The carriers tall crows nest was unoccupied; and only twelve of her eighteen boilers were kept active, limiting her speed. RMS was a sign of distinction and quality. Most likely rammed and sunk Oct. 4; 1940 by Antonietta Costa (Italian Cargo ship) 60 NM ENE of Bari . 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). World War II: The passenger ship (2,113 GRT, 1908) was bombed and sunk in the Norwegian Sea (. 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. She looked at me and said: What have you done with all your clothes? he says. The City of Benares gave a great shudder and began to sink. The 17th June 1940 saw one of the most horrific events of World War II and the single worst maritime disaster in British history. Survivors: Five survivors of the S.S City of Benares passenger ship which was sunk by a German U-Boat in September 1940. SS Express was a Type C3-E cargo ship of American Export Lines that was sunk by Japanese submarine I-10 in June 1942 in the Indian Ocean. The badly damaged Alexia was acquired by the Royal Navy and converted to the auxiliary escort carrier HMS Alexia, commissioned in December 1943.After the war, the ship was rebuilt for merchant service and renamed Ianthina in 1951. Then, mercifully, he threw himself overboard. Chronological List of U.S. As it grew lighter, he could see corpses floating around each lifeboat. All four crewmen died. I felt responsible for losing them and a totally ridiculous guilt came over me., For a few days, reporters made a big fuss of the heroic boy who had helped others in his lifeboat to survive. In any event, none of the Glorious aircraft were airborne performing a Combat Air Patrol, nor were any readied on the flight deckperhaps due to concerns of pilot fatigue. A history of Tyne shipbuilders and the ships they built", "Norwegian Homefleet - WW II, Ships starting with So through S", Egypt Red Sea Shipwrecks - The Umbria, A Veritable Time Bomb at 30 metres, Ned Middleton, alaskashipwreck.com Alaska Shipwrecks (C), "Kriegsverluste Italienischer Handelsschiffe 1940-1943: Verluste Italienischer Handelsschiffe 1940", "British Admiralty War Diary, 11 June 1940", "Naval Events, June 1940, Part 3 of 4, Saturday 15th - Friday 21st", "HNLMS O 13 of the Royal Netherlands Navy", "Naval Events, June 1940, Part 4 of 4, Saturday 22nd - Sunday 30th". The cargo ship (1,537 GRT, 1938) sank off West Point, The cargo ship (1,314 GRT, 1913) ran aground in the, World War II: The cargo ship (4,512 GRT, 1911) struck a mine and sank in the, The trawler (162 GRT, 1897) sank after a collision with the trawler. Her pointed bow still poked from below a raised flight deck. Two of the youngest serving Merchant Seamen killed in WWII. Within half an hour, four of the crew members on his boat had slipped into unconsciousness and died. The Royal Navy apparently remained unaware of the battle and made no rescue effort, only learning what happened after Germany announced the victory. Lifeboat No. This story has been placed in the following categories. She was later salvaged by the British, repaired and re-entered service. His dreams, however, were rudely interrupted that night by a loud bang. World War II: The auxiliary minesweeper (208 GRT, 1917) was scuttled at Brest, France. Rangitane left Auckland on Sunday 24 November 1940, en route to Britain via the Panama Canal. On December 19, 1940, the 'Isolda' was bombed by German plane and sunk three miles south of the Saltee Island. Whatever the case, this event likely remains the largest single-ship loss of life in British maritime history, more than the RMS Titanic, which had an estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard and suffered over 1,500 fatalities. Under the British Official Secrets Act, the report on the Lancastria cannot be published until the year 2040. The SS Orama was built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness in 1924 for the Orient Line with accommodation for 1,700 passengers. It was time to evacuate their precious son to safety and that had to be beyond British shores. Chapter 4 Secret Session Speeches by Churchill provides extracts of five speeches made between June 20th 1941 and December 10, 1942, including one made in response to the sinking of HMT Lancastria on June 17, 1941. At 4 p.m. on June 8, 1940, the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious was cruising west across the Norwegian Sea towards the British naval base of Scapa Flow . World War II: The auxiliary minesweeper (150 GRT) was scuttled at Lorient, France. The site of the sinking is