大象传媒

Dad was a sergeant in the regular army when he was sent as part of the BEF to France. He didn't talk about the war and as children born in the late 40's early 50's we didn't ask. When I became adult I was very curious and kept asking what had happened. Eventually dad gave me some snippets to what had happened at Dunkirk after I found his army record because I had read about Dunkirk but dad never mentioned he had been there. At the time dad was laying telephone wires to forward HQ when he and his mate noticed that a lot of lorries where passing them but going in the wrong direction. One of the lorries stopped and told dad that they were in retreat. Instead of dropping everything and retreating dad and his mate recoiled the wires all the way back to previous HQ. Later dad couldn't believe they had been so stupid! On the retreat they came across an abandonded NAAFI and found thousands of packets of cigarettes which they put down their trousers to barter and smoke. Great idea! When they reached Dunkirk they were told to hide in the dunes. Dad said the straffing was annoying, always a man of understatement, however they were ordered into the water to await the small boats to take them to the ships. The cigarettes became waterlogged and useless and had to be thrown away. When I asked him how he could stand in a long queue to get on a small boat his answer was simple. Officers patrolled the lines and shot anyone who broke ranks and panicked. Dad got picked up and was soon sailing back to England taking his rifle with him. He noticed that a lot of soldiers had lost their rifles but being careful he brought his rifle back with him. On arrival, after being looked after, new rifles were issued to those who had lost theirs but dad was ordered to clean his. My uncle Tom, dad's brother, who was also at Dunkirk but they didn't know each was there, managed somehow to bring back his lorry and was told to strip it down, clean it and get it ready for action.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.