Just a few excerpts from the new book, here, while I build this website.
CHAPTER ONE: EXODUS
Maurice Southgate opened his eyes. He was in the water and the water was on fire. As he struggled to stay afloat, he realised the Lancastria was sinking and he wasn’t alone out there in the open sea. Over 2000 desperate survivors were in the water amongst the dismembered bodies, wreckage and burning fuel oil.
The nearest French port Saint-Nazaire was over five miles away. England’s south west coast was 300 miles to the north, across the Breton peninsula and the English Channel. It was June 1940 and over 190,000 of the British Expeditionary Forces and their allies – French, Poles, Belgians - were still stranded in south-western France, gathered at the harbours around Brest desperately awaiting the flotilla of ships sent from Plymouth, Falmouth and other British ports to rescue them.
Tens of thousands of them had previously waited at Dunkirk but the priority there had been to get the fighting men away, leaving signallers, mechanics, clerks and translators like Southgate to be harassed south by the relentless German army. Five thousand British servicemen were forced to surrender at Dieppe, surrounded by German tanks even before the British evacuation fleet could reach them.
Every kind of ocean-going ship available was despatched to collect the remaining forces - trawlers, destroyers, ferries, cross-Channel steamers, French, Polish, Dutch and British, even cruise ships like the Lancastria, a British Cunard liner commandeered as a troop carrier for the war.
At La Pallice, the British officer in charge requisitioned local French merchant ships to get the British and Polish soldiers over to England. Across south-western France, 30,000 Polish troops were still fighting off the German advance as they made their way under fire to the ports, hoping to get to the boats in time. Meanwhile three Isle of Man ferries rescued 6000 from Brest harbour, though their departure was delayed by German mines. The German tanks and land forces had not yet reached France’s south-western shores but the Allied transports were already under constant attack by German submarines and the Luftwaffe. The Dunkirk evacuation further north was almost over, but Operation Ariel to evacuate the remaining Allied forces and refugees had barely begun.
CHAPTER ONE: EXODUS
Maurice Southgate opened his eyes. He was in the water and the water was on fire. As he struggled to stay afloat, he realised the Lancastria was sinking and he wasn’t alone out there in the open sea. Over 2000 desperate survivors were in the water amongst the dismembered bodies, wreckage and burning fuel oil.
The nearest French port Saint-Nazaire was over five miles away. England’s south west coast was 300 miles to the north, across the Breton peninsula and the English Channel. It was June 1940 and over 190,000 of the British Expeditionary Forces and their allies – French, Poles, Belgians - were still stranded in south-western France, gathered at the harbours around Brest desperately awaiting the flotilla of ships sent from Plymouth, Falmouth and other British ports to rescue them.
Tens of thousands of them had previously waited at Dunkirk but the priority there had been to get the fighting men away, leaving signallers, mechanics, clerks and translators like Southgate to be harassed south by the relentless German army. Five thousand British servicemen were forced to surrender at Dieppe, surrounded by German tanks even before the British evacuation fleet could reach them.
Every kind of ocean-going ship available was despatched to collect the remaining forces - trawlers, destroyers, ferries, cross-Channel steamers, French, Polish, Dutch and British, even cruise ships like the Lancastria, a British Cunard liner commandeered as a troop carrier for the war.
At La Pallice, the British officer in charge requisitioned local French merchant ships to get the British and Polish soldiers over to England. Across south-western France, 30,000 Polish troops were still fighting off the German advance as they made their way under fire to the ports, hoping to get to the boats in time. Meanwhile three Isle of Man ferries rescued 6000 from Brest harbour, though their departure was delayed by German mines. The German tanks and land forces had not yet reached France’s south-western shores but the Allied transports were already under constant attack by German submarines and the Luftwaffe. The Dunkirk evacuation further north was almost over, but Operation Ariel to evacuate the remaining Allied forces and refugees had barely begun.
On 17th June 1940 the Lancastria had just boarded over 5200 troops and refugees including women and children, brought out to her from Saint-Nazaire port in a frantic scurry of small boats. By 1pm, she was over-crowded with standing room only on the open decks. In fact, no-one knows exactly how many were crammed on board that day – estimates range wildly from 5000 to 9000.
At 4pm, just as the ship received her orders to get underway, a German Junker JU-88 dive bomber made its run, targeting the Lancastria. The ships at Saint-Nazaire had been harassed by German air attacks all day but this time all four bombs hit their target. One bomb exploded the Lancastria’s full fuel tank, spilling gallons of burning oil into the sea while other bombs hit the holds. The fourth bomb plummeted down the ship’s funnel, exploding in the engine room and blowing large holes in the hull. By 4.15pm, the ship was completely disabled and sinking.
Desperately trying to keep his head above the waves as he watched the ship roll and sink bow-first into the water, Southgate thought he could hear voices. Someone trapped on board the Lancastria was singing as the ship went down; maybe it was a group of them, all singing “Roll Out the Barrel”. Others were bellowing out “There’ll Always be an England”. The voices carried across the open sea as over three thousand people vanished beneath the waves. It remains Britain’s worst ever maritime disaster.
If Southgate was one of the lucky ones, he didn’t feel like it. He had to tread water for hours as the 2,477 survivors were gradually plucked out of the water and transferred to other troop ships. The Oronsay was already loaded at Saint-Nazaire but managed to take some of the bedraggled survivors. The John Holt then took another 829, arriving in Plymouth on 18th June. The Cymbula then reached Saint-Nazaire to take 250 ragged troops and two female survivors to Plymouth.
But Maurice Southgate wasn’t on any of these. Instead he found himself deposited in Falmouth on 19th June, two days after the sinking, with just a blanket and no shoes. An ambulance carried him to a makeshift camp where he simultaneously took a shower and lost his watch, then a coach reunited him with the remaining members of his squadron in the Sergeants’ Mess at the Royal Air Force station in Plymouth.
At 4pm, just as the ship received her orders to get underway, a German Junker JU-88 dive bomber made its run, targeting the Lancastria. The ships at Saint-Nazaire had been harassed by German air attacks all day but this time all four bombs hit their target. One bomb exploded the Lancastria’s full fuel tank, spilling gallons of burning oil into the sea while other bombs hit the holds. The fourth bomb plummeted down the ship’s funnel, exploding in the engine room and blowing large holes in the hull. By 4.15pm, the ship was completely disabled and sinking.
Desperately trying to keep his head above the waves as he watched the ship roll and sink bow-first into the water, Southgate thought he could hear voices. Someone trapped on board the Lancastria was singing as the ship went down; maybe it was a group of them, all singing “Roll Out the Barrel”. Others were bellowing out “There’ll Always be an England”. The voices carried across the open sea as over three thousand people vanished beneath the waves. It remains Britain’s worst ever maritime disaster.
If Southgate was one of the lucky ones, he didn’t feel like it. He had to tread water for hours as the 2,477 survivors were gradually plucked out of the water and transferred to other troop ships. The Oronsay was already loaded at Saint-Nazaire but managed to take some of the bedraggled survivors. The John Holt then took another 829, arriving in Plymouth on 18th June. The Cymbula then reached Saint-Nazaire to take 250 ragged troops and two female survivors to Plymouth.
But Maurice Southgate wasn’t on any of these. Instead he found himself deposited in Falmouth on 19th June, two days after the sinking, with just a blanket and no shoes. An ambulance carried him to a makeshift camp where he simultaneously took a shower and lost his watch, then a coach reunited him with the remaining members of his squadron in the Sergeants’ Mess at the Royal Air Force station in Plymouth.