大象传媒

This story is about my Grandad Ernest Jones, he was born on 23/10/19 in Dudley West Midlands and when Dunkirk happended he was 20 years old and a corporal.

On his way to Dunkirk he was with his friend Wesley Cartwright. Wesley was a couple of years older and had volunteered with Grandad. They spent most of their time diving in and out of ditches on the way to Dunkirk as the Stukas kept diving bombing them. On one occasion they were stood next to a large building in a small French town and Grandad said "I don't think we should stay here, let's move over there" only a few moments later Grandad said a bomb hit the building and it came down like a pack of cards!

However, Wesley was suffering from stress and kept jumping out of the ditches and Grandad said he had to keep jumping on him and had to hold him down, lying right on top of him. He said he then had to knock him out as he would have got them all killed. When they eventaully made it to the beach they had to wade out with ropes to the boat they were getting on. Grandad said he would see one man drop into the water behind and then in front from the gunfire from the German planes and could'nt beleive he had got on the boat OK.

The ironic thing was the boat was called Mona's Isle an old Isle of Man Steam packet ship and Grandad had been on this boat before when going on holiday to the Isle of Man just 2 years before! Grandad said the journey back was terrible, the boat was heavily gunned and again he moved from one side of the boat to the other. The side he was on was heavily gunned with many being killed. Then a Stuka dropped a bomb down the ships funnell but it never went off !! Grandad could not swim at all and never mentioned this fact at all.

When Grandad arrived at Dover he said the sea was red with blood and the decks were blood soaked also. Grandad asked if anyone had seen his Driver John Gale from South Wales. Some said he they had seen him on the beach, some said they saw him at Dover. However, it was only when Grandad returned to the Dunkirk memorial after the war he saw his name on the memorial as being killed in action between 28MAY and 02JUNE 1940. This really upset Grandad.

Grandad always said that he felt somebody had been looking after him during that time in Dunkirk and said it was such a waste that so many lads aged 19/20/21 had been killed, but a miracle so many got away at the same time.

Grandad was climbing the ranks within the army upon his return from Dunkirk and returned to France again on 06 June 1944 D Day. Grandad landed with a British and Canadian force on Sword Beach in Normandy. You can imagine the horrors he must have seen and gone though. Grandad's unit found themselves on the famous River Orne which was to prove a major strategic break through for the allied forces. The bridge could not be taken by the Free French or the Americans. However, Grandad's unit were tasked with putting up a smoke screen on the German side of the river to enable the advancing forces to cross unseen. Grandad was told by his C.O that this was a most dangerous mission which none of them may never return. Anyway all went well and in Grandad's words "the smokescreen went up lovely" and they got back across to the allied side with no casualties. This enabled the advancing troops to get across the river and the bridge was taken. For this the French awarded Grandad the famous Croix De Guerre medal. However such was Grandad's modesty he said to give it a Corporal Jenkins in his unit. Corporal Jenkins wanted Grandad to have it as he was leading officer and would have carried the can if it had gone wrong. His C.O said he was mad not to accept it, but that was Grandad.

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