Memories of Dunkirk – Arthur, Frederick, Sidney, Henry Yendall – 2053736 A Coy 6th Batt Kings Own Royal Lancaster Regiment. My mate Reg Blundell and I arrived by lorry in Dunkirk at about 6 o’clock on May 30th. . We made our way towards the beach to reach it we had to cross a bridge over the canal. There were just a few troops about we made our way to the Mole. We met a Naval Petty officer at the beginning of the Mole he told us that the last boat had left a hospital ship, He advised us to go back to the Town and get our heads down until morning. The sky was full of black clouds of smoke from the oil tanks which had been hit and plenty of gunfire going on. I said to Reg we will stay on the Beach as the Bridge may not be there in the morning we went into the dunes and got down into a ditch with a few small shrubs about 3ft tall I guess we thought we were safe there. When I awoke Reg was still asleep, I felt hungry so I went off to see what I could find. I went into the car park where all our lorries were and found a Quarter Masters lorry as had other troops already. All I found was a large tin of Sardines, some hard biscuits and two boxes of chocolate and Nougat bars. Also, in the lorry lots of spare uniforms so I grabbed two pairs of trousers and two battle dress tops. You see we had been travelling for two days in wet clothes and it was not very comfortable. I got back to Reg who was still sleeping but was soon awoken when the Stukas started to dive bomb us again with their whistling bombs which was all very, very frightening the sky was full of them. So many aircraft they looked like tadpoles in a pond and I wondered how they managed to miss one another. One dropped a stick of bombs towards us as we lay side by side I grasped Reg’s hand and said “ This is It Reg ” I don’t know how long it was before I came to my senses , It might have been minutes or hours I looked behind the bushes where we lay there was a hole in the sand big enough to put a London bus in the sand certainly saved us. After that we went and joined up with some more of our chaps, we were formed up into groups of 50 and given a number ours was L50. When your number was called you moved up the beach towards the Mole to embark. As you got to near the Mole you spread out holding hands until you reached the sea, this was to prevent anyone getting by your party. Then the call came “Next group” at this you went on to the mole where a Naval Petty Officer took charge. During our time waiting on the beach there was a lot of diving for cover as we were being bombed constantly on one occasion Reg and I found a bottle of Rum which had fell out of an officer’s pocket as he ran by us this was most welcome to us. A couple of dispatch riders were dirt-tracking on the beach being cheered on by the waiting troops. At one point we were told to remove the bolts out of our Rifles and hide them in the sand only to be told a half hour later to find them as we may be needed for a rear-guard action. Finally, we reached the Naval Officer on the Mole which was being shelled at this time, He was trying to time the shells, when he shouted run you ran, when he shouted stop you stopped. The mole had been hit several times, at one point a builder’s plank had been placed over a large hole about 8-10 foot across under normal conditions I wouldn’t have crawled across it, but me and Reg ran like we had never ran before and didn’t stop till we got to the end of the Mole. Where a Destroyer was laid to taking on troops, I thought Reg was behind me as I followed the others down into the ship into a small cabin about 6ft by 6ft I think there was about 20 of us crammed in there. But oh, how safe I felt I looked round to see if I could see Reg but there was no sign of him but I was sure he was on the ship so didn’t have to worry too much. A while later a sailor appeared with a large meat dish full of beautiful baked potatoes which soon disappeared into a sea of hands followed by bread and butter we were well looked after by the Navy. Looking round the cabin I saw a sailor with the name HMS Keith on his hat band I asked is this going to Dover? Yes, he said you will be home in a couple of hours. I do not know how long it took, I didn’t even know the time was so happy to be on the way home, I never even thought about being sunk or anything like that, I knew I was safe. When we arrived in Dover we went to the railway station where I started to look for Reg I found him on the station platform “ I said to him where did you get to” “ he said he stayed on deck and manned a Lewis gun with the sailors and brought down a German plane on the way back and had a grand time” Then we boarded the train we had no ides where we were going, we ended up at Bullfort camp on Salisbury plain.
