It was like sitting in a giant bathtub full of freezing water, he recalls. World War II: The auxiliary patrol vessel (247 GRT) was shelled and sunk in the English Channel off. You may not use more than a few lines without permission. You may quote material on this The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not
The Royal Navy apparently remained unaware of the battle and made no rescue effort, only learning what happened after Germany announced the victory. http://www.british-merchant-navy.co.uk/TOWER.htm. At 11, Colin was already a veteran of wartime upheavals. The unusual disaster continues to evoke controversy, and even questioning in Parliament, decades later. All rights reserved. World War II: The cargo ship (2,460 GRT, 1909) was bombed and sunk in the English Channel off Le Havre, France by Luftwaffe aircraft. The 224-meter long vessel still could only carry a smaller air group of forty-eight aircraft compared to larger U.S. fleet carriers. Wynn does not clarify what materials he utilized from these sources and there are no footnotes, in-text citations, or endnotes. His spirits lifted as he spotted a light but it was only the conning tower of the U-boat, which had surfaced to check out the scene. I thought: Wake up, Colin! Some of the survivors later recalled feeling excited about this strange new adventure. At 19, he joined the Royal Navy for his National Service. World War II: The auxiliary minesweeper (208 GRT, 1917) was scuttled at Brest, France. A German submarine torpedoed the ship hours after Britain declared war on Hitler in 1939 - more than 100 people, including many Americans, were killed. Like many boys of his era, Colin had been circumcised, and they knew that if the Germans invaded, he risked being wrongly identified as a Jew. Object description. She was subsequently salvaged by the Germans and re-entered service as. Most likely rammed and sunk Oct. 4; 1940 by Antonietta Costa (Italian Cargo ship) 60 NM ENE of Bari . Armed Guard Casualties Ships Sunk, Damaged or Captured December 1941 (82 ships), Chronological list of U.S. ships sunk or damaged, Geographical list of U.S. ships sunk or damaged, Alphabetical list of U.S. ships sunk or damaged, Merchant Marine Casualties On December 19, 1940, the 'Isolda' was bombed by German plane and sunk three miles south of the Saltee Island. uboat.net FR Cyclone, accessed 30 July 2016. Charles C. Kolb, PhD, is a USNI Golden Life Member. For the scuttling of HMS Mashobra on this day, see the entry for 25 May 1940. Today, it sits in a glass case at the Imperial War Museum in London a reminder of all the children whose parents loved them too much to keep them at home. Those who survived the incident were instructed not to speak about their experience. The ship, built in 1940 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding in Quincy, Massachusetts, was one of eight sister ships built for the United States Maritime Commission on behalf of American Export Lines. Colin was one of 90 children aged five to 15 chosen to travel on the City of Benares. Oxford University-trained historian and author of more than a dozen books Jonathan Fenby stated that 1,738 perished (Fenby 2005, p. 247), but as there are no official figures published, there are great discrepancies in the numbers calculated by a variety of authors, and other estimates range from 2,000 to 9,000. LANCASTRIA (June 17, 1940) The loss of the Lancastria was the fourth largest maritime disaster of the war. The carriers tall crows nest was unoccupied; and only twelve of her eighteen boilers were kept active, limiting her speed. Empress of Ireland: Directed by Stephan Parent. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . Five minutes later, in one of the longest-range hits in naval history, the Scharnhorsts third volley screamed over fifteen miles to slam straight into the Gloriouss flight deck, blasting open a huge hole that rendered it unusable and knocking two Swordfish bombers into the water. These decisions proved fatal, as that same day, the German Kriegsmarine dispatched surface forces including the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on Operation Juno, a sortie redirected to interdict Allied evacuation ships. The following brief overview of the Lancastrias history is augmented with verified information from sources that Wynn might have consulted. World War II: The tanker (2,454 GRT, 1888) was sunk as a block ship at Dieppe, France. "Naval Events, June 1940, Part 1 of 4, Saturday 1st Friday 7th", "Norwegian Homefleet - WW II, Ships starting with Sa through SN", "The History of the Eastbourne Lifeboat Station", alaskashipwreck.com Alaska Shipwrecks (T), "Naval Events, May 1940, Part 1 of 4, Wednesday 1st Tuesday 7th", "Naval Events, June 1940, Part 2 of 4, Saturday 8th Friday 14th", "Norwegian Homefleet - WW II, Ships starting with K", "Tyne Built Ships. Every type of ship is here, warships, submarines, MTBs, tankers, cargo, passenger, troopships and so on, totalling over 3,000. 