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TNA Unclassified 1

TNA Unclassified 1
Collection details

TNA Unclassified 1

A working collection of Operation Dynamo source material whose definitive National Archives catalogue reference is still being identified.

Holding archive
TNA
Collection reference
Unclassified 1

Source: The National Archives, Kew, Unclassified 1. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Showing only pages tagged with the vessel name Skipjack. Tags are exact matches from this collection’s OCR tag index. Clear vessel filter ×
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1 matching pages. OCR may contain transcription errors.

List page 1 of 1 Showing document pages 133–133 of this collection
Page ImageOCR textOCR tags
133 Page 133 Log in to enlarge

75
74
-3-
13. Several of the motor boats had now broken down and between midnight and 3 a.m. complete repairs were done to these boats, which was most creditable to the R.N.R. and
R.N.V.R. officers and ratings sent from EXCELLENT and KING
ALFRED to man them.
14. I found it necessary to shift my anchorage to the west during the night, as shells meant for the beaches were ricocheting over H.M.S. HILDA.
15. In accordance with my undertaking to the troops, I sent off all boats again at 3.15 a.m. to search the beaches, starting from the western end of Bray-Dunnes. During the next three hours approximately only 250 men were taken off the beaches, and these in small parties; they were apparently stragglers.
A large rearguard party marching along the beach decided to continue to Dunkirk.
June.
16. At 7.30 a.m. approximately I closed H.M.S. KEITH and reported the position to Admiral Wake-Walker. He told me to continue my search of the beaches and if possible transfer my troops to another ship, subsequently returning to England.
17. Unfortunately, with the exception of KEITH, SKIPJACK, one destroyer a considerable distance away and an Admiralty tug, there were no vessels to whom I could transfer these troops, besides which, with the dive bombing and shelling, it would, as it turned out, have been impossible.
18. At approximately 8 a.m. H.M.S. KEITH received a direct hit from a dive bomber and was abandoned shortly afterwards.
I closed KEITH and picked up some 50 survivors out of the water, including the Q.M.G. of the B.E.F. and other Staff Officers.
At this stage I jettisoned all my spare petrol. The Admiralty tug went alongside KEITH before she sank and took off the majority of the survivors. I then proceeded to the east to make a final inspection of the beaches and to see that no motorboats had been left behind.
19. Half an hour later SKIPJACK received a direct hit from a dive bomber and sank immediately. I closed SKIPJACK and picked up some 60 or 70 survivors.
20. Dive bombing had been more or less continuous since early morning and the attacks went on while HILDA proceeded towards
Dunkirk on passage home. British fighters were seen on two or three occasions, but during the greater part of the day the
Germans seemed to be in complete control of the air.
21. At 10.30 approximately I sailed for England, being narrowly missed on several occasions by bomba, and after an hour's steaming, while in the vicinity of two of H.M. transports
I saw the latter struckby dive bombers and sink.
22./
England Hilda Skipjack Day King Wake Wake-Walker Walker West

Raw OCR

Unformatted machine-generated OCR for document page 133.

75
74
-3-
13. Several of the motor boats had now broken down and
between midnight and 3 a.m. complete repairs were done to
these boats, which was most creditable to the R.N.R. and
R.N.V.R. officers and ratings sent from EXCELLENT and KING
ALFRED to man them.
14. I found it necessary to shift my anchorage to the west
during the night, as shells meant for the beaches were
ricocheting over H.M.S. HILDA.
15. In accordance with my undertaking to the troops, I sent
off all boats again at 3.15 a.m. to search the beaches, starting
from the western end of Bray-Dunnes. During the next three
hours approximately only 250 men were taken off the beaches,
and these in small parties; they were apparently stragglers.
A large rearguard party marching along the beach decided to
continue to Dunkirk.
June.
16. At 7.30 a.m. approximately I closed H.M.S. KEITH and
reported the position to Admiral Wake-Walker. He told me to
continue my search of the beaches and if possible transfer my
troops to another ship, subsequently returning to England.
17. Unfortunately, with the exception of KEITH, SKIPJACK,
one destroyer a considerable distance away and an Admiralty tug,
there were no vessels to whom I could transfer these troops,
besides which, with the dive bombing and shelling, it would, as
it turned out, have been impossible.
18. At approximately 8 a.m. H.M.S. KEITH received a direct
hit from a dive bomber and was abandoned shortly afterwards.
I closed KEITH and picked up some 50 survivors out of the water,
including the Q.M.G. of the B.E.F. and other Staff Officers.
At this stage I jettisoned all my spare petrol. The Admiralty
tug went alongside KEITH before she sank and took off the
majority of the survivors. I then proceeded to the east to
make a final inspection of the beaches and to see that no motor-
boats had been left behind.
19. Half an hour later SKIPJACK received a direct hit from a
dive bomber and sank immediately. I closed SKIPJACK and picked
up some 60 or 70 survivors.
20. Dive bombing had been more or less continuous since early
morning and the attacks went on while HILDA proceeded towards
Dunkirk on passage home. British fighters were seen on two
or three occasions, but during the greater part of the day the
Germans seemed to be in complete control of the air.
21. At 10.30 approximately I sailed for England, being
narrowly missed on several occasions by bomba, and after an
hour's steaming, while in the vicinity of two of H.M. transports
I saw the latter struckby dive bombers and sink.
22./