Percy Smith's War Diary - Part 6

One afternoon several of us were parked in a barn, and one of the lads came in and said that Jerry was only five miles down the road and that we were in for a rough time as they had shot fifteen planes down over Dunkirk the previous day. It was in this location that, as we looked into the distance, we could see what turned out to be our first glimpse of the great pall of smoke coming from Dunkirk itself. It would seem that a large oil depot was burning — it must have lasted two or three weeks. Later in the afternoon, on going along to the makeshift cookhouse which was situated on the corner of the street, some of the lads were digging a trench and the Sgt. Major was heard to tell the Sgt., ‘When they come round the corner, hold ‘em’ , the assumption being that the Germans were that close. By great fortune, this was not required and soon we found ourselves in another location. It was fairly late evening, the vehicles were parked in the usual way, under trees down a country road. There had been a fair amount of minor German air activity most of the day, but darkness brought a relief to this. As it got dark, however, the sky became more and more lit up with the reflection of the huge fires from Dunkirk itself. In small groups, with our heads inside our tin hats, we settled down in the ditch for the night, trying to get some sleep. This was not very successful because at about midnight a dispatch rider came down the road and told each driver to demobilise his lorry and get to the top of the road as quickly as he could or he would be left behind. There really wasn’t much time to do anything effective other than pull ignition leads out, or put a pickaxe through the petrol tank or radiator. As we made our way to the end of the road we couldn’t help noticing that on a nearby railway line there were heavy guns which had not been there when we’d arrived.

So, we got to the end of the road as instructed and all the company that was left was assembled there. In charge were a 2nd Lt. and a Sgt. Major. There were about five or six lorries that had been kept mobile, which were loaded with supplies. We were told to get aboard as best and as quickly as we could. No sooner done than the vehicles moved off. We had no idea where we were going or what was going to happen next. The only lights on the vehicles were those shining on the rear axles. Eventually we came to a part where either it was marshland or else the countryside had been flooded. The direction seemed to have been marked out with white tape (or torn linnen) and now and again there would be a dim lamp. Most of what light there was seemed to be coming from the reflections from Dunkirk.

Dunkirk

Someone on our lorry had a good look at the stores and found that there were cases of tins of pineapple, so needless to say — further action taken and there we were in the middle of a war in the middle of the night in an army lorry, eating pineapple to our hearts content. It seemed quite mad. We came at last to the edge of a small seaside town — it was called La Panne. We were ordered out of the lorries and formed up three ranks and marched about half a mile through the town to the seafront and the beach. We seemed to be about four miles or so east of Dunkirk. It was just daybreak, the tide was out and we could see the outline of a large ship, high and dry, and lines of soldiers stretching out into the water in the exact way that has so often been seen in pictures of one sort or another so many years since. La Panne itself was actually just over the border into Belgium, something we would be reminded of two or three days later.

For some time we had been on half rations but by this time the ration system had completely broken down. Generally there was food about, and you got it more by luck than organisation. Also there would still be an occasional café still open for business, but there was always tea and the cook always seemed to have some means of heating water, even when we arrived at the seafront. We stayed around at the corner of the street, facing the seafront, while the 2nd Lt. and the Sgt. Major went away, apparently to make some enquiries about our chances of getting on a boat. However, on their return, it was no chance at this stage, so it was decided to make this corner of the street our headquarters. We couldn’t stay in one place indefinitely, so we had to report back here at given times for information. First of all however, as there were so many units gathering on the beaches and in the town, and there was no chance of getting away anyway, we were marched to a kind of park and dispersed under some trees.

As it was now full daylight, the German planes were giving plenty of attention. Occasionally the RAF would appear and they would certainly do their best but they were very outnumbered. Close by, one of our pilots had to bail out, sadly his parachute failed to open. As we were there some time, I remember trying to dig a slit trench with the butt of a rifle, without much success. Eventually we formed up and marched back to the seafront and were told to report back at a certain time. As the German raids continued, the local population would sometimes give some of us shelter in their houses, for which we were grateful, especially as they were rather caught up in the middle of all this.

