TNA ADM 199 790

Collection details

TNA ADM 199 790

Admiralty records concerning Operation Dynamo and the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk, dating from 1940.

Holding archive: TNA
Collection reference: ADM 199 790

View the archive catalogue entry ↗

Source: The National Archives, Kew, ADM 199/790. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

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Page	Image	OCR text	OCR tags
1118	Log in to enlarge	three miles to the Eastward of Dunyirk and there were thousands 621 of men on the shore shouting and after consulting with a Destroyer the Captain of the tug ordered me up on a short tow rope (despite 585 6 my warning them my stem might be knooked in); instructed "LADY ROSEBERRY" to start up his engine; piok up the "DORIS" and get ashore ready to pick up the troops. Whilst they were doing this, I was getting my engine going and within a very few minutes by the time the "LADY ROSEBERRY" and "DORIS" had navigated up round the head of the tug and I had slacked astern of the boat, there was a tremendous explosion and the tug had apparently been blown up by a mine. It was only half light at the time and I immediately lowered my small boat to look for any survivors. I picked up one Stoker who subsequently proved to have a broken leg and whilst we were pulling him into the boat, another man who proved to be the Mate, climbed over the dinghy side. Just at this moment I saw another small boat pproaching and hailed them, to find that they were the crews of the two barges which had sunk in the explosion. They had scrambled aboard their boat before their barges sunk. Everything happened so quickly that it is difficult to remember everything but my barge seemed to be lifted bodily out of the water by the explosion and I was relieved when I found she was still afloat although making water badly. By this time my barge was the only remaining vessel of the flotilla and I had the injured man aboard and there appeared to be no other survivors.	Boat Dinghy Doris Barge Crews Few Head Light Miles

Raw OCR

Unformatted machine-generated OCR for document page 1118.

three miles to the Eastward of Dunyirk and there were thousands
621
of men on the shore shouting and after consulting with a Destroyer
the Captain of the tug ordered me up on a short tow rope (despite
585
6
my warning them my stem might be knooked in); instructed
"LADY ROSEBERRY" to start up his engine; piok up the "DORIS"
and get ashore ready to pick up the troops.
Whilst they were doing this, I was getting my engine going and
within a very few minutes by the time the "LADY ROSEBERRY" and
"DORIS" had navigated up round the head of the tug and I had
slacked astern of the boat, there was a tremendous explosion
and the tug had apparently been blown up by a mine. It was
only half light at the time and I immediately lowered my small
boat to look for any survivors.
I picked up one Stoker who subsequently proved to have a broken
leg and whilst we were pulling him into the boat, another man who
proved to be the Mate, climbed over the dinghy side. Just at this
moment I saw another small boat pproaching and hailed them, to find
that they were the crews of the two barges which had sunk in the
explosion. They had scrambled aboard their boat before their
barges sunk. Everything happened so quickly that it is difficult
to remember everything but my barge seemed to be lifted bodily
out of the water by the explosion and I was relieved when I found
she was still afloat although making water badly.
By this time my barge was the only remaining vessel of the
flotilla and I had the injured man aboard and there appeared to be
no other survivors.