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It is famously known that the battle ended with the enormous undertaking of evacuating the British troops from French soil. The evacuees were in several western French ports including Lorient and St. Nazaire on the Loire River. Mr Napier is also wearing the Lancastria commemorative medal which was awarded by the Scottish Government in June 2008 in recognition of those who were aboard the vessel that day. The British Government has requisitioned the RMS Lancastria to assist with evacuation of troops from the European mainland. The first boat away was filled with women and children but it capsized on landing in the water and a second had to be lowered for them. Read about our approach to external linking. RMS Lancastria - Encyclopedia Britannia HMT Lancastria remembered | National Museums Liverpool "[40], All service personnel killed during the Second World War are recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and were known that they lost their lives on Lancastria; 1,816 burials are recorded, over 400 of them in France. Walter ended up in the water and saw a dog swimming away from the wreckage. Harrois went on to say that when history looks at the retreat in 1940, the evacuation of Dunkirk is the undertaking that most remember. She was sunk on 17 June 1940 during Operation Aerial. Those who got away were machine-gunned in the water". The Lancastria Tragedy: Sinking and Cover-up - June 1940 Paperback - Amazon He was a very quiet man, and his recalling of the Lancastria tended to come only after a couple of pints.". It petitioned the British Government to have the wreck site designated an official maritime war grave. [44], The missing British military dead from the sinking of Lancastria (those whose bodies were not recovered or were unable to be identified) are commemorated on a number of Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorials (those identified were buried in cemeteries and are marked with Commission headstones). A senior lecturer in British politics at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris, Thibaud Harrois, said that the German advances in 1940 caught almost everyone by surprise and led to the Battle of Dunkirk. Three direct hits caused the ship to list first to starboard then to port and she rolled over and sank within twenty minutes. Footballers, just like many other blokeswere drafted orenlisted with local teams sending gifted players such as Liverpools Tom Cooper and Evertons reserve goalkeeper William Reidwhilst Preston North EndsTom Finney served in the Royal Armoured Corps.In fact,629 professionalfootballers had joined theservices by April 1940.By this time the British Expeditionary Force (BEF)wassent to France,but afterrelatively little action throughout the winter of 1939 the army faced its toughest battle which ended in theDunkirk evacuation, an event which although essentially a British defeat,didsavethe majority of British troops andforged a new optimism for the nation. And it is this sparsity of records, together withChurchills newsblackout whichhas taken years for the facts to materialise, even though pressure from a post-war survivors association the HMT Lancastria Association has continued to ask questions such as: which survivors saw who on board? Even when coupled with the sinking of the RMS Lusitania off the south coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915 by German which killed 1,195, leaving 761 survivorsLancastria would apparently exceed the combined death total.