On the sixtieth anniversary of a Second World War naval disaster - hushed up at the time for fear of its effect on morale - a York man has told how he survived the wreck.

It is believed that more people lost their lives on the Lancastria than on the Titanic and the Lusitania put together.

The troop ship, which was being used for a hurriedly-ordered evacuation shortly after Dunkirk, sank in 20 minutes on June 17, 1940, after it took several direct air hits.

Some claim that as many as 9,000 people were on the ship when it sank after leaving St Nazaire in Brittany. Only 2,447 survived and the disaster was hushed up by Churchill's Government.

One of the survivors was Stanley Abbott, now 80, from Acomb.

He told how thousands crowded on boad the Lancastria. "It was horrendous. We'd just got on board and we'd had no food. Some of them were in the forward well deck and that is where the bomb went. I went scrounging for food so I was lucky because I was out of the way.

"The order was every man for himself. I got in the water and one of my mates who wouldn't swim was with me.

"But he had filled his kit bags with cigarettes earlier and they were covered with cellophane.

"There were no lifebelts, there weren't enough, but fortunately for him the kit bag was like a life belt and kept him afloat.

"There was oil on the water and we were being machine-gunned. I was in the water for about four and a half hours and I got picked up by a French trawler.

"I was taken by to St Nazaire. They were pushing bodies out of the way in the water - I just can't explain it."

"This has been kept so quiet," he said. "There were men on there that couldn't swim and we've got to acknowledge their bravery."