HMT Lancastria

One of the largest losses of life in maritime history and is still hushed up.

Battle of France, World War II (10 May-22 June, 1940): 185 000
Ellis John, World War II : a statistical survey,
(killed+missing, France Campaign)

• French: 120,000
• Germans: 43,110
• British: 11,010

One third of all British casualties were one stationary ship.

The Lancastria, a Cunard Liner, was the biggest disaster at sea in British History. Death toll varies but could have been around 4,000 to 5,000. Churchill ordered a complete black out of the sinking, survivors were sworn to secrecy.

The entire 51st Division of Scottish Highlanders surrendered to Erwin Rommel near Saint-Valery-en-Caux on June 12, 1940. The last open French port, St.Nazaire, became something of a Mecca to these lost legions still trying to get to the UK. The life raft of choice for these men was obvious. Docked at the river port was the 16,243 ton five-decked troopship HMT Lancastria. The ship, a former Cunard cruise liner taken up from trade, was taking all the British troops that could squeeze aboard. Civilian refugees, stranded RAF ground crews and others also crowded aboard.

On June 17, 1940, before the Lancastria could leave the coast, a German air strike found her. Luftwaffe Junkers JU-88 bombers dropped a string of armor penetrating bombs on the troopship, swarming with British soldiers like an anthill. Men trapped below decks in cargo holds, passageways, and storage areas had no chance of escape. Only those in exterior cabins with portholes or on the upper most deck even had an opportunity to flee to disaster. The Lancastria "turned turtle" and rolled over very fast while still in her moorings. Follow on waves of German fighters strafed defenseless British tommies floating among some 1,400 tons of burning fuel oil that had seeped from the Lancastria's bunkers.

Overall losses of have only been estimated due to the fact that no loading manifest was available from the stricken ship. Some unofficial lists count upwards of 9,000 men aboard the ship when it was struck and only 2477 could be accounted for after she rolled. This leaves a simple maths worst case scenario of almost 7,000 soldiers and sailors drowned in the harbour. The loss of life at sea can only be rivaled by that of the German troopship Wilhelm Gustloff torpedoed in the Baltic by a Soviet submarine in 1945 with the loss of some 5900 souls. It was the largest single day loss of life to the British Army since the Battle of the Somme.

It should be remembered that the RMS Titanic which perished with 1,517 souls and the RMS Lusitania with the loss of 1198, while tragic, are still muted by the scale of the Lancastria's sinking.

Why wasn't this ship fully protected by aircraft with all those men on board? The British had a few fighters operating from grass strips in France, but not enough. St.Nazaire was too far to give a CAP from southern England. A Ju88 was no match for the top line British and French fighters. It would have been shot out of the sky. The French air force should have fully protected her, but they had all flow to North Africa, even before the capitulation of the French ground troops leaving the French and British ground troops naked.

Winston Churchill, who had proclaimed only days before that the entire British Expeditionary Force in France had been withdrawn through Dunkirk, when confronted with the reports of the loss of life in St.Nazaire, ordered that the event be kept secret. In fact, the Royal Navy's files on the vessel are classified for one hundred years and will not be open to the public until the year 2040.

 

Thanks. The blame? The RAF and French air forces. Particularly the French.

 

There are a number of files at the National Archives, all of which are open to the public. I couldn't find any closed file related to the Lancastria:

ADM 1/12264, MERCHANT NAVY (64): HMT CAMBRIDGESHIRE in rescue of survivors from SS LANCASTRIA during evacuation from France: awards to personnel. 1942

ADM 199/2184/6, Convoy number HXF 2 from Halifax (later New York) to United Kingdom. Sailing on 25 September 1939 and arriving on 2 October 1939. Ship names: Lancastria. 1939-1940

AIR 2/4593, SHIPS AND SHIPPING: General (Code B, 73/1): Sinking of S.S. LANCASTRIA 1940-1942

