TNA ADM 199 795

Collection details

TNA ADM 199 795

Admiralty reports on naval operations off the Dutch, Belgian and French coasts during 1940.

Holding archive: TNA
Collection reference: ADM 199 795

View the archive catalogue entry ↗

Source: The National Archives, Kew, ADM 199/795. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Showing only pages tagged with the vessel name Swift. Tags are exact matches from this collection’s OCR tag index. Clear vessel filter ×

Showing only document page 443. Show all matching pages ×

1 matching pages. OCR may contain transcription errors.

List page 1 of 1 Showing document pages 443–443 of this collection

A note about image and OCR quality

Every reasonable effort has been made to present these document images as flat, straight and accurately cropped as possible. Historical records can be difficult to photograph or scan because of tight bindings, deep gutters, page curvature, folds, creases, fragile paper, uneven edges, shadows, glare, skewed pages, fading, stains, tears, attachments and restrictions on how a document may be handled. These conditions can distort parts of an image and consequently affect the OCR transcription.

Considerable post-production work has been undertaken to crop, align, flatten and enhance the images where practicable, but the results represent our best effort rather than exact facsimiles. Text showing through from the reverse of a page, printed backgrounds, stamps, ruled lines, marks and text visible from neighbouring pages may confuse or spoil OCR output. Handwriting is not reliably recognised and, in most places, may be missing, incomplete or incorrectly transcribed. Always check the page image and, where accuracy matters, consult the original record held by the identified archive.

OCR is not a transcription. It is machine-generated text used to create research tags and help locate names and references within the source images; it should not be read as a verified narrative.

Page	Image	OCR text	OCR tags
443	Log in to enlarge	273 251 From:- Sub. Lt. James W. Pratt, R.N.V.R. Date:- 4th June, 1940. To:- Naval Officer in Charge, Ramsgate. M/B Singapore 2nd June. 2000 Left Ramsgate with convoy, making good only 5 knots on account of choppy sea. 3rd June. 0200 Off beaches east of Dunkirk. 0300 Swift current; went aground on sands. French naval officer from small motor launch attempted to help, but coult not re-float us. Decided to remain in cabin and wait for tide. Heavy shelling taking place all the time. Took two French captains aboard. 0730 Threw out a small anchor aft. 0800 Re-floated on incoming tide. Rescued two English soldiers from water. Decided to head for home. 0830 Engine stopped. Taken in tow by motor boat commanded by Sub. Lt. Williams. b.c. 1100 Saw heavy bombing "over our portbow". Still in tow; making good about 5 - 6 knots. 1200 Sighted floating mine. Attempted to explode it by Lewis gun fire from Sub. Lt. Williams' "Kit- Cat" and our own rifles - scored 12 hits but mine would notexplode. 1300 Hailed by R.A.P. motor craft who gave us our course to Dover. 1900 Arrived Ramagate with two British soldiers, two French captains and one French Lieutenant.	Boat Singapore Swift Dover English Head Lewis Pratt Swift Williams

Raw OCR

Unformatted machine-generated OCR for document page 443.

273
251
From:- Sub. Lt. James W. Pratt, R.N.V.R.
Date:- 4th June, 1940.
To:- Naval Officer in Charge, Ramsgate.
M/B Singapore
2nd June.
2000
Left Ramsgate with convoy, making good only 5
knots on account of choppy sea.
3rd June.
0200
Off beaches east of Dunkirk.
0300
Swift current; went aground on sands. French
naval officer from small motor launch attempted
to help, but coult not re-float us. Decided
to remain in cabin and wait for tide. Heavy
shelling taking place all the time. Took two
French captains aboard.
0730
Threw out a small anchor aft.
0800
Re-floated on incoming tide. Rescued two English
soldiers from water. Decided to head for home.
0830
Engine stopped. Taken in tow by motor boat
commanded by Sub. Lt. Williams.
b.c.
1100
Saw heavy bombing "over our portbow". Still in
tow; making good about 5 - 6 knots.
1200
Sighted floating mine. Attempted to explode it
by Lewis gun fire from Sub. Lt. Williams' "Kit-
Cat" and our own rifles - scored 12 hits but mine
would notexplode.
1300
Hailed by R.A.P. motor craft who gave us our course
to Dover.
1900
Arrived Ramagate with two British soldiers, two
French captains and one French Lieutenant.