Dunkirk Remembered 70yrs on..!! A Thank you from me..

I have found listening to survivors of this rescue today most enlightening for some reason.. I have only seen snippets on the Internet, but it seems as though suddenly I can now understand my uncles.. !! :dh:
I lost one relative at Dunkirk & 2 uncles made it back... They never talked about it much when asked would always just say.. "I did my bit but it was a defeat"... Now today I think perhaps for the first time I understand it more now than I ever did... No sure if this is age or what............
They did as they were told to the letter.... As our guys do today I know..!! Never even considered any other way..

Winston Churchill made many mistakes in his life, but to me he always has & will be, the only person who could have/ & did get us through all that sheer hell..
Now I feel it is my turn to respect & honour all those WW2 Veterans, people who I have always known what they they did & why in a different way............ Now I feel that spirit of pride in ones country & of "pulling together" is almost lost forever... s00kOh no have I finally grown old..???:flag:

So my thanks to all gave up their lives or served through those years to make it a better world for us all..!!!! :gnthb:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8707657.stm

 

:thumb: My sentiments exactly Pal.. :thumb:

 

Some of our relatives have some amazing stories to tell us, but living it for them must have been something else.. People from those times don't say allot & when we find out what some of them went through it is very harrowing.. Yet after the war they were expected to get on with their lives if it didn't happen... Life is not kind or idyllic although we might like to think so at times..

 

We have a lot to thank them for.

My father was also at Dunkirk and had a terrible experience. Being a strong swimmer he swam off the beach and reached the destroyer HMS Wakeful on May 29th. This ship was almost full, with 640 soldiers aboard. Dad was asleep, exhausted at 11.30pm as the ship slipped out of the bay under cover of darkness. Unfortunately a German E-boat was waiting for them around and hit with 2 torpedoes at point blank range. The Wakeful sank within 15seconds. Somehow Dad escaped, after initially being trapped by one leg, as he climbed the ladder out of the hold one of the soldiers stood on his face, he said “sorry mate”, Dad bore a red boot mark on his face for a very long time. Of the 640 soldiers in the hold it was reported that only one survived, Jim Kane. 25 Ships crew did survive this sinking, including the captain, they were lucky enough to have lifejackets. By a terrible coincidence my Dad's childhood friend was a stoker on board and went down in the ship.

After many hours in the sea Dad got picked up by another Destroyer, this was HMS Grafton. It was firing its guns and he could see it was lowering a whaler boat over the side, which eventually picked him up. Before they could get back to the Grafton, it too was hit by torpedoes and had to be abandoned, in the confusion our ships fired on each other, and killed many of our own men in a whaler next to Dad's. My Dad eventually mad it to home on a requisitioned Channel Ferry.

On that day 47,400 men were rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk by the boats of the evacuation fleet.

My Father went on to fight with the Desert Rats in North Africa and was captured when the Tobruk garrison surrendered in 1942 and he spent the rest of the war in Italian and German POW camps.

Unfortunately Dad died a couple of months ago, I know he would have taken a keen interest in the 70th anniversary.

Just a few years ago divers had to move the wreck of the torpedoed destroyer and he was invited to Portsmouth to view the salvaged nameplate, http://www.culture24.org.uk/places+to+go/yorkshire/art22986

 

Yes we can never thank them enough.He never spoke about it at all,and when I discovered some medals and Salvage papers in a box one day he said put it back where you found it.

(Malta and Atlantic Convoys)

My dad served on the HMS Penn,I still have a little silver cross which a lady gave him when he stepped ashore.

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Malta Convoy
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Despite continuing attacks, the Royal Navy destroyers HMS Ledbury and HMS Penn managed to lash the disabled tanker between them. Then with the help of the destroyer HMS Bramham and the minesweeper HMS Rye the crippled tanker was taken in tow for Malta. Ohio, her precious cargo and her Royal Navy rescuers arrived triumphantly at Valletta on the afternoon of August 15th.