The men who defined the 'Dunkirk spirit' - BBC News

[Yrys]

The Little Ships at Dunkirk painting - Norman Wilkinson (IWM)

The men who defined the 'Dunkirk spirit'

Veterans of Dunkirk have been reunited, seven decades after the celebrated rescue operation
and ahead of an official reconstruction of the Channel crossing later this month. But what made
the 1940 evacuation mission so special?

Described by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as "a miracle of deliverance", the recovery
of hundreds of thousands of stranded British and French soldiers from Dunkirk during World War
II was no ordinary military operation. The mass evacuation by the Royal Navy involved a still
unknown number of amateur sailors who, for days, risked their lives alongside serving troops in
a remarkable rag-tag flotilla of boats which helped ferry soldiers - trapped by Adolf Hitler's forces
- back across the Channel. And it was this courage and unity in the face of adversity of all those
involved that has come to define what the British now proudly refer to as the "Dunkirk spirit".

'Revolver, ammunition, chocolate'

One of those marking the 70th anniversary at London's Imperial War Museum was Navy veteran
Harold "Vic" Viner, now 93, from Dorking, Surrey, who learned he was to join the mission, known
as Operation Dynamo, after returning from Shanghai. "We dumped our kit, had something to eat
and drink, picked up a revolver with 60 rounds of ammunition and 60 bars of chocolate," he recalls.
"We were then told to go to the parade ground and we got on buses and it was then we were told
we were to go to Dunkirk to assist with the evacuation." Mr Viner, who joined the Navy at the age
of just 15 because there was "no room in the house", recalls the original idea was to use his ship's
whaler and motorboat to travel inshore to pick up the trapped men.

"There were four of us on the whaler. We rowed it to the beach and made four journeys, but then
we looked at each other - and we could see we were sweating blood." But as the civilian "little ships"
joined in, the rescue picked up pace. "Our job then was, amid the chaos, to get the men on the boats.
There were some chaps up to their neck in the water, trying to wade out to sea. "I asked one sergeant
what he was doing, and he said he was 'going home' - he thought he could just cross the water."

Mr Viner spent three days under constant bombardment saving the stranded troops.

"At one point I was in the water with my tin helmet on and my trousers, but I had no top. It had been
blown off." Looking back, Mr Viner, who left the Navy in 1947 but retains the title of the longest-serving
scout in the world, accepts the events of May and June 1940 were seen as a defeat. "But for us to get
360,000 men out of there was a miracle. I am proud and humble to have been involved," he recalls with
a tear in his eye, "to know that I was able to help."

Fellow veteran Eric Roderick, now 91, from Weybridge in Surrey, was just 20 when he was sent to help
those stranded at Dunkirk. The legal executive had been called up in January 1940 and, because of
difficulties with his eyes, he had joined the Royal Army Service Corp. After initial training at Bulford,
Wiltshire, he was sent to Dover without any knowledge of what he was about to face.

"I didn't know where we were going," he recalls. "We got on this boat - not a ferry or anything like
that - and the journey seemed to take a long time. "Then in the distance, we saw some flames - and
one of the men shouted 'That's Dunkirk!' It was ablaze."

'Doing my duty'

Mr Roderick helped distribute much-needed cartons of water to the stranded troops - but it soon became
clear the situation was deteriorating and it become a case of "every man for himself". "I managed to get
on a boat that was full of bedraggled troops who had been on the beaches. I remember saying, 'Is there
room for one more?', and they said, 'We can find room for a little one on the floor'. "Bombs were being
dropped left, right and centre."

After surviving Dunkirk, Mr Roderick was not put off life in the forces and went on to work for the intelligence
corps all over the Middle East. But when he remembers his part in the evacuation, it is not pride he feels.
"I just did my duty - what I was told to do," he adds.

