Hi all, I just read this stirring account in With Ensigns Flying and thought "well this must be well known" but I can't find any detailed account on the forum. Any exaggeration in this text? Anyone heard of it before? After a day in which multiple destroyers evacuated troops from Boulogne (not sure of the date, from the text) ... the Vimiera's commanding officer, Lt-Commander R B N Hicks, volunteered to return after dark to save some of the many troops still known to be there. Admiral Ramsay was reluctant to let Hicks go, for the town was rapidly being occupied by the Germans; but he was even more reluctant to condemn the soldiers ashore - men of the Irish and Welsh Guards - to prisoner-of-war cages. So he assented. Vimiera entered darkened Boulogne harbour with the ship at action stations. The port was quiet. It was almost completely in enemy hands. Silently and cautiously Hicks took the destroyer alongside and managed to secure her wires without arousing the enemy. No sooner was she secured than hundreds of people swarmed aboard like an avalanche. Rapidly the ship filled with troops and refugees. With his ship crammed tight with 1,400 evacuees, Hicks let go and carefully conned the ancient destroyer through the still quiet harbour. He prayed no German guns would open up. He was almost unable to control the packed destroyer with so much added top weight... Vimiera successfully sneaked from Boulogne's harbour unobserved and early next morning steamed safely into Dover.
Gets mentioned in the official history. HyperWar: The War in France and Flanders 1939–1940 [Chapter X] Did you search on the forum for Vimiera ? There are plenty of results where she gets mentioned.
Yes, lots of minor references but I didn't find an account of this daring night action. I mean, if they hadn't managed it I would have called it madness.
The sort of thing that succeeds because the enemy doesn't think anyone would be crazy enough to try it on
From BEF Ships by John de S Winser, apologies if it duplicates what you have already. 'She (HMS WHITSHEAD) left at 0520 in company with the destroyer VIMIERA and the passenger ships BIARRITZ and QUEEN OF THE CHANNEL carrying part of a Guards' brigade. They were followed at 0948 by another passenger steamer, MONA'S QUEEN, with the remaining troops. The initial arrivals found Boulogne still to be in French hands and, with the aid of the Thames tug GONDIA, the ships were able to berth alongside the quay.' The passage goes on about the work of the hospital carriers ; then there are other references to VIMERIA' s subsquent crossings, which I am happy to copy, if of interest.
Chris, Not sure if you wanted more! The missing bottom lines on the first image are VIMIERA AT 1830 brought the totla of British destroyers to six. KEITH. AND as civilians and prisoners of war, boarded the cargo ship. Roy