LOCUST

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Details

Details

Details

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 17 JULY, 1947                                            3303
GRAFTON she was in danger of being tor-               the French minefields hi the Ruytingen and
pedoed. At that moment, 0250, GRAFTON                 Dyck channels.       It appears that the enemy
was torpedoed, COMFORT was lifted in the              M.T.B. command failed to appreciate the with-
air, and Captain of WAKEFUL washed over-              drawal of traffic to the S.W. and did not follow
board. COMFORT was going full speed and as            up.
she came round in a circle "LYDD and                    In the evening it was reported that there was
GRAFTON opened fire on her, evidently think-          no congestion anywhere on the coast, except at
ing she was an enemy ship. It is believed that        La Panne. The force at La Panne was accord-
COMFORT crew, except one, and WAKEFUL                 ingly reinforced as ships became available.
survivors, except four, were killed.        LYDD
then bore down on COMFORT, rammed and                    29. An additional beach party of seven
sank her.                                             officers and a number of ratings under
   Previously GRAFTON, who was proceeding             Captain J. Howson was sailed in SABRE at
to Dover with troops, had observed a ship tor-        1600 for Dunkirk, and Captain E. Bush, who
pedoed, and lowered her boats to pick up sur-         had already visited Dunkirk and was aware of
vivors, subsequently ascertained by signal to         the general conditions, was sent to HEBE as
LYDD to be WAKEFUL. A small darkened                  S.N.O. afloat off the beaches. An M.T.B. was
vessel, thought to be a drifter, was signalled and    placed at the disposal of the S.N.O. on the
told to pick up survivors. Within a few seconds       coast.
of this, GRAFTON was torpedoed. The bridge               30. At about 1600 a heavy air attack com-
was also hit, either by a shell or grenade, and       menced on the East Mole Pier, Dunkirk har-
the Captain killed instantly. LYDD then tried         bour, mainly by dive bombing, which lasted
to come alongside but after hitting starboard         continuously for more than two hours. At
side sheered off, and appeared to ram a vessel        the same time, other air attacks took place on
on port quarter. This was COMFORT.                    ships lying off Bray. Attacks were renewed
GRAFTON opened fire under .the impression             from time to time up till after 2000, not only
LYDD had rammed the M.T.B. Target was                 on Dunkirk, but on ships off Bray, in the
then shifted to another vessel further away on        Zuydecoote Pass and those in the Southern end
port quarter, and vessel was observed to blow         of X Route. These attacks were to have a
up with a bright flash. This may well have            disastrous result on the evacuation arrange-
been the enemy M.T.B.                                 ments at Dunkirk. There were present along-
                                                      side the inner side of the Eastern Arm two
   28. During     the     forenoon     JAGUAR,        destroyers GRENADE and JAGUAR, three
GALLANT and GRENADE were dispatched                   trawlers ahead of the GRENADE and
via the new Middle Route X to test the opposi-        JAGUAR, three more trawlers ahead of them
tion by shore batteries prior to introducing this     with CANTERBURY in the next berth, and
route as an alternative to the long Northern          a French destroyer ahead of the CANTER-
route. GRENADE arrived Dunkirk, reported              BURY. Outside the harbour on the outside
