大象传媒

"Ginge", a private in the 1/7th Middlesex Regiment, aged 19 years

I was evacuated from Bray Dunes, between Le Panne and Dunkirk, on 2nd June after immobilizing our vehicles on the night of 1st June 1940.
I was serving with the Vickers Machine Gunners. We removed all locks from the guns so that they could not be used, before going onto the beach on the night of 1st June.
Next morning, when it was daylight, we waded out into the water up to our necks but the German Luftwaffe flew over and started straffing us so we had to run back into the shore. We went back into the water again and managed to get into a rowing boat from a mine sweeper. It was rowed out to the minesweeper by one of the crew. When we finally got to the minesweeper we went down into the hold. I stripped off my wet clothing and put it on pipes to dry. There was a terrific explosion and all the lights went out. We scrambled up on deck, minus clothes, to be told that it had been a very near miss!
We eventually landed at Sheerness. At the dockside we wrote messages for telegrams to be sent home.
I have that telegram here now which was sent to my parents dated 2nd June 1940 and says "Safe in England". signed Reg.
I was 19 years old

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