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00:00we were completely surrounded all our tanks and everything else had been destroyed
00:17we had no defenses no defenses whatsoever i never thought we'd get out to dunkirk never
00:24may 1940 and a third of a million men had retreated back to this thin strip of sand they
00:36were demoralized they were exhausted and they were stranded overhead screened an endless
00:43succession of german dive bombers because they were coming in from all directions
00:48there's nowhere you could go the army faced annihilation there were bodies everywhere
00:57but nobody had time to bury them or anything they were just lying there
01:03at this the lowest moment in british military history when so many had given up hope a fleet
01:10of ships appeared out there not just naval but ships of all different shapes and sizes
01:17it was a hastily cobbled together fleet carrying out a daring rescue mission
01:22and for so many of those ships and their crews it would prove fatal but it would lead
01:28to what is now known as the miracle of dunkirk
01:46very few of these little ships remain these are the survivors
02:0170 years on the ships that made the perilous crossing to dunkirk are going back
02:19she's 80 years old it's a bit of an eccentric boat and i think you've got to be a little bit
02:25eccentric to take these boats she's part of the family she's my grandfather's my father's and now mine
02:42and uh you know we're very lucky to have her
02:50really they're now a testament to the amazing bravery of the crews who took these boats across
02:57and i'm just amazed at what they managed to achieve
03:07if only they could talk and that's what everybody everybody wants they want the
03:13they want their boat to to tell them what experiences they went through
03:30as the crews of these little ships motored out here into the channel they just wouldn't have
03:35known what to expect i've sailed across the channel many times and it is an unpredictable a dangerous
03:42stretch of water there are shoals and sandbanks the tides rip up and down the weather is very
03:46changeable and of course 70 years ago this is what i just can't imagine 70 years ago they knew they were
03:53heading into a war zone
04:09in 1939 for the second time in just over 20 years the british found themselves preparing to fight a war
04:16on french soil for months they dug in every day expecting the crash of german guns but those guns
04:24remained silent it became known as the phony war but whilst the british waited the germans were preparing
04:32themselves for the attack on the 10th of may 1940 germany launched a massive assault in the west and there
04:43was nothing phony about it the so-called sitz krieg had ended the blitzkrieg had begun
05:00today it could be called shock and awe then it was blitzkrieg
05:30or lightning war a revolutionary type of warfare which stunned the allies
05:36fast-moving tanks the panzers charged into dutch and belgian lines through holes blasted by aircraft
05:44like the stuka dive bombers
05:46the bbc home service
05:5328 german divisions 400 000 men surged through the gaps this is the bbc home service here is a short news
06:03bulletin the german army invaded holland and belgium early this morning by land and by landings from
06:12parachutes an appeal for help has been made to the allied governments and brussels says that allied
06:19troops are moving to their support
06:25immediately the french and british armies advanced into belgium to try and plug the gap
06:30among them was the second battalion of the royal ulster rifles and one of their officers captain
06:35drummond kept a detailed record of the events in the battalion war diary
06:41crossed belgian frontier in motor transport no opposition encountered during the night from enemy aircraft
06:51initially it all seemed to be going smoothly but as hitler monitored their advance he announced
06:56his generals i could have wept for joy they've fallen into the trap
07:04as the allies advanced to meet what they thought was the main german thrust
07:09the real attack was underway elsewhere here in the ardenne forest deemed impenetrable by the french
07:17the germans were gambling otherwise and for this decisive blow they had secretly assembled 22 000 vehicles
07:26so we've got all sorts of complicated theories about successful military tactics but most of them
07:32boil down to one key thing and that's speed and in the summer of 1940 the germans had plenty of it
07:39army group a crashed through the ardenne forest and within three days general guaderian was at the key
07:45french fortress of sedan which in the first world war had taken the germans nearly three weeks to reach
07:52the allies had trouble responding to this german advance because they just didn't believe how fast
07:56it was going the british troops in belgium were also reeling from the german onslaught harry malpas
08:07was fighting with the second battalion the warwickshire regiment we didn't expect what we got i mean you
08:14didn't expect to uh go along there on foot and they come at you in in tanks and things like that you
08:21know i mean it was impossible you were completely outnumbered anyway the german plan was to drive a
