But Colin Ryder Richardson, snug in his bunk, saw no reason for alarm. : Carron United Kingdom World War II: The Admiralty-requisitioned cargo ship . At 11, Colin was already a veteran of wartime upheavals. 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). Postcard of RMS Lancastria. 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. Britain Ship Losses 1940 This page records the details of every British ship lost during the two world wars, including pictures where possible. 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. The youngest known Second World War service death being that of Raymond Victor Steed, age 14, Galley Boy from the S.S. World War II: The armed merchant cruiser (17,046 GRT, 1925) was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean west of. 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. 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. She was later salvaged by the Germans and re-entered service as. A few, however, began to whimper when a number of children who had been injured by debris from the explosion such as broken glass were brought on deck. However, Chapter 10, Those Who Died, comprises nearly one-third of the book and lists the names of 1,431 individuals from 39 different military units along with, where possible, their ranks, service numbers and designations of regiments or corps. She simply said: Theres your ship. Other Nazis are planning to escape to America. She was built in 1936 and sailed for 30 years before retiring in 1967. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not Four chapters are personal accounts from survivors or their close relatives. She once described him affectionately as a big child. She was carrying between 800 and 1,200 people, mainly refugees, and most were lost when her ammunition cargo exploded. The Glorious first saw action in World War II providing air cover for the Allied expeditionary force seeking to support Norways resistance to Nazi invasion in April 1940, her Sea Gladiators shooting down several German bombers. The numbers of passengers aboard, survivors, and casualties are unreported or vary wildly. Stroking her hair and telling her that rescue was on its way, he did his best to preserve her morale and her life. It was 10pm. Alexia British Motor tanker The Alexia after conversion to the MAC ship HMS Alexia. Her captain, Guy DOyly Hughes, a decorated submariner in World War I, also ordered her Swordfishes to launch raids on land targets, but air group leader J.B. Heath refused, arguing they lacked clear targets and that the pokey biplanes would be shot to pieces by flak. This is the story of Beryl Myatt, a child evacuee during the Second World War. For decades, the Royal Navy offered a vaguely exculpatory account of the disaster, but in the 1980s historian Stephen Roskill published an article holding poor command culture by Captain DOylyy responsible for the tragedy. He then struck out to rescue another child but both disappeared in the swirling seas. Just as importantly, in an era where radar technology was in its infancy, airplanes were the most effective tool for scouting out vast swathes of the ocean to locate enemy fleets. Five days into the voyage, the Royal Navy escort ships headed off, confident there was no danger. Most likely rammed and sunk Oct. 4; 1940 by Antonietta Costa (Italian Cargo ship) 60 NM ENE of Bari . Subscribe: http://bit.ly/NatGeoSubscribe Watch on YouTube Hell Below 2 seasons . 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. World War II: The cargo ship (1,002 GRT, 1904) struck a mine and sank in the, World War II: The cargo ship (1,766 or 1,894 GRT, 1918) was scuttled at Rochefort, France. World War II: The auxiliary minesweeper (150 GRT) was scuttled at Lorient, France. 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. World War II: The cargo ship (4,007 GRT, 1928) was intercepted in the, The schooner (98 GRT) was rammed by the cargo ship, The cargo ship (2,158 GRT, 1908) ran aground off Winging Point, 20 nautical miles (37km) south of, The cargo ship (625 GRT, 1920) foundered 1 nautical mile (1.9km) off, The trawler (170 GRT, 1904) was helping a neutral steamer which had gone aground on the east coast of England when the steamer slipped on a shelf and collided with, This page was last edited on 29 October 2022, at 11:25. I knew that if I fell asleep, Id die. 'How much can business take?' 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. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. Splinters also pierced one of the carriers boilers, slowing her down. 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. For any other comments, please Contact Us. Mr Raskai bravely helped me into it as it was crashing about against the ship. 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 . I thought: Wake up, Colin! If She looked at me and said: What have you done with all your clothes? he says. World War II: The cargo ship (1,522 GRT, 1923) was torpedoed and damaged in the, World War II: The cargo ship (3,554 GRT, 1920) was damaged and abandoned at Brest, France. 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. Only one crew member from the Ardent, two from the Acasta, and thirty-six from the Glorious survived to be picked up by Norwegian and German forces. Survivors: Five survivors of the S.S City of Benares passenger ship which was sunk by a German U-Boat in September 1940. A2477018. Archive List > World > North Atlantic and Arctic. 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 . 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. Every type of ship is here, warships, submarines, MTBs, tankers, cargo, passenger, troopships and so on, totalling over 3,000. 1 June [ edit] 2 June [ edit] 3 June [ edit] 4 June [ edit] 5 June [ edit] 6 June [ edit] 7 June [ edit] 8 June [ edit] A young man on another boat descended into madness, screaming and threatening his fellow passengers. 