SCENES OF HORROR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 July 1940, Page 5

SCENES OF HORROR

LANCASTRIA SINKING NAZIS MURDER HELPLESS VICTIMS. PEOPLE IN WATER BOMBED AND MACHINE-GUNNED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, July 25. It is revealed that the Lancastria was sunk on .June 17, at St Xazaire, Southern Brittany. The German planes ineffectually bombed the liner for half an hour before scoring hits. The Germans then machine-gunned lifeboats and rafts on which the troops were endeavouring to escape. Three aerial torpedoes, found their mark, one going directly down the funnel and exploding in the boiler-room. Captain R. Sharp was the last to leave the ship, which went down as he was going over the side, and he was rescued by the ship’s surgeon. Meanwhile the Germans were mach-ine-gunning other survivors, and they killed everyone on one large raft. The majority of the survivors were picked up by small craft which were ferrying other personnel from the docks to troopships. The survivors all paid a tribute to the magnificent courage of the troops and crew. Tommies sang “Roll Out the Barrel” and “There Will Always Be An England,” as the ship went down. Two Sisters of the Church Army rushed on deck when the order rang out: “Women and children first!” and jumped into a lifeboat while men slid into the sea by ropes and others leapt overboard. One of the Sisters said: “As the German planes swept down we saw bullets spurting the water where men were swimming for their lives.” “When our boat was moving away soldiers watching from a porthole saw that we were wearing lifebelts, and they cried, ‘Give us a chance,’ whereupon we took oft’ the belts and flung them into the sea. into which the soldiers jumped. R.A.F. planes arrived and dropped other lifebelts. Two old Belgians and a little boy were in the water, the child praying while the others encouraged him to keep afloat. They were saved, and a French trawler picked us up.” An army cook said: “I saw a soldier grab a young girl, both of whose legs were broken, and swim with her. Both were picked up, but the girl died on board the rescue ship.”

A member of the Lancastrian crew described how a soldier, who was blinded by the first explosion, was led to the ship’s hospital, but the second explosion killed all three, including the doctor.

A survivor who was flung into the sea when the Lancastria lurched, said: “The water was almost a solid mass of men clinging together like flies and covered with thick black oil. It was every man for himself. Overhead three planes continually swooped and bombed and machine-gunned the men struggling in the water, some of whom had been horribly burnt by the explosions on the ship.”