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.
| Page | Image | OCR text | OCR tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| 715 |
|
2?? |
Unformatted machine-generated OCR for document page 715.
2?? OPERATION SHIP:- MOTOR BOAT - TENDER TO SKOOT "HILDA". STATEMENT BY $ Crew Service & A.B. M.J.Stallard Detailed for small motor boats and went on board PJX 154107. the HILDA, a Dutch Skoot: taken round to Dgal 31/5 1100ca 19 years of age.and took two ships lifeboats and six motor boats A Sub.Lieut. R.N.V.R. inntow. Stallard was transferred into & small Motor Boat and towed across to La Panne. Passing An Q.S. Dunkerque were mixed up with an de raid. Then 1600 The old man from Deal he arrived at La Panne there was heavy firing mentioned in a Sunday and shells were dropping in the sea all around, paper. firing at the destroyers. They were told to go inshore, when it was found that the propeller was foul with rope. They were towed inshore by another motor boat and were able to clear the propeller. Picked up a pontoon full of soldiers and returned to HILDA with them. Pontoon was so badly damaged that it had to be left. Found a naval cutter. Took outter in tow. Tyansforred from motor boat to cutter to help soldiers into boat. Went into beach and a passing destroyer beached them. By then motor boat and cutter were full of soldiers. Breakers soon had motor boat and cutter swamped and outter full of water. Stallard had to tell the soldiers and push and pull them out of the boat, as their equipment was caught up. Ordered them to push the boat off, doing his best with an oar, After they got the cutter off, all the soldiers got back in and Stallard told them to get the cars. There were only 4 oars. The Officer and 0.3. abandoned the motor boat and came aboard the outter. The old man stayed in his motor boat. The cutter was 1815 ca rowed by Stallard and aix soldiers out to HILDA. He stayed in the outter. This was after 6.0 Dalla and shelling was going on. One shell landed 2200 200 yards ahead of them inshore and wiped out a group of 6 soldiers waiting. By about 10.0 Dalla one part of the beach had been cleared by Stallard's party. They then moved to a jetty made of Army lorries. Took a boatload of soldiers to "MOSQUITO". They were told by an afficer in MOSQUITO that on the next trip they would get a bottle of bear each. This was the first drink Saturday morning they had since leaving Deal. Could hardly see the sky for aeroplanes. One Spitfire attacked 37 German aeroplanes, brough down one and came down himself into the sea. Started bombing 0800ce: 12/gune immediately. Hit Keith; Captain Pin than ordered boat to pick up survivors. After picking these up: SKIPJACK was hit. Went down in two seconds. 0849ca: Went over to pick up SKIRJACK'S survivors. There were some soldiers but very few of crew. Returned to HILDA. Ordered to take up tow astern. HILDA was full of survivors in bad state, one died. HILDA tried to get away from the heavy bombing. Tried to get clear. One salvo of bombs fall each side of motor boat. Finally /14000 escaped about