Description:

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.

From Booklist

On June 17, 1940, the Lancastria, a former Cunard liner turned into a troopship, sank in the harbor at St-Nazaire, France, after being hit by four bombs dropped from a German plane. On board were more than 6,000 people, mostly soldiers, although some were civilian women and children. At least 3,500 on board were killed. Eight hundred Royal Air Force men died when a bomb hit one of the holds, and another ripped through the ship's hospital. Some of the people in the water went mad. Many choked on the 1,400 tons of oil that poured out of the liner's tanks. Fenby reveals that Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the sinking not to be reported in the press for the time being, but in the rush of events, "he forgot to lift the ban." It was the greatest loss of life in any British maritime disaster, a tragedy that Churchill tried to conceal. The book, based on accounts by survivors and other documents and diaries, is a gripping chronicle of this catastrophe. George Cohen
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About the Author

Jonathan Fenby is a former editor of the OBSERVER and of the SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST. He is the author of several books including the acclaimed ON THE BRINK: THE TROUBLE WITH FRANCE and GENERALISSIMO: CHIANG KAI-SHEK AND THE CHINA HE LOST.