A bit of a coincidence.

[R.G.C]

R.G.C.


I was staggered when I read on the back of Jonathan Fenby's book...

'' A fortnight after the evacuation at Dunkirk some 150,000 British were still stuck in France.''

http://books.simonandschuster.co.uk/Sin ... 0743489430



I read elsewhere that 338'000 British and French troops were taken off the beaches at Dunkirk.

A further 220,000 were taken off at Cherbourg, (my dad was one) St Malo, Brest and St Nazaire.

I believe that 40,000 were taken into captivity.

Have to admit that my interest is mainly still with WW1. so apart from general knowledge I'm not very well up to speed historically speaking on WW11.

Jenks

Jenks,

Nor really me, WW2 interest is mainly about the Battle of Normandy as I live where it exactly ended (bottom of Falaise-Chambois gap. BTW, the official commemoration of the end of battle is this afternoon ans I will be there) and for WW1 because I was born in Plug Street (my morher hept saying 'we were the 'Mademoiselles from Armentiers". She was evacuated from the area in 1915 I think) and it happend I grew up between 1941-1944 exactky on the batle of Fromelles site ( 'Le Vieux Bridoux' hamlet facing Fromelles). I am sure I played on the field where the discovery happend recntly. I visited the new cimetary last year on my return from Bisley.

In 1940, we were living in the eastern suburbs of Lille, on the highway Lille-Bruxelles, and we watched inteminable columns of prisonneers marching to Germany. The civliians were doing what hey could for them, cookong soup and coffee. I remember the british ones (not very numerous), marching in organised order with officers heading as to compared to the french "debandade". I could write quite a few anecdotes on this, as my souvenirs are stll entirely intact.

In 1944, we saw an other 'debandade' in the same direction who makes us much more happier. One of the things I rremember much was lorries rolling with no tires on rear axles, rolling directly on the flanges!!!. A young girl of my age was shot in the ankle just other side of the road, simply because, we think as we saw no other reason, she was laughing on the pavement beside the road. This was followed a few days after by the liberation by the Canadians. Also, here, the image of a convoi of "cheniletes (Bren carriers?) is the image printed in my head as the first one of the 'Liberation'...
R.C.C

[Jenks]

R.C.C.

'Mademoiselles from Armentiers". She was evacuated from the area in 1915 I think)

My great uncle and grandfather March with their Battalion 1/4th Leicestershire Regt. Marched through Armentie'res in the afternoon of Friday 26th March 1915 on their way to Billets in a factory at Le Bizet. On the night of 4th April 1915 they entered the trenches for the first time on the western slope of the 'Messines Ridge at a place called 'Spanbroekmolen' .

Going back to the subject of Dunkirk I have a friend who was killed on the retreat to Dunkirk he an four others were resting after a night patrol when they were killed by a bomb dropped from a 'Stuka' They are buried in the municipal cemetery at Comines. on the French side of the town.

[Robin128]

My Mrs' uncle got Military Medal after Dunkirk...something to do with volunteering to 'borrow' a German half track to pick up, behind enemy lines, several of our troops who had been cut off. He almost blew it when he didn't know how to start it...floor button, but got away with it by wearing a German helmet (whilst in British battle clothes) kindly left on the seat...and kept replying YAA to the passing enemy. His Army job was a motor byke rider/messenger.

He was quite a character, really got on with him...can remember him telling me a tale about when he was FD of a Renault Dealership in Swansea and added up the work sheets one day to find there were 72 hours in a day. :lol:

Nothing scared him...but he was a tiny little chap...physically.

[Jenks]

As previously posted, my Dad had a hell of a time on the Med in the 40s, 5 air attacks in one night on the Phoebe being just one example...but could never get him to repeat that anecdote. Only to be retired with TB and then have to father 3 kids...dieing when I was 16 and he 63.

All the worse when one has retired early with a bad back.

Robin..

After flying training in Canada my old Dad came home in an Armed Merchant Cruiser.

. Setting sail from Halifax in a recently converted liner into an armed merchant cruiser, the skipper said that the guns would be tested and a broadside salvo would be fired first from the port side followed by the starboard side. The target was just a speck on the horizon and we were all assembled on deck to see the effect. What happened next I don’t think was anticipated. Practically every pane of glass on the liner was broken and the target was sunk. The captain then announced that will be all for today, and we will be going flat out for home.

A few nights later we were woken by the explosion of depth charges and alarm sounding to go to boat stations. We were later stood down and informed there had been a “U” boat pack in the area.

Jenks

[Robin128]

It was a long time ago but my old man recounted the use of depth charges...after the firing of the ones from port and starboard they would roll what looked like oil drums off the back...and when the inevitable explosion came up and the base was black...that usually meant a sunk U boat. Their ships hit many but also dodged a number of fish.

Bro who used to be in silent service states that if depth charge explodes within 100s of yards of sub, because of hydrostatic effect, it normally meant curtains, contrary to WW2 films.

[Sim G]

I'm coming to this thread late.....

In 1939, my grandfather was a regular in the Northumberland Fusiliers, as was great uncle Doug. Both set sail with the BEF and both were evacuated from Dunkirk.

Both of them then soldiered on throughout the war, both surviving and being demobed in 1946. The thing is, my great grandmother, their mother, had 5 sons, 4 in the army and one in the navy. All five went through WW2 and all five survived. That is something else on it's own, but great uncle Kit (Christopher) served with the Northumberland Fusiliers from 1915 and saw the majority of WW1 and as he reached the rank of WO2 before demob from that event, he rejoined the army, Durham Light Infantry in 1940 at 42 years old!!!

I have a photocopy of a newspaper article (The Journal) from Newcastle, that reports great granny's death........ three days after the youngest was demobbed from the navy in 1947. She obviously waited till all the boys were home. She knew what war was about. Her husband, my great grandfather, had also been a regular soldier with the Northumberland Fusiliers and had been a vertran of the Sudan Campaigns, the Second Boer War and WW1!

When I joined up, I was seventh generation soldier on my mothers side and a sixth generation soldier on my fathers side. Sadly, most of them died before I developed an interest in history and family........ except my uncle Billy that is! He's a paratrooper vetran of several "small" wars, and my aunt just hates it when I turn up at the door with a bottle of Woods rum!!!

[Jenks]

SimG..
I was serving with the Somerset & Cornwall Light Infantry (REME attached) at Ballykinler N.I. when some of the county regiments were scrapped. Including the D.L.I and the SCLI. I can't remember the year exactly, probably 1968. We had a fair few D.L.I. join us. We were. Then reformed as 1st Battalion Light Infantry. Much has changed since then. I hear on the news this morning that the latest tranche of redundancy notices (H.M. Forces are going out this morning..

Jenks