The evacuation of British troops and civilians from France in 1940 did not end with Dunkirk. Several weeks later, on June 17, 1940, the British Cunard liner Lancastria was loaded to capacity with troops and civilians off the French port of St. Nazaire, when she was struck by three direct hits from a German Junkers 88 bomber. As many as 6,500 men, women and children were lost when the ship sank. It was the worst maritime disaster in British history. The sinking claimed more lives than the combined losses of Titanic and Lusitania. News of the disaster was covered up. Churchill said that, “The newspapers have got quite enough disaster for today, at least.”
Now 71 years after the sinking, the “silent sacrifice” of those aboard the Lancastria was finally acknowledged this weekend as a memorial to the victims was unveiled on the banks of the Clyde at the site of the the shipyard where the ship was built.
Victims of HMT Lancastria sinking honoured with memorial
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