Boulogne - 1940

Discussion in 'Veteran Accounts' started by handtohand22, Oct 21, 2007.

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  1. handtohand22

    handtohand22 Senior Member

    Bill Balmer was a 17 year old Royal Marine sent to Boulogne in 1940. This is what he told me so far.

    After Chatham - Boulogne
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    We were introduced to the war very quickly after the Chatham training. I spent twelve hours at Boulogne from 8.30 am and the following weekend I was in action at Calais for over seventy-two hours until all the Allied units there surrendered to the Germans.
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    Fear
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    We were a bit afraid the first time we went into action with bombs dropping around the destroyer and Germans firing at us. But we soon got over that. It was amazing how quickly we got over that but if any man ever told me he was never scared while going into action I would tell him he was a liar. You were scared but you got over it. There was no man who did not go into action a bit scared, you had seen men die but you got hardened to it.
    It was the same when you were taken prisoner. You would say into yourself, “Is it worth it. Is it worth going on?” But then you thought about your mother and father back home, got your head down and kept going. That’s how you did it.
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    The Approach to Boulogne
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    Boulogne was a baptism of fire for us young marines. The first heavy fire we came under was during the approach to Boulogne. The Stukas were dive-bombing the destroyer and the Messerschmitts were machine-gunning us. They were even sinking the small fishing vessels that were accompanying us. The attacks went on for the last two hours it took us to reach Boulogne.
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    A Royal Marines demolitions team travelled to Boulogne with us. They were tasked to sabotage the harbour installations. When we got there we found that the German air force, the Luftwaffe, had already done that. The demolitions team restricted themselves to checking the area for unexploded bombs and extinguishing any fires.
    They found that the Luftwaffe had done all the damage that they were expected to do. It took the demolition squad nearly the full day to go through the whole area clearing the unexploded bombs and extinguishing the fires.
    I was in charge of one of the Vickers Machine guns. We were supposed to go to the perimeter but the Officer Commanding the defence troops told us that he had the defence line further out and we were not required.
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    The Evacuation of Boulogne
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    Boulogne harbour was just a mass of soldiers on the retreat hoping to get back home. All I can remember was a sea of faces; all ages some old and some young and some very tired. They were all trying to board the destroyer even before she docked.
    The Royal Marine teams were tasked to get the soldiers organized and boarded onto the three RN destroyers. Of course the soldiers were making a mad rush for the destroyers and calling for the gangways to be lowered. But it was impractical to lower the gangway in the face of that crowd.
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    The ship’s captain warned the soldiers to move back and let them know that if they did not allow his Marines to do their job he would order the Marines to open fire on them. At that the two gunners cocked their guns. The rouse worked and the soldiers settled down and worked with us. Because of the constant attacks from the Germans we were unable to tie the destroyer to the jetty with the berthing ropes. Instead we had to use a couple of strong men on each rope to hold the destroyer in to the jetty. That made it easier to break away if something went wrong. We formed the soldiers into rows and the destroyer was soon loaded to full capacity. The captain thanked us for our help and left for England. As soon as the destroyer left there were more to take its place and that continued until dawn at about 6am when we were supposed to leave.
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    The Pregnant French Girl
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    Instead of leaving Boulogne we were ordered to patrol the harbour area to see what was happening in the immediate area. A woman came out of a drapers shop screaming in hysterics. A girl had gone into labour and she was out looking for a doctor. There were none available but a Colour Sergeant came to the rescue and delivered a baby girl.
    It transpired that the girl had a German boyfriend who had deserted her when he found out she was expecting and joined the German army. All the women in the area had shunned the girl and refused to assist her when she went into labour.
    After the successful delivery, the woman went into the shop and presented my mate and myself with half a German silk parachute each and a pair of ladies shoes each. We joked with her and said that we could not wear the shoes but she said the gifts were for our girl friends.
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    None of these items made it home. Back in Chatham we stowed the presents in our suitcases, went to Calais the following weekend and were taken as Prisoners of War by the Germans. I was eventually reunited with my suitcase after the war had ended. The only thing left in my case was a New Testament my grandmother had given me when I first left home.
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    The Return Journey
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    The return journey was worse than the approach because the sea was full of people. A destroyer in front of us had been badly hit. We were lucky as only two seamen died when German aircraft attacked us. During these attacks the sailors were constantly firing the multi-barrelled guns called Pom-Poms. We also had Vickers Machine guns on the deck to engage the German aircraft but their value was limited because the Messerschmitts were too fast for us. The two captains were in contact with each other and our captain was unable to help the stricken destroyer because we were packed to capacity and more.
    There were also a fleet of small fishing vessels in our vicinity and a small boat stopped to pick up the survivors. This was much the same idea as was used to evacuate Dunkirk. These fishing boats had probably finished a days fishing and instead of returning home to port they came to Boulogne to help in the evacuation. The German aircraft was hitting them hard but there were enough of them to support each other and pick up survivors. The attacks went on for over forty-five minutes after we left Boulogne before it went very quiet. The little fleets of ships made their way back to Dover or Portsmouth depending on their homeport.
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    This principle of the small vessels helping to evacuate the troops from the French ports did not start with the Dunkirk evacuation. After we were taken prisoner at Calais we learned about the Dunkirk evacuation and the part played by the small boats. The Dunkirk evacuations appears to have been more organised with groups of vessels having to be a specific areas at specific times. Here at Boulogne it was a more spontaneous event.
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  2. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Cheers Ronnie,
    Look forward to reading more of Bill's story.
     
  3. urqh

    urqh Senior Member

    Thats timely, just finished Nicholas Harmans Dunkirk, he relates on Bolougne the story of the destroyers at first being rushed by Royal Pioneer Corps soldiers, who once seen to made way for the much more disciplined Guards and other attachments.
    Fits in with this first hand account.
     

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