TNA ADM 334 83

Collection details

TNA ADM 334 83

Little Ships Club correspondence and personal accounts relating to the Dunkirk evacuation, covering 1940–1941.

Holding archive: TNA
Collection reference: ADM 334 83

View the archive catalogue entry ↗

Source: The National Archives, Kew, ADM 334/83. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

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Page	Image	OCR text	OCR tags
22	Log in to enlarge	6 most. Hungry, tired & constantly under fire, they had a cheery confidence and the ratings an endless flow of repartee which I shall never forget.. Though probably at that time slightly more than half the final number had left, there was always the possibility that the weather or something else would prevent the task being completed. Off the harbour there were two British destroyers visible, one of which a was our old friend Vivacious. I signalled him that I wished to transfer troops and to my intense annoyance he replied that he had all he could take. Fortunately Whitehall, the other destroyer, was empty and Lord Grey & 6lythness went alongside each side & in an amazingly short time had transferred 900 troops to her. I confess my previous doubts about the minesweeping had grown to such an extent that I was really at a loss to know exactly how to begin. One point which troubled me a lot was the destruction of the ship & gear if by any chance we grounded, as I felt certain one of us would. The mines - if they existed at all - were in very shallow water and the tide was now ebbing. It was just when my doubts were darkest that Clythness signalled that her dynamo had packed up & she was therefore not degaussed and could not sweep. What a relief! The fact that she was hovering about with no protection against magnetic mones caused me, I must admit, no anxiety at all. I signalled the shore station that she was out of action & asked for instructions. In due course both ships were ordered to return alongside the quay. The signal was passed to Clythness and the two ships headed again for the harbour. As we went in a bomber released a stick of bombs at Clythness just as she was in the harbour mouth. Out of 5 bombs she was straddled by numbers three & four and had they been any closer they would have done her no good, and if she had been hit it would successfully have bothled up the ships in the harbour at a most awkward moment. However she wasn't so we did not worry. We went as far along the quay as we could & 8/10 1156 186 6/4	Vivacious

Raw OCR

Unformatted machine-generated OCR for document page 22.

6
most. Hungry, tired & constantly under fire, they had a cheery confidence
and the ratings an endless flow of repartee which I shall never forget..
Though probably at that time slightly more than half the final number
had left, there was always the possibility that the weather or something
else would prevent the task being completed.
Off the harbour there were two British destroyers visible, one of which a
was our old friend Vivacious. I signalled him that I wished to transfer
troops and to my intense annoyance he replied that he had all he could
take. Fortunately Whitehall, the other destroyer, was empty and Lord
Grey & 6lythness went alongside each side & in an amazingly short time
had transferred 900 troops to her.
I confess my previous doubts about the minesweeping had grown to such an
extent that I was really at a loss to know exactly how to begin. One
point which troubled me a lot was the destruction of the ship & gear if
by any chance we grounded, as I felt certain one of us would. The mines -
if they existed at all - were in very shallow water and the tide was now
ebbing. It was just when my doubts were darkest that Clythness signalled
that her dynamo had packed up & she was therefore not degaussed and could
not sweep. What a relief! The fact that she was hovering about with no
protection against magnetic mones caused me, I must admit, no anxiety at
all. I signalled the shore station that she was out of action & asked for
instructions. In due course both ships were ordered to return alongside
the quay. The signal was passed to Clythness and the two ships headed
again for the harbour. As we went in a bomber released a stick of bombs
at Clythness just as she was in the harbour mouth. Out of 5 bombs she was
straddled by numbers three & four and had they been any closer they would
have done her no good, and if she had been hit it would successfully have
bothled up the ships in the harbour at a most awkward moment. However she
wasn't so we did not worry. We went as far along the quay as we could &
8/10
1156
186
6/4