DAILY TELEGRAPH.

I20,000 TROOPS TAKEN FROM DUNKIRK BEACHES

 

What has been under a veil of secrecy for the last week, can now be disclosed.

Over the last few days, an undisclosed number of civilian vessels placed themselves at risk to bring back home battle weary troops from France

Thursday May 30th 1940

The epic of Dunkirk had begun. 

     The number of officers and men of the B.E.F. arriving back from Flanders increased every hour. Last night they were still coming home in thousands, grimy, unshaven and tired, but certainly not beaten. 

     All the soldiers were in complete agreement about the terrific German casualties. They were agreed, too, whenever British troops had met the Germans in hand-to-hand conflict the individual superiority of our men was never in doubt.

     Among the troops who reached England last night were some who had been fighting a desperate rearguard action in the morning.

     "I estimate that the German losses were at least six or seven times as great as ours," said one NCO.  "Round Louvain the German dead in places were five feet deep. They advanced in masses and were mown down.

     Another NCO spoke of the casual way in which German troops - many of them mere youths - walked towards the British positions when the rearguard action was being fought without troubling to take any cover.

     A North Country platoon sergeant said that in the country districts the Nazi 'planes made a point of dropping incendiary bombs on the farm-houses, burning the people inside if they could not escape quickly enough.

     "One of our men", he said, "did a very brave act.  The  Nazi 'planes had come over and German tanks were advancing. He rushed back through the fire from the tanks to a burning farm-house to rescue a mother and her small daughter, and got both of them safely away." 

     Their own medical officer and their padre had been captured or killed. 

     All the men spoke of the harassing bombing attacks to which they were constantly subjected. "We didn't mind  the fighting," one remarked, "but the bombing was hell. 

     The Nazi 'planes came over in great formations and often went round in circles. Sometimes they even advanced in Swastika formations." 

     To help on their way to the French coast some 100 British soldiers cut off from the main body of troops when the B.E.F. withdrawal began, the few lorries available were used in a pick-a-back system. Their adventures were described by a Sherwood Foresters' lieutenant who, with other officers and men of the B.E.F., passed through Nottingham last night. 

      "The lorries carried the men some miles along the road," he explained, "and then several times went back for others. By this pick-a-back system fair progress to the coast was made.

      "We saw no German sky raiders because a heavy, dark cloud settled over our heads not 500 feet above, and soon it was raining hard. The roads were crowded with refugees making their way to the port. We had no food and had  seen no bread for nearly a week, but we managed to scrounge something to eat. At one town about ten of our party got  lost, but I think they got cycles and followed. 

      "We embarked without air raids, again thanks to the bad weather, the port earlier having been bombed in a mass air attack." 

      The officer said the troops were warmly welcomed immediately they touched English soil. One stranger thrust two loaves of bread into his hand. Chocolate was distributed,  and the party entering 'buses were driven to a camp where a hot meal awaited them. 

      Possibly nothing has done more to maintain the morale of the B.E.F. than the tactics of the German tank crews. 

      "We have seen them pounding on, regardless of all obstacles, material or human," said a young officer, "and not swerving for women, children or wounded any more than for a blade of grass." 

      Most of them had seen refugees mown down by low flying Nazi 'planes. One said that, not content with machine-gunning columns of fleeing Belgians, the Germans had tried to create panic by dropping incendiary bombs. 

      One officer said: "The brutality of the Hun in this war is amazing. He has been more like a wild animal in some of his actions. There has been very bitter fighting indeed, but I can tell you that the Germans have got all they asked for.

      Our men have been wonderful. In bayonet fighting they have been ferocious, for the disgust they have for the swinish conduct of the enemy is undoubted." 

      Another man said: "I helped to catch two parachutists. They were miserable specimens, wearing civilian clothes, and they begged for mercy. There was such a curious look in their eyes that I am convinced they were doped." 

      In one carriage was a party of A.T.S. girls who had been evacuated from a French Channel port. 

