The Little Ships of Dunkirk

This week is the 70th Anniversary of the evacuation of the beaches of Dunkirk, where 338,000 allied troops (British, French, Dutch and Belgian) were evacuated from Dunkirk. Frank's father - (Frank) was one of these allied soldiers, Frank believes his Dad actually received word of the evacuation when he was in Lille, and to reach Dunkirk, had to travel with his platoon in a Brengun Carrier. The Germans were moving in very fast, but fortunately, he did reach the beach, and was evacuated safely with 338,000 others. Map below shows an outline.

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This hastily arranged fleet of about 700 "small" vessels (mainly from south coast of England), ranging from pleasure craft, sailing yachts to fishing boats and paddle steamers to ferries and lifeboats - manned by experienced sailors and raw volunteers! Also some Dutch shallow hulled Coasters assisted - (39 of these and a few Belgian Canal boats that had escaped the Germans when both Holland and Belgium were occupied a few days earlier) joined this Armada. The 700 plus boats worked under a hail of German bombs, to take the troops off the beaches and ferry them to the larger ships for transport back to England. The troops left the majority of their weaponry/belongings on the beach, so the ulitmate number could travel on each craft. Many many repeat trips were made by these little ships/craft. 1300 nurses attended to the injured on the beach, and sadly 5,000 allied troops did not make it across the channel, they were captured when the Germans reached Dunkirk on June 4th.

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Below is a painting of the evacuation from the beaches of Dunkirk - known as "Operation Dynamo" happening between May 27 and June 4th, 1940. I have read that for Britons, the phrase "Dunkirk Spirit" still sums up defiant courage. A huge percentage of these men and women, including Frank's dad, went back to fight again until the WWII was won and Britain and most of Europe was safe. They were selfless and brave souls!

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Ramsgate Harbour - England on May 24th 2010

Some 60 "little ships", many of them the original rescuing craft - gather together prior to sailing to Dunkirk last week to commemorate this event, or in Winston Churchill's words - "miracle of deliverance." I have read that some of the original little ships have actually motored up from Spain for this Memorial.

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