CHILDREN

OF THE BENARES

-        a war crime and its victims

-         by Ralph Barker

-         Foreword by Beth Williams (née Cummings) – the only Liverpool Survivor

‘..... it is hard not to feel a sense of indignation when reading this book.’  - The Times

'A betrayal of parents trust…one of the most ghastly and scandalous errors of the war' 

 - Liverpool Daily Post

'… the Benares incident caused a mental wound to the nation that has never properly healed.’ 

- This England

The Ellerman and City passenger liner City of Benares left Liverpool on Friday 13^th September 1940 carrying a precious cargo – 90 children from the bombed cities of Britain bound for safe haven away from the war - to Canada.

Four days later, without warning, she was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat in mid - Atlantic. 256 people were lost including, at first count, 83 of the evacuee children.

An event that shocked the world in its brutality, much use of the atrocity was made by the British authorities in an attempt to persuade the United States into joining the conflict.

However it was not long before the parents of the lost children, who had entrusted their loved ones to the evacuation scheme, began to suspect those same authorities of neglect, when they learned that the promised naval escort for the convoy had abandoned the unarmed ships twenty-one hours before the U-boat struck!

There were allegations of crew rushing the lifeboats, poor equipment and even racial prejudice in the ensuing clamour for an explanation. Yet somehow a formal investigation was avoided and the scandal covered up.

The Children of the Benares is a gripping story of the disaster itself and exposes at last what went on behind the scenes at the Ministry of Shipping and the British Admiralty.

It is a chilling tale of fallibility and human survival. 

ISBN  1  902964  07  1

The book is priced at £15.50 inc. p&p in UK
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