no fire from shore batteries, but that she had        of the Eastern Arm the Transport FENELLA
experienced heavy bombing. These three des-           was berthed opposite the GRENADE and
troyers were attacked by dive bombers when            JAGUAR and the CRESTED EAGLE opposite
approaching Dunkirk at about noon, and                the six trawlers. In addition, the MALCOLM
GALLANT was damaged. At least six attacks             and VERITY were also in the harbour but fur-
were carried out, one enemy aircraft was              ther inside. This presented a very good target
brought down by gunfire and others by fighters.       and the ships were soon hit and embarkation
An hour .-later MALCOLM reported Dunkirk              of troops ceased for the time being. CANTER-
heavily bombed with a large number of air-            BURY, accompanied by JAGUAR, succeeded
craft and during the afternoon this bombing           in leaving harbour, but both were hit by bombs
extended up the coast to ships off Bray. During       and damaged. Both succeeded in reaching
the afternoon the Middle Route X was brought          Dover, though JAGUAR had to be towed part
into use for destroyers, but small ships were still   of the way and was subjected to many attacks
routed round the Northern route to Zuydecoote         on passage. CANTERBURY reached harbour
Pass. LOCUST and MOSQUITO joined Dover                at 2115 and disembarked 1,950 troops but was
Command and were dispatched to work on the            sufficiently damaged to prevent her being used
beaches during the afternoon. Shortly after           again in these operations. To return to Dun-
noon enemy shore batteries near Nieuport began        kirk, FENELLA was lying alongside on the
to bring Zuydecoote Pass under spasmodic gun-         outside of the pier,n and was hit and sunk.
fire and the state was being reached whereby           GRENADE and one of the trawlers on the
the new Middle Route would become the only            East side were hit and the trawler sank in the
practicable daylight approach to Dunkirk and          fairway. GRENADE sinking and on fire had to
the beaches. At noon, CALCUTTA, who was               be abandoned and appeared to be about to
able to get across to La Panne beach to receive        sink in the fairway. A trawler was detailed to
troops by small boats, embarked 1,200 troops          tow her clear. VERITY, who witnessed this
from the minesweepers and then sailed for Sheer-      occurrence • was continuously straddled by
ness, the minesweepers remaining to load up           bombs for 35 minutes. Passage all along the
again. At 1606, the New Route X having been            pier having ceased, she cast off, and skirting
fully swept, all ships were ordered by the Vice        the burning GRENADE and trawler, proceeded
Admiral to use Route X, exercising navigational        out of harbour, grounding: slightly on a sunk
 caution, and those from Dover were instructed         drifter in the entrance. At about 1800 KING
 to proceed by Route Z, the South route, pro-          ORRY arrived to find the harbour occupied
vided the passage between Calais Bell Buoy             only by burning and sinking ships, with no
 and Dunkirk be made in darkness.                      sign of any one on the pier nor any boat moving
   Route X passed some 26 miles to the South-          in the harbour. She was immediately subjected
 Westward of the extreme N.E. point of the             to heavy bombing attacks, having previously
 Northern Route Y, the locality in which enemy         had her steering gear put out of action by^ a
 M.T.B. attack threatened, and was shielded by         dive bombing attack when about half mile