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. Healthy mother-of-two, 32, collapsed and died from brain bleed while she led fitness bounce class. World War II: The ocean liner (9,345 GRT, 1906) was bombed and sunk at Le Havre, France by Luftwaffe aircraft with the loss of six crew. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Early in 1923 the vessel together with two other . Sbastien Roblin holds a masters degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. If it can be proved that Captain Sharp ignored the Ministry of Defence instructions not to exceed the maximum loading capacity of 3000 persons, grounds for compensation claims could be enormous. World War II: The cargo ship (2,155 GRT, 1902) was torpedoed and sunk in the, World War II: The cargo ship (6,694 GRT, 1917) was bombed and damaged in the English Channel off. Published: 00:26 GMT, 10 March 2012 | Updated: 00:27 GMT, 10 March 2012. : Carron United Kingdom World War II: The Admiralty-requisitioned cargo ship . 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. Fortunately for Colin, he was better off than some: he had his padded life-jacket, a balaclava and a pair of string gloves that his mother had put in his pockets. To veterans of the Blitz, the bunk-beds, portholes and sheer quantities of fresh food seemed like something from a Hollywood movie. As the night progressed, body temperatures began to fall. by Sebastien Roblin. 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. Germany initially denied involvement. NHF has decommissioned and is no longer accepting new members or donations. The Glorious was one of the first flat-top aircraft carriers ever built, converted from a speedy Courageous-class battlecruiser in 1924. It was there that, suddenly, he began to relive the horrors of the sinking. She was carrying between 800 and 1,200 people, mainly refugees, and most were lost when her ammunition cargo exploded. There are 1,472 names on his list of the deceased, extracted from the War Graves website, but theCommonwealth War Graves Commission records 1,816 burials with more than 400 in France (Fenby 2005, p. 234) and the Lancastria Association identifies 1,738 individuals that died aboard the ship . However, on June 8 DOyly-Hughes received permission to depart independently for Scapa Flow escorted by just two destroyers. World War II: The cargo ship (5,041 GRT, 1939) was torpedoed and sunk in the, World War II: The coaster (668 GRT, 1899) struck a mine and sank two nautical miles (3.7km; 2.3mi) north of the, The cargo ship (2,744 GRT, 1906) ran aground on, World War II: The tanker (7,101 GRT, 1926) struck a mine in, World War II: The tanker (6,891 GRT, 1925) was captured in the, World War II: The auxiliary minesweeper (85 GRT) was scuttled at, World War II: The naval trawler (131 GRT, 1929) struck a mine in the English Channel off. My own commemoration including photo's of the two Brothers sent to me by their relatives can be found on this link to my own website.http://www.british-merchant-navy.co.uk/TOWER.htmAbout links. Her pointed bow still poked from below a raised flight deck. Just two weeks after being set up, it received more than 200,000 applications from worried parents. Measuring some 697 feet (212 metres) in length, it could carry . Under the British Official Secrets Act, the report on the Lancastria cannot be published until the year 2040. Lancastria was attacked, apparently by five Junkers Ju 88 dive bombers, and the ship capsized, and sank within twenty minutes mid-afternoon on June 17 off the French port of St. Nazaire. World War II: The auxiliary minesweeper (1,256 GRT) was scuttled at Brest, France. British war correspondent's interview with French seaman on the sinking of French repatriation ship SS Meknes, English Channel, 24/7/1940. In his memoirs, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote that he had intended to release the news a few days later, but that events in France crowded upon us so black and so quickly that I forgot to lift the ban (p.192). List of shipwrecks: 3 March 1940 Ship Country Description Arucas Germany World War II: The passenger ship (3,369 GRT, 1927) was intercepted in the Atlantic Ocean east of Iceland by HMS York ( Royal Navy) and was scuttled by herTen crew members were lost at sea. His parents found out Colin was alive only when they spotted a photo of him in a newspaper. This is what happenned. She once described him affectionately as a big child. These advantages meant that battleships and battlecruisers were repeatedly sunk by carrier-based aircraft, from Pearl Harbor to Taranto to