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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 Roberts. 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 381–381 of this collection
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381 Page 381 Log in to enlarge

FROM
The Senior Officer, Thames Local Defence 10/14/19 Flotills.
7
DATE
16th June 1940.
y
TO
The Extended Defences Officer, Sheerness.
SUBJECT. CRESTED EAGLE - ACTION OFF DUNKIRK.
Submitted-
I have now interviewed Lieutenant Commander
B.R. Booth the Commanding Officer of H.M.S. CRESTED EAGLE, in and have had a personal account of the loss of the ship at Dunkirk.
I feel that in his original account Lieutenant
Commander Booth has hardly done justice to the splended work company. accomplished by himself, his officers and ship's
The ship was machine gunned on her way into
Dunkirk and under continuous bombing and machine gun fire for many hours before being hit and also later whilst
/lers on fire and whilst endeavours were being made to rescue ist the wounded.
I was particularly impressed by his account of the behaviour of Sub. Lieutenant M.Roberts RNR who
2.
encouraged his gun's crews to keep up to their guns under continuous machine gun and bombing attacks - the guns and gun positions being entirely unprotected -
and continued careful and controlled fire until practically the whole of the ammunition was exhausted.
Lieutenant Commander Booth considers that the accurate pom-pom fire was undoubtedly the reason that the ship remained unhit for so long.
It appears to me also that the behaviour of
Lieutenant Commander Booth himself, in his general handling le of the ship and situation is deserving of great praise.
general
B
COMMANDER R.N.
S.O. T.L.D.F.
da steel chest by the P.O. Telegraphist.
Ship's head turned to the beach where she brought up sometime later.
Fire steadily gained ground and with the wind aft in very few minutes she was on fire fore and aft.
It is difficult to estimate the number of men on board, under the conditions that they were embarked, I should say round about 600.
As the lower decks were filled first, casualties from the bomb hands to take to the water as their only chance, and probably 200
explosions must have been severe. After beaching I advised all men could be sighted at one time in the water. I regret to say that they were badly machine gunned.
with the exception of the hull, she was blazing furiously fore and
In less than half an hour owing to the ship being all wood, aft and I feel that I can safetly say that any gear or instruments
Crested Eagle Roberts Thames Booth Crews Few Head Le Long RNR Roberts Senior

Raw OCR

Unformatted machine-generated OCR for document page 381.

FROM
The Senior Officer, Thames Local Defence 10/14/19 Flotills.
7
DATE
16th June 1940.
y
TO
The Extended Defences Officer, Sheerness.
SUBJECT. CRESTED EAGLE - ACTION OFF DUNKIRK.
Submitted-
I have now interviewed Lieutenant Commander
B.R. Booth the Commanding Officer of H.M.S. CRESTED EAGLE,
in
and have had a personal account of the loss of the ship
at Dunkirk.
I feel that in his original account Lieutenant
Commander Booth has hardly done justice to the splended
work company. accomplished by himself, his officers and ship's
The ship was machine gunned on her way into
Dunkirk and under continuous bombing and machine gun fire
for many hours before being hit and also later whilst
/lers
on fire and whilst endeavours were being made to rescue
ist
the wounded.
I was particularly impressed by his account of
the behaviour of Sub. Lieutenant M.Roberts RNR who
2.
encouraged his gun's crews to keep up to their guns
under continuous machine gun and bombing attacks - the
guns and gun positions being entirely unprotected -
and continued careful and controlled fire until
practically the whole of the ammunition was exhausted.
Lieutenant Commander Booth considers that the
accurate pom-pom fire was undoubtedly the reason that the
ship remained unhit for so long.
It appears to me also that the behaviour of
Lieutenant Commander Booth himself, in his general handling
le
of the ship and situation is deserving of great praise.
general
B
COMMANDER R.N.
S.O. T.L.D.F.
da
steel chest by the P.O. Telegraphist.
Ship's head turned to the beach where she brought up sometime
later.
Fire steadily gained ground and with the wind aft in very few
minutes she was on fire fore and aft.
It is difficult to estimate the number of men on board, under
the conditions that they were embarked, I should say round about 600.
As the lower decks were filled first, casualties from the bomb
hands to take to the water as their only chance, and probably 200
explosions must have been severe. After beaching I advised all
men could be sighted at one time in the water. I regret to say that
they were badly machine gunned.
with the exception of the hull, she was blazing furiously fore and
In less than half an hour owing to the ship being all wood,
aft and I feel that I can safetly say that any gear or instruments