Dunkirk Anniversary.

[curiouswombat]

I have been watching the commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation on TV over the past few days.

The most famous aspect of this is, of course, the flotilla of small ships that set off to cross the channel with crews not only of naval personnel, but mainly of old men, young boys, middle-aged mothers, and so on.

As has been mentioned a number of times, the role of these little ships was not to go over, take on board 20 men and return to England - it was more dangerous than that; they were to ferry men from the beaches out to bigger vessels in deeper water, backwards and forwards for hours under enemy fire.

As an island nation reliant on the sea for almost all transport in the first half of the twentieth century, Manx passenger vessels, although not part of the flotilla of small ships, were a large part of that fleet of larger ships.

In fact it is estimated that 1 in 14 of the men who were brought back to Britain were carried on an Isle-of-man Steam Packet ship.

It is good to see this story then - the anchor of one of our ships lost at Dunkirk (she hit a mine) has been retrieved and will form a permanent memorial here to all those who took part.

At least 40 Manxmen were lost at Dunkirk - most were the crew of Mona's Queen, others were crew members of other Manx ships or soldiers. This meant that more than 1 in ever 1,000 of the island's population were killed over a three day period.

To put this in context; the equivalent would be if 310,000 American personnel were killed in Afghanistan over this weekend.

My uncle Eric was one of those soldiers who made it back (although not on a Manx boat!). I wrote about his experiences here - his is the bit under the cut, complete with a rather good photo of him at the time.

.........................................................

Changing the subject totally - tonight is Eurovision! I don't think it's going to be a vintage year - but with a couple off glasses of wine and some nibbles and it will be fun anyway. D-d is having a Eurovision party, I'm hoping maddeinin is going to be on line to snark along with me...

Comments

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

Wow! When you put the numbers in perspective that way, they're mind-boggling. And I never fail to marvel at the bravery of the men and women in those boats. Also, your uncle was a very handsome man. (But that dried porridge story... Yikes!)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Altogether about 500 Manx men and women died as a direct result of the war between 1939 and 1945 - the largest number as merchant or royal naval seamen, then serving in the army or the air-force, another 30 or more were killed in air-raids - mostly when visiting Merseyside for one reason or another. So something like 1 in every 75-80 of the population.

My uncle was a handsome young man, wasn't he? And, in later life, a good story-teller.

[calizen.livejournal.com]

I've always been fascinated by the Dunkirk rescue. Thank you for shedding more light on what truly happened there. As someone from the Islands, what happened to your area during the war? I know that Gurnsey was taken over by the Germans, but what was your group's history?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Being slap bang in the Middle of the British isles we were, I gather, considered to be either incredibly safe from invasion or, alternatively, would be a wonderful target for some sort of invasion so that we could be used as a giant immobile air-craft carrier.

In fact the UK government built 3 airfields on the island - using it for a lot of training of aircrew and radio and radar operators. They also used the island as an interment area as they also did in WW1.

Many of the original 14,000 internees were German and Austrian Jews, in case any were undercover spies I gather. The boarding houses, full of holiday makers the year before, became internment camps.

Recently an exhibition of art (http://www.iomtoday.co.im/what-where-when/Internees39-artwork-is-reunited-after.6230481.jp) from internees opened locally, and the world famous Amadeus Quartet met in the Hutchinson Square camp.

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

That's an amazing story about your uncle Eric. A friend of my mum's was rescued from Dunkirk and wrote up his experiences. I met him some years ago and even after all that time is was obviously still the biggest thing in his life. There were tears in his eyes as he told his story. Lack of communication was a huge problem for the relatives left behind. Arthur's family had no idea if he was alive or dead until he walked up the garden path to their home one morning.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Uncle Eric told my mother that as he got off the boat in England there were women from the WRVS at the bottom of the gang-plank and as you passed them they would take a note of your Christian name, the name of the person to send a message to, and what you relationship to them was.

They then filled it out on a standard telegram form and sent it. This provided a telegram that then read something like 'Dear Mother, I am safely arrived in England and will be in contact soon, your loving son Eric.'

