大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Bill Ross of the 鈥楢ction Desk 鈥� Sheffield鈥� Team on behalf of Ken Hoult, and has been added to the site with permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Lest I forget
By
Ken Hoult

On the 65th anniversary of the greatest single loss of life in Maritime history, it is time for me to reflect on the tragedy because I was there.

The S.S. Lancastria had been commandeered as a troop carrier and became known as H.M.T. Lancastria. In 1940, she took part in the Evacuation of Norway and took military personnel to Iceland, to prevent its occupation by the Germans. Its next task was to help in the evacuation of Civilian & Military personnel from St Nazaire, our unit being one of those to be evacuated.

Call it fate, or what you will, but I think our unit had a charmed life. We were working on building ammunition dumps in the Forest Le Gare near the village of Blaine, when our C.O. had orders to 鈥榚vacuate鈥� or 鈥榬etreat鈥�.

We started out from Blaine on the 16th of June on 鈥榖orrowed鈥� transport, and slept overnight in a field outside St. Nazaire. According to my autograph book, on the morning of the 17th, we said farewell to our interpreter who was given the C.O.鈥檚 staff, car suitably filled with petrol. Whilst the loading of the staff car was taking place, my Section Officer was negotiating with the C.O. for himself, a sergeant and one Sapper Hoult to be taken back to the Forest, to destroy the dumps, then travel with the interpreter to the south of France.

The rest of the unit had moved off onto the St. Nazaire esplanade, where other troops paraded and then marched off to be taken out to ships waiting outside the harbour. It was in the afternoon that the Section Officer had to obey orders, and we joined the unit and boarded the Destroyer H.M.S. Highlander, packed like sardines. As the ship moved out to sea, a big cloud of black smoke dominated the horizon.

One of the sailors said, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the Lancastria.鈥� Since that time, 3.57 p.m. on the 17th of June, I have said many times, 鈥淭here but for the grace of God go I,鈥� and still I reflect on what might have been. We were put on a coal boat, The City Of Mobile, and took no part in the rescue operation.

It was several years after the event before I realised the enormity of the tragedy involving the Lancastria. Winston Churchill refused to let the facts be made known to the public, and it is only in recent years, thanks to the H.M.T. Lancastria Association that some facts have been made known. No accurate record of lives lost is available, but it is estimated that up to 9,000 souls were on board at the time of the bombing; it is estimated that 5,000 men lost their lives.

In recent years, I have written to the local paper reminding readers of the disaster, and after good publicity, I visited Ron Goodyear who was on the Lancastria鈥檚 penultimate voyage to Iceland. From a photograph that he took, and the photos taken by Sailor Clements on the Highlander, I have made the montage, which is a very small dedication to the Lancastria and those who lost their lives.

I was in Iceland at the time of the great man鈥檚 visit, providing shore facilities for the North Atlantic fleets of the U.S.A and Great Britain, in a large Icelandic fjord. At the time of this visit, in port was the H.M.S. Ramallies and Mr. Churchill did the honours of making a speech on the quarterdeck, which could be heard ashore. All I can say is, I only wish tape recorders had been invented.

After all these years, I look back and hope that my story in the People鈥檚 War will shed a little light on the forgotten tragedy.

Pr-BR

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