TNA ADM 199 792

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CONFIDENTIAL.
Page 35,
Operation "DYNAMO" - Narrative of Events,
Inshore Flotillasand Naval Shore Parties (continued)
boats which had been cast away by the soldiers on
disembarkation.
106. By the night of the 30th/31st a considerable
number of collapsible boats and pontoons had been received
from the Royal Engineers of the B.E.F. These were of great
assistance and paddled off about 10 men in each trip, but
again, in spite of all efforts, in the vast majority of cases,
the soldiers left these craft when they arrived at the
offshore ship.
107. Much of the most meritorious work of lifting off
the beaches was done by the offshore warships' own boats, who
were tireless in their efforts. All small pulling boats and
small power boats were lowered and were lent from ship to
ship when their own parent ship left the coast to unload at
a United Kingdom port. In addition, H.M. ships seized
drifting and abandoned boats as opportunity offered and
manned them up with boat keepers. Owing to the physical
exhaustion of these boats' crews after hours of work, relief
crews of stokers were frequently provided from amongst the
many volunteers that came forth.
108. A typical example of dogged work by a ship's boat
was afforded by the action of JAVELIN's and JAGUAR's boats
off Bray beach in the afternoon of 28/5. When their two
motor cutters and two whalers first grounded offshore they
were rushed and swamped by soldiers. Order being restored
the boats had to be baled out and the wet engines restarted,
following which 700 troops were embarked by these few boats
in a short time during continuous bombing attacks.
109. Of the power boats available by far the most
useful and suitable were the A.L.Cs., M.L.Cs. and the small
type of R.N.L.I. life-boat. The high speed service motor
boats such as DOLPHIN's and EXCELLENT's boats and the R.A.F.
Seaplane tenders proved unsuitable for work in shallow
waters on a lee shore owing to the vulnerability of their
propellers and rudders and their poor manoeuvring powers at
low speeds.
110. Of the civilian manned craft one of the best
performances was that of the London Fire Brigade fire float
MASSEY SHAW. All the volunteer crew were members of the
London Fire Brigade or Auxiliary Fire Service and succeeded
in doing 4 round trips to the beaches in their well-found
craft. In contrast to this performance and that also of
the R.N.L.I. crews of the Ramsgate and Margate life-boats,
who took their boats over to Dunkirk, no volunteers, except
for the coxswain and engineer of the Dover life-boat, were
forthcoming from the R.N.L.I. crews of the other life-boats,
which were accordingly manned by R.N. crews. Also it must
be noted that civilian craft of such flotillas as the Rye
fishing fleet did not relish the idea of carrying out ferry-
ing work off the Flanders coast. Fishing boats and pleasure
boats from as far along the south coast as Brixham and
Dartmouth arrived at various times up to p.m. 30/5, but again
the civilian crews were not prepared to proceed to Dunkirk.
Accordingly, the most suitable of such boats as could be
manned by the Naval personnel available were taken up, but
the remainder took no part in the operations.
111./