TNA ADM 234 360

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TUESDAY, 28TH MAY
CHAP. V
Boy Roy and Paxton damaged and beached
At 1215 German fighters in strength were encountered by our fighter patrols;
during the rest of the day there was no further air fighting¹, but the mine-
sweeper Sandown was bombed off the Gull Light buoy at 1230, and Bray beach
was bombed at 1420². In an air raid off Dunkirk channel at about 1800, the
prifters Boy Roy and Paxton were damaged by near misses and had to be
beached; there were, however, no casualties.
Difficulty of synchronising arrival of ships with flow of troops
Meanwhile, at 0935, 2,000 troops were on Malo beach and 7,000 more were
on the sand dunes, waiting anxiously for ships to come³. An hour after mid-
day, 6,000 troops were reported to be on Bray beach, 7 miles east of Dunkirk
pier, and 4 minesweepers were sailed from the Downs to embark them. When
they arrived at 2130, however, conditions had changed, and three of them,
the Salamander, Fitzroy and Skipjack, went to La Panne ; the fourth, the
Sutton, went to the beach at Zuydcoote 4 miles east of Dunkirk4. Throughout
the whole operation it was never found possible to adjust the arrival of ships,
either at Dunkirk or opposite the beaches, to synchronise with the ebb and
flow of troop concentrations.
Shortage of drinking water.
At this time the troops were sorely in need of drinking water; joint naval⁵
and military measures were taken to provide it in tanks and cans, and ships
off the beaches were directed to do what they could from their own resources.
There was, however, inevitably some delay before all requirements could be
met, and as late as the 30th May no water or food had yet reached Malo beach⁶.
Brighton Belle sunk
Meanwhile, at 1230, the Brighton Belle, returning to Ramsgate with the 350
troops she had picked up from the beach at Zuydcoote, struck a submerged
wreck off the Gull Light buoy during an air attack and sank. All the crew
and troops were transferred to the Sandown, Medway Queen, and Yser. Pay-
master Sub.-Lieut. W. J. Butler, R.N.V.R., of the Sandown was killed and
2 ratings were wounded.
Shortage of boats
At 1420, when Bray beach was bombed, S.N.O., Dunkirk, ordered some of
the troops there to march to Dunkirk in spite of the congestion in the port.
By 1830, however, there were still several thousand troops at Bray and more
were arriving. At this time the Grafton reported that she was off Bray beach
I R.A.F. Narrative, P. 323.
2 Report by S.N.O. Dunkirk, (R.O. III p. 346).
3 Appendix N.2.
4 It is not always possible to record precisely the beaches off which ships were lying.
The 10-miles stretch of beach had arbitrarily been divided up into 3 sections, Malo, Bray
and La Panne. In the confusion of the times, and particularly in the darkness of the
night, it is not surprising that ships in company sometimes gave different names to the
particular section of beach off which they were lying.
5 The Maid of Orleans had landed 6,000 two-gallon cans of water at Dunkirk on the
26th May. The motor boat Glitter II went over with water for the beaches on the 29th
May and the lighter Seine took 5,000 cans of it ; the Friso and the Mona's Queen also
went over on the 29th with water, but the latter was mined and sunk before she could
unload it.
' Appendix P.1.
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