大象传媒

This is a short remembrance of an incident that happened to my grandfather, Ken Bishop, who sadly died in June. As it is a story relayed to me by my grandfather some months before he died, there are certain points, historical points, of which I am ignorant, though the events are real.

It happened a week or two before the great Dunkirk retreat. My grandfather was part of the British force in northern France, near Dunkirk. They were to move south away from the coast and push inland, in truth Grandfather said they advanced no further than about 10 miles.

A helping hand for refugees

It was while they were moving inland that his company met with French refugees fleeing the German advance. He said one woman had a pram with a broken wheel, which of course was impeding her progress. Granddad, with what little French he knew and with much gesticulation, bade her to wait while he ran back down the road in the direction he had come - for he had seen another pram in a barn a short distance away.

He soon brought her the replacement, and he said she was filled with gratitude for his help. He said 'She was so pleased, and thanked me kindly' - before he was off again, heading towards the German line. Later that day they came upon a village, unfortunately I forget what it was called, though I remember him saying it had a short name, and it was here that was as far as they could advance. The German forces were the other side of the village, and Granddad's company had to dig in, to stop the advance.

The next day he was given messages to be relayed to officers back towards Dunkirk, and this errand took him back the way he had come the day before. As he was travelling back, he came upon some bodies lying in, and by the side of, the road. He said they had been shot with a large calibre round, the size carried in fighter planes, and so must have been attacked from the air. In amongst the bodies Granddad recognised the pram from the previous day, and next to it lay the body of the lady he had helped.

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