Marching, Marching, Then Sleeping As My Friends Were Blown Up.

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This is my father's personal account of how he was part of the mass evacuation of soldiers from France during WW2 in 1940. "After so many days of solid marching my boots had disintegrating so much that they could only be described as spats - they only covered my ankles and insteps. Everybody else was in much the same state, but with the enemy hot on our heels we had to keep going. As we neared the coast we received intelligence that our destination (Dunkirk) had been overrun, and it was no good trying there. We marched and marched and eventually found the port of St. Malo, and we went in hoping to find a boat, but there were a few planes about, (none of ours of course) so we marched out again. So we marched back again and we managed to get into Dunkirk under cover of darkness. It had taken us 10 days to get there. We were lucky enough to get to the dock and managed to get straight on to a ferry-type ship 'The Princess Marie Jose', and we sailed in the company of the now famous assortment of 'little ships'. Once on the ship's deck I collapsed exhausted, and was so inured to the noise and chaos that I didn't wake when the ship next to us was blown up and sank. She was called 'The Lancastrian', and some of my friends were on board. I didn't know anything about it until later. If I'd got on that ship instead of the 'Marie Jose' I'd have been a goner too." ____________ Brief explanation from Jabo - Dunkirk is the French coastal town from whence thousands of British troops were rescued in 1940. As there were not nearly enough troopships to cope, the call went out in England for any sea-worthy vessels to help in the rescue of the huge number of our boys stranded on the beaches. The response was amazing, and a veritable flotilla of all kinds of craft set off to rescue the troops, - fishing boats, pleasure boats, motorboats,- anything that could make the 22 mile trip across the English Channel. Dad said that the noise was horrendous, with the enemy bombarding the ships with shells, and dive-bombers attacking from every quarter, all against the backdrop of Dunkirk in flames. In all, about 340,000 men were rescued over a period of 9 days, but there were about 40,000 that didn't make it, either to be killed or captured. About 800 seacraft took part in the rescue, many of them making multiple trips. They were very brave men manning them, and they earned the gratitude of the whole country. ----------------------------------- If you'd like to read any of the other three excerpts from Dad's memoirs that I've posted on here, please click on the tag 'My Father's Memoirs' above my title.