Гибель парохода «Сити оф Бенарес» и трагедия детей-эвакуированных во время Второй мировой войны.

British passenger steamship sunk by a Nazi German U Boat in 1940

SS City of Benares was a British steam turbine ocean liner, built for Ellerman Lines by Barclay, Curle & Co of Glasgow in 1936. During the Second World War, City of Benares was used as an evacuee ship to transport 90 children from Britain to Canada. U 48 was launched in 1939. sank her by torpedoes in September 1940 with the loss of 260 people out of a complement of 408, including the death of 77 of the evacuated children. The sinking caused such public outrage in Britain that it led to Winston Churchill cancelling the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) plan to relocate British children abroad.

City of Benares was built by Barclay Curle in Glasgow, Scotland. She was launched on 5 August 1936, and completed in October 1936. Benares, as she was known, was 509 feet (155 m) long, with a beam of 62 feet (19 m) and draught of 30 feet (9 m). Powered by three steam turbines, which were supplied by Cammell Laird. They were oil fired and drove a single screw via single reduction gearing, The UK official number was 164096 and her call sign was GZBW. Later in May 1940, Ellerman Lines decided to provide three of its largest passenger ships, Benares, , and City of Simla, for the CORB to evacuate children. These three liners were fitted out for war service, and by August Benares, Simla, and Paris were ready for service. This would be Benares' first Atlantic crossing. On 10 September 1940, Paris set sail with 45 CORB children, bound for Cape Town.

On Friday, 13 September 1940 Benares left Liverpool, England, sailing in Convoy OB 213, bound for Montreal, with 408 people — 90 CORB children (ages five to fifteen), their ten escorts (3 men, 7 women), 91 fare paying passengers (including ten children and forty three women), 6 convoy representatives, 168 Indian Lascars (the catering crew was from Portuguese Goa) and 43 British crew (including five women). Some of the CORB children could rightly be called refugees. Two of the children, Patricia (Pat) Allen (of Liverpool), twelve, and Michael Brooker (of Kent), ten, called 'veterans' by the other children, had survived the U boat attack on Volendam, which had been carrying 321 CORB children, 31 escorts, 255 other passengers, and 273 crew. U 60 was launched in 1939. hit Volendam with two torpedoes, only one of which detonated. The other was found later in the ship's bow. The ship did not sink, but all the passengers were still evacuated in eighteen lifeboats. Patricia Allen came home to discover her house had been destroyed, while Michael Brooker's had an unexploded bomb in it. She remembered the streets in Germany, Catholics, Jews, Slavs and the other so called 'inferior races' being taken away by soldiers, either to be killed or to work in death camps and concentration camps. Among the paying passengers, ten of whom were the young sons and daughters of civilians, were the British Parliamentarian, Colonel James Baldwin Webb, on his way to Canada to help with the Red Cross. Anthony Quinton, fifteen, was traveling with his mother Letitia, whose mother had asked them to join her in Canada away from the war ("You're no use there," she wrote to them).

