The Sinking of the Lancastria: The Twentieth Century's Deadliest Naval Disaster and Churchill's Plot to Make It Disappear

By Chris Culver

On June 17, 1940, just after the Dunkirk evacuation had supposedly ended in success, several thousand of the many British troops still left in France boarded a five-decked cruise liner called the Lancastria. Right after they boarded, the ship was dive-bombed by the German Luftwaffe, and a short time later the 17,000-ton Lancastria sank. German fighter planes strafed the oil slick sea, setting it ablaze as British troops banded together singing "Roll Out the Barrel" in the hopes of mustering any hope that still remained. In the end, with 4,000 soldiers, women, and children dead--with some estimates as high as 6,000--the disaster would eclipse that of both the Lusitania and the Titanic. Although the story was picked up in the United States a few weeks later, it was reported only once by any British news outlet, and as the war progressed the tragedy eventually vanished. Author Jonathan Fenby argues that this was the result of a ruthless but necessary kibosh put in place by Winston Churchill in order to preserve British morale. Through firsthand interviews with survivors, some of whom had never spoken about it to anyone until being interviewed for this book, Fenby reconstructs the entire tragic saga.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786715324
• ISBN13: 9780786715329
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Lest We Forget

As British soliders and noncombatants fled the Nazi overthrow of France, the horror was compounded by the sinking of the sturdy Cunard liner where they thought they had found sanctuary. Thousands died, and a well-intentioned and much beloved Prime Minister misled his people about the gravity of this particular aspect of the event. The pride that the British felt in the rescue of some troops from Dunkirk was a valuable commodity...

A forgotten tragedy brought back to life

In June 1940 Britain's war efforts against Germany were truly on the back foot and the Dunkirk evacuations were in full swing. Only by recovering our troops could we hope to regroup, rearm and then rejoin the fight. Off Normandy, an armada of small boats did an amazing job of work ferrying as many troops as possible safely home to England. Further away, off St. Nazaire a few large ships were also working to that same common...

Dead in the water...

An excellent and fast moving account if you want an informative read on a little known event in British WW2 history. The loss of the Lancastria, the straffing of defenceless people and the stories of the survivors in this nightmare sinking highlights war at it worst and amply illustrates how everything can change in the blink of an eye.

Well written account of a sad event

A well researched account of this unfortunately little known incident. Much of it heart-wrenching. One slight problem - to follow what happened to a particular person entails a bit of page-turning, back and forth, to follow an individual's story..