HMT Lancastria - World War 2 (17/6/1940)

[DeeBoneham]

Nice one Kangarucci!

[MJW01]

My grandfather was evacuated from St Nazaire in 1940 and was supposed to be on the Lancastria but narrowly missed embarkation. He saw the ship being attacked and sunk.

His next posting was to guard the internment camps in the Isle of Man, which is where he met and married my nan.

Years after the war had finished he was talking to my great grandfather (my nan's father) who had served in the Royal Navy in the First War and was a sailor with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company from the 1930s to the 60s.

He worked on a Steam Packet ferry that was sent to evacuate troops from Dunkirk and other French ports.

It transpired they both had seen the Lancastria go down from the sea and from the land and of course only spoke of this many years later.


Incidentally, does anyone have anyone have information on the Royal Engineers of the BEF who were evacuated from St Nazaire?

[DeeBoneham]

MJW
Have you google the Royal Engineers as I seem to remember they have their own website.  They might have some stuff you can look at.  I am sure there is someone on here who will have put stuff on before about St Nazaire.  Scrimnet might remember as he seems to have a very good memory...
Dee

[MJW01]

DeeBoneham - Many thanks for this - I'll take a look at their website.

MJW

[ScouseBoy]

"Under the Official Secrets Act, the report on the Lancastria cannot be published until the year 2040. If it is proved that Captain Sharpe ignored the Ministry of Defence instructions not to exceed the maximum loading capacity of 3000 persons, grounds for compensation claims could be enormous"


Have I missed something here? Was there a war on at the time? Surely there was.

The ship was evacuating people to get them away from the Germans in a war.
If any compensation was going to be claimed, surely it should be from them and not the Captain of the ship or whoever.

Even if such an order was made.

Yes it was a very sad episode, but to claim compensation???

Salty

          I have read many of the books and references to this incident, because my father was there, that day.
                I remember reading that a Royal Navy officer had advised the captain of HMT Lancastria  to keep on embarking passengers even though he was exceeding the peace time passenger capacity.
But the other question is:  Should the captain of Lancastria made the decision to    lift anchor and set sail for England as soon as the other ship nearby was hit by a bomb.

[brianthetaff]

Hindsight is a wonderful opportunity to question decisions made long ago.

None of us can imagine the sheer joy for those seeing ships off-shore St Nazaire waiting to take them home, and once aboard actually felt that they were on their way.

The captain made a decision based on the information he had, and no other ship was going to leave with Lancastria - the saying "damned if he does and damned if he didn't" comes to mind.

The tragedy is THE SILENCE after the disaster which still in some cases exists today - the only people who know about it are those that have a personal interest.   

WE SHALL REMEMBER THEM.

[ScouseBoy]

Do you have a personal interest brian?    I do.    My father said that he witnessed it from the quayside,  but I have a suspicion  that he had been on the ship,   but  did not want his mother or my mother to know what  had happened,  and they had been instructed not to talk about it anyway.
After the war, I was born in 1949,   We  lived next door to the Chief Engineer, Jim Dunbar,  one of the senior officers who was  awarded  an OBE   for his  part in rescuing survivors that day.

[brianthetaff]

Yes, if you scroll down on page 2, you will find my post which explains my conection.

Since I wrote that, I've now got in touch with some-one from my home in the Rhondda who is getting a full copy of my file, complete with photos of my late uncle etc etc.

I am in touch with The Lancastria association and hope to meet those people again next year - depending on when my own regimental association function is.

Brian 

[ScouseBoy]

Brian, I went to Edinburgh last year for the service in June.   

Which Corps was your relative in?   

My dad  got married on 23rd June 1940.  Apparently, when he got back to Falmouth he phoned home to say he wanted to get married.