Mystery ship at St Nazair June 18th 1940

[ScouseBoy]

What regiment or Corps was your father in?   Was he in the RASC and what was his trade or specialism?

[ScouseBoy]

I have a letter my father sent to my mother saying he had landed at Plymouth on June 19th 1940 at 6pm, he drew a picture of the ship with 3 funnells, he said the ship he should have been on had got hit and sunk, I dont know whether this could have been the Lancastria in St. Nazaire or not, and I am trying to find out the name of the ship he was on. Anyone any ideas?.

There is a web site which lists most merchant ship and convoy movements during WW2, very comprehensive, you can search individual ports on a certain date  and see the  names of ships arriving and departing.       www.convoyweb       give me a few mins and I will check  full address.  Come back here in three or four mins.

[ScouseBoy]

www.convoyweb.org.uk

Go to the section on ports,   Type in Plymouth  for the date in question, and you will probably get several names of ships listing their "cargo"   as  X number of troops.

[ScouseBoy]

Arrivals at Plymouth on Wednesday  19th June 1940:    Baharistan.   City of Mobile ....  Clan Ferguson.    Fabian.   Glen Affric  all  designated as Convoy FF.2A.

Plus Dorsetshire and Ormonde  marked as "Independent"

If you go to another page and look up  convoy FF.2A    you will probably see the number of troops carried on those ships.

[Sapper59]

Found one problem, the Ben my Chere was on I.O.M. packet steamer and therefor not on all UK records etc. I now have two independent accounts of her at St Nazaire which is very strange. The ship I am looking for embarked DOCKSIDE so it was not a big ship as they had to lay off like the Lancastria and Oronsay etc. The more I look the deeper the mystery.
 I have check and cross referenced all the ships leaving St, Nazaire on the 18th June (last day any ship sailed from that evacuation port. Many don't tie up, Like the Lady of Man).
On the subject of records I have filled in the fomrs part one and two and supplied name, rank, number, date of enlistment. year of discharge, Corps  and opperations of service as I know them and I have been told that for my $30 there is not a lot more than that they can supply and it will take 9 to 12 months anyway, someone is understaffed or needs to get their finger out!

[ScouseBoy]

Have you asked to see the "Merchant Shipping Movement Card"  for that ship from The National Archive?

Have you searched for Ben my Chree at Plymouth, Falmouth, Portsmouth  Southampton in the week after 18th June?   Is there an Isle of Man  section on this Forum,  may be an idea to ask on there. someone who lives on IoM  may be able to look it up in the Archives of the IoM steam packet company.

Try searching for the FF series of convoys.   FF.2A  arrived at Plymouth on 19th June 1940.

[Pete Keane]

This may help.

Must acknowledge Drew who did the work.

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/1940/33566-personnel-vessel-crews-refused-sail-dunkirk.html

Pete

[john70]

Arrivals at Plymouth on Wednesday  19th June 1940:    Baharistan.   City of Mobile ....  Clan Ferguson.    Fabian.   Glen Affric  all  designated as Convoy FF.2A.

Plus Dorsetshire and Ormonde  marked as "Independent"

If you go to another page and look up  convoy FF.2A    you will probably see the number of troops carried on those ships.

Thankyou for your response Scouseboy, I will check these out, My father was in the R A O C at this time and think he was a dispatch rider, he hardly ever spoke about the war but did say once he had ridden 600 miles across France on a BSA M20 and its roughly that distance I believe from Dunkirk where he had been after the liberation on June 4th.

[ScouseBoy]

I was talking to a gentleman (age about 90)  a year or so ago after the Lancastria memorial service in Edinburgh  who had been at St Nazaire on 17th June 1940.  He had been ordered to smash up  Motor bikes with a sledgehammer in a warehouse at St Nazaire to stop them being used by the enemy.