Percy Smith's War Diary - Part 7

Evacuation

Keeping track of time was not always easy but I suppose it could have been about five or six in the afternoon when we were called off our work and formed into three ranks, ready it seemed to march off to a boat. As the tide was now coming in, the boats which had been high and dry all day were now floating in shallow water and every effort was being made to get as many troops on board as possible. We had just about formed up when the first formation of German dive bombers came down the beach and it was every man for himself, without any orders being given. There were, close by, two coastal paddle steamers, one to the right and one to the left, as it were. I don’t believe there was any time to think, but leaving my kit and boots on the beach, I made for the boat on the left. I could not swim at that time and I was still about a dozen yards from the boat when I was out of my depth. But as enemy planes were now coming over one after the other, the next thing I remember. I was clambering up the side of the boat. It must have been mind over matter! Up to then it had been comparatively a fairly quiet day, but thinking it over afterwards, it seemed that Gerry knew the tide would be coming in, in the evening; therefore he saved up his effort until then, when all the boats would be full.

From then on, throughout the whole of the evening, it was a complete and savage battle. The Luftwaffe were determined to press home their attack, while the Navy, the R.A.F. and such defences as there were on the Merchant ships were equally determined to fight back. For myself, once on the boat, I suppose I must have rather ‘taken stock’. The boat had a top deck mainly in the open and a lower deck below. These ran the whole length of the ship. The engine room was on the lower deck, halfway down in the middle where there were two big engines, each driving each of the paddle wheels independently. In control was the Chief Engineer, situated between these engines, and subject to orders from the Captain. On this occasion it was like a scene from a film of high drama, as in the midst of all this battle, the Chief Engineer was wrestling with the controls trying to manoeuvre the boat off the soft sand into clear water, with a worried look and sweat pouring down his face. After some time he managed it.

It did not seem to me however that this was the safest part of the boat if anything went wrong. On the other hand, it was not exactly healthy on top. The boat was very full by this time and one thing I could not understand was that a lot of chaps wanted to see what was going on upstairs, but when we came under attack, they would make a run for cover down the stairs. It seemed to me that we were under enough risk as it was, so generally I thought that down below, but close to the stairs, was best.

There had been such confusion when running for the boat that I only found one other chap from my company, so we made the best of it. In its way it was up to then the most terrifying evening of our lives. We knew the attack would not stop while it was daylight so we prayed hard for it to get dark.

In all this, much happened that I was unaware of until I got back to the re-forming of the company some three weeks later. I mentioned earlier that when we were on the beach, there was the choice of one of two boats where we were standing, and I ran for the boat on the left. As it turned out, the one on the right was bombed and as it sank, a number of the company were lost, including the Sgt. Major who had been largely responsible for organising our evacuation. This was very sad. The only officer who remained with us throughout the evacuation, however, returned safely.

It has also been mentioned previously that one of the lads played his piano accordion on the beach during the quieter moments. During the rush for the boat in the first raid, he did not realise that he had left it on the beach, so he decided to get off the boat, against advice, and he went back and got it. He said “The bastards are not having that”. Both he and the accordion got back safely, even although this was the boat that was sunk a short time after.

One of the company on the same boat was a Lance Corporal. We called him Ali Baba as his surname was Barber. He was almost a double for Cpl. Jones in Dad’s Army many years later. As the ship was sinking, He stepped straight out onto a raft with the result that when we got back they said he was the only man who was shipwrecked at Dunkirk without getting his feet wet.

Without exaggeration, the bombardment continued the whole evening until, thankfully, it was dark and at least in our boat, we survived. I thought that once it was dark and it wasn’t that far across the channel, we would be in England before it got light. It was many years later when I read a book about it, that I learned that these boats had to take a long way round past a minefield.

With the chap I had met from my own company, we settled down as best we could on the floor of the deck. The strange thing was that although I had got on the boat out of the sea, I never remember being bothered with being wet. I was sorry to have lost all my kit, which had quite a lot of personal and useful things which I had collected. Also I had no boots, though looking round the boat there was a pair of Belgian Army boots which had most likely come from a train which had been bombed in Dunkirk. Together we also found a tin of pilchards though it wasn’t easy getting it open. I really do not know if we managed to sleep or not, but at least the night had thankfully been quiet. We had no idea of the time but it was daylight and the sun was shining down the gangway, so upstairs we went and to my horror we were the only boat in the wide open sea, there was no land in sight so that if one enemy plane appeared that would have been it. However most of the chaps seemed in good spirits, there was tea to be had, if you had something to drink out of, and as the saying goes — we were all in the same boat. Apparently the machine gunner on the side of the boat had brought down two planes in the attack and it was afterwards claimed that over 150 German planes had been brought down the previous day in the Dunkirk area.

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