Fortunately the Navy had quite a strong presence offshore and though they didn’t appear to actually shoot many planes down, at least they kept them at arm’s length, or it would have been a different story for us. Except for reporting to ‘headquarters’ (corner of the street) at the given times, we were left with our mates to our own devices for most of the time in the beach area. This would have been about 27th May and though the Luftwaffe did take a break now and again, they were never very far away and it was difficult to know where the safest place was. The beach was more dangerous from their machine guns but not so much from the bombs, as they would tend to sink into the soft sand, but in town it seemed to be the other way round. Although many soldiers were obviously being taken off by boat, even at this stage most of us were still not quite sure what was going to happen to us. One thing was certain in that the situation was getting worse and most of us wondered what the next 24 hours would bring. A mate and myself were walking back from the town to the beach one afternoon and met one of our corporals sitting in a bus shelter. He looked as though he had had quite a rough day, he looked up and said “Smudger (Smith), if I ever gets back out of this I’ll never worry about another bloody thing as long as I live”. I’m happy to say he did get back.

The Navy were doing a wonderful job, every time the Luftwaffe appeared they let fly with everything they had, mostly with Beufor guns. We called them Pom Poms from the noise they made and although it sounded like all hell let loose, it was sweet music to us. Sadly, I think it must have been the second day on the beach, we could see quite clearly two Naval ships going down. This sort of thing made one feel quite sick.

When things were quiet one of our lads, who had brought his piano accordion would sit on a sand dune and play it in a real professional way. I can remember ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’ and ‘It’s a lovely day tomorrow’ had a strange relationship to our situation at the time.

During our guard duties with the B.E.F. on very cold nights, there would sometimes be a rum ration issued by the orderly officer. This was real navy stuff that came in one gallon stone bottles. Unfortunately, some of these were around at the time of the evacuation with the result that I feel sure some chaps were left behind with the after effects. I do not say this was by any means a general thing but I’m sure it did happen.

Efforts were always being made to block roads with anything that might be laid hands on, and one evening, while in the beach area, a mate and myself came upon a large army staff car which was broadside across the road. Among the contents inside was a large leather case with large letters in the name of Gort. It was in fact his last GHQ in La Panne.

At about this time there appeared some of the now famous little ships which had come across the open sea from England. I don’t know if we really realised the true value of what they were doing at the time, I now feel each one should have had the VC. Our job was to get away as best we could, as soon as we could. Their job was to go back and forward from the beach to the ships with very little protection, all the time.
There was one part of the beach where at low tide army lorries were being driven into the water, one behind each other so as to form a jetty for chaps to get into the larger boats.

It was perhaps, the second night in La Panne, that some of us managed to get shelter for the night in a boat house where there was a large boat and lots of boat gear. Somehow we managed to get a bit of sleep until the dreaded daylight and the Luftwaffe would start again. It seemed that most of the time the proprietor or owner of the boathouse was in attendance, presumably to keep an eye on the contents while the place was full of the army. With the little boats coming over from England, one or two of the lads said that if he didn’t get that boat out of there and into the sea, they would ‘do him’, however, next day it was in the sea.

At about this time Belgium gave in, having very little choice. As we were on their side of the border it meant that from now on and not knowing how far away the Germans might be, they were not very keen on giving us any shelter in air raids. To add further to our discomfort, now and again there was an odd rifle fire, which was rather a mystery. I never saw anyone hurt from this however.

All this time we constantly reported to our ‘headquarters’, I have never been quite certain how long we were actually there, days didn’t matter, you lived from hour to hour. On the last day a mate and myself were about quite early, seeing what we could find to eat, with the result that in an abandoned vehicle on the seafront we found a tin of bacon and a dehydrated Christmas pudding, which at least kept us from starving. Our valiant cook was still managing tea at the corner of the street. Having had to report about this time, we formed up and were marched down to the beach, hoping to go straight onto a boat. We halted however, close to a black merchant boat that was high and dry on the sand as it was low tide. We were told that it was loaded with thousands of cases of food supplies which would have to be taken off before there was a chance to go on board. Needless to say, no time was lost and everyone got stuck in. We formed a chain gang making a huge dump up the beach. This made some means of cover when the Luftwaffe appeared, although on this particular day it seemed to be comparatively peaceful, which was very welcome. At one point during this work, one of the cases containing cigarettes got broken and of course some of the chaps took advantage of this until a Lieutenant came up, pulled out his revolver and told them to put them back, as they were for the chaps at the front fighting the rearguard for our benefit, which after all was correct. Being on the beach, one half of the sky was completely blacked out with the huge pall of black smoke coming from the burning oil tanks at Dunkirk, so much so that the German planes sometimes used this for cover, would fly through it, pop out and raid and then fly back into it.

One Divisional Commander who got special mention for evacuating his division in good order was a certain Major General B.L. Montgomery, who we were to hear much more about later in the war.

There was an occasion when a squadron of Spitfires came down the beach, everyone cheered, just as they opened fire. It was either ‘friendly fire’ or perhaps these planes had been captured and the Germans were using them.

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