- Contributed by听
- MaiterFletcher
- People in story:听
- Harold Fletcher
- Location of story:听
- Dunkirk, off the coast
- Background to story:听
- Royal Navy
- Article ID:听
- A2312489
- Contributed on:听
- 18 February 2004
My uncle on my fathers side, Harold Fletcher, served aboard a Royal Navy destroyer during the evacuation at Dunkirk but rather then being assigned to pick men off the beaches his destroyer was set the task of drawing enemy fire from the boats trying to get men away.
This meant that he and his comrades were left moving up and down the beach shooting at the German planes that were attacking the beach in order to bring them onto themselves. I never met my uncle but my father told me the story that was told about him by one crewman.
Bombs were falling around the ship, sending spray up into the faces of the men unfortunate enough to be scrambling above decks as one seaman stopped and looked to the rail he saw a leftenant Fletcher standing stock still, staring through his telescope at the scene on the beaches a still figure in all the chaos.
Whether or not the story is true I don't know but we still have that very same telescope at our home in Cambridgeshire.
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