The Sinking of the Lancastria

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2022

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On June 17, 1940, the British ocean liner, RMS Lancastria, was sunk during Operation Aerial.

RMS Lancastria had sailed to the French port of St. Nazaire to aid in the evacuation of British and French soldiers, civil servants and British civilians after the fall of Dunkirk. The ship was loaded well in excess of its capacity— the consequences of which were felt when a German fighter plane flew overhead and catastrophically attacked the Lancastria.

Janet Dempsey is a former maritime record specialist who worked at The National Archives for fifteen years. Janet joins Dan to discuss why the Lancastria was requisitioned as a troopship, the horrific sinking and loss of life, and how the subsequent media blackout at the time has informed this largely forgotten chapter in British history.

Produced by Hannah Ward

Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History It.
0:03.4	Today we're talking about the greatest maritime disaster in British history.
0:09.2	It was a colossal tragedy, a catastrophe, and it's one that's hardly talked about or
0:15.8	remembered today.
0:17.5	On June 17th 1940, the gigantic British Ocean liner, the Lancasteria, was sunk by German
0:25.4	Lepharthe aircraft.
0:27.4	It's now thought that more than 4,000 people died during the sinking.
0:33.0	Probably around three times as many died on the Titanic.
0:38.1	But it was hushed up at the time, and it's an inconvenient story in a summer that's
0:43.5	supposed to have a strong narrative from Dunkirk at the beginning of June to the successes
0:48.7	of the Battle of Britain in July, August and September.
0:52.3	But it's an event that we really need to remember.
0:55.1	We got Janet Dempsey on the podcast today.
0:57.4	She's a former maritime record specialist.
0:59.6	She worked at the National Archives for 15 years.
1:02.8	She has gone through accounts of that day from French civilians who witnessed it to people
1:08.2	that survived the catastrophic bombing and sinking onboard the ship.
1:12.6	The Lancasteria was in San Jose.
1:15.6	You can almost call it Southwest France.
1:18.4	Following Dunkirk, there's still plenty of British Allied civilians and service personnel
1:23.8	stuck in France escaping from the German advance.
1:27.2	There were other evacuations as you'll hear in ports in northern France.
	...

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