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This morning i was having a wee look through some of my Dads 'jottings' And I came across his account of his departure from France with the B.E.F. only a small piece but in it he mentioned the sinking of the 'Lancastria' . This afternoon I popped into the libraray to return some talking books. I had a quick look at what was on the shelves. THe very first book that caught my eye was

The Sinking of THE LANCASTRIA by Jonathan Fenby.

From My Dads Jottings..

When the Germans attacked later and we moved all over the place - I think we were called Mac Force. We were continually dive bombed during Dunkirk and after we marched for days finally reaching Cherbourg. While waiting for a boat a liner with 4000 troops aboard (Lancastria) was sunk, a bomb falling down the funnel - over 3000 were drowned (I believe due to lack of life boats). Winston said not to inform the British public as they had had enough bad news after Dunkirk.

We finally got aboard a small boat with a total arrnament of 4 lewis guns. Once again my luck was out as volunteers were called for to man these obsolete weapons. I was one of the few who had trained with them. Fortunately most of the trip was at night with a low cloud base and we could hear aircraft above. We finally arrived at Weymouth absolutely worn out due to lack of sleep.


Jenks

Can't imagine the stress of that experience.

We don't want to know what is ahead of us...the next conflict or terrorist attack.

Robin128 wrote:Can't imagine the stress of that experience.

We don't want to know what is ahead of us...the next conflict or terrorist attack.

Robin..

I have just listened to the prologue (side one of the tape) it brought tears to my eyes. The amazing thing from my point of view is that two weeks after 'The miracle of Dunkirk' 150,000 British troops were still fighting to get away.(I didn't know that. I am still learning about ww1) It also amazes me that my Dad having gone through it all, dismisses his experience in a couple of paragraphs of his jottings. My goodness, were not our fathers made of sterner stuff than us, their children.


Jenks

As previously posted, my Dad had a hell of a time on the Med in the 40s, 5 air attacks in one night on the Phoebe being just one example...but could never get him to repeat that anecdote. Only to be retired with TB and then have to father 3 kids...dieing when I was 16 and he 63.

All the worse when one has retired early with a bad back.

A couple of video clips..



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDOE0zpA ... re=related[/youtube]






[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7yoNuPf ... re=related[/youtube]

The Author of the book 'The Sinking of the Lancastria' Jonathan Fenby features.



Jenks

I do wonder why the sinking would be kept classified for 60 years..

Sensitive cargo maybe???? Nowt to hide, nowt to fear eh!

Jenks wrote:

Robin128 wrote:Can't imagine the stress of that experience.

We don't want to know what is ahead of us...the next conflict or terrorist attack.

Robin..

I have just listened to the prologue (side one of the tape) it brought tears to my eyes. The amazing thing from my point of view is that two weeks after 'The miracle of Dunkirk' 150,000 British troops were still fighting to get away.(I didn't know that. I am still learning about ww1) It also amazes me that my Dad having gone through it all, dismisses his experience in a couple of paragraphs of his jottings. My goodness, were not our fathers made of sterner stuff than us, their children.


Jenks

Jenks,

The number of 150.000 surprises me. I understand the BEF was 300.000.

R.G.C

Sadly many defending French soldiers were also left behind.

R.G.C.


I was staggered when I read on the back of Jonathan Fenby's book...

'' A fortnight after the evacuation at Dunkirk some 150,000 British were still stuck in France.''

http://books.simonandschuster.co.uk/Sin ... 0743489430



I read elsewhere that 338'000 British and French troops were taken off the beaches at Dunkirk.

A further 220,000 were taken off at Cherbourg, (my dad was one) St Malo, Brest and St Nazaire.

I believe that 40,000 were taken into captivity.

Have to admit that my interest is mainly still with WW1. so apart from general knowledge I'm not very well up to speed historically speaking on WW11.


Jenks