大象传媒

My brother, Leonard Lambert, was just 19 serving in France as a driver in the RASC when the Maginot line collapsed amid scenes of total confusion.

Instructed only to head for the coast, he set off with a few others to cover the hundred and twenty miles, mostly on foot. Among the wreckage littering the road they found an abandoned truck, which they got going. Driving on an open road, crowded with carts and refuges, he noticed two nuns cowering in a ditch with a party of small children. The road was under constant attack from the air with bombs and machine guns taking toll among the terrified civilians. They were all piled onto the truck and Leonard drove them to safety. One of the nuns took the little wooden crucifix she wore and hung it round his neck with tearful prays for his safety.

Eventually they arrived just north of Dunkirk, but by then the main evacuation was over and the Germans had already taken the town. He and a friend found a small boat which they launched, but very soon they were spotted and attacked. The boat was sunk and Leonard was wounded, but they managed to swim ashore. Searching through wreckage and bodies on the beach, they found a little wooden dingy and armed with pieces of wood for paddles they pushed off again in a rough sea. Salvation came when they were seen by one of the heroic little ships which was still searching for stragglers. There were two men already in the boat, but both were dead, they were taken along side a destroyer packed with troops, but still a net was lowered to take them aboard. This destroyer was also hit a badly damaged.

At home after a long and anxious wait, we had the news that he was alive and in England. The next three months he spent in hospital with septicaemia from his wound, sickness and boils through drinking polluted water and from the effects of starvation, exhaustion and exposure. He was sent to Sticklepath in Devon to convalesce under the care of a wonderful lady called Aunty B (Mrs Baron) who became a life long friend.

Sickened by all that he had seen, he got himself transferred to the RAF, determined to fight the Germans on their own terms. He went on to fly low level reconnaissance, sorties, deep into enemy territory and was awarded the DFC and later the Air Force Cross.

I still have the little wooden crucifix which he brought safely over the channel under his battle dress; the nun鈥檚 prayers were answered.

Leonard lives happily in London now, old but still undaunted.

Hope this will be of Interest

Joyce Fountain

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