Final Voyage (13 page)

Several thousand people now floated in the spot where the
Lancastria
sank, amidst a field of debris that included smashed wood, deckchairs, clothes, kitbags and lifejackets. The fight for those began immediately. Elsewhere men realised only cooperation would save lives – they formed groups of six, gathered in circles, three of them with lifejackets ensuring the men without lifejackets between them stayed afloat. Other flotsam became essential flotation devices for those who couldn't swim, as well as those who would have to wait until early evening before rescue. Some of those who couldn't swim desperately grabbed at those who could. Swimmers surrounded by non-swimmers realised they had to dive beneath the grasping arms to escape. People began to drown.

For the German planes still circling overhead, the blackcoated sea and the tell-tale rainbow swirls of leaked oil proved an irresistible target.

Many found themselves splashing in oil. Some 1,400 tons had leaked out of hold 3, and the slick continued to spread around the survivors. Oil blinded plenty, and choked those who accidentally swallowed it, drowning many. And for the German planes still circling overhead, the black-coated sea and the tell-tale rainbow swirls of leaked oil proved an irresistible target. Men in the water realised the planes were dropping incendiaries, and firing at the water not just to shoot survivors, but to set the oil on fire. Men were lifted out of the water as the bombs exploded beneath the surface. The concussion created by each detonation felt like a thump in the belly. The blasts
generated waves that swept men a long way, and filled the air with a heavy spray of oil.

But the Germans failed to ignite the oil slick. Flames flickered across small patches of oil, but the slick had now dispersed so widely that the flames did not spread. The pilots turned their attentions to the lifeboats instead, even though they mainly carried women and children. Flying low, the planes shot one of the boats to pieces. Watching the spurts of bullets hitting the water as the Germans indiscriminately targeted survivors, a man on a raft took out his pistol and shot himself.

It would take hours to reach those in the middle of the crowd, in which time many would drown.

By the time the
Lancastria
sank, word had already reached St Nazaire of the impending catastrophe and vessels of all sizes were rushing out to rescue as many as they could. When they arrived on the chaotic scene, the task seemed almost insurmountable. So many were struggling in the water that it would take hours to reach those in the middle of the crowd, in which time many would drown. Some officers had ordered their men not to abandon their rifles and kitbags, and they drowned under the weight. As desperate men swam for the remaining lifeboat, an officer on board it shot at them to prevent the boat being swamped. But other men in the water kept up their spirits by continuing to sing rousing songs as they awaited rescue. Many shed their clothes and boots to make it easier to swim and stay afloat, and when they eventually boarded the rescue vessels they did so naked or wearing only underwear. Like everyone else, however, they had to swim through the dead to reach the boats offering life.

The other ships involved in Operation Ariel were already overladen with evacuees too, even if most of them weren't as big as the
Lancastria
. There wasn't much room for any more, but they all took as many as they could. Launches from the P&O liners
Strathaird
and
Strathnaver
brought survivors aboard, and the destroyer HMS
Highlander
found room for more too. Merchant vessels, including the cargo ship SS
John Holt
and the trawler
Cambridgeshire
, took over 1,000 between them. Even a minesweeper that could take no more aboard towed an overfilled lifeboat behind her.

Out of the water came stories of heroism and miraculous survival, not just unimaginable horror. Jacqueline Tillyer was the youngest survivor. Only two years old, she had been in the restaurant with her parents when the bombs hit. Even though they were anxious to get off themselves, the soldiers all forced the family through the crowd ahead of them, and then insisted Jacqueline's father join his wife and child in the lifeboat. This chivalry saved both father and daughter, because the lifeboat was one of the ones that sank. It was three hours before the Tillyer family were picked up by the
Highlander
, and during that time Jacqueline's father held onto her by gripping her clothes in his teeth.

And amongst all the human survivors there were also a couple of dogs too, including a mongrel that belonged to two Belgian children.

Father McMenemy, who had already saved the lives of those he led to safety through the bottom of the flooding ship, swam for 45 minutes before being picked up by a French tug. He then spent the rest of the day hauling others out of the water. He wasn't the only survivor to immediately join the rescue efforts. A man covered in oil dived into the
sea again and again to drag flailing non-swimmers to the side of a rescue boat where they could be pulled out. Amongst all of the human survivors there were a couple of dogs too, including a mongrel that belonged to two Belgian children. Neither of the children survived.

Given what had happened to the
Lancastria
, and without food, an escort and in some cases any radio capability, it might have been safer for the vessels around St Nazaire to return to France and surrender to the approaching Germans rather than attempt to make it back to Britain. None of them did. Even injured men taken back to shore by a French fishing boat later chose a risky nighttime crossing (standing up the whole way) on a collier rather than remain in France under Red Cross protection. The captain of the
Oronsay
had broken his leg when the planes destroyed his bridge but he too chose to limp back to Britain using the auxiliary steering gear, a handheld sextant and his own memory. His ship had taken on 3ft (1m) of water after being holed, but the pumps kept her water intake at bay long enough to reach home. The pumps failed less than half an hour later.

About 23,000 were evacuated from St Nazaire that day, including 2,477 survivors from the
Lancastria
. That number also included many who were seriously wounded, such as those who had swallowed oil, and who died later. As the survivors headed back to Britain they heard the news – France had surrendered to Germany, and the previous day Philippe Petain had signed the Vichy agreement with the Nazis. Soon the survivors would share in the gloom of their countrymen, but for at least one day they could simply be glad to be alive.

