Dunkirk Operation Dynamo Evacuation Beaches

In September 2013 Dunkirk is on my to do list.

I am looking for maps, a good guide or something like that.
Furthermore, I will take some pictures to make then & now photos I will place in this thread

 

Hi

There is an excellent book 'BEF Ships before, at and after Dunkirk' by John de S. Winser which is packed with information about which ships were where and when. Lots of photos too. I really recommend it.

Andrew

 

Lorry Jetty Bray Dunes.

My father has always told me that he helped build the Jetty under the command of a Major from the Royal Engineers.
He (and others from his Bofors LAA) used his 'wagon' bofors tractor to bring abandoned vehicles from the surrounding area down to the beach. This was done despite being bombed on a regular basis. Bombed vehicles had to be dragged out of line and replaced. His bofors tractor was the last vehicle to be placed in the line. The last thing he did when he left his vehicle was remove the excise 'tax' disc, which I still have.. He went along the jetty in the dark jumped into a small boat and was transfered to a larger ship HMS Scimitar I think.. carrying his weapon and a 20Bore shotgun he'd liberated near Arras, he got back to UK without getting his feet wet. A fact that he was very proud of along with the fact he'd got his vehicle nearer home than anyone else in his regiment. Not bad for a 19 year old Territorial. 156 LAA 52RA.

 

Posted Today, 06:59 PM

Lorry Jetty Bray Dunes.

My father has always told me that he helped build the Jetty under the command of a Major from the Royal Engineers.
He (and others from his Bofors LAA) used his 'wagon' bofors tractor to bring abandoned vehicles from the surrounding area down to the beach. This was done despite being bombed on a regular basis. Bombed vehicles had to be dragged out of line and replaced. His bofors tractor was the last vehicle to be placed in the line. The last thing he did when he left his vehicle was remove the excise 'tax' disc, which I still have.. He went along the jetty in the dark jumped into a small boat and was transfered to a larger ship HMS Scimitar I think.. carrying his weapon and a 20Bore shotgun he'd liberated near Arras, he got back to UK without getting his feet wet. A fact that he was very proud of along with the fact he'd got his vehicle nearer home than anyone else in his regiment. Not bad for a 19 year old Territorial. 156 LAA 52RA.

 

'New Chap' - Sorry, I don't know your name. I'd love to see a scan or photo of that tax disc. Is the registration number still visible ? A clear image of a 1939 military disc would be of considerable interest to vehicle restorers (and probably some of the clever modellers on here).

 

Yes please< i'd love to know what a military disk looked like.....my humber would have had one and I'd like to replace it!

 

Tax Disc Morris 4 ton Bofors Tractor. Bray Dunes.

 

I deleted the two previous posts. Thanks for posting that pic though - I'm sure some will get a bit excited about it. Did your Dad ever say where or how it was displayed?

 

Thanks for the scan. It's a fascinating bit of history, especially in the light of the story behind it. Really something to treasure.

The War Office vehicles all carried Middlesex series registration numbers but there seems to be little surviving record expect for photographs of vehicles.

The 'Nil' duty is interesting, as is the point that it looks as if they were for a period of six months rather than a year, even though cost could not have been a factor.

 

Rich

While I cannot pretend to remember back as far as 1939 (yob 1941), I think that all licences expired on 31 Dec in those days. If it was only a six month licence, I would have expected it to expire at end Nov 39. 1940 licences would have been, as now, a different colour.

Chris

 

I have lots of bits and pieces and photos he took through Crete, Nth Africa, Italy and the Ardennes. Does anyone know how I go about getting a copy of his Service record and War Diary??? for his regt. 156Bty 52LAA RA As WW2 doesnt appear to be in the National Archive???

 

Hi Jan - We seemed to have lost a lot of your images posted earlier in the thread. I don't suppose you still have them?

 

Hi Andy,

Please don't worry! All my pictures are on a photobucket account. With a free account I have 10GB bandwidth. For the first time in several years the forum readers (not only from this forum I have to say...) have reached this limit. Photobucket sent me an email to warn me a few days before this happened: I can either upgrade to a paid account or wait until the end of the month... I decided to do the latter...

Cheers,
Jan

 

Thanks for posting the tax disc scan. Maybe they were only for six months as the old civvy registration numbers were going to be replaced by census numbers? My Humber was built in October 39 and had an M suffix census number according to the records. Maybe only the prewar vehicles with Middx reg numbers carried a civvy tax disk and as they were due to be re numbered??

 

Alex, it is certainly the case that only those which had a civilian registration number had an excise licence disc. This was of course combined with a census number during the 1930s. My feeling is that if yours was built in October and presumably sent to Chilwell shortly afterwards then it would not have had a registration number (or tax disc).

A civilian reg combined with an M39***** census is possible but I've seen no evidence with the M41**** series. The only way to be sure is to look for civilian plates in photos but they seem much less common on softskin with the BEF than on armour.

 

Dear friends, I hope this is not a repost :

On this great colored video, the beach of Dunkirk-Malo-les-Bains on June, 1940 shows at minute 27:56

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmkg4TpgEGM

 

Not sure if this one has been posted on here before?

 

That's a very nice and interesting picture Drew! Thanks for sharing!

Jan

 

British Vehicles on the beach. 1940.
Keith