Forgotten Voices of Dunkirk

Forgotten Voices of Dunkirk

Joshua Levine

Language: English

Pages: 320

ISBN: B003GDFQWU

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


It could have been the biggest military disaster suffered by the British in the Second World War, but against all odds the British Army was successfully evacuated, and 'Dunkirk spirit' became synonymous with the strength of the British people in adversity.

On the same day that Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, Nazi troops invaded Holland, Luxembourg and Belgium. The eight-month period of calm that had existed since the declaration of war was over.

But the defences constructed by the Allies in preparation failed to repel a German army with superior tactics.The British Expeditionary Force soon found themselves in an increasingly chaotic retreat. By the end of May 1940, over 400,000 Allied troops were trapped in and around the port of Dunkirk without shelter or supplies. Hitler's army was just ten miles away.

On 26 May, the British Admiralty launched Operation Dynamo. This famous rescue mission sent every available vessel - from navy destroyers and troopships to pleasure cruisers and fishing boats - over the Channel to Dunkirk. Of the 850 'Little Ships' that sailed to Dunkirk, 235 were sunk by German aircraft or mines, but over this nine day period 338,000 British and French troops were safely evacuated.

Drawing on the wealth of material from the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive, Forgotten Voices of Dunkirk presents in the words of both rescued and rescuers in an intimate and dramatic account of what Winston Churchill described as a 'miracle of deliverance'.

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Hell are you doing?’ – and he said, ‘I’m catching lice.’ We said, ‘You dirty so and so,’ but he said, ‘Don’t call me that! Look in your own shirts!’ and it turned out that all the palliasses the French had given us were full of lice. We couldn’t do anything about it then, and we just went out and had our usual couple of drinks. I went to bed that night knowing we were going to be lousy if we didn’t get sorted out – but then the blitzkrieg started. At four o’clock in the morning, bombs were going.

Bad is it?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, mother.’ I had been in hospital for three or four days, when the sister came and said, ‘There’s someone in the next ward who has ordered that he should see you.’ I asked who it was and she said, ‘Wait and see…’ so they lifted me out, and wheeled me in, and I was greeted with, ‘Hello boy! How are you?’ It was Sergeant Major Gristock! He told me that his legs had been amputated from the hip: he’d been so shot up by the broadside machine gun. I noticed that on his.

Shook hands, and then the flow of refugees went on. After that we strengthened our defences. We dug trenches for the sentries, and we got sandbags to put in the windows from which we could shoot at attacking Germans. In the meantime, the Germans were bombing Arras, and we heard horrifying stories from the Welsh Guards on the main roads about how they had been strafed by German fighter-bombers. The thing was, we never saw the RAF or French Air Force. Lieutenant D’Arcy McCloughin 9 Field.

Load of German prisoners to land, but the feeling was so high, that they decided to land them somewhere else, because the soldiers in the harbour would have murdered them if they’d got their hands on them. Ronald Tomlinson Civilian fisherman – aboard Tankerton Towers and Tom Tit We got back into Ramsgate harbour at about 9.30 on the Saturday morning. We went ashore, and I went through the fish market. As I was walking, a voice says, ‘Ron!’ I said, ‘Hello Mrs Oliver, how are you, pet?’ She.

I swam across. They hauled me aboard and we sat and watched the last of the Lancastria. We also watched the oil gradually coming closer and closer to us – and once again, I felt really frightened. But then a lifeboat came over and took us aboard. Subsequently a French fishing boat pulled alongside and they took us aboard with a lot more of our troops who had been picked up. Corporal Donald Draycott 98 Squadron, RAF We weren’t blaming anyone for the disaster, but I could hear people saying, and.

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