Er cof am blant o Gymru a gollwyd pan suddwyd llong y City of Benares, 18 Medi 1940

Disgrifiad

Cynhyrchwyd y daflen gyhoeddusrwydd yma er mwyn hyrwyddo'r ychwanegiad i fflyd City and Hall Line Ellerman ym 1936. Mae'r daflen yn dangos tu mewn y gofodau cyhoeddus, megis y llefydd bwyta, lolfa, a chabanau unigol.

Suddwyd y City of Benares yn ystod yr Ail Ryfel Byd, ac mae'r llun o ystafell y plant a ddangosir yma gyda thedis, Arch Noa bren, set bicnic doliau a theganau eraill yn y cefndir yn gwneud tristwch y golled hyd yn oed yn fwy.

Yr hanes:
The City of Benares was built on the Clyde for the Ellerman City and Hall Line in 1936. The ship was put into service carry out regular sailings between Liverpool, Bombay and Karachi. The ship was designed to carry 220 passengers in a single class of accommodation (i.e. no first, second, third or steerage class). The majority of the ship's crew were drawn the Indian ports.

The ship's last voyage was undertaken during a period in World War II when the Battle of Britain was being fought in the skies and the threat of invasion by German troops being gathered in France was at its highest. The City of Benares was chosen to carry 90 children from Britain to Canada as part of an evacuation programme overseen by the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB). It was hoped that the children would be able to return when circumstances at home improved. Over 211,000 children were registered for evacuation largely to Canada, Australia and the United States, and they were to be accompanied by volunteer escorts, including doctors and nurses.

The City of Benares left Liverpool on 13 September 1940, bound for Quebec and Montreal, with 90 evacuee children onboard along with their escorts. Late in the evening of 17 September, the ship was sighted in the Atlantic by U-48, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Bleichrodt. The U-Boat fired three torpedoes and the last struck the vessel's stern and caused the City of Benares to sink.

HMS Hurricane arrived on the scene 24 hours later, and picked up 105 survivors who were subsequently landed at Greenock. But one of the City of Benares lifeboats was overlooked and these 46 survivors (including 6 boys) were not picked up until 8 days later by HMS Anthony.

Seventy-seven of the children onboard the City of Benares were drowned or died from exposure in the lifeboats.

These children included three sisters Aileen Sybil Moss (age 12), Marion Audrey Moss (age 10) and Rita Ann Moss (age 8); brother and sister Anita Mary Rees (age 14) and William Eric Rees (age 12); and John Pemberton (age 10) - all from Newport.

The torpedoing of two ships carrying CORB evacuee children within two weeks of each other caused a public outcry. Nearly all of the passengers and crew on board the SS Volendam, which included 320 children bound for Halifax and New York, had been rescued alive. However, the passengers and crew of the City of Benares were not so fortunate and 248 of the 406 onboard were lost.

In the subsequent inquiry, the Admiralty came under public criticism for allowing the City of Benares to be the leading vessel of the convoy, for the naval escorts being detached and for the convoy not taking evasive manoeuvres. The Allied powers condemned the 'barbaric' actions of the Germans and the Germans responded by saying that the passenger ship had been a legitimate military target and would have been used to transport war material back to Britain. Fearing further young lives might be lost in similar circumstances, the government cancelled the CORB programme.

• https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/e946538d-e849-36cf-b076-183f21511c42 (link opens in new window)