Admiralty records concerning Operation Dynamo and the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk, dating from 1940.
Source: The National Archives, Kew, ADM 199/790. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
1 matching pages. OCR may contain transcription errors.
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- 46 The ships anchored off Bray at 0500/30 where troops were waiting on the beaches. They were embarked with the assistance of boats from the shore and at 1000/30 the ship was full with approximately 350 troops. Between 0900 and 1000 shells fired from the direction ^ of Nieuport were falling in the vicinity of the ship. As "Zeus" was also ready to proceed, the ships weighed and proceeded at 1000. From 1015 for 45 minutes the ship was shelled from the direction of Nieuport. Avoiding action was taken and no direct hits were received. The firing was very accurate in view of the poor visibility prevailing. The ships arrived at Ramsgate at 2000/30 and troops were disembarked. The ship was then ordered to anchor in the roads. In the afternoon of 31st May orders were received to proceed to Dunkirk but to arrive before midnight as this was understood to be the final evacuation. The ship weighed and proceeded at 1500. About 2000 the ship was bombed but I there were no direct hits and no damage was caused. The Dunkirk western channel was entered at 2230. A ship, full of troops., was hailed to establish where the embarkation was being carried out. Information was received that the troops had been obtained from the eastern pier of the harbour. This was reached at 2230 but after waiting for 30 minutes no troops could be found. There was considerable air activity and gun fire at the time. At midnight the ship proceeded out of the harbour and eastward inshore along the beaches. No troops however could be found and at 0130, in view of the warning before sailing, the ship returned to Ramsgate, which was reached at 0900. 2