Details

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 17 JULY, 1947                                          33"
executing a series of round trips without inter-   enemy and though the fog made navigation
mission tor several days under navigation con-     extremely difficult it undoubtedly served to
ditions of extreme difficulty and in the face      shield the Armada from enemy aircraft.
of unparalleled air attack.
   The Vice Admiral accordingly represented to        91. When the count was taken later in the
the Admiralty that the continuance of the de-      day it was ascertained that 27,000 troops had
mands made by evacuation would subject a           been evacuated as a result of the night's opera-
number of officers and men to a test which,        tion and Admiral Nord agreed that the opera-
might be .beyond the limit of human endurance,     tion should be considered as completed, observ-
and requesting that fresh forces should be         ing that all ammunition at Dunkirk had been
used if evacuation had to be continued after       expended and that the numbers left behind
the coming night, with the acceptance of any       were small consisting principally of non-
consequent delay.                                  combatant troops. This decision was agreed
                                                   to by the French Admiralty at uoo, and the
   87. The evacuation plan was communicated        operation " Dynamo " terminated by Ad-
to Units taking part at 1440 and was briefly as    miralty Message 1423/4.
follows: —
Commence 2230/3, withdraw 0230/4. From                92. It was realised that in all probability
East Pder evacuation by Personnel Vessels,         there might be a number of open boats, barges,
Destroyers and Paddle Minesweepers. From           etc., drifting a'bout in the Channel with troops
West Pier, new outer port, by other Milne-         on board.       It was accordingly decided to
sweepers, Corvettes, Skoots and French vessels.    have an air reconnaissance over the Channel.
Drifters and smaller craft into the inner har-        It was reported that a Transport was lying
bour, LOCUST remaining outside entrance re-        on its side between Dunkirk and Gravelines
ceiving loads ferried out 'by small boats. Tugs    and also a barge east of the Goodwins with
available outside entrance to assist ships in      survivors on board.
berthing and in leaving.                              C. in C. Nore despatched 2 M.T.B.s to find
                                                   the transport with no avail. On the 5th the
   88. In the evening the Vice Admiral was         R.A.F. speedboat did a sweep south of a line
informed by the B.N.L.O. Marceau that it was       Goodwin/Boulogne and recovered 33 French
estimated 30,000 French remained and that          troops and two Naval ratings.       In addition
the French Admiralty agree that evacuation         French troops were picked up by patrols and
should be terminated that night if possible.       brought in to Dover, Margate and Ramsgate.
Force -used was to consist of nine Personnel       Troops also arrived in French and Belgian
Vessels with one in reserve, nine Destroyers       Trawlers totalling in ail some additional 1,100.
(maximum, number available), four Paddle              Air reconnaissance was also carried out on
Minesweepers, seven Fleet Minesweepers, nine       the morning of the 5th but nothing was re-
Drifters, LOCUST, two Corvettes, four French.      ported.
Destroyers and a -number of organised motor
boat flotillas including lifeboats from Ramsgate   REMARKS ON THE INSHORE FLO-
and Dover, together with a large number of              TILLAS       AND       NAVAL        SHORE
French and Belgian fishing vessels. The lifting         PARTIES,
capacity of this force, if used to the full, was      93. About 400 small craft, ranging from
more than 30,000 but it was certain that the       Dutch Skoots to 30 ft. Motor boats, set out at
facilities within Dunkirk could not .permit more   various times to the Flanders Coast. In addi-
than a'bout 25,000 to be embarked in the time      tion scores of pulling boats, merchant ship
available, and this number only if the French      lifeboats, Naval cutters and whalers, were sent
troops moved with the greatest rapidity at all     off in tow. Only a proportion—particularly of
points of embarkation. This point was im-          the pulling boats—succeeded in reaching the
pressed upon the French Liaison Officers and a     coast and taking active part in the evacuation.
number of French officers and ratings added        Fewer still were able to remain off the coast
to the augmented pier parties which were de-       for more than one period. Nevertheless, these
spatched to Dunkirk at 2200 in advance of the      small craft, in conjunction with the pulling
evacuation force.                                  and power boats of HjM. Ships off the coast,
                                                   were responsible for lifting more than 100,000
   89. The movements commenced according to        Allied troops direct off a stretch of open beach
plan. The weather conditions at Dunkirk,           in shoal waters between 1600/27/5 ano^
although favourable as regards tide were ad-       0400/2/6.     Further, a large number of the
verse with a north easterly wind tending to        •power boats operated within Dunkirk Harfbour
blow Personnel Vessels and Destroyers off the      on the last three nights, working principally in
vital East Pier making berthing difficult. The     the inner harbour, which was continually
MANXMAN, the seventh Personnel Ship due            under artillery fire, ferrying a further large
to sail failed to sail, and her place was taken    uncounted number out to the comparative
by the ROYAL SOVEREIGN.                            safety of ships lying off.
Tuesday, qkh June.                                    94. Throughout the period all these craft
   90. At midnight when the earlier vessels had    of the inshore flotillas were subjected at one
commenced the return voyage fog was reported       time or another to intense attack from the air,
in mid-channel and off the Thanet coast and        both by bombing and machine gun, and a
a number of ships had to anchor before enter-      large proportion also to sporadic bombard-
ing harbour. The EXPRESS and SHIKARI               ment by German artillery. Under this fire
were the last ships to leave Dunkirk at 0318       no case occurred of boats ceasing work as long
and 0340 and carried approximately 1,000           as troops w'ere in sight on shore, and move-
troops and the British pier parties. Except        ments of boats westward away from the fire
for an air attack on SHIKARI this final pass-      zone only occurred as dictated by the military
age was made without interruption by the           situation ashore.