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. It was like sitting in a giant bathtub full of freezing water, he recalls. We said: If you want them, theyre 600 miles out at the bottom of the Atlantic! he recalls. The maritime disaster resulted in the deaths of 51 people46 from the Andrea Doria and 5 from the Stockholm. Some survivors claimed that a bomb had gone straight down a funnel, others thought bombs hit No, 4, 2, and 3 holds. Contributed on: 22 May 2005. Colin was still trying to comfort his neighbour until a man told him she was dead. 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. NHF members are being converted to members of the Naval Institute. Later, as the light began to fade, even the strongest began to lose hope. LANCASTRIA (June 17, 1940) The loss of the Lancastria was the fourth largest maritime disaster of the war. "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 1 July 1940, the SS Arandora Star began its final, fateful voyage, transporting internees from Liverpool to camps in Canada. But the battlecruisers retaliatory fire was devastating, and the Acastas blazing wrecked dipped stern-first into the water after 6 p.m. By then, the starboard-listing Glorious had also sunk. Decades after Apapa was lost , on the 15th of November 1940 the identically named MV APAPA was bombed and sunk by a German FW 200 Condor aircraft, two hundred miles from County Mayo in Ireland. Taking Vitamin D each day could cut your chances of getting dementia, study claims. All morning, Colin continued to heave corpses away from his boat. As the night progressed, body temperatures began to fall. 'This is the most ridiculous thing I've seen!' With a sickening lurch, 12 passengers were thrown from the boat and lost in the darkness. Both the 20,000 ton liner Oronsay and the Franconia were damaged by bombs and strafing, the former had her bridge devastated while the damaged Franconia was able to limp back to England for repairs. World War II: The tanker (2,454 GRT, 1888) was sunk as a block ship at Dieppe, France. World War II: The cargo ship (440 GRT, 1903) was bombed and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea 13 nautical miles (24km) north of Tobruk, The troopship (2,427 GRT, 1928) suffered an engine room fire, exploded and sank in the, World War II: The cargo ship (4,127 GRT, 1920) was torpedoed, shelled and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean south west of Ireland (, World War II: The cargo ship (3,214 GRT, 1928) was torpedoed and sunk in the. 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. The great betrayal: How journalist Isabel Oakeshott leaked Matt Hancock's WhatsApps after they worked Don't just stick to the Malbec! Her pointed bow still poked from below a raised flight deck. World War II: The cargo ship (1,525 GRT, 1920) was scuttled as a blockship at Dieppe, France. 2012 Sean Longden. She did not return to Liverpool in time to take part in the famous Operation Dynamo at Dunkirk, which evacuated 338,226 Belgian, British, and French troops between May 26 and June 4,. SS Emidio in Vancouver, June 1932. For the first few days after his rescue, he remained very weak as the Hurricane took the survivors to Glasgow. Many thanks. 39 days; Cargo removed, Crew 3; Japanese POW: 164; Died POW:12 including 4 lost on World War II: The Type IXB submarine (1,034/1,159 t, 1939) disappeared in the North Sea on or after 21 June with the loss of all 56 crew. Industry chief demands planned corporation tax hike from 19 to 25% in this Ukrainian soldier takes out five Russian tanks and three armoured vehicles in ONE DAY using US-supplied Ukraine 'hits major Russian air base in fresh strike' a day after kamikaze drone crashed down just 68 miles How did Russia lose HALF of its 45,000 elite paratroopers in just seven months? It was time to evacuate their precious son to safety and that had to be beyond British shores. Initiated in 1889and then revised in 1911, 1920, and 1939it sets out offences related to spying, sabotage, and related crimes. The prevailing narrative of naval warfare in World War II concerns how the carrier decisively unseated the battleship as the dominant naval weapon system. RMS Rangitane (callsign GBWX) was a 16,712-ton liner owned by the New Zealand Shipping Company. . 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. After receiving news of the Lancastria disaster, Churchill had placed a D-notice on the incident, forbidding any knowledge of the sinking reaching an already demoralized public. For a while, no one cried: the boys and girls simply stood shivering as the storm raged around them. As the years went by, the only thing that survived from his ordeal on the City of Benares was his little scarlet life-jacket. This attack however sank the HMS Triad. Ships Sunk or Damaged 1939 to 1941 Ships Captured or Detained 1939 (80 ships) Ships Sunk, Damaged or Detained 1940 (48 ships) A pre-war photograph of the German cruise ship Wilhelm Gustloff in Hamburg. Once his infection had cleared, he was told to get out of bed. 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 17th June 1940 saw one of the most horrific events of World War II and the single worst maritime disaster in British history. From the half-submerged Lifeboat 2, Colin watched as the Benares sank below the waves. Below the waves, however, the convoy was being trailed by U-48, a German U-boat. At first, he thought the Benares must have collided with another ship. 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. World War II: The cargo ship (1,373 GRT) was scuttled at, World War II: The sailing vessel (26 GRT) struck a mine and sank at, World War II: The coaster (509 GRT, 1937) struck a mine and sank in the English Channel off. 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. Ardent was finally caught darting out for another torpedo run and set ablaze by repeated hits. World War II: The cargo ship (873 or 909 GRT, 1904) struck a mine off Cape Granitola, Italy and sank. The date was September 17, 1940. Fateful: The S.S City of Benares, passenger ship is launched in 1936 and would later be sunk while carrying 90 children aged five to 15. The CWGC has the names of 513 Merchant Seamen aged 14 to 16 who died between 1939-1945. 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. 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