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Following the retreat from Dunkirk, and fearing an imminant followup invasion attempt, small groups of men were hastily positioned along the coast to act as an initial defence should an invasion come. With the chronic supply problems resulting from the loss of so much equipment at Dunkirk, many of these units were dangerously low on ammunition. In order to achieve some measure of equality accross the defence, each unit was issued with thirty rounds of .303 ammunition.

My great uncle Henry was a gunnery sergeant in the Royal Artillery at the time and was in charge of three (I think) other soldiers set to hold a small piece of coast. Feeling that their thirty rounds was wholely inadequate, he sent one of his men down to the next unit along to see if they had any ammunition to spare. The next unit (which happened to be the Royal Navy) said that they could not give away any of their ammunition as every unit had been issued with the same amount and it would be counted in the morning. However, the sailors revealed that it was only bullets which were being so closely watched and so they happily gave my great uncle's man a box of hand grenades.

As the night wore on, Henry decided that because none of his party had any experience with using grenades they should try one out.听 Taking a grenade from the box, he and his men got down on the ground and crawled over to the edge of the cliff.听 Henry proceeded to pull out the pin, and dropped the grenade over the edge.听

The grenade exploded and instantly the whole coast was lit up by muzzle flashes, accompanied by a deafening sound of gunfire, as shocked men panicked and fired blindly into the night. Meanwhile, my great uncle and his men lay flat on the ground and waited for it to die down.

Long before dawn it was established that there had been no attack of any sort and the whole display of gunfire had been nothing more than a wasteful act of panic. In the morning each section of men was visited and its ammunition counted and carefully recorded. My great uncle's section turned out to be the only one which had not expended any of its allotted ammunition. Luckily, as they had not been issued with any boxes of grenades no one checked them for any grenades and they were not found out. Thus it was decided (those doing the recommending being ignorant of the actual events) that Henry had displayed such calm and control in preventing his men from getting caught up in the panic which had wasted so much valuable ammunition that he should be recommended for officer training.

In this way my great uncle became an officer.

Paul Geddes

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