Britain's Greatest Maritime Disaster (that you probably never knew about)

[mirth]

The SS Lancastria sinking. More killed than Titanic and Lusitania combined and largely unknown even today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/lancastria_01.shtml

[Con]

The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff is getting more attention nowadays but it is still one of the many terrible thing to have happened in WWII

The figures from the research of Heinz Schön make the total lost in the sinking to be about 9,343 total, including about 5,000 children.[13] This would represent the largest loss of life resulting from the sinking of a single vessel in maritime history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Wilhelm_Gustloff

[BanzaiCat]

Holy crap...the Lancastia's sinking accounted for 1/3 of the BEF's total casualties in the campaign?  :o

Damn, I'd never heard of this.

[mirth]

The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff is getting more attention nowadays but it is still one of the many terrible thing to have happened in WWII

The figures from the research of Heinz Schön make the total lost in the sinking to be about 9,343 total, including about 5,000 children.[13] This would represent the largest loss of life resulting from the sinking of a single vessel in maritime history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Wilhelm_Gustloff

I've read about the Gustloff before. However I didn't know this about the Soviet sub that sank her

Just 11 days after the sinking, the S-13 would sink another German ship, the SS General von Steuben, on 10 February, in which around 3,000 people lost their lives. Following the sinking of the Steuben, Hitler had Alexander Marinesko declared a "personal enemy."

[Shelldrake]

The SS Lancastria sinking. More killed than Titanic and Lusitania combined and largely unknown even today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/lancastria_01.shtml

Dreadful losses - no wonder it was kept from the British public! Thanks for posting Mirth.