Dunkirk

[Hugh Spencer]

This week, as we remember the brave exploits of the army, navy and little boats in the evacuation of Dunkirk, that 956 sorties were flown by Bomber Command between 28th May and 3rd June 1940 attacking enemy positions around Dunkirk. 57 aircraft were lost which meant that around 160 aircrew went down.

[kevmusic]

Thanks for the timely reminder, Hugh. An overlooked fact, I should say; I, for one, did not know it.

[DC10RealMan]

Bomber Command had tremendous casualities during the Battle of Britain attacking the invasion fleet and other targets in the occupied countries.

[Brian Abraham]

Were you a participant Hugh, or had you yet to sprout your wings? Respect Sir, I remember some of your posts.




Edit: He was indeed in bomber command. You can search elsewhere on this forum to see what Hugh has done.

PPP

[Lightning Mate]

Hugh old chap,

I feel strongly that this part of our history should be a compulsory part of our education system.

I showed some of my university students pictures from WW2, including the iconic evacuation ones. Not one knew what it was about.

Disgraceful!

[Hugh Spencer]

Hi Brian,
I didn't reach 18 until November '42 when I volunteered for aircrew, enlisting in April '43. By the time I had finished my training as a wireless operator, joining a crew and starting on Lancasters, it was February '45 with 61 Sqdn at Skellingthorpe.

[eagleskinner]

My (step)father was down at the dirty end then and although he never spoke much about it, he did once praise the efforts of the guys in the air. But other than saying "it wasn't easy"...

My respects too.

[ICT_SLB]

My father was also one extracted from Dunkirk - he said that what saved a lot of them was the soft sand caused any bombs to go down deep & just explode straight up instead of the usual horizontal blast damage. He returned to France on D Day + 1 landing with Guards Armoured Division in a REME Churchill Mk VIII AVRE.

If memory serves, one of the National Trust properties (Arlington House?) in North Devon has models of all of the Dunkirk armada.

[603DX]

My father in law, who was a Guernseyman volunteer in the 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, endured several days in the dunes at Dunkirk. He felt that he owed his life to the soft dune sand's muffling effects on bomb blasts, and was very fortunate to survive to be one of the 338,000 troops rescued by the little ships.

I have good reasons to be grateful for his salvation from capture or worse, because he was then able to serve on in the British Army, and to be reunited with his wife, who had been evacuated from Guernsey just before the Germans occupied the Channel Islands. The result of their happy reunion was my dear wife, born in 1942 in Eastbourne, and in later years our three bonny children, and more recently our seven splendid grandchildren.

On a family holiday in the 1970's, my wife and I felt drawn to those blessed beaches, and spent a quiet and thoughtful day with our young children in the Braye-Dunes region adjacent to Dunkirk. We sent a postcard to 'Grandad' back home in Guernsey, depicting the golden dunes which held such significance for us all ....

[oldpax]

My stepdad was in the Northumberland fusiliers and was in the rearguard at Dunkirk and was taken to England at a french port further south,after some leave and regrouping he was sent to North Africa and was captured near Tobruk.With other POWS they were sent by boat to Italy and up to Germany ,he spent three years in various POW camps finally ended up just inside Poland.Flew back to the UK in a "Bomber"which he did not like!!

[Hugh Spencer]

Hi oldpax,
IWe flew to Brussels in 1945 to bring home ex-pows in our Lancaster, 20 at a time. I know they weren't very comfortable but the flight didn't take very long. It was a way to get the pows back to the UK quickly.

[om15]

Recommended reading is "Dunkirk, The Men They Left Behind" by Sean Longden, published by Constable IBSN 978-1-84529-520-2,
This book describes the conditions in which the POWs existed until the final days of the war, used as slave labour in mines and factories, starved and living in primitive conditions, and in many cases unable to resume life as before following release.
The plight of the 40,000 odd soldiers that didn't make it home from Dunkirk, lost or captured and held for 5 years has never recieved much publicity, but this book does treat the subject in depth.
BR om15

[RampTramp]

Very slight thread drift but relevant I feel.

My father was at Calais at the same time and did not talk about it much. The tale I did get from him was that they knew that either Calais or Dunkirk would be relieved but not both. He was the signaller on duty when Churchill announced 'The eyes of the world are on the defence of Calais' at which point they knew there would be no relief. Before being captured he received a field commission during the last days as so many of the officers had been killed.

Just to finish off the story, he and 2 others managed to escape while being escorted back from the front, stole a small boat & were picked up mid channel by the Royal Navy.

To me he was a hero but then so were many others who remained either in Calais or unsung in later years.

RT

[Double Zero]

It's perhaps worth pointing out that most, but by no means all, of the 'little ships' were used to get the men from the shallow waters of the beach to the offlying ships.

Also, again most but not all, were given up by their owners and in R.N. hands for the trip/s.

There were exceptions, such as the couple of lads who stole a handy motor boat and did a lot ( I don't have the figure ) of round trips, saving hundreds.

They thought they were in for it when it was over, instead they received a hero's welcome - quite right !

There was the other side; a snotty motor boat owner instructed his boat yard that on no account was his boat to be involved, " as it would cause wear on his engine "... The boatyard obviously had the same opinion of him as I do now, so whipped out his precious engine, put another one in ( not a 5 minute job with boats ) and sent her to join the ' little ships'.

As for that owner, I think we all know what we'd like to do to him...