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The Experiences of Percy Leonard Andrew, 1918-2002. (Exert from his biography)

On the night that the Germans invaded, Len’s unit fell back to the emplacements that they had already set up at the St. George’s Canal. When they arrived at the canal a coin was tossed to determine which men would be positioned on which side of the canal. That was because one of the emplacements would be cut off once the bridge had been destroyed. Len was fortunate in that the toss of the coin placed him on the more favourable side of the canal. The destruction of the bridge delayed the Germans for a couple of days but pretty soon they had to withdraw once more and the withdrawal took them into some woods. By this time Len and the other men had been without sleep for about four days. While they took refuge in the woods, the Germans set up some searchlights and rigged up a loud hailer to try to encourage the soldiers out of their hiding places. Eventually the officers realised that they were trapped and so ordered the men to destroy everything. Len and some of the other men were not ready to give themselves up just yet because, although they had seen some search lights which indicated the close proximity of the enemy, they had not yet seen any of the enemy themselves. This suggested that the enemy were not right on top of them yet. Also, the fact that they were an anti-tank platoon meant that they were positioned on the edge of any battle zone, which suggested that they might be able to find an escape route. With this in mind, Len suggested to some of the others that they might be able to make a run for it. His argument was that if they stayed where they were, they would either be captured or killed, but if they moved out then they would be able to fight another day. The others agreed and Len and the other drivers set about finding the best route. They then got what sleep they could while the others continued with the preparations. At about two o’clock the following morning, everyone was awoken and they prepared to set off. The trucks had to be started by hand because they were not far enough from the enemy. Once all the vehicles had been started the convoy crept away as quietly as was possible. Because they were driving through trees, navigation was very difficult but they eventually came out on a road. They guessed a direction and set off. Before long dawn broke and it began to get light. As the daylight increased so more traffic joined the road, much of which were horse and carts and other non-motorised vehicles. This slowed their progress considerably.

At this point they still didn’t know exactly where they were. Every now and then an enemy aircraft would pass overhead and begin firing on the road that they were on. The situation on the road would degenerate into utter turmoil as vehicles; horses and people were hit by the spreads of bullets. Before long they became completely trapped. The men in the truck made a run for it, but this was not as easy for Len because he had to turn the engine off and engage the brake before he could get out, but he managed this and joined the others in the basement of an abandoned bar. Just as Len joined the others there was a mighty explosion and the upper floors came in on top of them. When the men finally regained their faculties and had checked themselves over, one of them lit a match to shed some light on their current predicament. They found themselves trapped in the cellar of the bar. One of the men suggested looking for an oil lamp which people often kept. They managed to find a very crude lamp and wasted no time in lighting it. Once they had light, they found there were rows and rows of Champagne and wine bottles but nothing else. The men looked at this as far too good an opportunity to pass up, and so cracked a couple of bottles open. Inevitably everyone gradually dozed off to sleep. When they eventually woke up they had no idea how long they had been asleep, but decided that they would have to get busy in finding a way out. After their initial efforts they realised that they were not progressing very quickly. Suddenly one of them noticed that the smoke in the room was leaving in an unexpected direction. On closer investigation, an opening, which they thought was just a cupboard, actually led up a ramp towards some doors. When they forced the doors, making sure that they were not crushed by what fell in, they realised that they could see the sky. They still had to move quite a lot of stuff, but eventually they escaped. The first thing that Len did was to check on his truck, but alas, it had been hit and there was not much left of it. Len now realised what had happened. The shell had hit or landed very near to the truck, and the combination of ammunition and fuel had exploded and completely demolished it. This is what had caused so much damage to the building.

They reasoned that it would not be a good idea to remain at their current position, so they travelled across country for a time. They quickly realised that the target of the Germans’ attention had changed. They decided to follow the direction that the noise was coming from, as this would most likely lead them back to their own troops. Eventually they did come across some of their own soldiers, so they fixed their white hankies to the end of their rifles and walked towards them. Before long they came to some soldiers in trenches and these soldiers told them where they should report. Once they had reported they were informed that they had been holding the line for the evacuation of Dunkirk.

While the evacuation was proceeding, Len’s unit was holding the perimeter. Enemy planes were continuing to strafe and bomb them and they had heard that many soldiers had been killed and two or three allied ships had been sunk. However there was some good news in that they would only have to hold the line for another few hours because the last boats in the evacuation were beginning to load up. Despite the promise that they would soon be moving out, some of the soldiers lost their nerve and tried to desert. These men were quickly caught and, as promised by the troop commander, were shot. Eventually the attacks on them became less frequent, which suggested to the men that the allies had either succeeded or had failed, but either way it was soon to be over. They soon heard that the last of the boats were leaving and the evacuation was very nearly finished. This gave Len and the other men mixed feelings. They were glad that the evacuation was almost over, but were a bit concerned about how they were going to get home. Their worst fears were realised when they were told that the evacuation was over and it was up to them to either stay and be captured or to get themselves back to ground held by the Allies. The commanding officer spoke a few words, wishing them all the best and thanking them for their efforts before they all went their separate ways. Len was with four other men and they discussed what they were going to do. Len was adamant that he was not going to be captured and made these feelings known in no uncertain terms. He had the embryo of a plan, which was to scour the beach for any boats or anything that could be made into a boat. Fortunately the tide was on its way out and many potentially useful items were being uncovered. Two such items were a couple of rowing boats, which had been a bit shot up. They were confident that they could construct something sea worthy out of what they had.

