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My War Years

I had just completed nine months of training as an 18 year old naval recruit, when as a member of a 150-strong naval party, I was sent to Dunkirk to assist in the evacuation, supposedly of 23,000 allied troops. The operation eventually saw 340,000 soldiers rescued but I had many friends who didn’t make it.

My memories of my first sighting of Dunkirk were ones of complete and utter hell. As our ship arrived two French destroyers were pulling out of the harbour and signalling ‘Do not enter — Dunkirk is occupied’.

Our captain went in anyway and what lay before us was almost beyond description. There was smoke everywhere, destruction all around and bodies galore…. And then came an air raid.

We ran up the jetty and dived for cover as German Stukas dive-bombed us. This became a grim, daily ‘routine’ for the next 10 days! There was no respite, we had no cover and the buildings had all been destroyed, so we simply slept where we stood, if we slept at all! None of us knew what to expect but I don’t think anyone could have imagined things would be as terrible as they turned out to be.

As a Signalman, my job was to calculate the number of men who could fit into each rescue vessel and ensure they all boarded safely. Thousands upon thousands of our troops lined up along the jetties and it seemed it would never be over.

However, the final day- our tenth — came and it was down to us to get away safely. Myself and others still left at Dunkirk had to draw straws to see which vessel we would sail home on. I got a place on a fishing boat and we sailed out at four o’clock in the afternoon. However, we were sunk by the Germans before we even got out of the harbour! Luckily I managed to make it back to dry land, many didn’t. I managed to board a destroyer sailing for Dover just before midnight.

I was never so glad to get away from somewhere in all my life. It was a place where I saw death for the first time — I remember a young Scottish soldier lying in a warehouse with his legs blown off. He was being held down by his mates and there was blood everywhere. I thought he would not survive.

William McKenna

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