TNA ADM 199 788 A

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4438
Ten minutes more and the first convoy is ready for the
sea - manned, victualled and fuelled - equipped in fact with all
but arms. Only later, when the full peril of their task was
realised and returning troops had filled the depots with sand-
fouled small arms, were weapons available for the crews'
protection. The first convoys sailed gaily into the inferno
of Dunkirk beaches without so much as a pistol between them.
Still the boats arrived and still the officers and men
flowed into the port; "T.124's" now for the most part. Sturdy
fishermen, lightermen and merchant seamen. Now, too, came in
increasing numbers the civilian volunteers who played so fine a
part in the operation.
In the very first flotilla to leave was one black motor
launch, the "Advance", manned entirely by three bearded civilian
yachtsmen. This boat and its crew stayed with the writer in
convoy through the whole of the first journey across, and after
the first murderous machine gun attack from the air three
cheerful bearded grinning faces appeared above the fore cabin
roof and three pairs of hands were clasped and shaken overhead
as a signal that allwas well; only the "Jolly Roger" was
lacking to complete that picture.
These men wore no uniform, were born on no ship's books
but took the graver risks which attend civilians engaged in
military operations as undisturbed as they would take a choppy
sea on a week-end cruise.
The journey across, perhaps, afforded the individual his
best opportunity of assessing the magnitude of the operation
in which he was playing his part. Beautiful yachting weather
(half the small craft could never have made the crossing
otherwise), hardly a chop on the water; thewhole vista bathed
in summer sunshine; and, across the expanse of sea, an endless
stream of laden ships.
From horizon ahead to horizon
astern, spanning the whole scene from coast to coast, unloading
their human freight and hastily returning for more; an endless
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