The last little ship to leave Dunkirk
Tue, 04/05/2010 - 18:38
My Grandfather was on the very last boat which left Dunkirik during the evacuation. Does anybody know the name of the boat? My Mother told me a very funny story about it. My Grandmother would make herself look beautiful everynight awaiting his return. As he was on the last boat, she thought he was not coming home. She rolled her hair in curlers and covered her face in face cream only for the knock at the door to come and there he stood!
I know that after days of waiting on the beach my Dad Donald Letts finally got on Demok 1, one of the last little ships to leave Dunkirk. He went on to serve in the Indian Army and is a wonderful man, now aged 93.
The ADLS would like to invite your father and a companion to join the annual Veterans Cruise aboard the Little Ships. It will take place on Sept 5th between Kingston on Thames and Weybridge. Please contact webadmin@adls.org.uk for further details.
Thank you so much for your kind invitation to my father, Vivian, to accompany the annual Veterans Cruise. He was 91 last November and has been caring for my Mother, Susan, after a severe stroke, 6 years ago. Mum and Dad have been married 68 years and Dad although well, only leaves Mum for an hour or so every couple of weeks to take a bus and have his hair cut. After Dunkirk Dad spent some time stationed in Taunton and a while in Ireland before being shipped out to the middle east and ultimately Italy. He did see General Alexander in the middle east he believes and this General was the commander who order Dad onto the boat in the early hours of 4th June at Dunkirk, although his memories of the exact date are not exact. Dad was captured ouside of Monte Casino and marched through the Brenna Pass into Germany where he spent the remaining months of the war as a prisoner. Mum spent those months in the belief that Daddy was missing presumed killed in action and was only enlightened by postcards from around the UK when Lord Haw Haw made a broadcast telling of his capture. Dad returned to the UK when Stalag 7a was liberated weighing under 7 stone to suffer the rest of his years through stomach ulcers. I'm sure my parents story is far from unique and many more are much more tragic but it is through Dad's stories we children have come to understand how difficult their generation's life was and we have learned how special our parents love for one another has become through those trials. Dad would find it very difficult to leave Mum for even a day, so thank you again, and I will ask him, but I believe I know what his answer will be. Carrine.
My father was on the last boat to leave the long pier at Dunkirk on a boat named "sailor boy". It had been used as a mine sweeper in the early years of the war.
Daddy often speaks of being on the beach for days and standing on the pier with the second in command of the 8th army who came back to England on the same boat. The pier had been heavily damaged and the boat was leaving the pier when this officer called to him and said they had better both leave.
I'd like to know the name of that commander and I know that he got back to England as daddy saw him again in North Africa.
My Maternal Grandfather, William Hartley, was with the 1st Bn Lancashire Fusiliers and there is a story in the family that he was on the last boat out too. They may have been on the same boat. However we don't know where she sailed from (beach or jetty) We do know he made it off just before the fall of Dunkirk and that he also went on to serve in N Africa, Tobruk and the invasion of Sicily before being badly wounded when his field gun was hit at the base of Mt Etna.
Sadly I cannot ask him about it as he passed on in 1976, ironically on Dunkirk beach whilst on a Dunkirk Veterans Assoc. visit.
Martin Cooper
My Maternal Grandfather, William Hartley, was with the 1st Bn Lancashire Fusiliers and there is a story in the family that he was on the last boat out too. They may have been on the same boat. However we don't know where she sailed from (beach or jetty) We do know he made it off just before the fall of Dunkirk and that he also went on to serve in N Africa, Tobruk and the invasion of Sicily before being badly wounded when his field gun was hit at the base of Mt Etna.
Sadly I cannot ask him about it as he passed on in 1976, ironically on Dunkirk beach whilst on a Dunkirk Veterans Assoc. visit.
Martin Cooper
The last ship to leave was the destroyer Shikari that left at 0340 on 4th June. There were other smaller vessels with her. The best description is in the Admiralty report that is published as The Evacuation of Dunkirk by W J R Gardner on pages 119-121.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Evacuation-Dunkirk-Operation-Whitehall-Publishin...
The very last boat to leave Dunkirk Harbour carrying the crews from the block ships was MTB107 skippered by Jock Cameron. She was in company with the destroyer Shikari and MTB102.