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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CONFIDENTIAL. |
Unformatted machine-generated OCR for document page 522.
CONFIDENTIAL. Page 11. Operation "DYNAMO" - Narrative of Events. Wednesday, 29th May(continued). 36. Rear Admiral Wake-Walker proceeded from Dover in ESK at about 1900 for passage to HEBE off the coast where he was to carry out the duties of S.N.O., Dunkirk in charge of all embarkation arrangements, taking over from Captain Bush who had been working in HEBE under the orders of S.N.O., Dunkirk. He expected to arrive at Dunkirk at 2330. 37. As a result of the heavy casualties and losses amongst the destroyer force, particularly the misfortunes which befell those of the larger and more modern types, a consultation was held between the Admiralty and the Vice Admiral which led to a decision to withdraw destroyers of the 'H', 'I' and 'J' classes from DYNAMO. All destroyers of the 'G' class were already out of action. There remained available for DYNAMO 15 destroyers:- ESK MALCOLM VERITY EXPRESS WHITEHALL VANQUISHER ANTHONY WINCHELSEA SABRE KEITH WORCESTER SCIMITAR CODRINGTON WINDSOR SHIKARI Excluding any casualties, this number of destroyers might be expected to maintain a flow of one destroyer per hour to the coast and would lift 17,000 troops in 24 hours. 38. The day closed with a formidable list of ships lost or damaged, a marked reduction in the number of destroyers available and with failure to achieve the high rate of evacuation hoped for. Some 38,000 were landed in England during the 24 hours, but the effect of the day's occurrences was to be more marked next day when instead of some 50,000 to 60,000 which had been calculated as the probable achievement only 48,000 odd were in fact transported. 39. Casualties to H.M. Ships - 29th May. Destroyer WAKEFUL torpedoed and sunk by M.T.B. off Kwinte Whistle buoy. Destroyer GRAFTON torpedoed and sunk by M.T.B. off Kwinte Whistle buoy. Special Service Vessel CRESTED EAGLE, whilst off the beaches at Dunkirk, was bombed and set on fire. Ship was beached and gutted. Personnel Vessel NORMANIA attacked by enemy aircraft and sunk. Personnel Vessel LORINIA attacked off Dunkirk by enemy aircraft and sunk. Personnel