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Captain Heinrich Bleichrodt raises the periscope of
his submarine U48 of the German navy and peers out into the darkness of
the Atlantic. In the distance he can see the British convoy OB-213 which
had left Liverpool on the 13th September 1940 heading on its
2500 mile journey across the north Atlantic to Canada. Captain Bleichrodt
already knew which ship was to be his target and was only waiting for the
escorting Royal Navy ships to leave during the 10 hours he had been
shadowing the convoy. War honours depended on tonnages sunk and not the
strategic importance of targets and his target for the night was to be the
biggest ship in the convoy leading the middle column, the SS City of Benares cruise liner. On board this liner were 406 persons including the
crew, passengers and 90 children being evacuated to Canada by the
Children’s Overseas Reception Board (CORB).
U48
Seeing that the convoy was now unescorted and deemed
by the Royal Navy to be out of the war zone and in safe waters, Captain
Bleichrodt ordered his crew to prepare for an attack on the convoy. At
23.15 hours he fires two torpedoes at the City of Benares and much to his
dismay both missed. The tracks of these torpedoes were not noticed by
anyone on the vessels of the convoy and it continued on its way completely
unaware and without taking any avoiding action. Again another torpedo is
launched and at 00.01 hours on the 18th September 1940 the City
of Benares is struck in the stern.
Mayhem breaks out amongst the passengers and crew
with some passengers including some of the children trapped in their
cabins by falling timbers and metal. 11 year old Fred Steels suddenly awoke
with the noise of the explosion and with glass shattering and heavy wooden
planks falling trapping him in his bunk. Another child in the cabin was
crying because he had lost his glasses and there was no sound from the
third lad. With great effort Fred managed to free himself from the bunk and
along with the third boy, now wake, they manage to exit the cabin and make
their way to the deck. Fred and one of his cabin mates, Paul Sheering,
would end up in lifeboat number 12, they never saw their third cabin mate
again. The City of Banares was evacuated within 15 minutes and sank 30
minutes after being hit by the explosion, 253 miles West-Southwest of
Rockall.
HMS Hurricane
HMS Hurricane some 400 mile away received a message
that the City of Benares had been sunk and was sent to rescue survivors
who had been reported in lifeboats. Racing through heavy seas, it was 24
hours by the time HMS Hurricane reached the scene and immediately started
taking survivors on board. One lifeboat in the distance was left as it
appeared to be empty and from a second ship torpedoed, the SS Marina
just after the liner. Little did the captain of the Hurricane realise that
this lifeboat, number 12 contained over 40 people including members of
the crew, passengers and six of the children, all boys including Fred
Steels and Paul Sheering and it was eight days later that these survivors
were rescued after being spotted from the air and picked up by HMS
Anthony. There were in total aboard the City of Benares, 406 persons made
up of 215 crew, 191 adult passengers and 90 children. Of these there were
only 158 survivors and 77 of the children died this day.
HMS Anthony
Many towns through out the UK were affected by the
loss of the children and Cardiff and Newport were included in these. In
Cardiff, the Came family who lived in Earl Street, Grangetown lost their
two boys Lewis and James aged 11 and 13 years old and three other Cardiff
children also died. Newport
suffered many more losses, John Pemberton aged 10 from Queens Hill, Roger
James Poole aged 11 from Allteryn Avenue, brother and sister William and
Anita Rees aged 12 and 14 of Caeperllan
Road and perhaps one of the most tragic losses if that is any way to
describe it, is of the Moss family from Graig Park Circle, Malpas who lost
their three daughters, Aileen, Marion and Rita aged 12, 10 and 8
respectively.
John Pemberton
The Moss family
The Rees children
The photograph of the Moss family was taken only a
day or so before the children left their family home to join the City of
Benaries. (click on images)
Parents in many areas of the UK lost their whole
families in minutes as the City of Benares sank. Because of this loss,
there were never anymore sailings of evacuees out of the UK and the
sinking of the City of Benares featured some years later in the Nuremburg
war trials.
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