Your mum's friend could not have been lucky enough to have been met off the boat by the WRVS. However, it brought it's own problems - his mother was convinced that he must be in a hospital somewhere terribly injured as "He'd never call me 'dear mother', or himself 'your loving son' - it's wasting words - there must be something wrong with him!"

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

Lol! I wonder how many other mums thought the same thing!

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

My Uncle Jim (on my mothers side), was at Dinkirk. He was taken as a prisoner of war, and spent the war years going from one prison camp to another. I guess we were lucky, he survived, even after all that time. The poor conditions he was held under did effect his health, and the doctors said that, even at 75, contrubuted to his death in later life.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Uncle Eric was very fortunate not to have spent the war in the same way. I'm sure it will have contributed to your uncle Jim's death.

[maddeinin.livejournal.com]

I was a bit disappointed with the semifinals - nothing made me squeal out loud in horrified laughter the way it usually does - but I will definitely be around this evening.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

That was the effect the semifinals had on me, too, which is why I didn't even mention that I'd watched them.

Although the one with the lady who looked as if she was being assaulted by a giant sea-gull was... memorable.

One of my daughter's friends is there - live - it is one of her really big ambitions.

Are you writing on your journal as it happens tonight? If so I will come and comment there...

[maddeinin.livejournal.com]

I just opened up a post for it! I really liked Holland's cheerful nonsense-y ditty (and the floor show), but sadly it didn't make it.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It was certainly cheerful! I am about to go and get some chilli and wedges and maybe a couple of glasses of wine, ready to go... see you in a while.

[hesadevil.livejournal.com]

Dunkirk is an amazing story, all the more so because Churchill only expected 30 odd thousand to be rescued and ten times that came back.

Almost as misunderstood as the role of the little boats at Dunkirk is the part played by the Merchant Navy througout the war. My uncle Eric enlisted and was posted as a Merchant Seaman. He survived three torpedo attacks. My father always said that Uncle Eric's time in burning oil-laden seas contributed to the cancer that killed him in his early 60s.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

the part played by the Merchant Navy througout the war.

Absolutely. Many of the 500+ Manx dead were merchant seamen too - in those days we were a nation of sailors and fishermen.

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

That's absolutely fascinating. I watched "Foyles War" with my mom while I was recovering from surgery-- I copied your post and the link to her in an email. I'm sure she'll be interested!

Dunkirk is really hard to wrap my brain around. I'm from a coastal area; I know a little about fishing boats. I've spent a lot of hours on them. And I needed something uplifting to think about this morning!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I do hope your mother finds it interesting.

Some of the small ships weren't even fishing boats - some of them were little pleasure boats which had never ventured outside the banks of a river before that trip - This one (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.scouting.milestones.btinternet.co.uk/minotaurimages/minotaurflotilla.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.scouting.milestones.btinternet.co.uk/minotaur.htm&usg=__2sIwgnsTERPDbBLpPMFzst1WGBw=&h=1434&w=1077&sz=308&hl=en&start=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=LfM0-fr34kcAuM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddunkirk%2Bsmall%2Bships%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26tbs%3Disch:1) belonged to the Sea Scouts, here is another one as she is now (http://www.eventides.org.uk/images/Dunkirk%20Little%20Ship.JPG), or a couple more at an event in 2006 (http://www.readmyday.co.uk/pub/readmydayuk/maryreid/dunkirk2.jpg). It is scary how small they were - and yet anything bigger would not have been able to get in close once the actual port was lost.

[debris4spike]

Thanks for that post - one of the men who goes to our Church was there - one of the lucky ones to get back to England ... then ended up in North Africa.

My Dad remembers all the tugs leaving, as he was working on the Thames at the time.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

My uncle was like your gentleman from church - one of the last away from Dunkirk and one of the first ashore at Normandy - he died in his mid 70s.

My Dad remembers all the tugs leaving, as he was working on the Thames at the time.

It is amazing what stories our families hold, isn't it?

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Oh wow... such fascinating stories in your family! And I'm not sure how I missed the post about your uncle the first time 'round. The numbers really do put it in perspective, too.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I would guess our family is not really much more interesting than any other - but the Manx tradition of story-telling and knowing our family histories still lingers so that I know quite a lot about them, and feel the need to pass the stories on! This is just a different way of doing so, I guess.

