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 486.
310 295 but the port screw became entangled with about two fathoms of 21/2 inch sisal. I went over the side and cleared it. When I came inboard I found that one of my crew had causght some shrapnel in his calf. I being and bandaged the wounds, One BY LIC... when poported the whaler returning, and just after sig. sing it a shell burst either on it or very near it. We all agreed that the whaler had been hit. I searched around for wreckage or survivors, but found none. I could see that the beach was deserted of troops, but I steamed parallel to the beach for 8 mile with the other whaler in tow, but finding no signs of any men I returned to "Hilda", and reported the loss of the whaler. She was ther. under orders to leave. I decided to go into the harbour then, and see whether I could get any troops from there. I managed to get about 25 French or Belgian troops aboard, and then proceeded back. It seemed as if the Germans had got the range of the beach extremely well at this stage, as they seemed to be planting them where they liked in definite patterns. As I was returning two German fighters chased us and started machine gunning us. I speeded up to full speed and zig-zagged, returning their fire with my Lewis Gun and rifles. After ten ninutes they sheered off, registering no hits, and I don't think we hit either of them. 4th Trip. Left Remagate at 2100 Monday 3rd June with the necessitated a reduction of speed, and I arrived at Dunkirk French Naval Attache aboard. Fog came down which pick advice. up the N. Goodwin Light fog signal, and eventually hit too I met with fog again coming back but managed to late to do anything, 80 I returned on the attache's the coast at Deal at 0800 Tuesday 4th June. Commodore Sheerness told me, when I returned, to that the whaler's The crew which I believed lost managed return safely. (Sgd.) D.L. Satterford. Sub.Lieutenant, R.N. 22