Benares tragedy: 'All I can remember were the screams and cries for help'

From the Guardian

"There will be a poignant wartime anniversary tomorrow, but amid all the services commemorating the Battle of Britain and the Blitz this one has crept under the radar. On 17 September 1940, a passenger ship called the City of Benares was sunk by a German U-boat while crossing the Atlantic. It was carrying 406 passengers and crew, of whom 100 were children being evacuated to Canada and the US, most of them as part of a government scheme organised by the Children's Overseas Reception Board (Corb). Only 19 of the children survived. When the U-boat crew got back to their base in France and discovered that the Benares's cargo had been children, they wept."