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Narrowboat rescues soldiers at Dunkirk


King Learie

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4 minutes ago, johnthebridge said:

My old man joined up in '38 (Royal West Kents) and the following year his battalion became part of the BEF, sent to Belgium soon after the outbreak of war. He told me they spent much time digging trenches there in anticipation of a Great War style campaign, an assumption that was completely unfounded. He was very reluctant to speak of his experiences, but did also tell me that the battalion was stationed by a large canal, across from which the Germans were based.

He and his brother ended up on the beach at Dunkirk, where a passing Ju 87 caused mayhem, killing several of the battalion and injuring, amongst others, his brother. In staying with him and refusing to get in to the water to board a vessel, he and his brother were captured and spent the next four and a half years as POWs. He tried to escape on several occasions, but was always recaptured. He was very bitter about the whole sorry affair. In an attempt to recognise what he'd been through and unbeknown to him, I managed to obtain a Dunkirk medal when they were being offered (sometime in the '70s I think), but he turned it down, saying that he wasn't brave, but foolish for joining up. I think something like 55,000 were taken prisoner at Dunkirk, a subject which, it seems to me, never gets much mention.

My father was 18 when he joined up, and about 24 when released from internment. He suffered severe psychological problems for the rest of his life because of that experience, a fact that, even now, can still make me very angry. 

I was watching a documentary about the dunkirk evacuation the other day and it came to my mind about the guys who were captured at Dunkirk spending the rest of the war as POWs. Far too little is made of the damage suffered by soldiers of WW2, we hear of "shell shock" from WW1 and the PTSD of Iraq and Afghanistan but the psychological scars of WW2 and even the Falklands is too often ignored in the guff about victory and winning the conflicts.

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1 minute ago, AMModels said:

I was watching a documentary about the dunkirk evacuation the other day and it came to my mind about the guys who were captured at Dunkirk spending the rest of the war as POWs. Far too little is made of the damage suffered by soldiers of WW2, we hear of "shell shock" from WW1 and the PTSD of Iraq and Afghanistan but the psychological scars of WW2 and even the Falklands is too often ignored in the guff about victory and winning the conflicts.

Absolutely right Andy. You well?

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Gallipoli ? My Dad was there too - as a 14yr-old civilian marine engineering apprentice [he'd been accepted at the age of 12yrs] , aboard one of the supply-carrying steamers. He was strictly forbidden to try going ashore, though he was in nominal charge of six 30ft launches built by his Apprentice-Master's Southend-on-Sea "Viking Marine Engineering Works, Prop. Mr. Geo Davis", - under an Admiralty Contract. Mr Davies' Contract said the boats had to be delivered to an Admiralty Representative at Tilbury Docks, accompanied by an engineer to teach the Navy crews how to run the Viking-Engineering's new-design "oil-engines". If that didn't happen, the Viking Works wouldn't get paid. Dad - a waterfront kid who had grown up around small boats; and had been closely involved in the building and fitting out of the 6 launches, - was the only "spare-hand" Mr Davies had available to send to take the launches up to Tilbury. The voyage up-river to deliver the boats was only a few hours trip, not dangerous, easily done in one Flood Tide; and surely the Navy would waive the  Contractual "teacher Requirement", if given written instructions onstead?  Dad had delivered the 6 little M/L's  - one towing the other five upriver from Southend-on-Sea; and they were loaded as deck cargo aboard a Steamer due to sail for Gallipoli on the next tide. But the Navy Receiving Officer wouldn't sign-off the Contract unless that "teacher" was provided. According to my father, telegrams went to-and-fro; and a couple of the new "telephone calls" were made, the Navy agreed to accept Dad as the "teacher"on the voyage out, and in the Gallipoli Anchorage; my Grandmother gave her permission for Dad to go - 'so long as it wasn't dangerous'; the Steamer's Skipper agreed to the arrangement - he had to - Dad still being a Minor; the Navy Receiving Officer signed-off on the Contract - and the steamer sailed. And that's how Dad finished-up offshore in the Gallopoli Anchorage at the age of 14 yrs, teaching 6 boats' crews much older than him how to operate and maintain the Viking Works' new "oil-engines". He never mentioned how long he was out there - I assume only until the Steamer had discharged all the rest of her military stores, - and he came safely home, now with a blue-water sea voyage to talk about; and joined the Navy as soon as they would accept him in 1917. He signed-up for a career hitch; served until 1922 when the Geddes 'Axe' started the post-War Navy rundown and he was told that he'd have to wait 11 years for a Commission, coming up from the Lower Deck as he would have been, though he had gotten Wartime accelerated promotion to PO, MEM by the time he used the Geddes Scheme's offer to leave the Navy early, and taken the Bounty for doing so.

