Admiralty reports on naval operations off the Dutch, Belgian and French coasts during 1940.
Source: The National Archives, Kew, ADM 199/795. 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 371.
173 H.T. "ROYAL SOVEREIGN". in reply to your communication of June 5th asking for a narrative of events in connection with the evacuation of Dunkirk, I have pleasure in replying as follows:- May 26th. whilst laying in Southampton roads received orders to get ready to proceed at two hours notice. May 27th at 1320 received orders to proceed to Dover and at 1500 hove up and proceeded on passage. 2340 passed through Folkestone gateway. May 28th 0020 received visual signals from Dover to anchor in Downs. 1150 saw first raid carried out on shipping but raider successfully driven off. 1740 received orders to sail at 2030 for Dunkirk, using prescribed route. May 29th 0250 arrived off East Jetty Dunkirk and anchored, whole west side of town in flames. 0445 have up and proceeded to Eastern Jetty. 0455 in berth and commenced embarking troops. 0535 ship filled with troops, each man having been given a lafebelt I and received instruction on same. 0540 Clear of harbour. 0858 reported floating mine to patrol vessel. 0925 stopped by examination vessel and ordered to Margate Pier. 10.10 anchored off Pier. 1215 arrived alongside of Pier. 1330 left Margate Pier. 1735 arrived off La Panne and witnessed a heavy dive bombing attack carried out with heavy losses to shipping. 1800, have up anchored and proceeded to assist m.v. 2 "Bullfinch" laden wi th troops and ashore. 1815 "Bullfinch" afloat is and proceeded. 1820 commenced embarking troops from beaches. May 30th 0410, have up and proceeded lower down beach. 0430 embarking more troops. 0530 vesselfull, and proceeded to Margate. 1025, arrived off Margate. 1135 alongaide of Margate Pier disembarking troops. 1300 left Margate. 1735 anchored off Dunkirk on naval instructions. 1820 anchored and commenced 3 embarking troops. May 31st. 0130 have up and proceeded. 0315 stopped at Dyke buoy to pick up four survivors of a French steamer which had been bombed. 0710 arrived alongside Margate Pier. 0830 anchored off Pier. 1805, have up and proceeded towards Dunkirk.