Dunkirk Operation Dynamo Evacuation Beaches

'Captain Tom'

In post #50 here http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/1940/29818-dunkirk-operation-dynamo-evacuation-beaches-5.html I posted two pictures of another barge that no-one identified. Here is a picture of it.

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=48575&stc=1&d=1301944223

Is this the Royalty? I guess it is more likley to be a towed barge of some kind as it has no masts in any of the pictures.

Perhaps you have a picture of the Royalty that will help us identify her in pictures of the beaches?

Andrew
The Ethel was certainly sailed on to the beach deliberately to unload her cargo of stores and ammunition. She had been literally dragged off the hard at Greenhithe where she was having a paint up. She was still aground forward. One of the Sun tugs from Gravesend towed her down to Tilbury where she was loaded along with the other barges. My father was full of admiration for the troops who queued up for water. They had been without for some time, yet all waited their turn. The picture is of a London lighter. I will search through my albums for a photo of the Royalty. Tom Willis.

 

Thanks Tom. Is there also a picture of the Ethel Everard and your Dad before Dunkirk?

Andrew

 

Thanks Tom. Is there also a picture of the Ethel Everard and your Dad before Dunkirk?

Andrew
I am unable to find a picture of the Royalty, but according to my father's account, she was sunk about half a mile off shore. I one of the photographs I have of the Ethel Everard a mast can be sticking up in the background. The crew were picked, and the skipper, Dick "The Dagger" Miller lived to the ripe old age of 106. I have some photos of the Ethel in her heyday, and also some of my father when he was young, and will post them later. Tom

 

Great thanks. We look forward to seeing them.

Andrew

 

For anyone interested in the goings on at Dunkirk, please find below an extracxt from my Dad's memoirs ....
We walked along the wooden pier and back came the planes – it seemed never ending – trying to bomb our ship but without success. We walked along for about a half-mile to the ship we would be boarding. Miraculously, the Mole was still intact, but there was a six-foot gap in the planking where a bomb had gone through without exploding and loose planks had been put across. Some lads, in their desperate hurry, chose to jump the gap with their full kit on – luckily, none fell through into the water. Another thirty yards and we came to our ship. At the top end of a gangway stood an officer, counting soldiers as they went aboard.
The ship was a ferry ship called The Lady of Mann (how could I forget that name?). How lucky we considered ourselves to be; out of all those thousands of men, we were being given the opportunity to be evacuated. It was almost impossible for men of the same companies to stay together, but that was no consequence at a
time like this.
The ferry was fast becoming packed with grateful lads. The Captain would know how many men the ship could carry, but God alone knows what would have happened had a bomb hit us! I was lucky enough to be on deck to see what was happening and it must have been very claustrophobic down below deck. I kept my eyes on the
nearest Carley float in case the worst happened. The fact that we had managed to get on a boat was no guarantee that we would reach England because the Luftwaffe was doing its utmost to prevent us. As the ship was filling up, a Padre came and stood on
a ladder, called for silence and prayed for our deliverance to England. At last, packed like sardines, the ship started to tremble and, so very slowly, we pulled away from the Mole – it was 1800 hrs, 31 May 1940.

If you would like to read the whiole chapter, please click on the web site in my signature below.
Kind regards
Paul

 

Can any one ID this photo that i have just bought. bedfords , looks like they have wooden beams put though the rear of the trucks. must have taken some time to do that as well as being under fire. note, all the canvas has been taken off. 1940.

 

Can any one ID this photo that i have just bought. bedfords , looks like they have wooden beams put though the rear of the trucks. must have taken some time to do that as well as being under fire. note, all the canvas has been taken off. 1940.

Jan - is this the landward end of the Bray Dunes pier? (See aerial shot back in post #17.)

Andrew

 

Definitely!



Jan

 

Definitely!


Jan

I told Keith you would know.

Thanks. I'm off to bed now as it's late here.

Andrew

 

Funnily enough I've just read that the engineers used timber from bombed out houses to put on top of trucks.

 

Thanks for the ID guys

 

This is the Ethel Everard in her heyday when she was second in the coasting class in the Thames Barge match in 1928. My father was just 22 at the time.

 

Thanks for the pictures, Tom. A beautiful craft. It's a shame that most of us only know her as beached and damaged.

 

This is the Ethel Everard in her heyday when she was second in the coasting class in the Thames Barge match in 1928. My father was just 22 at the time.

She really looks quite magnificent. Your Dad must have been very sad to leave her on the beach. Maybe one day I will get a chance to see the Will (Everard) up close. On the owner's site it looks to be painted in similar colours.

Andrew

 

Another Spitfire on the beaches of Dunkirk. Don't think we've seen this one before:



Jan

 

Another Spitfire on the beaches of Dunkirk. Don't think we've seen this one before:


Jan

Jan

I thought I had seen that one in an issue 49 of '39 45 Magazine' but now I am not sure. The propeller looks different.

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=50514&stc=1&d=1305216573

Andrew

 

That's the same picture as #207 Andrew. I think that #235 is a "new" one!

Jan

 

Of course! I should have remembered that. I will look for your new one.

Andrew

 

Another picture with the Devonia in the background (see also # 195):



Jan

 

This photograph comes from one of the typical German souvenir sets with Dunkirk pictures (this is number 10, and it is currently for sale on eBay, together with the other pictures from this set). But does anybody recognize the location or the ship? Doesn't look like Dunkirk to me...



Jan