The Lancastria Disaster
My great uncle Sgt Thomas Baldwin was one of those lost when HMT Lancastria sank with great loss of life on 17 June 1940. She was anchored off Saint Nazaire about 3 miles from the shore when she took 4 bomb hits from a Ju 88 and sank in 20 mins. The background to these events follows. In late May 1940 the BEF (and Britain) was comprehensively defeated by Heinz Guderian’s blitzkrieg. Everyone has heard of the subsequent Dunkirk evacuation (operation Dynamo) which rescued nearly 340,000 men. Most equipment and stores were lost. A positive spin was put on Dynamo to hide the appalling scale of the disaster. This was followed by operation Cycle, which evacuated from Le Havre, and operation Ariel which evacuated from Atlantic ports, operations which are not so well-known. They recovered a further 190,000 troops. These evacuations were at the cost of heavy losses, but the recovery of over half a million men could be considered worth the cost if the war was to be continued. The Lancastria disaster was 5 days before the French and German armistice (22 June). Most of the men left by Dynamo were support troops and not front-line fighters. Thomas was a Pioneer (Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps), used for light engineering tasks. The Lancastria was an old liner (making her maiden voyage in 1922), owned by Cunard, of 16,000 tons and capable of 16.5 kts. Her official capacity was 2,151 passengers and crew. In 1932 she was retired from regular Atlantic crossings to become a cruise ship. She was requisitioned as a troop ship in April 1940. She left Plymouth for the Atlantic ports on 16 June. Rudolph Sharp was captain and Harry Grattidge was chief officer.
On arrival Capt. Sharp was greeted by naval officers who ordered him to take on as many passengers as possible without regard to international law. He obeyed the order. Thousands were slowly and laboriously ferried out to the Lancastria. It is not known how many were taken on, but it is certain that the ship was grossly overloaded. Another ship, the Oronsay, was attacked at 1:48 pm and the captain considered whether to leave then or wait for the escort. He signaled to try to arrange an immediate escort but got no reply. He decided to wait out of fear of U-boat attack. Loading began about 8 am and continued until the attack at 3:45 pm. The ship was a sitting duck as it was stationary in broad daylight in open sea. It was conservatively estimated that the number of dead was 4,000, but the exact number will never be known. There were 2,447 survivors. The number of known dead is 1,738. The death toll accounted for one third of the BEF losses in France. Sharp had lost more people under his command than any other captain in British history.
Was Capt. Sharp irresponsible in waiting? I think not. He was placed in an impossible position by the military top brass. The order to overload was highly irresponsible. He was right to fear U-boat attack if un-escorted. A U-boat on the surface could make more than 17 knots, whereas the overloaded Lancastria would struggle to reach 16 knots. This would make it very difficult to avoid attack. A torpedo hit out in the Bay of Biscay would result in enormous casualties. No, I blame first of all Chamberlain and Halifax, the politicians who took us into an unwinnable war, then the Naval officers.
Capt Sharp and Grattidge survived the sinking. In 1942 Sharp was captain of the 20,000-ton Laconia when she was torpedoed off West Africa. This was the second worst loss of life after the Lancastria. This time Sharp went down with his ship. Sgt Baldwin is buried at La Couarde-sur-Mer, Isle de Re, off La Rochelle with two other Lancastria victims. His age is given as 42. I don't know if he had a wife or children.
If more of these men had been allowed to surrender, they would have sat out the war and survived. I don’t think the naval officers responsible faced any consequences, but that is war. History was repeated near the end of the war. The cruise ship Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed and sunk with enormous loss of life, this time civilians trying to escape the Soviet advance. This was the worst disaster in maritime history.
On arrival Capt. Sharp was greeted by naval officers who ordered him to take on as many passengers as possible without regard to international law. He obeyed the order. Thousands were slowly and laboriously ferried out to the Lancastria. It is not known how many were taken on, but it is certain that the ship was grossly overloaded. Another ship, the Oronsay, was attacked at 1:48 pm and the captain considered whether to leave then or wait for the escort. He signaled to try to arrange an immediate escort but got no reply. He decided to wait out of fear of U-boat attack. Loading began about 8 am and continued until the attack at 3:45 pm. The ship was a sitting duck as it was stationary in broad daylight in open sea. It was conservatively estimated that the number of dead was 4,000, but the exact number will never be known. There were 2,447 survivors. The number of known dead is 1,738. The death toll accounted for one third of the BEF losses in France. Sharp had lost more people under his command than any other captain in British history.
Was Capt. Sharp irresponsible in waiting? I think not. He was placed in an impossible position by the military top brass. The order to overload was highly irresponsible. He was right to fear U-boat attack if un-escorted. A U-boat on the surface could make more than 17 knots, whereas the overloaded Lancastria would struggle to reach 16 knots. This would make it very difficult to avoid attack. A torpedo hit out in the Bay of Biscay would result in enormous casualties. No, I blame first of all Chamberlain and Halifax, the politicians who took us into an unwinnable war, then the Naval officers.
Capt Sharp and Grattidge survived the sinking. In 1942 Sharp was captain of the 20,000-ton Laconia when she was torpedoed off West Africa. This was the second worst loss of life after the Lancastria. This time Sharp went down with his ship. Sgt Baldwin is buried at La Couarde-sur-Mer, Isle de Re, off La Rochelle with two other Lancastria victims. His age is given as 42. I don't know if he had a wife or children.
If more of these men had been allowed to surrender, they would have sat out the war and survived. I don’t think the naval officers responsible faced any consequences, but that is war. History was repeated near the end of the war. The cruise ship Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed and sunk with enormous loss of life, this time civilians trying to escape the Soviet advance. This was the worst disaster in maritime history.
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