No.10 appears in one of the old Bart Vanderveen books. Z389808 is a Morris-Commercial 15cwt No. 12 has an M-C and a Bedford. Most of the earlier pictures show French vehicles. I assume that you recognised l'Adroit on the beach at Malo-Les-Bains ?
I'm assuming No.10 is a shot of one of the may made piers out to sea. One of my books mentions the RE officer (Name escapes me) who's brain child it was to line vehicles up at low tide to enable troops to board boats at high tide. Anyone know the ship in 6 and 7 ?
Andy Great photos mate. No wonder they let the surrounded German Garrison sweat for a while in Sept 44-May 45 before retaking it! Rob
Hi The ship in 14 and 15 is French - I can't recall the name of it, but I asked the curator of the museum in Dunkirk and he confirmed it was. Is there anything written on the back of the photos? They look similar to some I've bought too - mine were produced as souvenirs for the German soldiers by a company in France / Belgium during the war. The producers were certainly keeping their eyes on the market as I bought a similar lot which show the remains of the Atlantic Wall - for the allied troops to buy!
Great photos, thanks for sharing Andy Pic 1 - is that the small masted boat which was used in the very last escape from the beach I remember reading something about?
Cheers chaps, The pictures are electronic and were sent to me on a disc. I only paid 10p each for them and suspect some if not all maybe scanned from books etc. Heres some more....
History revisited. The Germans must have felt victorious, down to a man,at seeing this "booty" and the aftermath of the destruction of the BEF.As regards equipment and weapons,apparently,most of that recoverable was used in Russia a year later along with French and Czech equipment,no doubt causing headaches to those trying to service them with suitable spares. I have seen a photograph in various publications of the RN road to Cherbourg,said to be on the outskirts of Cherbourg,littered with abandoned British military transports.I suppose that this was the norm at the French western ports during the hectic days of late May and June 1940. May years ago,I remember seeing an account of the BEF war materiel losses at Dunkirk.Also included was 10 million cigarettes, I think it was, lost by the NAFFI.Whether the NAFFI left them without destroying them,I do not know but obviously someone must have had to account for them in the accounting procedures. Knew a chap who went up in May 1939 for 6 months as he was told but was not demobbed until 1946 having being stationed out first in Burma and then was involved in the headlong retreat northwards into India.Told me of the destruction inflicted on surplus transports.Favorite method of wrecking them without setting them on fire,was to run the engines and drain off the engine oil to seize the engine.He told me about the firing the Burmah Oil Co oil installations by the retreating British Army. Many years later I read the proceedings of the court case when the Burmah Oil Company attempted to sue the Brtitish Government for damages.If I remember correctly,Burmah Oil were unsuccessful with their case.Seems strange that they thought the retreating British Army would have left the installations for the good of the Japanese.
I'm assuming No.10 is a shot of one of the may made piers out to sea. One of my books mentions the RE officer (Name escapes me) who's brain child it was to line vehicles up at low tide to enable troops to board boats at high tide. Anyone know the ship in 6 and 7 ? Andy, see my post #7 (just above yours !) The ship is l'Adroit. It was damaged by air attack and forms a favourite background. It must have been quite impressive to see on the beach there. Number 16 is nice. A Norton 16H just like mine. Do you have a higher res copy ? I'd like to have a 'butchers' at the census number. Some of these photos look to have been scanned from period publications as the reproduction doesn't do justice to the quality that the negs were capable of providing.
Cheers Rich, unfortunately they are as good as they get - I'll email the seller later to see if he can help with the No. Andy
