our visit to France last year ( actually have pics of the cemetery in Pornic)... but what I was really hoping for was more personal stuff ...  such as where the 110th might have been "billeted" during their St Nazaire exploits, perhaps addresses and locations I might visit this time.

Drew ... great info and would love to take advantage.... but unfortunately Kew is some 200 miles from here so chances are pretty slim .. so sorry you can't relay the info from the files you obtained.

Regards .... Topper

[ScouseBoy]

Several years ago  I was talking to a gentleman  who had been in RASC at St Nazaire in the final days.  He remembers smashing new motorbikes with a sledgehammer  to disable them when the Germans arrived.

[LouiseB1]

HI I believe that my uncle, James Bernard Johnson served  in this corps in WW2 and was demobbed in 1946. He may have served in France building camps. Would be great to find out more info about his service.

[gortonboy]

Philippines Agricultural college, Algeria. States billet on the back. Now I have another small piece of info as to where the 110th were.

[gortonboy]

Part of grandads service cards.

[gortonboy]

Xmas greetings from the front