- Contributed by听
- actiondesksheffield
- People in story:听
- Ken Hoult....L/Cp J.K.W. Hoult R.E.
- Location of story:听
- St Nazaire, France
- Article ID:听
- A4121777
- Contributed on:听
- 27 May 2005
Prime Minister Visits Iceland
This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Bill Ross of the 鈥楢ction Desk 鈥 Sheffield鈥 Team on behalf of John Kenneth William Hoult, and has been added to the site with the author鈥檚 permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.
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I could have ended my Second World War at the bottom of the sea, which is why I spent a little time at 3.57 on June the 17th, 2004, remembering events of 64 years 鈥榓go鈥. Despite tempting fate by being a member of the ominously name 666 AW Company Royal Engineers, at the age of 21, I was leading an enchanted life.
It was by a sheer chance that my unit failed to be on the doomed ship, the Lancastria off St Nazaire, France, when it was bombed by the Germans at that time on June the 17th, 1940.
It was Britain鈥檚 biggest ever nautical disaster. The Cunard liner was carrying between 6,000 and 9,000 evacuated servicemen, but only 2,500 of them survived.
My unit and I, attached to the 159 Railway Royal Engineers, were building an ammunition dump near Le Mans when they were ordered to evacuate. We blew everything up except the staff car, which we presented to our interpreter.
The men were lined up ready to be evacuated by the Lancastria, but my commanding officer refused to leave until all the men were together. That saved our lives. Why were we not ready to go? Some of us wanted to infiltrate behind enemy lines, but the C.O. wouldn鈥檛 let us.
Actually, it was the Highlander which evacuated us, but as the ship moved out to sea, a big cloud of black smoke dominated the horizon.
One of the sailors said, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the Lancastria.鈥 I thought, 鈥淭here but for the grace of God go I.鈥 In fact, I went onto the coal ship, the City Of Mobile which took me back to Plymouth whilst the Highlander engaged in the rescue attempts.
It was several years after the event before I realised the enormity of the tragedy involving the Lancastria. Churchill refused to let the facts be made publicly known for fear of denting spirits.
My unit spent some time in Iceland, building Reykjavik airport and the naval base. We only lost one man. I am grateful to this day that I was only a witness.
PR-BR
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