Lancastria: Britain's forgotten disaster

Britain's worst ever maritime disaster, the 1940 sinking of the troopship Lancastria, which claimed the lives of between four and six thousand men, has all but been erased from history. But survivors and campaigners are keeping the memory alive.

Most people have heard of the Titanic, the Transatlantic liner which sank on its maiden voyage in 1912 and was immortalised in James Cameron's blockbuster 1997 movie.

And the Lusitania, torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1915, is still remembered as the ship which brought the United States into the World War I.

But have you heard of the Lancastria? Perhaps not. Because the sinking of this liner in 1940, an event which claimed the lives of more victims than the Titanic and the Lusitania combined, almost disappeared from history, a victim of the propaganda war which underlay Britain's fight against Nazi Germany.

Built on the Clyde, the 16,243 ton, 578 foot-long Lancastria - originally named the Tyrrhenia - could carry up to 2,200 passengers.

Following her maiden voyage on 1922, she served as a liner on the Transatlantic route, as well as a cruise ship in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe, before being requisitioned in April 1940 as a troopship.She saw action assisting in the evacuation of troops from Norway and then sailed to the French port of St Nazaire to rescue troops following the Nazi invasion and the near miraculous escape of 338,000 Allied troops from the Dunkirk beaches just two weeks before.

James Cowan, now 89 years old, made it to St Nazaire ahead of the German advance and saw the Lancastria from the quayside. The sun was reflecting off the ship and it looked white, and I thought to myself 'what a target, what an easy target,' he says.

Also on board was Charles Napier: I was lying on the top deck, he recalls. A man came out and he didn't see me, I don't think. And anyway I said to him 'you're looking awful worried'.

And he said 'well, I am very worried... I'm the purser, there's between eight and nine thousand people on this ship and there's only life saving equipment for about two-and-a-half thousand.'

On the afternoon of 17 June 1940 the Lancastria came under attack from the Luftwaffe. After receiving three direct hits from a Junkers 88 bomber the liner sank in just 20 minutes.

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