80 years on: Remembering the Arandora Star tragedy
● More than 100 Scots Italians killed when liner was sunk by U-boat
Commemorations have been held in both Scotland and Italy to mark the 80th anniversary of the “atrocious” sinking of the Arandora Star in which 865 people drowned. Among them were more than 100 Scots Italians who had been rounded up as “enemy aliens” after Mussolini declared war on Britain.
They were among those on the ship bound for an internment camp in Canada when it was mistaken for a warship and struck by a German torpedo off the coast of Donegal.
There was barely a family among the Scots Italian community who didn’t lose a father, husband or brother in the tragedy on 2 July, 1940.
Yesterday, Italian president Sergio Mattarella led tributes to those who died with his message shared at a special service at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Glasgow.
A service and day of commemoration was also held in Barga in Tuscany, from where 13 of the victims originally came.
Mr Mattarella described the sinking and loss of life as an “atrocious episode, not always adequately remembere in the tragedy of war, which caused the death by drowning of 865 people”.
He said those Italians being deported had been living in Britain for “some time, but defined as unwanted after Italy entered the war”.
He added: “Eighty years after that very sad event, I wish to commemorate those innocent victims and express feelings of closeness and solidarity to their descendants.”
At St Andrew’s Cathedral, where the Italian Cloister Garden remembers the Scottish victims, the service, which was broadcast online, was led by Canon Gerald Sharkey who said many Scots families had been affected by the tragedy.
In Barga, a memorial plaque to the disaster sits above the Stanze della Memoria to honour the victims.
In the town, which has built strong links with Scotland through decades of migration, the 80th anniversary was marked with a special mass, two conferences on the Arandora Star and the presentation of new research into the tragedy by several Glasgow-based historians.
Historian Raffaello Gonnella, whose own grandfather, Quinto Santini from Paisley, died in the tragedy, told the BBC: “The tragedy of the Arandora Star will never be forgotten by these families and by the new generations of Scottish Italians as we continue to tell the story to many other non-italian Scots.”
He said the disaster could “almost definitely” have been avoided if it had been made clear the ship was carrying internees.
Mr Gonnella added: “The Arandora Star sailed without any markings and was not part of any convoy. At least Red Cross markings should have been painted on the ship and why was such a prestigious ship allowed to make the journey alone?”
Rando Bertoia, a former watchmaker in Glasgow, was the last remaining Scots Italian survivor of the tragedy. He died in October 2013.
In 2010, he recalled how he was woken from his sleep on deck by a thump around 6am and then grabbed by a friend and pulled through a rail onto a lifeboat.
He said: “I can still remember the terrible sight of all the wee heads bobbing up and down, and we saw the ship go under and all was quiet.
“Men were crying for help, although you couldn’t do very much.”