The idea of 40 people being killed in one day does not seem all that big a deal does it - until you scale it up and apply it to somewhere people know.

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

I've been watching the Dunkirk anniversary coverage and am amazed all over again at the courage of men like your Uncle Eric and the amazing achievement of getting so many men safely home in such a strange and varied collection of crafs

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Some of those boats were so tiny - and they stayed within the fire zone for so long, crewed by retired naval officers and sea scouts and so on - even though it was a defeat, it was still a miracle that so many made it.

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

Thinking about Dunkirk at this time of year always brings a huge lump to my throat. This time last year I was re-reading Ian McEwan's Atonement for our book group, and spent all the Dunkirk section crying so hard I could hardly see straight.

Is there something particularly British, do you think, (I ask a Manxwoman for the outsider's view, perhaps!) about our tendency to myth-make - and, indeed, show some of the best of the national character - from what are often in essence our epic failures?

Your Uncle Eric was an absolute dish, wasn't he? So glad he survived everything from the beaches (both ways) to the reconstituted porridge...

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Is there something particularly British, do you think, (I ask a Manxwoman for the outsider's view, perhaps!) about our tendency to myth-make - and, indeed, show some of the best of the national character - from what are often in essence our epic failures?

I think it is a very British thing - perhaps related to the tendency to downplay success?

Uncle Eric was good looking when I look at the picture totally without being coloured by it 'just being' him. His son looks quite like him - but a lot older than that by now, of course!

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

I love stories about common people doing the impossible. Dunkirk is a wondrous story.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I'm curious - is the story of Dunkirk known well in America, or is it only the British and French who tell the story regularly?

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

I'd heard of the Battle of Dunkirk, and the spirit of Dunkirk, but I didn't know about the little boats and the bravery of private citizens.

I think it would be safe to say that many Americans would be ignorant of what happened at Dunkirk. Part of me wants to say it would be safe to say that many Americans would be ignorant of most history, but that would be unnecessarily harsh.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Sadly there are probably a lot of young people in Britain who have no idea what happened at Dunkirk either, these days.

Mind you a lot of my generation knew most about it from Paul Gallico's 'Snow Goose' being in every school library in our day.

[(Anonymous)]

CW
I was on the Waverley http://www.waverleyexcursions.co.uk/ on Saturday. We steamed from Oban to Tobermory to Armadale to Inverie and back the same way. It was 70 years exactly since the original Waverley (built in 1899) was lost on the way back from Dunkirk - it is a war grave in the English Channel. The current Waverley is a youngster built in 1947; the last paddle steamer to be built in the UK and now the only sea-going one. Because of the anniversary we had some Marines on board and the RM benevolent fund did very well from their collecting buckets.
D, on Skye

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The Waverley comes over here to visit almost every summer, but I hadn't realised that the original was lost at Dunkirk.

That must have been a lovely wee cruise.

[melegyrn.livejournal.com]

I quite enjoyed reading this, along with what you wrote about your uncle. It made me think about my Dad and his brother.

My dad ended up with a desk job, although he did get sent to Hawaii after the attack on Pearl Harbor. My uncle was stationed in France--that's what got me thinking about him. I had to ask my brother last night if he remembered anything about Uncle Jean in the war. Best he remembers is that Uncle Jean was a mechanic and was in the "rear ecehlon" of the Normandy invasion. By brother didn't remember if he was an airplane mechanic or not, although he did work for Boeing after the war. But unfortunately we don't have the detailed story that you do--Uncle Jean died when I was only two years old.

Thanks too for telling about the Manx contribution at Dunkirk, and about the losses the island experienced. I enjoyed learning about that. Reading about Dunkirk also made me think about the story "The Snow Goose". Helps me get a picture of it in my head.

You tell the story well!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It should be possible to apply to see your uncle's war record. My cousin, I think, actually has a copy of Uncle Eric's - but we are fortunate, as a family, to have a good oral tradition - my mother is the current 'oldest member' and knows stories about her own grandparents and so on.

I try to listen as much as possible, and I have another cousin who spends ages talking 'past times' with her, as well.