      " We got away through a terrific hail of bombs and shells," said one of the party. " The German 'planes were attacking in waves of sixty at a time." 

      Describing the scene on the beaches near a port in Northern France, an officer in the R.A.M.C. said the sands above high water were pitted with shallow holes. These, he added, were not the result of aerial bombardment, but had been thrown up by the troops themselves as a flimsy protection against machine-gunning by enemy planes.

      Some of the men in the grey dawn were standing in the sea up to their waists, in the hope that they would be seen as the small boats crept inshore out of the mists to take them off.

      One of these men, describing the embarkation, said: "We had to wait for some hours on the beach before our own turn came, and then we had to wade out up to our necks to the boat taking us aboard. Bombs were dropping all round us, but the Navy carried on as if it were all in the day's work."

      All through the night officers and men of the B.E.F. poured into a town on the South Coast.

      From one ship several hundred men of all ranks and representing many units crowded down the gangways on to the quay. Their feet were blistered by days of marching. Their eyes smarted from lack of sleep. But smartly they formed ranks and marched briskly away to their train, singing: " Roll out the barrel ". 

      The crowds gathered along the promenade went almost delirious with enthusiasm. 

Friday June 1st 1940

      The  evacuation  continued  day  and  night, while  the Germans made furious attacks on Dunkirk.

      A  small  band  of junior  officers in  a secret  control room, known as the "dynamo room", at  a naval  base on  the south-east coast of England, helped to direct the evacuation. 

      Their  work  was   described  on   June  9th   by  Vice Admiral Bertram   Ramsay,   who   commanded   the   naval   forces  from Dover which went to the relief of Dunkirk: 

      "We started evacuation of the B.E.F. on Sunday, May 26th," he said. "We set aside a room here with about seven telephones and fifteen or sixteen fellows working in it. Most operations are given a name nowadays, and this whole operation was known as a ' dynamo operation '. If anything could have been better named, I should like to know it. 

       "The room which was the hub of operations was called the 'dynamo room'. 

       "After a couple of days it became clear that this was a bigger show than anybody had imagined. The numbers we were going to get off were going to be bigger than had been thought possible. It was not only an evacuation of the B.E.F., but of the French Northern Army as well. 

        "The enemy decided, however, that we should not be allowed to evacuate these armies, and sent over hordes of  bombers -- literally hundreds. They made Dunkirk docks a shambles. The whole place was on fire, and the heat was so great that no troops could come down to the docks. 

        "We had got to make alternative arrangements, or else we could not get any men off. The only part of Dunkirk Harbour where a ship could go alongside was a narrow pier or breakwater of wooden piles. Eventually there came something like 250,000 men off this pier -- a place never intended in the wildest imagination for a ship to go alongside.

          "The use of this pier was the inspiration of our fellows at Dunkirk. Captain Tennant, who was in charge of operations at Dunkirk, and his band of men, guided the men to the ships.

          "There were no gangways, and narrow mess tables were put across the planks from the pier to the ships. You can say that about 200,000 soldiers walked the plank to safety -- mostly in the dark, and most of them so tired that they could hardly drag their legs. 

           "We asked the Admiralty to raise every single craft possible within twenty-four hours. The response was astonishing. 

           " I do not quite know how the Admiralty got such a move on, but hordes of these little vessels arrived. They were manned by civilians mostly, and a certain number by naval ratings.

           "They arrived without charts, without fuel and without food. That set us a big problem. All these craft had to be supplied and given instructions what to do. In the end they all went over to the beaches of Dunkirk, where their crews acted mostly on their own initiative.

           "We got an inquiry from the Port of London Authority yesterday about thirty four lifeboats and 881 ships' lifeboats. They said they had got six back, and wanted to know where were the rest. If they get back another dozen they will be lucky. The beach over there must be absolutely strewn with wrecked boats.

           "Our peak day was 66,000 men taken off, but that was only gained at the expense of casualties to our craft.

           "The Germans mounted heavy batteries commanding the direct route passing near Calais. We had to take a new route, which meant a round journey of 175 miles, as against 76 miles.

