Warspite1 | 01 Mar 2023 10:55 a.m. PST |
Operation Dynamo, the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation, was a swiftly thrown-together operation which used genuine warships plus as many business and private craft as could be gathered up quickly. The 'Dunkirk Little Ships' included the Woolwich Ferries, a London Fire Brigade fire boat, many Thames Sailing Barges, dozens of cabin cruisers and private pleasure craft, as well as many lifeboats from RNLI stations around Britain. One of the pleasure craft was operated by Charles Lightoller, the former second officer of the RMS Titanic. His boat is now in a museum, Today, all known surviving vessels wear a brass plate battle honour stating 'Dunkirk, 1940'. One of these veterans is moored near my Norfolk home and still offers trips around the harbour for visitors, the restored ex-RNLI lifeboat Lucy Lavers: YouTube link More here: link
adls.org.uk link link Barry |
14Bore | 01 Mar 2023 2:54 p.m. PST |
What a gem to have survived all these years. |
Londonplod | 01 Mar 2023 5:29 p.m. PST |
My paternal grandfather was on one of the little ships, l have no idea which one, he never mentioned it and l only found it after he died. |
Warspite1 | 01 Mar 2023 6:38 p.m. PST |
One of my uncles was picked up several days AFTER the official end of Dynamo. The Royal Navy was going in at night in response to torch flashes and only gave up when they got too much rifle fire. I mentioned the Thames Sailing Barges in my first post: link These were traditionally easy to manage with one claim being that they could be crewed by one man and one boy. The story is told that a group of 30 to 40 British soldiers with no sailing experience found one abandoned on the beach and floating off at high tide. They boarded it, managed to get the sail up and – somehow – steered it back into Ramsgate or Folkstone unaided. Barry |
Shagnasty | 02 Mar 2023 11:31 a.m. PST |
Another great video. I particularly enjoyed the "little ship" portion of the recent film "Dunkirk." |
Warspite1 | 02 Mar 2023 3:27 p.m. PST |
@Shagnasty: That was a film which could have benefitted from a lot more CGI. Too few ships and far too few aircraft. Barry |
Blutarski | 02 Mar 2023 5:20 p.m. PST |
Back in the '90s, my wife and I were spending some time in London and she had a yen to visit Kew Gardens. We hopped upon one of those little narrow-beam Thames River excursion launches (60-70ft length?, 3-4ft freeboard?) and headed upriver from the Tower of London dock. It was not until the (much less crowded) return trip that I wandered forward to the wheelhouse and much to my surprise discovered the bronze plaque, mounted on the after bulkhead of the wheelhouse, commemorating the participation of this craft in the Dunkirk evacuation. This is one of the unnervingly compelling aspects of touring in Great Britain. You just NEVER know when some crazy piece of history will appear out of nowhere to smack you in the face. B |
robert piepenbrink | 03 Mar 2023 8:42 p.m. PST |
I know the feeling, Blutarski. Those little plaques to tell you who used to live there, or the 300 year old house right next to a Victorian subdivision. Walk down the right streets and you can spot the WWII deep bomb shelters which were supposed to be post-war tube stations, only the new north-south line was never built. My wife wanted to see where they'd kept Thomas Moore in the Tower, but the Beefeater explained that it was now a grace and favor apartment, and someone was living in it. My mother told me she never really understood museums until she toured HMS Belfast and saw all the everyday stuff of her teen years under glass with explanations. Then the British Museum made sense to her. Dad's moment came when I had to explain to him that the New Forest was close on 1,000 years old. He'd been looking for saplings. |
Warspite1 | 09 Mar 2023 4:07 p.m. PST |
@Blutarski: @robert piepenbrink: I can go a little further. I have a small pillbox (Norcon type) located about 50 metres from my driveway on the other side of the road while (on this side of the road) there is an opening under a brick wall which was once used to hide anti-tank mines inside. In the event of a 1940/41 invasion the mines would have been pulled out across the road on a rope or tape like a police 'stinger'. In my back garden is a huge wooden hut (40 feet long, 18 feet wide) which was originally at the Royal Flying Corps airfield at Bircham Newton where it was used as an isolation ward in WW1. The poor souls dying of Spanish Flu in 1918/19 died in it. At the beginning of WW2 it was dismantled and moved into my village and set up on adjacent land as an armed forces cafe/tea bar and operated by the WVS and later the Salvation Army. Famous customers (I kid you not!) were Sir Richard Burton, Robert Hardy, Warren Mitchell and Northern Ireland international footballer Danny Blancheflower. After years of service for wedding receptions and as a Scouts and Guides hut, it was bought by the previous owner of my home and moved into my current back garden piece by piece. I am pleased about the Robert Hardy connection as he was Britain's leading longbowman for many years. link Somewhere near (or under!) my home we also have a missing medieval priory. There are records of it existing here for some 200 years but now archaeologists are reduced to playing 'Battleships' from time-to-time by sinking one metre square test pits around the village in the hopes of finding it. They have had no luck so far! Barry |
Murvihill | 09 Mar 2023 5:30 p.m. PST |
Only gone 200 years and you lost it already? |
Blutarski | 09 Mar 2023 6:52 p.m. PST |
Warspite, Do you ever get the feeling that you live in an indoor/outdoor museum? My last visit to the UK was 2002 for a wedding of a friend's daughter up in the old market town of Malton. Wedding was held in this tiny little chapel in the midst of the market square that I was told was about 1,000 years old. We then attended a very nice reception at an old stately home up the hill from the church. About ten years (?) later, I'm watching Tony Robinson ("Baldrick") on "Time Team" excavating a lost Jacobean garden hidden under the back lawn of the same estate! I still shake my head about that. B |
UshCha | 09 Mar 2023 9:51 p.m. PST |
They were restoring one close to me home on the River Trent. With all the Covid stuff not been past the spot recently. |