Escaping France without a stop at Dunkirk
sir – The new film about the evacuation of Dunkirk has prompted several letters (July 11) on the subject.
My father’s artillery battery were ordered to spike their guns and surrender, as it was impossible for them to get to an already overcrowded Dunkirk.
They carried out the first part of the order, then pooled their petrol and used one truck to head west. With the enemy closing in, they eventually commandeered a fishing boat at St Valéry, west of Dieppe, and made for the sea, hugging the western bank of the estuary while coming under small-arms fire from Germans on the east bank.
All made it home safely.
Richard Winter
Bath
sir – The prominence given to Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo overlooks the fact that an equivalent number of troops were evacuated from other places in France under Operation Aerial, my father included.
Following a three-week trek across France from Rouen, he eventually boarded one of the last ships to escape from St Nazaire, the SS Oronsay, which came under attack, shortly before turning back to assist the survivors of the packed Lancastrian, whose casualty numbers are yet to be fully disclosed, but are thought to number thousands.
Nicholas Fenton-smith
West Mersea, Essex
sir – Dunkirk will be a huge boxoffice success as the bravery and suffering of those evacuated during the Dunkirk “strategic retreat” is both heartbreaking and uplifting.
However, as Winston Churchill eventually said, “wars are not won by evacuations”. Without the courage and patriotic determination of those left behind to fight the rearguard action that made the Dunkirk miracle possible, it would have been a rout, not a retreat. This nation, as well as historians, writers and film-makers, should stop separating the two.
My father’s Royal Artillery battery defended Le Havre until after Dunkirk, only being told about Dunkirk when it was over
– as recorded in the regimental diary: “Retreat taking guns towards St Nazaire. Every man for himself. Destroy guns if necessary. Good luck.”
He managed to get to St Nazaire in mid-june, two days after the Lancastrian was sunk. He was eventually rescued in the Georgic during Operation Aerial.
Film-makers should tell the story of the rearguard: our heroic saviours. V A West
Alcester, Warwickshire
sir – Like Penny Clive’s uncle (Letters, July 11), my father, as a 20-year-old RAF radio operator, had to find alternative transport home.
Unable to reach Dunkirk, he and the unit to which he had been seconded travelled down the French coast until they found a boat to England – a Welsh coal barge. Penelope Price
New Malden, Surrey