- Contributed by听
- Julia Lloyd
- People in story:听
- Ted and friends
- Location of story:听
- Dunkirk
- Background to story:听
- Army
- Article ID:听
- A3754569
- Contributed on:听
- 07 March 2005
I found myself seperated from my regiment in Dieppe in France, which was than a mass of fields. I had no way of knowing which way i was walking so prayed it would be in the direction of Dunkirk that i was heading for.Suddenly i saw two lose horses all bridled up and managed to catch hold of their reins. So i took them with me hoping to find someone to take them in. Across a field i saw a big farm house and made my way to it. The French people made us all very welcome, they stabled the horses and fed them and fed me, then i gratefully slept in the bed they gave me being exhausted from the miles i had walked. The next morning i told my kind hosts i must rejoin my regiment but they said 'no, no' explaining to me that the Germans were in Dunkirk so it was not safe for me to go there. i insited that i must go so they gave me a French man's outfit and a long biege mackintosh, as it was raining quite hard. They also gave me a man's bicycle wtih instructions for me to leave the same at thr butcher's shop on the edge of Dunkirk. So i began my long ride into the town where i was lucky in not seeing any German soldiers. When i rode into Dunkirk i saw the Butchers and quickly gave them the bicycle. They warned me that the whole place was crawling with Germans everywhere! Yet i decided to try and my regiment if i could. Hopping from doorway to doorway, i made stealthy progress towards the beach and was very lucky to get through.
I got to a piece of the beach at the end where the Germans were fewest, then i saw utter carnage like i had never seen before. Our lads were huddled in bunches trying to protect each other from the almost endless shells, aircraft fire and rifle bullets being fired from upp on the beach dunes. The British Tommies were caught like rats in a trap with nowhere to run. The sand was running with blood and had turned red in colour. Dead bodies were all over the place as i searched to see my mates who i eventually found. Then i contemplated how to get to them and soon decided not to even try. There were al sorts of boats trying to get the men off the beach and back to safety in Brighton who were also being attacked all the time. Somehow i managed to crawl down onto the beach, then shuffle along to the nearest English soldiers, i showed them my dog tags so they knew i was a soldier on their side and we began to sidle towards where all the boats were.
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