08:27massive armored wedge splitting in half the allied forces then they could move around occupy the channel
08:34ports cut off the british line of retreat and destroy pockets of resistance at their leisure the sheer scale
08:41of the german success has surprised even the germans themselves for the british it was a catastrophe
08:47what could you do terrible it was upsetting it was frightening
08:54uh it was demoralizing
09:02back in london events were moving just as quickly
09:06the first lord of the admiralty winston churchill had just taken over as prime minister
09:11churchill was given a rapturous welcome outside parliament but a cool one inside
09:19he was regarded as a dangerous choice even by people in his own party a maverick a warmonger
09:27i would say to the house as i said to those who have joined the government
09:32i have nothing to offer but blood toil tears and sweat
09:45on the continent real blood was already being spilt there was a growing sense of desperation as the
09:51allies were being outflanked outmaneuvered and forced onto the defensive
09:56as i said hasling joined the royal engineers as a part-time territorial soldier
10:03most of us as the young of the people that joined up as territorials we're only in there
10:1019 20 21 so i mean we were pretty young and raw i mean we hadn't we didn't really come to fight
10:17on their front the royal ulster rifles were preparing to block the ever advancing germans
10:27louvain all bridges prepared for demolition
10:40we were doing nothing but blowing bridges and running blowing bridges and running
10:48we blew quite a lot of bridges this tactic did not stem the blitzkrieg for long the germans simply
10:56brought their own bridges with them they succeeded in making it across the crucial river moors
11:03the allied front line was caving in reports of the defeats stunned the high command
11:11so there was now a growing sense of inevitability and perhaps because of that on the same day may the
11:2014th the admiralty issued a very unusual public appeal for help the admiralty have made an order
11:28requiring all owners of self-propelled pleasure craft between 30 and 100 feet in length to send any
11:34further particulars of them to the admiralty within 14 days now this wasn't the admiralty panicking
11:44it was only a preliminary investigation to see if these pleasure craft could help keep the army in
11:49france supplied the navy were immediately inundated with offers from boat owners alan spong was a 20
11:59year old apprentice working on the thames
12:03what do you make of that then oh right there she is oh dear oh dear oh dear
12:11this little saloon lovely how many years since you've seen her
12:16i think it must be well since i last saw her was at dunkirk
12:21i've never seen her since has she changed well she looks much brighter and sprightly
12:28all right should we go and meet the skipper yes thank you they phoned up and spoke to my father
12:33they said well can you come down and take the queen bodicea to uh sheerness so and having been on the
12:39sailing barge for quite a time and being down that end as well quite a lot i said yes do that okay fine
12:46what's it all about they said oh we can't tell you that little did you know yes so
12:55secrecy was of the utmost importance at this stage of the operation
13:00overlooking dover harbor dug into the white cliffs is a labyrinth of tunnels protected against any threat
13:08from the enemy this is where winston churchill came to meet the man who was in charge of all the
13:13plans to keep the army in france resupplied and he'd be the one using all the little ships his name
13:19was vice admiral bertram ramsey
13:24ramsey had served in this part of the channel during the first world war
13:28and he knew it like the back of his hand this detailed knowledge would prove extremely important
13:34over the coming days the operation was codenamed dynamo
13:42little did anyone know that this was an operation that would change the course of world war ii
13:50from his lookout post admiral ramsey could see the french coastline
13:54he knew that the german panzers were pressing north for the channel ports
13:58like all great strategists ramsey was building contingency he was preparing for the worst case
14:06scenario and that's why he got his team to start planning for a total evacuation they had to assume
14:13that the enemy would take out all the french channel ports that meant the army would have to
14:18be lifted off the beaches the trouble was that navy ships and other large vessels were too big to get
14:26close enough to the shore so what would be needed was a fleet of little ships who could get so close
14:31that the men could wait out and clamber up into them
14:41smaller vessels would be needed in their hundreds paddle steamers tugs fishing boats ferries
14:47passenger ships anything that was capable of crossing the channel
14:56the boat yards in the south of england were contacted directly tufts boatyard in teddington
15:03was one of the largest on the thames
15:12the yard built motor torpedo boats motor launches harbor service launches lifeboats all sorts of things
15:18during the war itself but it was it was this part the building we're in now where the other little
15:24ships came the navy gave john's grandfather free reign to commandeer vessels this is my grandfather
