Description
Object description
British evacuee survivor of sinking of SS City of Benares in Atlantic, 9/1940
Content description
REEL 1 Background in London, GB, 1931-1939: family; family's second home at Aldwick Bay Estate, Bognor Regis; education; connections with father's Danish family. Aspects of period as schoolchild in Bognor Regis in GB, 1939-1940: move to second home, 9/1939; impact of war on Bognor Regis area; visiting crash sites during Battle of Britain, summer 1940; parent's decision to evacuate to Canada; attitude towards leaving GB; preparations for journey; impact of war on father's business in London; nature of Bognor Regis as restricted area; staying in Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool. Recollections of period as evacuee aboard SS City of Benares in Atlantic, 12/7/1940-17/7/1940: initial impressions of ship on embarkation at Liverpool, 12/7/1940; accommodation; setting sail in Convoy OB 213, 13/7/1940; lifeboat drill and precautions taken against U-boat attack; degree of awareness of government sponsored evacuees on board.
REEL 2 Continues: accommodation for private and government sponsored evacuees on board. Recollections of sinking of SS City of Benares and rescue in Atlantic, 9/1940: hearing thud of torpedo fired by submarine U-48; preparations for abandoning ship; atmosphere at muster station; receiving warning that ship was sinking; discovery that Lifeboat 4 was already in water; sister Barbara's decent into Lifeboat 4; attempt to descend into lifeboat with Lascar seaman and return to deck; being helped into raft by Eric Davis; description of life raft; rough conditions in sea; saving of sister Sonia's life by ship's engineer; conditions on life raft; fate of evacuees in the water; witnessing sinking of ship; being picked up by lifeboat from sunken SS Marina; conditions aboard lifeboat; rescue by HMS Hurricane; treatment received aboard HMS Hurricane; picking up survivors.
REEL 3 Continues: mother's fears for sister Barbara; reunion with sister Barbara; retrieval of family valuables; fate of other ships in Convoy OB 213; mother's reaction to being offered another trans-Atlantic passage on arrival in Glasgow; aid from Red Cross and press coverage of sinking; father's learning of sinking; memories of fellow Colin Ryder Richardson. Reflections on sinking of SS City of Benares, 9/1940: long term effects of sinking; psychological effect of sinking on survivor Johnny Baker; post-war reunions of survivors; memorial to sinking at Church of Annunciation in South Kenton; post-war meeting with Rolf Hilse former radio operator aboard submarine U-48 which sank SS City of Benares; physical effects of sinking on mother; attempt to meet Fifth Engineer McLachlan.
REEL 4 Continues: post-war meeting with Mr Lewis of SS Marina, 1957. Aspects of period as schoolchild in Bognor Regis, GB, 1940-1945: return to Bognor Regis; contact with Canadian and American servicemen; assembly of Mulberry Harbours in Aldwick Bay, 1944; billeting of Danish doctor in family home.