  • Greenie 2
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Thames Sailing Barges at Dunkirk. 33 were requisitioned,  and 16 actually made it across the Channel, with the ill thought-out ideas of A] loading them with stores and deliberately beaching them [that was when there was still the hope that Dunkirk could be held as a bridgehead] and Barbara Jean and Ethel Everard were two of those.   And/or B] sinking enough of them to form improvised piers for shallower draft- vessels to come along collect troops and ferry out to the larger vessels in deep water. THAT idea was seen to be unworkable when some NO with practical experience of small boats* worked-out how many would be needed to form a useful pier of any length  on the very shallow beaches [* - Small boat training had been de-emphasized in the inter-wars Royal Navy as harbour facilities improved worldwide, and warships no longer had to conduct lots of beach landings and boarding operations-at-sea of suspected Smugglers, so inter-War junior and middle-ranking Naval Officers (aka NO's) as a group - had little experience of small boat work. Those who'd done that during 1914-18 had risen up the Ranks of the Service or taken retirement; and the younger one's hadn't had the chances.]Three of the barges that were ordered to be deliberately beached, full of stores, - were actually refloated by the rising tides and -  crewed by desperate soldiers  - made their way back into English Waters, where they were sighted by patrolling ships, and towed into English Ports.

And the iron Wherry - "Gainsborough Trader"? On May 27th, 1940 she was one of a little fleet of six motorized barges or 'motor lighters' maintaining a daily 'small goods'-carrying service between Portsmouth, The Isle of Wight, and Southampton. Five of these little vessels  - all under 60 tons displacement -  were owned by Pickfords, - the sixth by Vectis Shipping.  All of their civilian crews volunteered for the "special Duty under Vice-Admiral, Dover"*, after they'd signed the Official Secrets Act and had the "work" explained to them. [* The new National Government didn't announce the BEF's evacuation to the French until May 31st] The Pickford's motor lighters  were Bat, Bee, Chamois, Hound,  and MFH* [*-Gainsborough Trader which had been re-named by Pickfords when they bought her for the Isle-of-Wight small-goods-carriage Service, -  the picture of her is before the change of ownership]. There is a contemporary photo of the Pickford's vessels altogether on a trot at Ramsgate during the Dynamo Operation, see below.  They came, they did their ferrying work, and they went back to the Solent area and just carried on with their normal daily duties after June 3rd, 1940. One of them -I forget which one -had run her diesel engine for 92 hours without a stop, during the Operation.  And one of the crews had a stowaway - the 12year-old nephew of an engineer who normally acted as boatboy when not at school; and who wasn't going to be left out of the "big lark"  - so he stowed away, with a bottle of Pop and a bag of sandwiches - until the little fleet was well on it's way up the coast towards Ramsgate and he knew the Skipper wouldn't turn back to put-him-ashore. And THAT makes him the youngest volunteer to take part in the Dunkirk evacuation!

 

Dunkirk_Pickfords'  boats in Ramsgate to refuel before returning to beaches.jpg

Dunkirk -Pickford's MV MFH , 48DWT, rescued 140 soldiers.jpg

Edited by L.J. WILSON
spelling corrections.
  • Greenie 1
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There's  an intro section of 12 pages on <academia.edu> under the Title - "To Rescue our Soldiers". The full paper is 180 closely typed A4-sized pages, and if you want to have access to download the full Paper - the product of over 50 years researches into our Family History gaining snippets of info here and there;  and two years daily work writing it all up into a Paper which is nearly book-length with copious illustrations and explanatory notes, the price for a download link to Dropbox for the full pdf is £15.99. You send me a cheque -and when it has cleared, I'll send you the Dropbox URL.

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"Gainsborough Trader" aka MFH which was the acronym for "Master of Foxhounds", BTW. Motor cargo vessel of 48 tons, originally built of steel as a Humber Keel [or Wherry]. Boat Length: 21.64M  Boat Beam: 4.96M  Boat Draft: 1.5M Boat Displacement:  48.16 tons   Boat Engine as of 2017: Kelvin 4 cyl Diesel    Boat Construction: Steel;  Boat Builder: Richard Dunston Ltd  

Built in 1931 as a flour barge and originally named the Gainsborough Trader, she was the first steel Humber Keel to have a motor as well as her sails and still retains her original Kelvin diesel engine, known as 'Harriet'. (Previously these vessels were either sailing barges or steam powered).
MFH moved from the Humber to the Thames when Pickfords bought her as a lighter for their Port of London operation. From there she was transferred to their Isle-of-Wight "small cargo"-carrying Trade.

