Evacuation From Brest, St Nazaire and La Pallice
The evacuation from the more westerly ports was commanded by Admiral Sir Martin Eric Nasmith, the Commander-in-Chief of the Western Approaches Command based in Devonport. The evacuation from Brest was undertaken by a large flotilla of ships including the troopships Arandora Star, Otranto, and Strathaird. 28,145 British and 4,439 Allied personnel, mostly RAF groundcrew, were taken off on 16 and 17 June without any major interference by the Luftwaffe and were landed at Plymouth. Waiting at St Nazaire were a large number of British Army support and logistic units, RAF personnel, Belgian, Czech and Polish troops as well as British civilians. The flotilla sent included the large troopships Georgic, Duchess of York, Franconia, RMS Lancastria and Oronsay. The Franconia was damaged by bombs en route and returned to Plymouth. Most of the larger ships had to anchor in Quiberon Bay because of the difficulty of navigating the narrow channel up the Loire estuary to St Nazaire. During 17 June, troops were ferried out from St Nazaire to the large troopships via destroyers and coasters. The troopships were under orders to embark as many personnel as possible and soon became very crowded. At 2 pm there was an air raid by German bombers and the Oronsay was hit by a bomb on the bridge. In a second raid at 3:45, the Lancastria was hit by four bombs, which penetrated the hold packed with troops and ruptured the fuel oil tanks. Within 20 minutes the ship heeled over and sank; although 2,447 of those on board were saved, there was a death toll of around 4,000 souls (estimates vary from under 3,000 to 5,800), the largest loss of life in British maritime history. The last British troops left on the morning of 18 June in two convoys of small merchant ships and headed for Plymouth. Due to faulty intelligence which suggested that the Germans were closer than they actually were, much valuable equipment was left behind. A final mission arrived at St Nazaire on 19 June to evacuate 8,000 Polish troops who had been reported to have arrived at the port; in the event, there were only 2,000. Further south at La Pallice (the commercial harbour of La Rochelle), the senior British naval officer found that no ships had been sent for the British and Polish troops waiting at the port. He therefore requisitioned a number of French merchant ships and left on 18 June. Thereafter, two flotillas of British ships arrived to pick up late arriving Poles; in all, 10,000 British and more than 4,000 Polish personnel were rescued from La Pallice.
Read more about this topic: Operation Ariel