TNA ADM 234 360

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THE NIGHT 2ND-3RD JUNE
CHAP. XI
also stopped off the harbour by entered orders at the 0050 harbour and had only 44 troops when
she devoid of troops and was by Whitshed found Wake-Walker to return to
was sailed at 0250. The Express ordered Rear-Admiral at 0200, found the pier
sailed at 0245 with 82 men collected small craft. Finally, the Malcolm
and Dover lay outside with orders to hail from stop other ships from entering. She
with the Codrington. The and no berth on arrival at 0030
was ordered back at 0248, empty. Thus five destroyer trips were wasted.
Only the minesweepers which berthed at the inner end of the East Pier after
the British rearguard had embarked, managed to collect normal quotas from
the trickle of French troops.
Dunkirk was the headquarters of a French Naval Command and there was
always a considerable number of French marines in evidence. But after the
British naval ratings left at 2300 there was difficulty in getting ships berthed,
as the French did not replace them.
The Albury embarked 200 French troops, the Duchess of Fife 300, the Dundalk
399, the Gossamer 490, the Halcyon 416, the Kellett 350 French and 14 British,
the Marmion 198, the Medway Queen 481, and the Speedwell 300. The Niger
slipped at 0120 with 430 French troops. While turning an unknown French
craft crossed her bows and was rammed, though apparently no damage was
done to her. A few minutes later the Frenchman returned and rammed the
Niger.
Personnel ships did well. The Royal Sovereign sailed at 2205 with 1500
troops, the King George V at 2225 with 1460, the St. Helier at 2330 with 2,000.
The Côte Argent took 955 men, the Newhaven 396 French, the Tynwald 1,200,
the Rouen 1,286; but the Lady of Mann was ordered back for lack of troops
and took only 18 French embarked from a small boat.
Amongst the French ships the torpedo-boat Bouclier embarked 340 men and
the La Flore 410. The patrol vessel Reine des Flots embarked 500 troops
during a violent bombardment" and also reported air attacks (from German
strays returning no doubt), en route to England, for which she sailed from
Dunkirk at 2300 on the 2nd. Seventeen French trawlers and motor fishing
vessels brought off 1,662 troops and a Belgian patrol boat 229.
Summary of troops evacuated, night 2nd-3rd June
To Rear-Admiral Wake-Walker, who had worked out a programme by
which 37,000 men could have been lifted, in addition to those that would get
off in small craft, this had been a most disappointing night's work, owing to
the long pause when the flow of men to the East Pier ceased for some hours
after the British rearguard completed its embarkation, and the difficulty of
getting ships berthed owing to the failure of the French to replace the British
naval parties after these left Dunkirk. Between midnight on 2nd-3rd and
0300 on the 3rd a lifting capacity of about 10,000 men was left empty.
There were disembarked in England on 3rd June 26,700 troops. Of these,
British ships lifted 21,671, French ships 3,216 and Belgian ships 1,812. The
great majority of these, namely 24,830, were embarked in Dunkirk harbour,
principally by ships berthed alongside, though a few were ferried to ships
waiting outside the port. Most of the remainder were taken out of small craft
by ships which were likely to reach England with greater expedition and
certainty many of these found in small craft had no doubt come off from
the beaches.
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