HMT Lancastria - Swansea connections

HMT Lancastria

 

Following the sinking of HMT Lancastria, Winston Churchill suppressed the news of the disaster, stating, “The newspapers have got quite enough disasters for today at least”. 

However, William Joyce better known as “Lord Haw-Haw” announced the sinking on the English language Nazi propaganda radio program Germany Calling.  The following day the story broke out in the United States by the Press Association

Under the British Secrets Act, the reports regarding the sinking of HMT Lancastria cannot be published until 2040. 

So, let’s go back to the beginning.

The Lancastria was launched in 1920, as Tyrrhenia, built by William Breadmore and Company, Clydeside. She made her first voyage on 19 June 1922 from Glasgow to Quebec City to Montreal.

1924, the ship changed its name from Tyrrhenia to Lancastria after the ship was refitted for two classes.

Until 1932, the Lancastria was on routes between Liverpool and New York and then used as a cruise ship in the Mediterranean. In October 1932, the Belgian ship SS Scheldestad was found abandoned and sinking in the Bay of Biscay, when the Lancastria rescued the crew.

At the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, the Lancastria was in the Bahamas, when she was ordered to sail to New York, where she was to be refitted. Having been requisitioned as a troopship, she became known as the HMT Lancastria. During the refit, the ship was repainted battleship grey, and the portholes were blacked out and a 4-inch gun was installed.  First used to transport men and supplies from Canada to the United Kingdom.

April 1940, HMT Lancastria was one of twenty ships that participated in Operation Alphabet.

Operation Alphabet was an evacuation which was authoised in May 1940, of Allied (British, French, and Polish troops) from the harbour of Narvik, Norway, following the German successful Operation Weserubung.  The German operation ended the Allied campaign in Norway.  The evacuation ended on 8^th June.

Having been slightly damaged in the evacuation the Lancastria carried troops who were to be involved in the Invasion of Iceland.

 Returning to Glasgow, the captain requested the remaining surplus oil to be removed from her tanks. Sadly, there was not any time, and the Lancastria was requested for a refit at Liverpool.  Crew members were either dismissed or sent on leave.

Within hours of berthing in Liverpool, the Lancastria was recalled to sea.  From Liverpool, she sailed to Plymouth on 15^th June, where she waited for orders.  Originally sent to Quiberon Bay, Brittanny as part of Operation Aerial.  From there she was to assist in the evacuation of some 124,000 British Expeditionary Force troops who had been cut from the south by the German advancing forces through France.   Accompanying the Lancastria was the Franconia.  Finding that both ships weren’t required, the Lancastria was required and the captain, Rudolph Sharp, was requested to go to the port of St. Nazaire, where more troops needed to be evacuated.

En route, the Franconia was damaged due air raid and returned to England for repairs.  The Lancastria was alone. Lancastria anchored some five miles southwest of St. Nazaire, along with some thirty other merchant vessels.

17^th June 1940, three Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves offices boarded the Lancastria, to find out how many troops could be transported.  Normally her complement was 2,180 including 330 crew, however, Captain Sharpe, who had brought 2,653 men back from Norway stated that he could take 3,000. He was ordered to take as many troops as possible without regard to the limits of International Law.

By mid-afternoon, the troops had been ferried to the Lancastria, the total number is unknown, but it is thought between 4,000 and 9,000.

The Oronsay, was hit on the bridge by a German bomb during an air raid that afternoon.  The Lancastria was free to free to depart the port but without a destroyer escort as defence from a submarine attack.

HMT Lancastria sinking

Early evening on the 17^th of June 1940, Junkers Ju 88 bomber aircraft began a raid on the Lancastria, which had been hit by either 3 or 4 bombs.  The Lancastria started to list to starboard, and orders were given for men to move to the port side to counteract it.

Sixteen lifeboats had been quipped along with 2,500 life jackets, but many of those lifeboats couldn’t be launched due to them having been damaged or the listing of the ship.  The Lancastria sank twenty-five minutes after having been hit, which gave other ships little time to assist.  Those in the water drowned due to the lack of life jackets, or from hypothermia.

Survivors from the sea were picked and taken on board other British and Allied evacuation vessels, also the Swansea-based HMT Cambridgeshire. Captain Sharp survived the sinking and went on to command the RMS Laconia, which was sunk on the 12^th of September 1942.  Swansea survivors included Robert May and F. R. Owen..

One of those soldiers who lost his life onboard the HMT Lancastria was Reg John Phillips.

Private Reginald John Phillips
Noirmoutier-en-L’ile Communal Cemetery,
France
credit - findagrave

Reginald John Phillips
Bethel Welsh Congregational Chapel

Private Reginald John Phillips served with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, 1 Base Ordnance Depot. He was 25 years.  He was the son of Alfred James Gilbert and Beatrice Mary Phillips of St. Thomas, and husband of Elizabeth Phillips.  Reg is buried at Noirmoutier-en-L’ile Communal Cemetery, France.

Herald of Wales

 
Reg is commemorated on his mother’s grave at Bethel Welsh Congregational Chapel.  His death was reported on 10^th August 1940, by the Herald of Wales.