MFH was requisitioned from Pickfords by the Southampton Area Naval Officer of the Small Vessels Pool, along with the other 5 vessels of that little Solent area fleet of motor lighters.

Captained by her civilian Skipper  WH. Smith, with her usual crew, - she arrived via Ramsgate in Dunkirk during a bombing raid on 31st May 1940. At Ramsgate, she would have loaded more fuel, and Victuals, andbeen issued instructions for Courses to steer that would have taken her through the minefields. See the attached copy of the sailing instructions issued, and a Map of the 3 Routes used by the Evacuation Fleet.   At first MFH ferried troops from the beaches to the larger, much-deeper-draught  vessels a mile-and-more offshore. Then she was ordered to the Mole to pick up 140 men and take them all the way back to England. According to Russell Plummer's notes she reached Ramsgate around 1000hrs Daylight Saving Time [aka DST], on June 1st, and landed 140 men. John S. de Winser's exhaustive Listings - taken from the contemporary Notes compiled by the Harbour Control Officers of  the NOiC Ramgate, Capt. Phillimore - give the same arrival day and time, but only Lists 87 men as landed at Ramsgate. However - with Thames Sailing Barges of similar Tonnage noted as having packed-aboard over 200 men into the hold-spaces and on deck, it is almost certain that MFH was lifting 150--or more -   exhausted soldiers from the beaches every ferrying trip she made - and in a night's duration she could have made five or six trips between the beaches and the larger vessels  a mile offshore. "Little ships" departures from Ramsgate were timed to let them arrive off-the-beaches at dusk, work through the night hours and be away from the beaches by "false-dawn" - which was around 0450hrs DST on June 1st, 1940., to have the best chances of avoiding Air  attack. So calculate she arrived off the beaches around 2130hrs DST on May 31st.  The totals of the soldiers ferried out to larger ships were seldom noted by any Skipper in the heat of the Operation - only the numbers landed at English Ports. So I'd guess that overnight May 31st -  MFH may have ferried over 800 men off the beaches, in addition to the 140 she is alleged to have lifted from the Harbour Mole. She was probably ordered back to England because of lack of fuel "on-location"; plus her civilian crew must have been absolutely exhausted.

 

 

Dover to Dunkirk Routing instructions_Paper-sized.jpg

UK-NWE-Flanders-routes to & from Dunkirk.jpg

Edited by L.J. WILSON
  • Greenie 1
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Thanks to this thread producing a contact, I now have another 3 Sprits'l Barges from Leigh-on-Sea, requisitioned for Operation Dynamo. Owned by Wm Theobalds, T/as Leigh Building [Supply] Co. Ltd. None of them reached the beaches - two were never sent out from Ramsgate; and two were towed across, damaged en-route, and returned, towed back to Ramsgate by the steam Tug SUN III [ Tugmaster's Log.] That means 36 civilian "little ships were requisitioned from the Southend-on-Sea Foreshore, not 33 as I  thought I had fully identified in my paper. Southend-on-Sea's watermen contributed more little ships to the Dunkirk Evacuation's "inshore flotilla" than any other Home Port in Britain.

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On 7/12/2017 at 16:07, L.J. WILSON said:

"Gainsborough Trader" aka MFH which was the acronym for "Master of Foxhounds", BTW. Motor cargo vessel of 48 tons, originally built of steel as a Humber Keel [or Wherry]. Boat Length: 21.64M  Boat Beam: 4.96M  Boat Draft: 1.5M Boat Displacement:  48.16 tons   Boat Engine as of 2017: Kelvin 4 cyl Diesel    Boat Construction: Steel;  Boat Builder: Richard Dunston Ltd  

Built in 1931 as a flour barge and originally named the Gainsborough Trader, she was the first steel Humber Keel to have a motor as well as her sails and still retains her original Kelvin diesel engine, known as 'Harriet'. (Previously these vessels were either sailing barges or steam powered).

Gainsborough Trader is at present moored in South Dock (Rotherhithe).  Looks rather smart.  

20170713_153658.jpg.21049ee4fc4be7c40271123e25073c4e.jpg

 

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