Details

33^4          SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 17 JULY, 1947
unceasingly without relief or rest, exposed to         distinguishing between the uniforms of such
incessant air attacks, for seven days. The             officers as were present and those of other ranks.
work of these officers and men was of the              It was soon realised that it was vitally necessary
greatest value and contributed largely to the          to despatch Naval Officers in their unmistakable
success of the undertaking.                            uniform with armed Naval beach parties to take
                                                       charge of the soldiers on shore immediately
   113. As regards the bearing and behaviour           prior to embarkation. Great credit is due to
of the troops, British and French, prior to and        the Naval officers and Naval ratings for the
during the embarkation, it must be recorded            restoration of some semblance of order. Later
that the earlier parties were embarked off the         on when troops of fighting formations reached
beaches in a condition of complete disorganisa-        the beaches these difficulties disappeared.
tion. There appeared to be no Military officers
in charge of the troops, and this impression           Dover,
was undoubtedly enhanced by the difficulty in             18.6.40.


                             APPENDIX I TO F.O. DOVER'S DESPATCH
List of H.M. Ships, Personnel Ships and Hospital Carriers taking part, showing those lost or damaged
                               (by bomb, gunfire, mine or collision)
A.A. Cruiser CALCUTTA
Destroyers
  BASILISK                    (sunk 2gth May)          HAVANT                    (sunk ist June)
  GRAFTON                     ( „ „       „ )          KEITH                     ( „ „ „ )
  GRENADE                                              WAKEFUL


  ANTHONY ...                 (damaged soth May) SABRE                           (damaged 30th May
  EXPRESS ...                 (    >?   jISl    ,, )                                    and 2nd June)
  GALLANT ...                 (         29th   „ ) SALADIN ...                   (   „     29th May)
  GREYHOUND                   (    „    29th „ ) SCIMITAR ...                     (   „ 3ist „ )
  HARVESTER                   (         3ist „ ) VENOMOUS                         (   „     ist June)
  ICARUS                      (         3ist „ ) VIMY                             (   „     ist „ )
  IMPULSIVE                   (         3ist „ ) VIVACIOUS ...                    (   „     ist „ )
  INTREPID ...                (         29th „ ) WHITEHALL                        (   „     ist „ )
  IVANHOE ...                 (    „     ist June) WINDSOR ...                    (   „ 28th May)
  JAGUAR                      (    „    2gth May) WOLFHOUND                       (   „ 29th „ )
  MALCOLM ...                 (    „    3ist May WOLSEY     ...
                                    and 2nd June) WORCESTER                                 30th    „
   MONTROSE                    (   ,, 29th May)


   BLYSKAWICA (Polish)                  MACKAY                               WHITSHED
   CODRINGTON                           SHIKARI                              WILD SWAN
   ESK                                  VANQUISHER                           WINCHELSEA
   JAVELIN                               VERITY
 Total 41, of which 6 were sunk and 23 damaged.

 Sloops and Gunboats
   BIDEFORD             ...    (damaged ist June) MOSQUITO ..                     (sunk ist June)
                                                  LOCUST
 Corvettes
   KINGFISHER           ...    (damaged ist June) GUILLEMOT


 Guardships and Armed Boarding Vessels
   KING ORRY (damaged 27th May and sunk 30th May)                            LLANTHONY
   MONA ISLE (        „ 27th May and ist June)                               LORMONT

 Minesweepers
   BRIGHTON BELLE              (sunk 28th May)          SKIPJACK .                (sunk ist June)
  DEVONIA                      ( „ 3Ist „ )             WAVERLEY                  ( „ 29th May)
   GRACIE FIELDS ...           ( „ 28th „ )