Read The Sinking of the Lancastria Online
Authors: Jonathan Fenby
2. The ornate salon where passengers dined in peacetime and hundreds of men would be trapped in June 1940.
3. Captain Rudolph Sharp, a man with a horror of war.
4. Chief Officer Harry Grattidge, future ‘Captain of the Queens’, who would walk out into the sea.
5. Troops lining up on the docks at St-Nazaire to be evacuated. TheLancastriawas their goal.
6. Heading for home.
7. TheHighlanderjammed with men being taken out to theLancastria.
8. The JU-88, pride of the Luftwaffe and nemesis of theLancastria.
9. The liner starts to go down after the bombing.
10. TheLancastrianslast moments as men crowd on the upturned hull and plunge into the sea.
11. Survivors, some naked, most covered in oil, cram on to a rescue vessel.
12. Tea – hot and sweet – was a great comfort.
13. Sister Chamley of the Church Army, who handed her life belt to a soldier.
14. Wally Smith shook hands with his friend Stan Flowers before jumping from the liner. He was never seen alive again.