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This story appears courtesy of and with thanks to The Liverpool Diocesan Care and Repair Association and James Taylor.

Mr Peter Burns, who was born in 1916, was already in the Navy when war was declared:-

What ship were you on when war broke out?

I鈥檇 left the Grenade and I was on the Kingfisher from 1939 till 1941. I was what you called a fishery protective ship, a small one.

How did you hear the news of the war?

We were in Belfast at the time and we were told to demobilise to the Atlantic. We were searching for U-boats but nothing happened at that time. We then went to Scotland for a while and then to Dover, but it was pretty quiet, you know. Our job was to pick up survivors of either our planes or any other. I only remember one incident when one plane was shot down, it was a German plane and I remember the pilot was a big blonde German and we picked him up. His left leg was shot away and he couldn鈥檛 walk properly so they helped him up the gangway and as he came up he gave the Heil Hitler salute. One of our blokes was standing nearby and he made a dash for him. Seemingly he鈥檇 lost some of his family in an air raid and his anger must have been too much. He got put on a charge for it though. I think he would have killed that German if he hadn鈥檛 been pulled away.

Did the German get medical treatment on board ship?

Oh yes, his ankle was shattered and he was taken to hospital later on. After that we were told to pick the troops up on the beaches of Dunkirk. Lots of ships took part in this, private yachts everyone was there helping out, civilians, everyone, and it was a lovely thing to see. It wasn鈥檛 just the Navy at Dunkirk, it was everybody. Prior to the evacuation the Admiralty went around to the people who had yachts, pleasure boats, rowing boats, anything that could pick survivors up from Dunkirk and asked them to go over the Channel to help out. I saw two blokes in a rowing boat and that鈥檚 a long way over. It was like a great armada, big boats, small boats, motor boats, women, old men, anyone who was able was out there on the Channel picking up survivors. Some times you were proud to be English. We would go into the harbour and we鈥檇 see the troops, some of them trying to swim out to the ship. They were that keen to get away because they knew they were going to get slaughtered when the Germans got closer to them. We could hear the machine guns firing. They were closing in on them. We were there five days and nights. We could only pick so many up otherwise we鈥檇 overload the ship.

About how many?

About forty at a time. They were well organised. There was no panic or anything, if there had been panic a lot of them would have been killed. The officers in charge did a wonderful job there. The officers regimented them to such a state that they would just wade up to their waist waiting to be picked up. Wading out would give them the first chance to be picked up. Behind them was all the sand dunes and all those blokes would be waiting, just laying there, to be picked up. In the meantime the Germans were bombing all the beaches and so a lot of them got killed before they had a chance. The reason we got further in than any other ship was because we were known as shallow draft. That meant we could go right alongside the jetty.

How long did it take to collect the men?

When we took the full amount of what we could, it was sad to see the faces of the ones we had to leave and we鈥檇 tell them there would be someone else to pick them up soon, but it would take about an hour to drop them off at Dover and then we鈥檇 return straight away. We worked as a team, and when you realise that 450,000 men were saved it has to be a miracle. That really was a miracle. If we hadn鈥檛 got all those men the war would have been over. Those same men came back to England to fight the war.

Do you know how many men were killed at Dunkirk?

No, not really, quite a lot I think though. The trouble with Dunkirk was they were on the retreat. They weren鈥檛 working as a group, there were stragglers. Some were organised like the Grenadier Guards, but some of the groups were split up through no fault of their own. Maybe the Germans caught some and others had managed to get away but they all grouped up at Dunkirk beaches and the officers sorted them out.

Were all the men rescued within the five days?

Yes, all those that were rescued, but of course some of them didn鈥檛 make it. We were one of the last boats to leave and the town was ablaze as they got nearer. They had two big oil tanks on the pier and our lads set them on fire. So it was all flames and smoke at the time. On the last night of the evacuation we took what is known as the Garrison Troops, a French troop. They weren鈥檛 involved in battle stations, but they were just stationed there and they didn鈥檛 do any of the fighting. We took about thirty, they were all dressed in their full gear and they were all on board. Unfortunately we got rammed on the way out from the jetty, by accident, by a French trawler. It just couldn鈥檛 be avoided because we were backing out and the trawler was coming in. We were making water and we had to take the French troops off so as to lighten the ship. By doing this the bowel lifted out of the water and we managed to get back to England with no one on board.

What happened to the French troops?

Well it鈥檚 a bit sad really. When we got damaged they sent us to Lowestoft to a dry dock for the ship to be repaired. We found out later that the troop, that we鈥檇 had to leave behind, were put on another ship, I can鈥檛 remember the name, and were sunk on the way across to Dover.