Late in the evening of 17 September, City of Benares was sighted by U 48, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Bleichrodt, who fired two torpedoes at her at 10:00 PM. Both torpedoes missed, and at 10:01 PM on 17 September, the U boat fired another torpedo at her. The torpedo struck her in the stern at 10:03 PM, causing her to sink within 31 minutes, 253 miles west southwest of Rockall and 630 miles from the nearest inhabited land. Fifteen minutes after the torpedo hit, the captain ordered the vessel abandoned, though there were difficulties with lowering the lifeboats on each side of the ship (only one lifeboat of twelve aboard were lowered correctly). arrived on the scene 24 hours later, picked up 105 survivors, and landed them at Greenock. Among the survivors were 21 women, seven CORB children (four boys and three girls), and six fare paying passenger children (three boys and three girls). Only one family that included more than three people completely survived (Barbara, Derek, and Sonia Bech — aged 14, 9, and 11 — with their mother, Marguerite). Of the other families or groups of passengers travelling together that contained more than three people, all the Grimmonds died, all three Pugh brothers (travelling with CORB) died, all three Beasley sisters (travelling with CORB), all three Moss sisters (travelling with CORB), all three Croasdailes (travelling privately), Frank Choat died (his wife and children survived), and Pat Bulmer was the only survivor of her group (her mother and school friend both died, likely in the capsizing of Lifeboat 1). During the attack, was also torpedoed. Hurricanes crew was unaware that the lifeboat was from Marina, but it was still searching for lifeboats and rafts. Lifeboat 12 had drifted out of the "search box" organized by a Hurricane crew member named Patrick Fletcher, but night came and Hurricane abandoned its search. It was assumed that Lifeboat 12 had been overcome by the seas. As a result, Lifeboat 12 was left alone at sea. Its passengers had three weeks' supply of food but enough water for only one week. In the lifeboat were about 32 lascar crewmen, Bohdan Nagorski (a paying passenger), five British crew (Fourth Officer Ronald Cooper, Signalman John Mayhew, Steward George Purvis, Gunner Harry Peard, and Cadet Doug Critchley), escorts Mary Cornish and Father Rory O'Sullivan, and six evacuee boys from the CORB programme — Kenneth (Ken) Sparks (aged 13), Harry Frederick (Fred) Steels (aged 11), William (Billy) Short (aged 9), Derek Capel (aged 12), Paul Shearing (aged 11), and Howard Claytor (aged 11). They spent eight days adrift in the Atlantic Ocean, before being sighted by a RAF Short Sunderland, piloted by Australian Bill Garing, and then rescued by convoy escort In the end, of the 90 children, 77 died of exposure on lifeboats, died in the sinking, or were missing presumed lost at sea. 3 children taken aboard Hurricane died (these were Alan Capel, aged 5; Derek Carr, aged 10; and Terrence Holmes, aged 10). One boy had been killed in the explosion. 100 of the 119 children aboard were killed in the attack. The sinking was controversial: the Allied powers criticised the "barbaric" actions of the Germans, and there was an outpouring of sympathy and support for those who had lost children in the sinking. The Germans defended the attack as being on a legitimate military target, and insisted that the British government was to blame for allowing children to travel on such ships in war zones when the German government had issued repeated warnings. They claimed that Baldwin Webb and Olden were travelling to America with the aim of persuading the United States to enter the war, and that City of Benares would be used to transport war materiel back to Britain on her return voyage. The directors of the CORB were hopeful that the programme could be continued, and presented a report into the sinking which made recommendations for future operations, which included the use of faster transports and escorts on the North Atlantic routes, and the concentration of the evacuation programme on routes to Australia, India and South Africa, where the weather was better and there were felt to be fewer enemy submarines. The Admiralty pointed out that there were too few fast escorts and ships available, and public opinion was opposed to the continuation of overseas evacuation, fearing further tragedies. Winston Churchill also opposed the scheme, believing evacuations gave aid and comfort to the enemy. The government announced the cancellation of the CORB programme, and all children who were currently preparing to sail were ordered to disembark and return home. Bleichrodt was tried for war crimes related to the sinking of City of Benares, after the war. He denied any prior knowledge of the presence of children, stating his actions were within the bounds of military policy. However, according to the crew of U 48, Bleichrodt never recovered after hearing that there were children aboard. Reportedly, the next time he went to sea, he had a mental breakdown. Several of the crew of U 48, including the radio operator, later expressed their shock and regret once it became known that the ship they had sunk had been carrying children. City of Benares is the setting of the book Wish Me Luck by James Heneghan, the story of a boy from Liverpool being sent away to safety on City of Benares. The play Lifeboat by Nicola McCartney tells the story of Bess Walder and Beth Cummings, two survivors of City of Benares. Janet Menzies wrote Children of the Doomed Voyage (Wiley, 2005. ISBN 978 0 470 01887 3). The story tells the events and tragedies that night in the survivors own words, plus their rescuers stories. Tom Nagorski wrote Miracles on the Water: The Heroic Survivors of a World War II U Boat Attack (Hyperion Books: New York, 2006. ) collecting eyewitness accounts about the people and events connected with the attack and sinking of the liner SS City of Benares. His grandfather, a Polish émigré and diplomat, was one of the adult survivors. There is a memorial to Michael Rennie, an escort who died of exhaustion after rescuing several evacuee children, in the Church of St Jude on the Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London NW11. A painting by Walter P. Starmer represents the last moments in the life of the vicar's son. An exhibit about the City of Benares disaster is in Sunderland Volunteer Life Brigade Watch House and Museum. The sinking reportedly inspired actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr to develop and patent a system of spread spectrum radio as a means to guide anti ship torpedoes. The concept is today the basis of Wi Fi, Bluetooth, and other communications technology. The book September 17 by Amanda West Lewis (published 2013), tells the story of three children, Bess Walder, Kenneth Sparks, and Sonia Bech, using real events, but fictional conversations. The children's book Lifeboat 12, by Susan Hood (published 2018), tells the story of Kenneth Sparks, one of the children who survived from the "forgotten" Lifeboat 12. The book Torpedoed: The True Story of the World War II Sinking of "The Children's Ship" by Deborah Heiligman (published 2019) tells the story of many children aboard SS City of Benares and their experience of the sinking and the subsequent night and rescue. In 2019 the story of 9 year old Audrey Mansfield, who died on City of Benares, featured on the Antiques Roadshow. Expert Bill Harriman was shown a collection of papers related to her voyage and death.