AIR 35/190, S.S. "LANCASTRIA" : Lists of R.A.F. casualties and survivors with related correspondence, and other nominal lists of R.A.F. personnel 1940

BT 26/1180/107, London: Lancastria (Cunard White Star) travelling from New York to London.Embarking at New York.Official Number: 145943.List of passengers disembarking at London. 1939 Dec 3

BT 26/1187/55, Glasgow: Lancastria (Cunard White Star) travelling from unknown ports to Glasgow.Embarking at unspecified ports.Official Number: 145943.List of passengers disembarking at Glasgow. 1940 Jun 10

BT 26/1187/58, Glasgow: Lancastria (Cunard White Star) travelling from unknown ports to Glasgow.Embarking at unspecified ports.Official Number: 145943.List of passengers disembarking at Glasgow. 1940 May 27

BT 26/1187/80, Liverpool: SS Lancastria (Cunard White Star) travelling from New York to Liverpool.Embarking at New York.Official Number: 145943.List of passengers disembarking at Liverpool. 1940 Jan 12

BT 26/1187/128, Liverpool: Lancastria (Cunard White Star) travelling from New York to Liverpool.Embarking at New York.Official Number: 145943.List of passengers disembarking at Liverpool. 1940 Feb 24

BT 26/1188/38, Liverpool: Lancastria (The Cunard Steamship Company Ltd) travelling from New York to Liverpool.Embarking at New York.Official Number: 145943.List of passengers disembarking at Liverpool. 1940 Apr 6

BT 373/187, Lancastria 1942

WO 361/5, Casualties at sea, St Nazaire: sinking of SS Lancastria, 17 June 1940. Orderable at item level 1940 Jan 01 - 1943 Dec 31



As for "blame", call me old fashioned but I'd blame the Germans for its sinking. ;-)

Lee

 

A couple of things: St Nazaire was not the last open French port. Soldiers and civilians, including many Polish and Czech nationals, were saved from La Pallice, Bordeaux/Le Verdon, St Jean de Luz (near the Spanish border) and the South of France. In all about 211,000 were saved from ports between St Malo and St Jean de Luz, over 200,000 by merchant vessels. Also the Lancastria was at anchor, not alongside. There are very few files about this evacuation, Operation Aerial, which ended with the Armistice 25 June. I agree that the Germans were to blame, but many of the merchant ships were poorly armed or totally without guns - but you can't blame the air forces for that!

 

As for "blame", call me old fashioned but I'd blame the Germans for its sinking. ;-)

Lee

Just about says it all........

 

A bit more here about Operations Cycle & Aerial halfway down the post! .

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/1940/6285-dunkirk.html#post49430

 

However, one of the most controversial aspects of the sinking of the Lancastria was the alleged cover up of the facts by Churchill's Government. As soon as news reached the Cabinet Office about the Lancastria, Winston Churchill issued a 'D' notice on the news, suspending publication about the disaster until the 'D' notice was lifted.

He later wrote that: 'When news of this came through to me in the quiet Cabinet room during the afternoon, I forbade its publication, saying that the newspapers have got quite enough disaster for today at least. I had intended to release news of the disaster a few days later, but events crowded in so black and so quickly, that I forgot to lift the ban, and it was some time before the knowledge of this horror became public.'

So, the news actually came to light five and a half weeks later. At the time of the sinking, Churchill's Government had been in existence just one day longer than our current government [date of lecture 17 June 2010], and in that time, they had dealt with the evacuation of Dunkirk, the fall of France, the evacuation of the second BEF, and the very real prospect of an invasion across the Channel.

While none of this forgives the blackout on news of the Lancastria, it does explain why Churchill may have genuinely forgotten to lift the ban. The Lancastria was just a bad news story in a sea of bad news stories.

The D notice for 2040 is a red herring me thinks.

Forgotten tragedy: The loss of HMT Lancastria | The National Archives

Regards
Hugh

 

That's a great article Hugh, thanks.

 

Hansard 'Loss of the Lancastria' 1 August 1940 - Questions in the House.