Yet, Nick Hewitt, historian at the Imperial War Museum, is keen to point out just how important the rescue
was and the part played by those such as Mr Viner and Mr Roderick. "Without Dunkirk, Britain wouldn't have
had an Army and it's extremely questionable whether Britain could have fought the war," he explains. Mr Hewitt
gives the credit to the Royal Navy and Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, who led the operation, but also to all the
civilians who helped. "They thought they would bring back 30-40,000. In the end they rescued 338,000 British
and French troops. It's an extraordinary achievement."

And this pulling together of civilians and the military meant an event that could have been seen as a failure
became, in fact, a key turning point in World War II.

"Dunkirk was a military defeat, but it was a symbolic victory," he adds.

 

[medicineman]

My Grandfather was one part of the rear guard and as such, was one of the last ones out of there.  He had to swim out to a destroyer, which brought him back to Dover, where he got on a train to Plymouth, boarded a troop ship and was sent to spend the rest of the war in India and Burma fighting the Japanese.  I'd have to look for the photo, but he's visible on disembarking from the ship in a pic that was taken as it pulled in.

MM

 

[AJFitzpatrick]

Just to add a Canadian note, the First Canadian Division was actually ordered to France in June 1940 after Dunkirk. Only part of it (primarily the Hasty Ps) actually got there before being ordered back to England.

 

[vonGarvin]

Just to add a Canadian note, the First Canadian Division was actually ordered to France in June 1940 after Dunkirk. Only part of it (primarily the Hasty Ps) actually got there before being ordered back to England.

Of course, you mean The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment ;D ("PARATUS!")  Other elements got there as well.  But, too little, too late.

 

[Old Sweat]

According to a report written by then Major CP Stacey, the historical officer at Canadian Military Headquarters, the first troops which included 1 RCHA landed at Brest on 12 June. The battalions of the 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade disembarked at the same port on 14 June. This was the same day it was decided to "put the movement in reverse." The three battalions re-embarked at St. Malo and Brest on 16 June, while the gunners sailed from Brest on the next day.

If I can be excused a bit of gunner chest-beating, it is still a matter of some pride that 1 RCHA was the only artillery unit in France in 1940 to bring its guns back to the UK. The regiment had been ordered to destory its guns, but the CO was able to obtain authority to load as much kit as possible up to 1600 hours. Not only were the regiment's 24 guns saved, but the gunners also loaded 12 40 mm Bofors with seven predictors, three Bren Gun Carriers and several heavy technical trucks. (Four years later LCol RH Webb, who had been a subaltern in 1 RCHA at the time, had the satisfaction of commanding the first Allied guns to return to the continent. At 0830 on 6 June he ordered his unit, the 12th Field Regiment RCA, ashore on Mike Green sector of Juno Beach. The guns came into action on the strip of sand between the high water line and the seawall, while RHQ deployed in the water. The regiment's first fire mission was fired in support of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles at a range of 1400 yards.)

 

[vonGarvin]

Thanks, OS.  That little tidbit is just one of the reasons I enjoy military history as much as I do.  Such as the story of the mascot of The Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment, who was left behind and never recovered.  Chief Petawawamuch was his replacement, and I do recall that some enterprising Plough Jockeys got him a SIN back in the late 70s/early 80s.  Another group were then able to get him some dogtags.  I just wonder if the fine chief has a service number yet?

 

[Green On!]

....of commanding the first Allied guns to return to the continent. At 0830 on 6 June he ordered his unit, the 12th Field Regiment RCA, ashore on Mike Green sector of Juno Beach. The guns came into action on the strip of sand between the high water line and the seawall, while RHQ deployed in the water. The regiment's first fire mission was fired in support of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles at a range of 1400 yards.)

Slightly off topic, and not to belittle the efforts of those who landed on Jun 6th, but I think the gunners who landed in Italy in 1943 have that claim to fame.

 

[vonGarvin]

Green On!:
I think OS means that the exact same guns that returned to the continent after the evacuations of 1940

 

[Green On!]