15:30douglas tuff i'll just get the dust off he was asked by the royal navy to actually put together of
15:39as many of suitable vessels so that was basically boats from about 28 foot and up suitable for a sea
15:45crossing they literally went up river in one of the tugs and doug would say that one's suitable that one's not
15:52the yard was filled with dozens of boats which were quickly stripped down and turned from pleasure
16:00craft into rescue launches there was one vessel at kingston the owner wasn't around they broke in to
16:07the boat and took it the owner turned up in the afternoon it was a lady and she said you've taken my
16:14boat you can't take it it's my home and he said yes we can we've commandeered it for military service
16:18i think it was about four days he had to put it all together working day and night to get get everything
16:26ready it was now a race the germans were pushing forward but casualties on both sides were high
16:40french and british soldiers fought side by side putting up a ferocious resistance around the channel
16:46ports but here despite 36 hours of continuous fighting boulogne finally fell and calais was besieged
16:59but the camaraderie of the men at the front line here was not being shared by the generals further
17:04back the french generals were convinced that the british were always looking over their shoulder with
17:09one eye on the channel coast thinking of escaping home while the british thought the french lacked the
17:14skill and the stomach for the fight these disagreements did nothing to help the situation on the ground
17:21the german net was closing in and the only remaining port in allied hands was dunkirk
17:28ten miles south at wormhut one battalion of the warwickshire regiment had been reduced to only a hundred men
17:34all hell let loose somewhere about nine o'clock and the order was given every man for himself
17:47and of course we all run for it like you know everyone was trying to get away out the way there was tanks
17:54everywhere we went behind the hedge and down in in in the ditch and crawled away and we sort of escaped
18:02like you know we got away that way and um after that we just made our way back to dunkirk you know
18:10but not all of harry's comrades were so lucky men of the warwickshire regiment who didn't make it
18:16were rounded up and massacred here by the ss here's the names of all the guys here see up here yeah
18:25james southern william stokes yeah new stokes
18:31yeah new stokes arthur williams charles holmes augustus jennings no tommy george
18:38uh
18:48yes
18:52sorry
19:02under the command of general grudarian the panzers were just 15 miles west of dunkirk
19:08But at 11.32, Hitler and his generals made a crucial mistake.
19:17They ordered that the Blitzkrieg was to halt.
19:21It's always been considered a little bit of a mystery as to why Hitler ordered his tanks to
19:26stop. But in fact, when you come here and look at this terrain, it becomes very obvious.
19:31This is the worst possible environment for tanks to operate in. It's crisscrossed by dozens of
19:36canals. The ground here is boggy at the best of times, and in the summer of 1940, it had been
19:41raining for several days and was nearly impassable to heavy vehicles. It's also built up an industrial
19:47urban landscape. It's so far from the dry rolling plains in which tanks are in their element.
19:55The other problem was that Hitler and his generals were worried that the advance was so fast that
20:00units were getting too far apart and they were opening themselves up to counter-attack. And
20:04lastly, Hitler's bombastic head of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring, was promising that his bombers alone
20:11would be enough to destroy the remnants of the BEF on the Dunkirk beaches.
20:18But the halt order gave the Allies a crucial window of opportunity. Lord Gort, commander of the BEF,
20:26knew that evacuation was now the only option.
20:39At 1857, a historic signal was sent out by the Admiralty. Operation Dynamo is to commence.
20:48The mission to save the army in France was finally underway.
20:56In these tunnels, Vice Admiral Ramsey's team worked around the clock. He wrote that Operation Dynamo should
21:03be pursued with the greatest vigor. He assumed he could get out about 45,000 men over two days. After
21:12which point he said it was likely that the evacuation would be terminated by enemy action. The problem
21:18was there were now around a third of a million men heading towards the beaches at Dunkirk. Without
21:24these troops, the British Army would virtually cease to exist and the war would be lost.
21:31The fate of the army now depended upon Operation Dynamo and its unlikely flotilla of boats.
21:37As we went down river from Westminster Pier, there were people lowering boats from ships that were
21:44moored in the docks, one thing and other, lowering them into the water to be towed down to try and use
21:49them to take people off the beaches, the ordinary rowing boats. The Navy were immediately called up to
21:56provide additional manpower. I was in Chatham barracks and at four o'clock in the morning, the bugle goes,
22:04everybody must hold the parade ground. They said they're going to be taken down to Ramsgate.
