大象传媒

A Rookie鈥檚 Tale

Page 5/6 by Jack Nicholls

Days and nights passed by and we continued to struggle on moving troops from position to position. Accurate news was very hard to come by but we realised the situation was becoming more and more desperate. Food and sleep became a problem as we had had precious little of either since landing - just the occasional bit of Bullybeef or Machonachies and hard biscuits and a doze in the cab when we harboured up awaiting fresh orders. One of our last troop movements finished near a place I think called
Poperinghe. We harboured up very late at night and a guard was posted of which I was one. In the distance could be heard what seemed to be the clanking of tank tracks being changed. It sounded as if the Germans were
getting ready for the next attack. Shortly afterwards all NCO' s were calle together and were told we were making for Dunkirk. We set off and several miles out of Dunkirk we were directed off the road into a field by M.P's.and
told this was the end of the road for the vehicles. The Engineers were going to put charges on them and blow them up to avoid them falling undamaged into German hands. We wereto abandon all our personal kit, just retaining rifle, ammo and small pack. Two trucks and a Staff car were retained to take us
to Dunkirk and those of us who were left of the Platoon piled into the vehicles and we began a stop start journey to Dunkirk. Time and time again we had to dive for cover as German planes had a go at us and other traffic on the road. On one side of one stretch of the road was a Canal and what seemed to be hundreds of British Army lorries had been driven, bonnet first, into the Canal to avoid them falling undamaged into German hands.

Eventually we arrived at Dunkirk and took cover whilst the Platoon Commander went to get further orders. When he returned all N.C.O.'s were called together and were told that the Navy were going to make an attempt to
take us off the Beaches at a place called La Panne, some miles up the beach from Dunkirk. Each N.C.O. was told to gather a party of five men together and go down the road leading to the beach at two minute intervals so there
wasn't too large a number going down the road together. What a hope! When our party got to the road it seemed all the British Army was already there. What few of the Platoon who had managed to keep together assembled on the
beach and led by the C.O. headed for La Panne. On and on we marched, hardly able to lift our feet through fatigue. A strange thing happened as we trudged along, phosphorescence lit up under our feet and a trail of glowing footsteps led back towards Dunkirk. We reached La Panne in the early hours of the morning and dug in as best we could as we knew the Luftwaffe would
come at first light. The sea was some distance out and just before dawn I was detailed to go down to the water's edge to see if there was any sign of Naval craft coming in. I had to wade through pools of water, and one, probably a bomb crater, was much deeper than I expected and in I went, up to my chest in water, I dragged myself out and continued to the water's edge but there was no sign of the Navy coming in. Wet through and weary I made my way back to our group and reported.

Dawn was breaking when word went around that boats were arriving and we were ordered to go down to the water's edge and form queues for the boats. With the dawn the German planes arrived, bombing and strafing, but fortunately for us they seemed to concentrate more on Dunkirk itself, from where great clouds of smoke were arising from Oil Tanks which had been hit and were on fire. One of our group put his rifle to his shoulder and fired at the planes but unfortuately he hadn't realised that the barrel was clogged with sand. The barrel exploded, severely injuring his face and eye. He was taken to a Medical Aid Post off the beach and unhappily we never saw him
again. We formed a queue at the water's edge and a ship's lifeboat came in near us. The crew shouted to us to wade out to them as they couldn鈥檛 come in any further but some of the queue hesitated because of the depth of water. I was already soaked through so when my turn came I went straight in and was up to my
shoulders before I reached the boat. I'd still hung on to my rifle but this was taken off me and piled with others at the bottom of the boat and I climbed and was heaved on board by a couple of sailors, a most difficult job because of the weight of water in my uniform.

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