Torpedoed: The True Story of the World War II Sinking of "The Children's Ship"

The sinking of the City of Benares is a story about the human cost of war, including the immense loss of civilian life that was a defining feature of World War II. The 90 children on board the Benares were put there to escape the indiscriminate violence of the Blitz, but the violence found them anyway. The crew of U-48 torpedoed the Benares without knowing whom they were killing, but in this they were no different from the bomber crews on both sides of the conflict who dropped bombs on cities packed with civilians, killing adults and children alike. The sinking of the City of Benares was far from the greatest single loss of civilian life in the war, but the high concentration of children on board made it a powerful symbol for the war’s enormous human cost. 

Heiligman first delves into how World War II affected British citizens in September 1940, when the Germans began bombing London in relentless campaign that would last until May of the following year and become known in the English-language press as “the Blitz,” after the German word blitzkrieg, meaning “lightning war.” Suddenly, the war that had seemed far away became “real for the British people” (3).