the Battle of the Philippines Sea. The SS Cap Arcona was a large ocean liner originally built in 1927 for the Hamburg-South America line. World War II: The unfinished, 84% complete, World War II: The cargo ship (1,885 GRT, 1904) was torpedoed and sunk in the, The auxiliary schooner (144 GRT) sank off, World War II: The coaster (276 GRT) was torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel south of, World War II: The cargo ship struck a mine in the, World War II: The cargo ship (569 GRT, 1889) struck a mine and sank in the, World War II: The auxiliary patrol vessel (48 GRT) was scuttled at, World War II: The cargo ship (5,253 GRT, 1911) was captured in the, World War II: The cargo ship (5,968 GRT, 1921) struck a mine and sank in the, The cargo ship (7,881 GRT, 1922) ran aground south of, World War II: The cargo ship (4,005 GRT, 1924) was torpedoed and sunk in the, World War II: The tanker (2,580 GRT, 1928) was shelled and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean 160 nautical miles (300km; 180mi) south west of the, World War II: The cargo ship (663 GRT, 1897) struck a mine and sank in the, World War II: The trawler (211 GRT) was bombed and sunk by a Do17Z aircraft of 3./Kstenfliegergruppe 606 (, World War II: The cargo ship (5,053 GRT, 1929) was torpedoed and sunk in the. From the 90 whod set out from Liverpool, there were only 13 survivors. A2477018. Then, out of the blue, in January 1941, a letter arrived for Colin from Buckingham Palace. They didnt have anyone at the ends holding it steady. Once filled, the lifeboat was lowered into the raging sea. World War II: The auxiliary patrol vessel (1,160 GRT, 1934) struck a mine of Le Verdon-sur-Mer, France and was beached. From the half-submerged Lifeboat 2, Colin watched as the Benares sank below the waves. World War II: The ocean liner (28,124 GRT, 1932) struck a mine in the, World War II: The cargo ship (3,651 GRT, 1912) was torpedoed and sunk in the, World War II: The cargo ship (1,147 GRT, 1912) was bombed and sunk in the, World War II: The tug was scuttled at Brest, France. It was time to evacuate their precious son to safety and that had to be beyond British shores. Battleships accompanied by other surface warships did directly engage carriers one more time in World War II during the Battle of Samar, though this time the U.S. carriers air wings participated in the fight leading to a very different, though no less dramatic outcome. But once he had returned home, the subject of his ordeal became taboo. Some families, such as the Grimmonds from Brixton, South London, faced an almost unimaginable loss: five of their children Violet, Connie, Lennie, Eddie and Gussie had perished. 8 was the first to be lowered. Captain Sharp estimated 5,500, but one Royal Engineer officer was told that there were more than 7,200 persons aboard. Later, he received an oak-leaf emblem, which came with instructions to wear it on the ribbon of the War Medal an award he was too young to earn. As a precaution, his mother had sewn a life-jacket into the lining, which in turn had been stuffed with silky kapok fibre to provide extra insulation. Details of the British ships sunk during July - December 1940. Then, one day, he developed an infection and had to be sent to an isolation ward to recover. Then he caught a whiff of the telltale smell of explosives. The prevailing narrative of naval warfare in World War II concerns how the carrier decisively unseated the battleship as the dominant naval weapon system. Meanwhile, hail and rain continued to fall. World War II: The cargo ship (1,684 GRT, 1920) was bombed and sunk in the English Channel off Le Havre, France by Luftwaffe aircraft. Ardent was finally caught darting out for another torpedo run and set ablaze by repeated hits. The other ten or so whod been with them had drowned. What a story, and how lucky are we,born just after WW2, for the brave men and women, who fought for our freedom, Your email address will not be published. In fact, the Northampton was secretly evacuating the Norweigian royal family to the UK, and commanding Vice Admiral John Cunningham had strict orders to maintain radio silence, and thus neither intervened nor relayed the message. Chris Pleasance explains how Do not sell or share my personal information. At 3:45 p.m., crew on the German capital ships spotted the funnel smoke of the British warships and surged forward to close the distance. by Norwegian commandos 11/03/39, Sent from Gibraltar to Marseilles; Released 39 days; Cargo removed, Crew 3; Japanese POW: 164; Died POW:12 including 4 lost on It was in the 1970s a challenge, but I eventually, after many disappointing follows, found a second hand copy, with a book dealer. A few minutes later, he watched helplessly as the waves washed away the mast and oars. All nine crew were rescued by the trawler, The coaster (270 GRT) ran ashore on Kalder Steel, off, The cargo ship (3,303 or 3,240 GRT, 1913) struck a submerged wreck in the, The coaster (121 GRT, 1918) sank off the mouth of the. There were only 11 survivors. Copyright 2011-2022 Naval Historical Foundation. Most of the content on this site is created by our users, who are members of the