           "Then the Germans brought up batteries commanding this route, and we had to find a third which had never been used before. This ran across sand banks and had to be buoyed and swept before we could use it."

Sunday, June 2nd.

          Thousands more troops of the B.E.F. and the French Army, with a sprinkling of Belgians from the army corps which is reported still to be fighting in Flanders, arrived in South-East England.

          Among them were men of the Grenadier and Coldstream Guards, who had seen some very heavy fighting shoulder to shoulder. A company stood in line in the square of a Flanders town when a German mechanized column entered, and without deploying drove them out again by concentrated rifle and machine gun fire. By the time German reinforcements had arrived the Guards had covered the orderly withdrawal of all the Allied forces in the area.

          " I thought the Guards were just spit-and-polish men," said a gunner. "Now I know they are the best Fighters in the world."

          Later, the Guards joined Highland troops in fierce bayonet charges to clear the defence line on the Flanders hills.

          A large number of French troops, in boisterous spirits, landed with the Guards. Trains carried the troops off to the interior of England through an avenue of Union Jacks and Tricolours, cheering civilians, and placards inscribed: "Brave, B.E.F.", "Thumbs up ", "Thank you ", "Well done, boys ", and other slogans.

          At every carriage window a grinning Tommy, Jock or Poilu took the bow, and their wake was a litter of ice cream cartons, beer bottles, cigarette packets and playing cards.

          On the other side large numbers were still lining the miles of Dunkirk beaches, waiting their turn to cross.

Enemy bombers attacked them and the ships taking them off. In a stupid attempt to weaken the morale of the troops, the German 'planes used a special whistling device in their bombs at Dunkirk.

          There were many remarkable escapes. There was the Guardsman who, after swimming naked from the shore, appeared in sailor's uniform, having been rehabilitated in a destroyer. There was the young naval rating, at sea for the first time, who was three times blown up and three times picked up unconscious, and this morning a little shaken, undoubtedly was taking tea in a railway refreshment room.

          There was the man who swam for two and a half hours before he could get into a boat. There was the brigadier who became an expert at pushing barges off the shore; the officer who, cut off by a German advance, shot a German motor-cyclist, seized his machine and reached Dunkirk on enemy fuel.

          Dunkirk was still in our hands.

          Yesterday seventy eight German bombers and fighters were destroyed or severely damaged over Dunkirk. The R.A.F., from bases in England, covered the whole evacuation, fighting heroically against tremendous odds.

 Monday, June 4th.

          The evacuation was completed and Dunkirk was abandoned, the last to leave being the French Commander, Admiral Abrial.

          A Newcastle veteran of the last war, who had seen a good deal of the work done in South-Eastern England in bringing the B.E.F. back from Flanders, said: "It made me proud to be English.

          "Everybody wanted to take part, not only boatmen, but women and lads wearing school caps, who brought their own motor-boats and fetched as many soldiers as they could.

          "Another boy, who was as black as a chimney sweep, did not look more than fifteen or sixteen, but he had been across three times in one day.

          "His mother wanted to take his place. 'Let me go this time,' she said. She was not allowed to go, but the lad willingly returned again.

          "The women who wanted to take part were so insistent they had to be driven away."

          Mr. Ronald Cross, Minister of Shipping, broadcasting later on the part of the merchant navy in the Dunkirk evacuation, said that they would never have a complete list of all the vessels.

          Ports from the Humber to Southampton were scoured for craft of all descriptions, of which about 1,000 took part in the evacuation.

         "Never was there a more fantastic Armada," he said. "Never a weirder collection of vessels set sail-- pleasure steamers, cross Channel steamers, coasting tramps, trawlers, drifters, motor-boats and launches, motor and sailing barges. Every tug from the River Thames was taken. At our request the Royal National Lifeboat Institution sent twenty lifeboats from ports between Lowestoft and Poole.