not an official War Grave safeguarded by The Protection of Military Remains Act of 1986 because the British have no jurisdiction over the French territorial waters where Lancastrias wreck lies, but the French government has provided an appropriate level of protection to the site, prohibiting diving on the wreck, for example. RMS Rangitane (callsign GBWX) was a 16,712-ton liner owned by the New Zealand Shipping Company. She was later salvaged by the Germans and re-entered service as. This left Colin sitting up to his chest in water with only the lifeboats buoyancy tanks preventing the boat from vanishing beneath the waves. (Look 18/06/1940), World War II: The naval trawler (348 GRT, 1929) ran aground at Brest, France and was abandoned without loss. Hammac was a steam tank ship built in 1920-1921 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation of Alameda for the United States Shipping Board as part of the wartime shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) to restore the nation's Merchant Marine. Your email address will not be published. . Her classs lead ship, the Courageous, had launched the first carrier-launched naval air strike in history near the end of World War I. From the half-submerged Lifeboat 2, Colin watched as the Benares sank below the waves. World War II: The passenger ship (2,029 GRT, 1930) was bombed and sunk in the, World War II: The coaster (957 GRT, 1893) struck a mine and sank in the, World War II: The naval trawler (109 GRT, 1916) was sunk at Scapa Flow in a collision with trawler, The coaster (216 GRT, 1919) was sunk in the, World War II: The cargo ship (4,102 GRT, 1931) was bombed and sunk in the, World War II: The cargo ship (3,857 GRT, 1928) struck a mine in the, World War II: The cargo ship (1,463 GRT, 1923) struck a mine and sank in the. Contributed on: 30 March 2004. For any other comments, please Contact Us. People were jumping. World War II: The cargo ship (3,921 GRT, 1917) was beached in the, World War II: The cargo ship (6,140 GRT) was scuttled in the, World War II: The sailing ship (102 or 112 GRT) struck a mine and sank at, World War II: The cargo ship (1,302 GRT, 1925) was bombed and damaged in the, World War II: The cargo ship (1,262 GRT, 1920) was sunk as a blockship at. 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. 2: Their Finest Hour , Geoffrey Bonds 1959 Lancastria, John Wests 1988 The Loss of Lancastria, Brian Crabbs 2002 The Forgotten Tragedy: The Story of the Loss of HMT Lancastria, Jonathan Fenbys 2005 The Sinking of the Lancastria: Britains Greatest Maritime Disaster and Churchills Cover-up, Jacques Perruchon and Jacques Leroux 2005 Juin 1940 sur les ctes charentaises: ces trangers qui ont refus notre dfaite, Hugh Sebag-Montefiores 2006 The Sinking of the Lancastria in Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man, Jonathan Fenby and James Goodes 2008 The Sinking of the Lancastria, John Hanleys 2013 The Last Boat, Chair of the HMT Lancastria Association Raye Dancocks 2011 The Lancastria a Secret Sacrifice in World War Two, Graham Frasers 2015 Lancastria: The forgotten tragedy of World War Two, and the Lancastria Archive. Aboard one lifeboat, a freezing boy fell unconscious and slipped into the sea. The RMS Queen Mary is now a floating hotel located in . As a force-ten gale whipped the waves into a fury around the ship, an 11-year-old boy lay alone in his cabin reading The Beano and dreaming of adventure. Late 1940, two Welsh Brothers Kenneth James Lewis and Raymond Leslie Lewis walked aboard their first ship, the Cardiff registered cargo ship SS Fiscus, 4,815grt, (W.H. World War II: The cargo ship (4,499 GRT) was scuttled at Brest, France. Within a few weeks both would be dead after the ship was torpedoed and sunk by U-99 on the 18th October 1940 in the North Atlantic with the loss of all hands while sailing to the Clyde from Sydney, Cape Breton in Convoy SC-7. She was 578 ft. in length and 16,000 gross tons, designed to accommodate 2,200 passengers in three classes. The maritime disaster resulted in the deaths of 51 people46 from the Andrea Doria and 5 from the Stockholm. Sbastien Roblin holds a masters degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. Scharnhorst limped home, listing at five degrees, and would spend the next six months in Trondheim, Norway undergoing repairs. Postcard of RMS Lancastria. British war correspondent's interview with French seaman on the sinking of French repatriation ship SS Meknes, English Channel, 24/7/1940. as the source. The ship was apparently equipped with sixteen lifeboats and 2,500 life jackets, but many of the boats were damaged from the air attacks while others were unusable because of the ships starboard list and hull angle. You must stay awake., Safe: Survivors of the torpedoed S.S City of Benares passenger ship huddle together on one of the life rafts awaiting rescue. It stayed upright, but the big waves breaking over the bows quickly swamped it. World War II: The auxiliary minesweeper (464 GRT) was bombed and sunk at Dunkerque, France, by Luftwaffe aircraft. 