The first thing they did was to raid the trucks for tools and any other useful items, especially as many small nuts and bolts as they could find, with the washers if possible. They also needed to remove the inner tubes from the truck’s tyres. They were fortunate in that this particular truck had quite a comprehensive tool kit with it, including tools such as a saw and drills. Once they had collected the items, they set about repairing the boat. The tyre inner tubes were cut into pieces and placed over the holes. These were held in place by bolting a piece of wood behind the rubber. After measuring and cutting all the pieces to size that they needed, they began to drill holes and fix the rubber and wood to the boat’s hull.

The tide was beginning to come in now so they knew that they had to get a move on. They got to the stage where they could try the craft out on the water and it seemed to float and keep the water out pretty well. Two of the men were still looking around for other items from which they could make another couple of oars. They also had to scrounge for extra rations off of the unfortunate soldiers who wouldn’t need them any more. The tide was now almost fully in and it was almost time to set off. Fortunately this coincided with the end of the evacuation and there were no more planes trying to shoot them. It was very nearly dusk when they set off, and at first it was quite good going with the tide to aid them. Two of the men in the boat would row while the other two rested and then they would swap. It was beginning to get dark now, but they could still keep their bearings because Dunkirk was just a mass of flames. As long as they kept rowing away from this then they knew that they were heading in the right direction. There were still big explosions going off everywhere because some of the ammunition dumps had been set to explode on timers. Len had already prepared for the worst in that he had removed his boots and equipment and had undone every button on his clothing to allow for easy removal. Dawn was beginning to break and Len supposed that they must have been about five miles from the French coast. It was time for the men to swap positions so different men could take up the rowing. However as they were changing over one of the men put his foot on one of the weaker, patched up points and his foot went through. The boat began to fill with water quite quickly and it was inevitable that it was going to sink. Immediately the sergeant exclaimed that he couldn’t swim and shot himself through the head. As his body fell and landed on the boat, the whole thing turned over and sent the other men into the water. As he went under, Len managed to undo his trousers so that as he returned to the surface the trousers came off. He next removed his shirt and these were all of the clothes that he was wearing. He trod water for a while, as he appraised his situation and got his bearings. He called out a few times but nobody answered. He had to assume that he was on his own. He calmed himself down by continually telling himself that he was a good swimmer and that he could do this.

Firstly he allowed himself to just float on the water while he mentally prepared himself and to get relaxed. He then set off away from the smoke of Dunkirk, ensuring that he continually changed the stroke that he was doing so that the same muscles were not being used all the time.

Judging by the position of the sun, Len surmised that it must be about midday. As he rose to the crest of each wave he thought that he could see something on the horizon, but he couldn’t be sure. As he progressed he realised that there was something there but still couldn’t make out what. Eventually, when he got close enough, he realised that it was a large buoy. When he reached it he climbed out of the water on to it and rested for a time. Unfortunately he could not rest here long because the wind chill on his wet skin was making him too cold. Also he told himself that he wasn’t going to get anywhere sitting on a buoy all day, and so set off once more. However, Len found that the short break had allowed him to regain a little more energy. He was beginning to struggle a little now and began to think about giving up. Whenever Len had these feelings he just thought of Joan and his family and this gave him the impetuous to carry on.

It was now getting into the evening, maybe about six o’clock, and Len thought he could see something on the horizon when he reached the crests of the swells. He couldn’t be sure if it was a boat or just another buoy. After a time he realised that it wasn’t a buoy and therefore must be a boat. This made Len even more determined than before, but he was becoming increasingly weak. But Len was now positive that it was a boat and he was not going to give up this close to salvation. He could now see the boat clearly but he couldn’t see anybody on it, which worried him because he wasn’t convinced that he would have the strength to lift himself on board. However as he approached the boat he saw someone move and wave. Len was so tired now that all he could do was to lay on his back and wait to be fished out of the water.

The next thing that he remembered is being pulled onto the boat, but nothing immediately before that. He was then on the boat and someone put a towel around him and gave him a drink, which burned the back of his throat, but not with heat. He was then completely out for the count. When he awoke he was given a warm drink of either coffee or cocoa, he couldn’t tell because his taste buds were, for the time being, not operational, because of the seawater. He was told that he was on the Margate lifeboat and they were waiting for a tow back into Margate. Len now realised that he was safe. Very soon he was asleep once more, his body making up for the few days that he had been without sleep. He was woken by a small commotion, which turned out to be the battleship Iscara coming alongside. They were then towed into Dover. Len had now been fed and his body was running with adrenaline. When a couple of sailors came on board for him, they brought with them a luggage trolley to push him on. Although he didn’t need this trolley, he wasn’t going to complain and hopped on board. Len was still stark naked and thought it might be an idea to bring the two men’s attention to this fact. The men said that they would have a look round for him and see what they could find. He was then told that under normal circumstances he would be taken straight to the hospital, but there were far too many emergency cases already in the hospitals for them to do this. He was then given some spam sandwiches, which tasted absolutely marvellous after what Len’s mouth and taste buds had been through. They then told him that they had managed to find him a pullover, a pair of trousers and some slippers. Len put this clothing on and was then taken straight to a waiting train. Once he boarded the train, which was full of other soldiers in the same predicament, it set off very soon afterwards.

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