TNA ADM 199 792

Collection details

TNA ADM 199 792

Admiralty records concerning Operation Dynamo and the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk, covering 1940–1941.

Holding archive: TNA
Collection reference: ADM 199 792

View the archive catalogue entry ↗

Source: The National Archives, Kew, ADM 199/792. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

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Page	Image	OCR text	OCR tags
290	Log in to enlarge	321 318 ⑉ 13 as 30/5 no pants. Luckily it was fairly warm even at night, though at times I did feel rather lightly clad about the legs. It was about 2230 when I got aboard the "WORCESTER" which was slowly 31/5 filling up with troops and I remained there till 0100. By that time she was full up and I sent her back to Dover and transferred to the "EXPRES." Earlier in the day I had asked for a ship with two lines of W/T communication and had been told that "KETTH" was detailed and was due at 2000. She did not appear and I remainod for the rest of the night in "EXPRESS" which gradually filled with troops. by this time I had been off the beaches for 24 hours and they had seemed very full ones. I don't know when I ate or slept though I have a recollection of lying down in the "HEBE" for an hour, and of trying to sloop sitting down on the bridge of the "EXPRESS" loaning against some instruments with very sharp corners. The picture as I saw it then was briefly this: There were tens of thousands of men on or near the beaches and in and around Dunkirk - no-one X seemed able to say how many. The rearguard were to be withhlrawn at midnight the next night, i,e., 24 hours ahoad, they were the best troops and must be got off. Dunkirk itself was the only place where rapid embarkation could take place and D. large proportion of the troops were coming down to Is Panno and Braye, 10 and 5 miles away from Dunkirk, At the beaches the only boats available except for pontoons and a very few local boats were ships' boats which went away with their ships 02' were r crewless if left. In many cases they had to pull in DD ships' motor boats were often out of action, and towage was badly needed. Embarkation depended entirely on fair weather - an onshore wind of any force would have stopped embarkation completely. I had stressed the vital necessity for more shallow drought boats and crews and knew that steps were being taken at home to do all that WSD possible. During the day French destroyers had been coming in by the Northorn passage and channel and had been fired at from the shore. They went into Dunkirk and loaded at the West quay. Otherwise no French ships sceemed to be there.	Hebe Bridge Crews Day Don Dover Few Miles West

Raw OCR

Unformatted machine-generated OCR for document page 290.

321
318
⑉ 13 as
30/5
no pants. Luckily it was fairly warm even at night, though at times I
did feel rather lightly clad about the legs.
It was about 2230 when I got aboard the "WORCESTER" which was slowly
31/5
filling up with troops and I remained there till 0100. By that time she was
full up and I sent her back to Dover and transferred to the "EXPRES."
Earlier in the day I had asked for a ship with two lines of W/T communication
and had been told that "KETTH" was detailed and was due at 2000. She did not
appear and I remainod for the
rest of the night in "EXPRESS" which
gradually filled with troops.
by this time I had been off the beaches for 24 hours and they had seemed
very full ones. I don't know when I ate or slept though I have a recollection
of lying down in the "HEBE" for an hour, and of trying to sloop sitting down
on the bridge of the "EXPRESS" loaning against some instruments with very
sharp corners.
The picture as I saw it then was briefly this: There were tens of
thousands of men on or near the beaches and in and around Dunkirk - no-one
X
seemed able to say how many. The rearguard were to be withhlrawn at midnight
the next night, i,e., 24 hours ahoad, they were the best troops and must be
got off. Dunkirk itself was the only place where rapid embarkation could
take place and D. large proportion of the troops were coming down to Is Panno
and Braye, 10 and 5 miles away from Dunkirk,
At the beaches the only boats available except for pontoons and a very
few local boats were ships' boats which went away with their ships 02' were
r
crewless if left. In many cases they had to pull in DD ships' motor boats were
often out of action, and towage was badly needed. Embarkation depended
entirely on fair weather - an onshore wind of any force would have stopped
embarkation completely.
I had stressed the vital necessity for more shallow drought boats and
crews and knew that steps were being taken at home to do all that WSD possible.
During the day French destroyers had been coming in by the Northorn
passage and channel and had been fired at from the shore. They went into
Dunkirk and loaded at the West quay. Otherwise no French ships sceemed to be
there.