大象传媒

My father, who died in 1980, was a Sergeant in the Royal Army Service Corps and served in France almost from the beginning of the War until the retreat. For the first few months things were relatively quiet and uneventful. One of Dads duties was to drive Staff Officers and on one occasion he had to drive two or three high ranking Officers to the coast (I think Calais or Boulogne) to meet a VIP. Imagine Dads surprise and amazement when the VIP turned out to be none other than the Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII.

Things hotted up however with the inexorable advance of the German Army in the Spring of 1940 until it became clear, even to ordinary soldiers like Dad that things were in a parlous state. He used to relate how he was ordered to pour petrol over one of the staff cars and set it alight, an order he carried out with great reluctance as it was a beautiful car, but a scorched earth policy was being operated whereby, in retreat you leave absolutely nothing that could be of any possible use to the enemy.

The group he was attached to arrived at Dunkirk comparatively late in the proceedings and the town had already suffered severe damage. He witnessed the sinking of two of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company ships, Monas Queen and King Orry, one of which struck a mine at the entrance to Dunkirk harbour and the other which was hit by a bomb. Coming from Liverpool, he was of course familiar with all the Isle of Man boats as well as the Mersey ferry boats which I think, though I am not sure, were also at Dunkirk.

One of the things which sticks in my mind that he used to talk about was wading out to sea up to his chin and, somewhat surreal in all that mayhem, sticking his last packet of cigarettes on to his bayonet in an effort to keep them dry - what he would have done for matches I never ever thought to ask! Then the unimaginable struggle to climb up the scrambling nets, soaking wet, in full kit and carrying a rifle, to reach the comparative safetyof the deck of HMS Worcester.

They made good their escape but the ship was so overloaded they ran aground on a sandbank. The order came for everyone to go to the stern of the vessel so as to try to raise the bows and hopefully float off. Fortunately they did so as the tide rose. Even more fortunate was that all this occurred under cover of darkness. Had it been daylight they would have been sitting ducks and would have stood no chance from air attack by Stukas.

On arrival at Dover they had to cross the decks of countless ships which crowded the harbour before they reached dry land. Eventually they found themselves on a train heading north and the people were cheering and waving flags at all the stations they passed through. The strange thing Dad always said was, that he and his companions didnt really know what all the cheering and waving was for!!

Dad never spoke about the danger he must have been in, or about the terrible sights I feel sure he must have witnessed, but I know he was proud to have been a small part of such a momentous occasion - a victory from the jaws of defeat.

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