TNA ADM 234 360

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OPERATION "DYNAMO" IS COMMENCED
CHAP. III
and blazing lights made them an easy target. On the 26th May the hospital
carriers St. Andrew and St. Julien sailed at 1054 for Dunkirk, but coming under
fire from the guns of Gravelines, they returned to Dover in company with the
P/V Maid of Orleans.
The hospital carriers Isle of Guernsey and Worthing sailed from Dover at
noon and were bombed when off, Calais; nevertheless, that night, flood-lit by
the fires which raged in the docks and town of Dunkirk, they each embarked
about 300 stretcher cases.
Admiralty call for cutters and whalers
All these troops and casualties, it should be noted, were lifted from the quays
of Dunkirk harbour. Evacuation from the beaches did not commence until
24 hours later, and then only in a very small way, using ships' boats. On the
26th May, says Vice-Admiral Ramsay, the only inshore craft available
were
4 Belgian passenger launches and the naval small craft of the Dover Command
such as drifters, and motor boats from the Contraband Control Base at Rams-
gate; the only ones capable of lifting personnel direct from a beach being the
boats from Ramsgate." The Admiralty had been asked for a supply of small
boats, especially whalers and cutters, but there remained the difficulty of
arranging for the personnel to man them¹. This request led at 2028, on 26th
May, to an Admiralty signal to the Home Ports asking how many cutters and
whalers could be made available for immediate service under Vice-Admiral,
Dover.²
Sea and air patrols
Meanwhile, at 1937, C. in C. Nore had been requested to use all available
forces to cover Operation Dynamo that night.
In conformity with these directions Allied fighters maintained continuous
patrols, from 1700 to 2130, on the line Calais-Dunkirk.3.
Germans occupy Calais
That very night, however, the gallant defence of Calais came to an end.
The yacht Gulzar had gone there with water and stretchers, to bring back
wounded. She secured alongside the Gare Maritime and sent a party on shore
to investigate. The town was found to be in German hands, and the Gulzar
made a hasty departure under fire. On the way out, however, in response to
a hail, she stopped, and brought off 3 officers and 48 men from the end of the
breakwater.⁴
I D.R. p. 1, para. 2.
2 Appendix G. 1.
3 R.A.F. Narrative, p. 315.
4 R.O. II, p. 513.
B
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