Admiralty records concerning Operation Dynamo and the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk, covering 1940–1941.
Source: The National Archives, Kew, ADM 199/792. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
1 matching pages. OCR may contain transcription errors.
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Unformatted machine-generated OCR for document page 280.
312 309 had hoped to get over to Dunkirk in daylight but the Various dolays in collecting men and BO on mode this impossible and it was dark whon we got near. From a long way off the flamos from burning oil tanks at Dunkirk lighting up the sky, and a black pall of smoko above It, could be seen. A3 we got nearor we could also see a ship on fire off shore, and this eventually proved to be the "CLAN MACALLISTER" at anchor off Erayo. She continued to burn up till the end and there were accesional pops of small arm ammunition. She Was deserted but played a very useful part as a distraction for the Germans who sholled and bombed her continuously instead of the ships nearby who were embarking non. Often an I passed her later on I thought of getting her towed away but there was no ship to spare from the more important work of saving mon, and I expect she is still there. you. 30 Another deserted Merchant ship off the entrance to Dunkirk played a similar useful role and was the target for many bombing attacks. We approached the Dunkirk beaches from the South and stopping off each we sent the beach parties ashore in the Destroyer's boats. All this took time and it was not till 0400 that we found the "HEBE" 0400 (commanded by my old shipmate, Lieutonamt-Commender John Temple) off Braye and tronsferred to her. At the same time the two Commodores were put into drifters. It was difficult to see in the daik what the situation was, except that there were many ships, drifters and boats off the beaches, end they were joined by the two destroyers. It was flat calm, In the "HEHE" I found Captain Bush and heard more of the situation, and he spoke of the ghastly sight of the shore Week with mon standing in the water up to their waists. He had had to watch the terribly slow progress of embarkation which I had not then seen, but I as.d not feel that J. could accept the note of despair which I Becomed to detect in his voice. In the "HEBE" we moved eastward to La Panne and there down Sound us and gave us some idea of the task ahead. The coast here is a long stretch of Band dunes rining fairly steoply in places from a gently sholving beach which drice for 200 yards 03' more