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 291.
322 319 " 14 - 31/5 Destroyers, minesweepors, paddlers and all manner of craft were arriving, loading and leaving the beaches and Dunkirk continuously, but there were often periods when no ships were at one place 02 another and loading had to wait, Bombing of ships and beaches had so far been spasmodic - the day X had been overcast, visibility was not good and you could not SCO from La Panne to Dunkirk. The sound of fighters out of sight overhead second to account for our freedom from air attack, A report of aircraft dropping mines one mile north of Is Patine was received at 0400 and planes frequently passed close overhead during the dark hours. With the dawn 2. wind from the N.W. sprang up right on the X beaches, and when it was light many boats could be seen capsized or broached to and high and dry on the beach, including one at least of the local boats which carried a lot of men and could get close inshore, It: was not a cheering sight and as the day aged the sky overhead cleared and visibility improved. No watched the sky anxiously for the protection of hase but 16 remained clear all day. At 0730 I made contact at last with "KEITH." "EXPRESS" was by that time fully londed and left for Dover as soon as I had transferred to "KETHI." Hero I found that D. flag had been procured and it was flown on my arrivel on board; up till then I had used a red ensign to indicate which sitty I was in. As had been my intention with "HEBE," "KETTH" did not embark any troops and I moved up and down the coast in her doing what I could to keep ships distributed off the beaches and a flow of ships into Dunkins. A signal made by me at 1035 gives a good picture of the conditions:- 11 To V.A. DOVER. Najority of boats broached to and have no Crows, Conditions on beach are very bad due to freshening on-shore wind. Only small numbers are boing embarked even in daylight. Under present conditions any largo- scale embarkation from beach is quite imprecticable. Motor boats cennot get close in. Consider only hope of embarking any number to at Dunkinis. Will attempt to beach ship to form a Ice to try and improve conditions. From V.A. Dover coure a signal urging the importance of using the boochou 8.15 long AB possible, and to emphasise the situation made a Surther signal