The first five weeks of his premiership came to define Winston Churchill's career and secure his legend. Three of the four speeches for which he is most famous were made in just over a month. In his first speech as Prime Minister on 13th May he claimed to offer only ‘blood, toil, tears and sweat'. Three weeks later, as Germany overran most of Europe, he pledged to ‘fight on the beaches'. And on 18th June, the day after the sinking of the
Lancastria
, he not only coined the phrase ‘Battle of Britain', but prophesised that a thousand years later people would still call it Britain's ‘finest hour'. Had Germany won the war, these speeches, coming in such quick succession, would seem like increasingly desperate rhetoric. But Churchill understood that nothing would ensure a German victory more than a British belief in its inevitability. That is why the evacuation of Dunkirk was recast as a tactical move and a great success, and why the government suppressed any reporting of the
Lancastria
's fate.

Because the Ministry of Defence's records on the disaster were sealed for 100 years, there is no official death toll, just a range of estimates. The British government accepted that over 1,700 died – those people whose presence on the ship could be confirmed but who were not amongst the survivors. But seeing as the
Lancastria
's crew lost count of the numbers boarding after about 6,000, and only 2,477 survived, the lowest possible number of fatalities would still be over 3,000. The memorial to the disaster by the beach at St Nazaire commemorates more than 4,000 deaths, but it's likely that even this figure could underestimate the true scale of the loss by several thousand.
If the higher figure is accurate then it accounts for one third of all the men the British Army lost between the declaration of war in September 1939 and the fall of France the following June. Many of those who died on the
Lancastria
were listed as missing in action, as if they had been lost on the battlefield, even when survivors knew they had been on the ship with them.

Churchill ordered the issue of a D-Notice, an official request to the media not to cover stories that might have an effect on national security. Contrary to popular misconception a D-Notice was not legally enforceable, but for five weeks every newspaper in Britain complied. The fall of France was a far bigger story anyway.
The New York Times
broke the story in the United States, and on 26th July
The Scotsman
finally broke the British media's silence. The chance of a scoop gone, other newspapers followed suit.
The Daily Herald
made it front page news and the
Sunday Express
printed a photo taken from the
Highlander
of men on the
Lancastria
's capsized hull. But the story did not run for long, not least because the Battle of Britain was just beginning, but also because many survivors – and indeed rescuers too – refused to talk about what had happened for fear of court martial. For years after the war, everything that was known about Britain's worst maritime disaster was pieced together from what little was said by those who dared to say anything at all, such as crewmen revealing just how many they let on board.

Many of those who died on the
Lancastria
were listed as missing in action, as if they had been lost on the battlefield.

To this day the British government refuses to designate the wreck of the
Lancastria
a war grave, and as late as
2007 a freedom of information request for Ministry of Defence documents regarding the disaster was rejected. In 2040 the official report will cease to be protected by the Official Secrets Act. Some survivors, campaigners on their behalf, and many historians suspect that the reason it was sealed for 100 years is because it will confirm that the order Captain Sharp received to ignore the legal limits and take thousands extra came direct from the Admiralty. Compensation claims against the government would depend on who gave Sharp the order, and by 2040 everyone who survived the
Lancastria
will be dead.

The
Lancastria
Survivors Association was set up after the war to ensure the disaster was not forgotten, campaigning for greater recognition by the British government and supporting survivors. It dissolved in 2010, but its work is continued by the
Lancastria
Association of Scotland. The
Lancastria
was a Scottish-built ship and many of her crew were Scottish, but the
Lancastria
Association of Scotland has become international in scope, with the mayor of St Nazaire its honorary president. Petitioning the Scottish Parliament to recognise the endurance of the survivors and the sacrifice of those who died, the association had great success in 2008 when First Minister Alex Salmond awarded the first commemorative medal to survivors. The medal is available to all survivors (whether Scottish or not), and the immediate next of kin of both survivors and victims. The work of the association to secure the same level of recognition from the British government continues.

Tragedy without triumph during the Second World War

For one survivor of the sinking of the
Lancastria
, it was the second lucky escape of his long career at sea. Captain Sharp left the
Lusitania
before she sailed on her final voyage but he stayed on the bridge of the
Lancastria
until she sank. He then spent four hours in the water, covered in oil, until pulled into a lifeboat. Though no charges were brought against Sharp, and officially his record went untarnished, he had a good idea how many people lost their lives on his vessel, and the disaster weighed heavily upon him. He was also in command of the 19,695-ton Cunard liner RMS
Laconia
in September 1942 when she
was torpedoed in the Atlantic off western Africa. There would be no third lucky escape. Aware that most of the more than 3,000 aboard the
Laconia
would die, Sharp was last seen going into his cabin and locking the door behind himself.

Before being requisitioned by the Admiralty in 1939 and converted to a troop transport in 1941, the
Laconia
had cruised the world, taking up to 2,200 passengers between 22 ports around the globe. On her final voyage she carried hundreds of British and Polish soldiers, 80 civilians, and 1,800 Italian prisoners of war captured in North Africa. As the Axis powers controlled the Mediterranean, Sharp's route back to Britain went the long way, around the Cape of Good Hope. She was by 1942 an old ship, having been at sea for 20 years, and was in need of maintenance. Her barnacle-encrusted hull slowed her down from 16 knots, and her tired engines produced lots of smoke from her funnel, which made her easy to spot. Following her requisition a couple of years before she had been fitted with eight 6-inch guns and two 3-inch guns, sufficient armaments to make her a legitimate military target. Blacked out, she looked like a military target too. Just after 8pm on the 12th, U-boat U-156 patrolling between Liberia and the Ascension Islands spotted her silhouette, and closed to 2 miles (3.2km).

The only disaster for which survivors said they would happily shake the hand of the man who caused it.

What happened next became known as the
Laconia
Incident. With 1,649 fatalities, the loss of the ship was far from the deadliest sinking of the Second World War, but it is perhaps the only one for which survivors said they would happily shake the hand of the man who caused it.