        "Father and son would take their light craft across from some South Coast port without a word to anybody and bring it back full of troops. A Deal boatman took his motor-boat with several rowing boats in tow and brought them back full of troops.

        "Twenty merchant craft met a glorious and self sacrificing end.

        "Looking at a map, the trip might seem short enough, but to avoid minefields our ships had to make a round trip of up to 160 miles. The men on the ships worked until they dropped, without sleep and often without proper meals.

        "To provide relief for these gallant men a pool of seamen was arranged by the Shipping Federation at Dover, and an appeal was made for volunteer deck and engine room officers. The appeal brought a magnificent answer.

        "There was one factory at Ramsgate on which we called for volunteers, and the appeal was: 'You are going into hell. You will be bombed and machine gunned. Will you fetch back the lads?'

        "There was no hesitation. Tools were thrown down and the engineers went down to ships they had never seen before, and in twenty minutes they had sailed for the bomb ridden waters of Dunkirk."

         Mr. Churchill, in a great speech in the House of Commons, reviewed events in France and the Low Countries since the blitzkrieg began.

         He described the heroic defence of Calais by 4,000 British and French troops, maintained through four days of intense street fighting against overwhelming odds, to gain time for the Grovelling waterlines to be hooded and manned.

        "Thus it was", said Mr. Churchill, "that the port of Dunkirk was kept open . . ."When, a week ago, I asked the House to fix this afternoon as the occasion for a statement, I feared it would be my hard lot to announce the greatest military disaster in our long history. I thought and some good judges agreed with me that perhaps 20,000 or 30,000 men might be re-embarked. But it certainly seemed that the whole of the French First Army and the whole of the British Expeditionary Force north of the Amiens-Abbeville gap would be broken up in the open field, or else would have to capitulate for lack of food and ammunition. These were the hard and heavy tidings for which I called upon the House and the nation to prepare themselves a week ago The whole root and core and brain of the British Army, on which and around which we were to build, and are to build, the great British

armies in the later years of the war, seemed about to perish upon the field or to be led into an ignominious and starving captivity.

         "The enemy attacked on all sides with great strength and fierceness, and their main power, the power of their far more numerous air force, was thrown into the battle, or else concentrated upon Dunkirk and the beaches. . . . For four or five days an intense struggle reigned. All their armoured divisions or what was left of them together with great masses of German infantry and artillery, hurled themselves in vain upon the ever narrowing, ever- contracting appendix within which the British and French Armies fought.

         "Meanwhile, the Royal Navy, with the willing help of countless merchant seamen, strained every nerve to embark the British and Allied troops. Two hundred and twenty light warships and 650 other vessels were engaged. They had to operate upon the difficult coast, often in adverse weather, under an almost ceaseless hail of bombs, and an increasing concentration of artillery fire.

         "The numbers they have brought back are the measure of this devotion and their courage. The hospital ships, which brought off many thousands of British and French wounded, being so plainly marked, were a special target for Nazi bombs; but the men and women on board them never faltered in their duty.

         "Meanwhile, the Royal Air Force engaged the main strength of the German Air Force, and inflicted upon them losses of at least four to one; and the Navy, using nearly 1,000 ships of all kinds, carried over 335,000 men, French and British, out of the jaws of death and shame, to their native land and to the tasks which lie immediately ahead. We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuation. But there was a victory inside this deliverance, which should be noted. It was gained by the Air Force.

         "All of our types the Hurricane, the Spitfire, and the new Defiant and all our pilots have been vindicated as

superior to what they have at present to face.

         "There never had been, I suppose, in all the world, in all the history of war, such an opportunity for youth. . . These young airmen, going forth every morn to guard their native land and all that we stand for, holding in their hands these instruments of colossal and shattering power, deserve our gratitude, as do all of the brave men who, in so many ways and on so many occasions, are ready, and continue ready, to give life and all for their native land."

The text is taken from the London Daily Telegraph of May 30th, June 1st, June 2nd and June 4th.

The Battle of Britain - 1940 website © Alan L.Putland 1999