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.

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List page 1 of 1 Showing document pages 639–639 of this collection

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Page	Image	OCR text	OCR tags
639	Log in to enlarge	445 French Staff, but I could not find any so I filled up with Poilus and a few Tommies. The furthest end of the inner harbour was already in German hands but their shooting was extremely wild and we got away unscathed." He finishes up his letter with this characteristic remark - - "That is all I did at Dunkirk (1). I went over five times in all! For brevity and preciseness in describing real achievement in the face of danger, the following from Lieut. C.W. Read, R.N.R. is characteristic:- "Made 7 complete return trips to Dunkirk Beaches; average number soldiers carried 60 - approx. 420 soldiers. Made 10 trips from Mole at Dunkirk to transports lying off, under shrapnel = 600 soldiers. Rescued Chief Steward and 39 soldiers from water ex S/S Scotia and bombed whilst doing SO. On last return journey was caught in parachute flares, bombed and then machine-gunned, but escaped without damage owing to speed and quickness on helm of "Bonnie Heather". Service finished at 5.0 D.M. on 4th June. Estimated number of soldiers handled in launch:- Dunkirk Beaches to Ramsgate 420/450 Dunkirk Mole to Transports lying off 600/650 Rescued from S/S Scotia 40. With compasses of doubtful accuracy and no other navigating instrument but a lead pencil, the difficulties of navigation once a boat lost contact with the main convoy were imense. Some of the small craft had not even 8 compass; yet all who left the other side in safety managed to reach the English coast to re-fuel and set off again to repeat the advanture. One officer even tells how, after wandering all through the night with a compass he could not trust, he put into Calais! Only after twenty minutes heavy shelling did he escape with his craft intact. The narrowness of such escapes could be repeated again and again. The writer himself, whilst leading at column of six small white painted yachts was subjected to dive machinegunning from three successive flights of three enemy aircraft. With no arms whatever with which to offer resistance, the column was almost a sitting target and the airplanes could approach till they almost touched the cabin roofs. Yet, - 5 -	Boat Scotia TSS Scotia English Few Last Read Steward White

Raw OCR

Unformatted machine-generated OCR for document page 639.

445
French Staff, but I could not find any so I filled up
with Poilus and a few Tommies. The furthest end of
the inner harbour was already in German hands but their
shooting was extremely wild and we got away unscathed."
He finishes up his letter with this characteristic remark - -
"That is all I did at Dunkirk (1). I went over five times
in all!
For brevity and preciseness in describing real achievement
in the face of danger, the following from Lieut. C.W. Read,
R.N.R. is characteristic:-
"Made 7 complete return trips to Dunkirk Beaches; average
number soldiers carried 60 - approx. 420 soldiers. Made
10 trips from Mole at Dunkirk to transports lying off,
under shrapnel = 600 soldiers.
Rescued Chief Steward and 39 soldiers from water ex S/S
Scotia and bombed whilst doing SO.
On last return journey was caught in parachute flares,
bombed and then machine-gunned, but escaped without
damage owing to speed and quickness on helm of "Bonnie
Heather". Service finished at 5.0 D.M. on 4th June.
Estimated number of soldiers handled in launch:-
Dunkirk Beaches to Ramsgate
420/450
Dunkirk Mole to Transports lying off
600/650
Rescued from S/S Scotia
40.
With compasses of doubtful accuracy and no other navigating
instrument but a lead pencil, the difficulties of navigation
once a boat lost contact with the main convoy were imense.
Some of the small craft had not even 8 compass; yet all who
left the other side in safety managed to reach the English
coast to re-fuel and set off again to repeat the advanture.
One officer even tells how, after wandering all through
the night with a compass he could not trust, he put into
Calais! Only after twenty minutes heavy shelling did he
escape with his craft intact.
The narrowness of such escapes could be repeated again
and again. The writer himself, whilst leading at column of six
small white painted yachts was subjected to dive machine-
gunning from three successive flights of three enemy aircraft.
With no arms whatever with which to offer resistance, the
column was almost a sitting target and the airplanes could
approach till they almost touched the cabin roofs. Yet,
- 5 -