During WWII, the sailors of the British merchant navy played a vital role keeping the UK fed and armed. They carried essential supplies across the treacherous Atlantic - and many paid with their lives. What's less well known is that many of those sailors were Chinese - volunteers who came to Britain to help the war effort. Joe Phillip's father was one of those seamen, and after the war he returned to Liverpool to rejoin his wife and children. But shortly after returning home, he disappeared without a trace.
The mystery of what happened to him, and hundreds of other Chinese sailors who also vanished, is only now being solved - thanks to newly released Government papers. In this exclusive History Hit investigation we tell the story of those brave men and the families they left behind, and reveal the shocking truth hidden in those files.
Up Next in Investigations
-
The Real Peaky Blinders
19th century Birmingham was famous for its industrial might, but particular parts of it were also renowned for a more infamous reason: its gangs. Dan headed up to Birmingham to meet bestselling author and celebrity local historian Carl Chinn to learn the true history behind Birmingham's most noto...
-
King Arthur's Round Table Revealed
The mystery and legend of King Arthur has fascinated mankind for centuries. Was there really a fifth-century warrior king at war with the Angles and Saxons? Did he have a round table of knights? Where was Camelot? Now, twenty-first century forensic archaeology allows us to suggest new answers to ...
-
The Mystery of the Headless Man
This story has everything: war, politics, betrayal, scandal, murder and at its heart a cracking forensic science mystery. This is the story of Simon Fraser, the 11th Lord Lovat of the Highland, also known as the Fox. In the late 1660s, Simon Fraser was born in a house on the banks of a burn in th...
19 Comments