Green On!:
I think OS means that the exact same guns that returned to the continent after the evacuations of 1940

Ahhh, in that case I take my comment back!

 

[Old Sweat]

Actually I should have said France, rather than Europe. In my defence, I was still under cafeinated at the time.

 

[AJFitzpatrick]

The operation was part of Operation Angel Move; supposedly the British 52nd Division was also going to be part of it as well.

 

[Yrys]

Dunkirk evacuation in maps

The evacuation from Dunkirk of nearly 340,000 troops under "Operation Dynamo" is
one of the most momentous events of World War II. See how the story unfolded in
maps from 27 May-4 June 1940.

German forces advancing rapidly through Belgium and France forced the
British and French troops back around Dunkirk. A brief halt by the Germans
allowed evacuation  of troops to begin under "Operation Dynamo".

Evacuation of British troops started on 26 May. Passenger ferries led the
rescue convoy from Southampton and Dover. Shelling by German troops
forced the ships to take a longer route, to the beaches east of Dunkirk.

Shallow water prevented the big ships getting close to shore so a convoy
of little ships, including pleasure craft, tugs and fishing boats, sailed from
the UK on 29 May. Low cloud and burning oil provided cover for troops to
escape.

The last British troops were brought out on 2 June. With German forces
closing in, only one more night-time evacuation was possible. More than
26,000 French rearguard troopswere rescued that night, bringing the
total saved to 338,226.

 

[57Chevy]

German forces advancing rapidly through Belgium and France forced the
British and French troops back around Dunkirk. A brief halt by the Germans
allowed evacuation  of troops to begin under "Operation Dynamo".

From "The History of World War II" by F T Miller (chapter 19 "The Miracle of Dunkirk") 1945
excerpt:
So, in a wide arc whose center was Dunkirk, the men of three nations stood together, fighting on against a vastly outnumbering enemy
to assure the safety not of themselves, but of their compatriots and comrades. Belgian soldiers, who had scorned their King's order to
cease fire, stood with Fenchmen and with Britons, fired with them, counterattacked with them, and flung themselves to the ground with
them when the black planes swept down. Some hint of what they must have endured, of the sublime courage that must have inspired
them to stand and give their lives for others whom they did not know, always realizing that for them there was no hope, may be found
in the epic of Calais, no less a saga than that of Dunkirk.  Calais, when the Germans struck, was defended by a combined French and British force of but four thousand men. Most of the garrison was French. The British contigent was landed when the German pincers drive threatened to isolate the Allied armies in France from the evacuation ports. Only two orders were given to these four thousand men: keep contact with the British and French forces to the north, and hold Calais!  The Germans took Calais at last; but it did not fall quickly, nor was the victory anything but the hardest. The Germans ranged their long-distance guns against the four thousand, and earthquakes seemed to rock the city. They held out. The Germans brought up tanks, almost to the places where those Frenchmen and Britons stood, and poured cannon and machine-gun fire into every square inch. They held out. The Germans sent planes to bomb and burn them. They held out.  A huge German armoured force cut between the city and the army to the north; it was too strong for the defenders to counterattack. The Germans cut off the Calais garrison's last lines of supply by land. They could not be supplied by sea: every available ship was on Dunkirk run that week. Only by air could they get occasional food for themselves and their guns; and most of the fliers who brought it paid for the gift with their lives. The men of Calais held off two German armoured divisions, an aggregate of four times their numbers, with infinitely more and better weapons; not only held them out of Calais but prevented them from overwhelming the last port open, just a few miles up the coast. During the four days of battle, the garrison had kept in communication with other Allied forces. After those days, there was silence. A Royal Navy vessel risked its hull and its crew to look for survivors.  The navy found the survivors and took them safely out; all that were left of four thousand men were thirty exhausted soldiers.                                                                                                               


A brief halt ?

 

[Yrys]

In pictures: Dunkirk evacuation

14 pictures on the above BBC link