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. Once the ship was on its way in a convoy escorted by vessels from the Royal Navy Colin read books in the library and played games on deck. DOyly-Hughes ordered the destroyer Ardent to turn about and visually investigate the sighting, while nonchalantly maintaining his westward course at cruising speed. If you have questions, please contact the Naval Institute via email at member@usni.org or by phone at 800-233-8764. I stayed on board the ship in 2011 and have always found the history of the ship to be fascinating. She was subsequently salvaged and repaired by the Germans and entered. Merchant ship movement card (catalogue reference: BT 389) In the top left corner of the record is the ship's name. Then, one day, he developed an infection and had to be sent to an isolation ward to recover. Others tried desperately to tread water before surrendering to the deep. It was carrying 406 passengers and crew, of whom 100 were children. At Customs, they asked: Where are your passports? We laughed. World War II: The Type M-1935 minesweeper (682/874 t, 1939) struck a mine and sank in the Norwegian Sea north of Kristiansand, Norway (, World War II: The tug (400 GRT, 1919) was scuttled at Brest, France. 'This is the most ridiculous thing I've seen!' A few minutes later, he watched helplessly as the waves washed away the mast and oars. She was later salvaged by the Germans and entered service as. 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. However, crew members have alleged DOyly-Hughes was in a hurry to attend Heaths court martial. Taking Vitamin D each day could cut your chances of getting dementia, study claims. The Glorious was one of the first flat-top aircraft carriers ever built, converted from a speedy Courageous-class battlecruiser in 1924. For the first few days after his rescue, he remained very weak as the Hurricane took the survivors to Glasgow. Just seven minutes later, the Scharnhorst opened fire on the investigating Ardent, busting open a boiler. In June 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed to a new trans-Atlantic evacuation scheme. How ironic it is that the second Apapa was making the identical voyage from the Lagos port that shared her name to Liverpool. web page as long as you cite American Merchant Marine at War, www.usmm.org, World War II: The tug (239 GRT) struck a mine in the North Sea and sank. For the scuttling of HMS Mashobra on this day, see the entry for 25 May 1940. "Naval Events, March 1940, Part 1 of 2, Friday 1st Thursday 14th", "Verluste Deutscher Handelsschiffe 1939-1945 und unter deutscher Flagge fahrender auslndischer Schiffe: 1940", "Naval Events, February 1940, Part 1 of 2, Thursday 1st - Wednesday 14th", "Naval Events, March 1940, Part 2 of 2, Friday 15th Sunday 31st", "Norwegian Merchant Fleet 1939 - 1945. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. The survivors were now completely alone in the dark. Below the waves, however, the convoy was being trailed by U-48, a German U-boat. 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. Wynn cites seven online sources (p. 181), namely the British Newspaper Archive, the Britain at War website, the British section of Ancestry.com, the Militarian Forum, the Forces War Records, the Wartime Memories Project, and the War Graves Records, which appear to have been mistakenly recorded as a .com website rather than .org. When do the clocks change in 2023? Published: 00:26 GMT, 10 March 2012 | Updated: 00:27 GMT, 10 March 2012. This was the date on which, the RMS Lancastria was sunk off the French port of Nantes, with an unknown loss of life. All rights reserved. The only comfort came from urinating in the water: for a few brief seconds, he could feel the warmth swirling around his legs. List of shipwrecks in June 1940 - Wikipedia List of shipwrecks in June 1940 View history The list of shipwrecks in June 1940 includes ships sunk, foundered, grounded, or otherwise lost during June 1940 . 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