World War II: The auxiliary minesweeper (261 GRT, 1918) was scuttled at Lorient, France. This list of sources is concerning as there are at least a dozen sources that would have provided additional information to flesh-out his brief narrative, namely Winston Churchills 1949 The Second World War, Vol. Franconia was assigned to Lorient while Lancastria continued toward St. Nazaire but because of the tidal channel on the Loire estuary Lancastria had to anchor in the Charpentier Roads about 5 nm (nautical miles) southwest of the actual port. A camera crew onboard the Scharnhorst filmed the engagement, and the Gloriouss sinking, which you can see here. Two of the youngest serving Merchant Seamen killed in WWII. Find out how you can use this. The SS Andrea Doria was a flagship of the Italian Line. The SS Goslar, a steamboat, was at port in Suriname when Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940, causing the country (then a colony of the Netherlands) to begin to intern German men living in the . World War II: The cargo ship (3,546 GRT, 1906) struck a mine and sank in the, The cargo ship (5,393 or 5,106 GRT, 1918) ran aground in the, World War II: The cargo ship (5,820 GRT, 1921) was torpedoed, shelled and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean west of. The date was September 17, 1940. Already 600 miles out to sea, the SS City of Benares was carrying Colin and 89 other child evacuees to the U.S. and Canada, where they could wait out the end of the war in safety. Only a few dozen would survive one of the most controversial naval battles of World War IIperhaps the only time battleships single handedly took out an aircraft carrier. "Verluste Deutscher Handelsschiffe 1939-1945 und unter deutscher Flagge fahrender auslndischer Schiffe: 1940", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_shipwrecks_in_June_1940&oldid=1142243449, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, World War II: The cargo ship (4,220 GRT) was bombed and damaged in the North Sea 13 nautical miles (24km) off, World War II: The coaster (281 GRT, 1896) was bombed and sunk in the, World War II: The trawler (195 GRT) was bombed and sunk in the North Sea (. On Lifeboat 10, just one child had survived and 14 had died. At Customs, they asked: Where are your passports? We laughed. In seconds, they were gone. Among the children floundering in the waves were Bess Walder, 15, and Beth Cummings, 14, who managed to grab the up-turned keel and hung on for dear life. This is the story of Beryl Myatt, a child evacuee during the Second World War. Below the waves, however, the convoy was being trailed by U-48, a German U-boat. And what of Colin? The ship was hit by a torpedo on the morning of 2 July, killing many of those on board. Ships Sunk or Damaged 1939 to 1941 Chronological List of U.S. When dawn broke, Bess and Beth were still somehow clinging onto their upturned lifeboat along with two men. An elderly nurse beckoned him to her side, so he switched places. By late-June 1940, internees had begun to be moved out of Warth Mills. Just seven minutes later, the Scharnhorst opened fire on the investigating Ardent, busting open a boiler. those of the BBC. For the scuttling of RFA Oleander on this day, see the entry for 26 May 1940. The reason? British and Allied evacuation vessels took Lancastrias survivors aboard, the trawler HMT Cambridgeshire alone rescuing nearly 900 souls. World War II: The auxiliary minesweeper (301 GRT, 1907) was scuttled at, World War II: The naval tug (179 GRT) was scuttled at, World War II: The cargo ship (1,199 GRT, 1908) was scuttled at, World War II: The cargo ship (3,594 GRT, 1920) was scuttled at Rochefort, France. The year before, his parents had pulled him out of his prep school in St Johns Wood, North London, and deposited him with his grandparents in Lingfield, Surrey. Be beyond British shores of naval warfare in world War II: the auxiliary patrol (! The sinking 224-meter long vessel still could only carry a smaller air group of aircraft! Scharnhorst filmed the engagement, and most were lost when her ammunition Cargo exploded was! The Germans and re-entered Service as carriers tall crows nest was unoccupied ; and only twelve her! Killing many of those on board lifeboat 2, Colin watched as the Benares sank below the.... Just one child had survived and 14 had died minutes later, he to! 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