So the French soldiers never made it?

No, they were drowned that night.

Why was there a deadline of five days rescuing? Was it just too dangerous to carry on?

Yes, because the Admiralty didn鈥檛 want any mass killings. The skipper told us it was our last night to pick anyone up and that no one else was coming back. Not even the small boats sent over by the Civilians were allowed to go back. It was a deadline because the Germans were nearly there.

Were there many soldiers still left?

Oh yes, that was the situation. I dread to think of what would have happened if we鈥檇 carried on, none of us would have survived.

Did you just accept that order?

Yes, you鈥檝e got to. When I looked back and saw them marching away from the beaches I could have cried knowing that they were either going to get killed or taken to a prisoner of war camp.

Did they know the situation?

Oh, they knew they couldn鈥檛 get back. When we looked back and saw them, there wasn鈥檛 a dry eye on that ship. They were marching away, no panic, along the beaches and they fought what they call a rear guard action, still fighting the Germans.

Fighting to the end?

Yes, fighting to the end, very brave, I still get nightmares from it even now, the way they were marching like they were on parade. I鈥檓 trying to figure out what came out about the Dunkirk situation, it鈥檚 a political thing, but I think we should have helped the French much sooner, long before Dunkirk. The Germans just took over the French, they were well outnumbered.

Do you think it would have been as bad if we鈥檇 have gone in earlier?

This is it, the criticism was bad and I believe it, we should have helped them more. Maybe if we had it could have shortened the war. We鈥檙e protected by the Channel and the stigma was that it went on for too long. We could have prevented it if we鈥檇 acted sooner. The Germans occupied France so quickly, there was no time to get organised.
The trip before our last we were told to take all the wounded. We used to put all the wounded on these tables and I remember one bloke, who was laying on his stomach, I said 鈥淲hat鈥檚 happened to you?鈥� and he said 鈥淚鈥檝e got a bit of shrapnel in my backside.鈥� I was used to seeing things by then but when I looked at his wound, it was awful. It was a hole the size of an orange.
They were all glad to be going home. But the ones that were able to go back into the war were sent back again. When we arrived at Dover we were always met by the Salvation Army and I always take my hat off to them. All we were living on at the time, for five days and nights, was corned beef, hard tack they called it. We couldn鈥檛 cook anything because we were going back and forth all the time. When we brought the soldiers back to Dover, we鈥檇 have about half an hour to sort ourselves out, and the Salvation Army girls would be there helping everyone. One of them gave me a little blue bag. In it was soap, shaving soap, a little towel, a razor and a packet of cigarettes and we were made up, we all got them. I don鈥檛 think I鈥檇 had a wash for five days and so that bag was appreciated. They were very good, the Salvation Army.

When you joined the Navy you had no idea there was going to be a war. Do you think you would change anything now if you had known?

Well I was lucky because I鈥檇 experienced war rime situations in Palestine, I was only eighteen then. The biggest war time situation was when we were rescuing Spanish refugees. So it was all like a trial before the next war and it was all experience. I鈥檇 do it again because I was glad I鈥檇 joined when I was so young. I decided to learn everything I could, and I did.
I was on the Heythorp. It was a brand new destroyer and we went up to the Tyne to the ship builders. What they used to do was to send a small crew up, experienced men, usually about ten men what they called commissioning party. We had to go around the ship and find out what the boiler was like, what the fire fighting system was like things like that. It was like a routine getting to know the ship, after that they get the full crew on board and we鈥檇 take them around and show them which quarters were theirs and generally sort things out. We left the Clyde and our first port of call was Malta. Previous to leaving England we did a bit of convoy work in the Atlantic, we escorted a few ships halfway across the Atlantic and came back again, but it wasn鈥檛 much. Then we joined the Mediterranean fleet because they were a bit short and things were a bit rough out there at the time. We went out there August or September. It was one of the convoys that one of the merchant ships was torpedoed and we went alongside the ship and one of our colleagues went on the other side and between us we managed to save three hundred soldiers and we were given the job of taking them to Malta, dropping them off and then going back to the convoy.

What ship was this?

The Imperial Star. Everyone in Liverpool knows the Star boats because I think it鈥檚 a Bibby line. We didn鈥檛 go back to Gibraltar after that convoy we went to Alexandra because things were rough in those times. The 鈥楧esert War鈥� was on at the time and we used to convoy from Alexandra to Malta and then back again. That was the convoy when we got torpedoed by the U-boat.

鈥楾his story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by 大象传媒 Radio Merseyside鈥檚 People鈥檚 War team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his/ her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.鈥�

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