The Forgotten Tragedy

the long version

THE FORGOTTEN TRAGEDY This book records the tragic story of the sinking of the troopship Lancastria, which was bombed and sunk by Junkers 88 dive-bombers in the estuary of the River Loire, on Monday, 17 June 1940. Crammed with approximately 6,000 troops, RAF personnel, civilians and crew, a third of whom did not survive, this incident remains Britain's worst-ever maritime disaster but, like many other shipping disasters of the Second World War, it remains little known today. Following the successful evacuation of Dunkirk only weeks before. Over a month passed before the story eventually reached the national newspapers, via American journalists. This first in-depth study of the incident draws on many eye-witness accounts and previously unpublished papers, and includes ninety illustrations and many appendices, the first of which is a 40-page list of the names of all the men known to have been lost with the ship. The publication completes a trilogy of titles published by Shaun Tyas commemorating and restoring to public attention the first-, second- and third-worst Allied mercantile disasters of the War. Shaun Tyas - 2002