It’s an unexpectedly harrowing start to my interview with Dalbeattie’s Eric McCowan in his bungalow overlooking the grey granite town.
He holds in his hand a copy of a book on the sinking of the Lancastria, an ocean-going liner requisitioned by the British Government in June, 1941, to help evacuate soldiers and civilians from the coast of Brittany.
It details the biggest single maritime disaster of the entire war, the horrible loss of life and a chilling counterpoint to the miraculous evacuation of more than 300,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk two weeks before.
