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This first in-depth study of the incident draws on many eye-witness accounts and previously unpublished papers, and includes ninety illustrations and many appendices, the first of which is a 40-page list of the names of all the men known to have been lost with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