22:11That's where they took us, down to Ramsgate. And in the harbour was completely packed with all small
22:16boats from one side to the other. All hundreds of these bloody boats.
22:24Lofty and his fellow sailors took over many of the little ships, but there was a problem over who
22:29was going to man the remainder. The majority of the little ships were crewed by authorised,
22:36I'll put it that way, naval personnel. But the simple truth of it was the Navy couldn't send a
22:42civilian into a war zone. So when the vessels arrived in Sheerness or in Ramsgate before going,
22:49the Navy signed civilians up as naval personnel. So a lot of people became naval ratings or naval
22:58officers for a month. And that way, the Navy dealt with its legal obligation of not sending civilians
23:05into a war zone whilst getting experienced people on the vessels and getting them over.
23:11Alan Spong, who had worked on the river all of his life, was signed up on the spot.
23:16So that we were offered money for taking the vessels over to France? I think it was a fiver.
23:23I think it was. A fiver? Five shillings.
23:40There was a growing sense of trepidation.
23:43The navigation here is very challenging, and there weren't enough charts to go round.
23:49One of the captains of the little ships was even given a road map of France and Belgium,
23:55trying to find his way to Dunkirk.
24:04Whenever you go out to sea, you should feel a little bit afraid.
24:07If you don't feel a little bit afraid, you're either a liar or a fool.
24:13These guys didn't know what they were taking themselves into.
24:16And it's fascinating putting yourself in their place at that time.
24:21Here are these three civilians. Well, they volunteered and they're going to take a boat over,
24:25and that's what they did. They took this boat over to Dunkirk.
24:34The hairs on the back of my neck stick up when I just think about it.
24:38And I don't think that civilians should claim a bravery they do not have.
24:43They must prove it.
24:44And I somehow doubt that I would be brave enough to have done it.
25:00I do feel proud about what my grandfather did.
25:07It was just under an eighth of all the little ships came from this area on the Thames.
25:13Without his work, without the naval work of actually putting that little fleet together,
25:18they would have been down on the numbers, so it made a difference.
25:22They never said anything to us. I mean, the Navy were there,
25:30and I don't think they were going to tell us.
25:32I mean, the first time I knew what was going on was when I could see the black smoke.
25:40Do you know what you were letting yourself in for, that?
25:44Nah, we had a rough idea, but, you know.
25:52But on the same day that the evacuation was announced,
26:05Hitler's halt order was rescinded and the Germans surged forward.
26:11The Allies, though, hadn't been wasting time.
26:14They had improvised a defensive corridor,
26:16using canals, rivers and existing bunkers to protect the army as it withdrew.
26:22Oh, there's some gun emplacements there, probably something like a 37mm anti-tank gun,
26:38pointing out at this very, very flat scenery here, very good fields of fire.
26:43In many ways, this would have been a pretty good place to be positioned,
26:46although the men would have known this was a desperate rearguard action.
26:50Every hour that they could survive here, hold off the Germans,
26:54would mean more and more men lifted off those beaches just a few miles that way.
26:58Trouble is, though, for these men forming the rearguard,
27:01they'd have guessed that they would fight here and they'd probably die here.
27:06I knew when I was putting up my machine gun post, I wasn't going to get back.
27:17It was like having pea shooters against cannons.
27:21You had no chance. I mean, apart from that, we were short of ammunition.
27:26And, er, well, you just had no chance at all.
27:33Were a lot of people sort of running off and disobeying orders and things?
27:36Oh, God.
27:37Well, they were looking after their own skins.
27:40I mean, they were trying to get back.
27:41I mean, nobody wants to be shot, do they?
27:42Exactly.
27:43But, um, at the same time, you try to do your duty.
27:49Try to do your bit.
27:52But, um, that's how things were.
27:56I don't regret it.
28:01Why did he stay?
28:03Why did he stay?
28:04Yeah. Why didn't he just run off?
28:05He was a regular soldier and that was my job.
28:08It was the sacrifice of men like Harry who made it possible for others to make it back to the beaches.
28:21But, inevitably, there was confusion and sometimes chaos.
28:28Battalion withdrawn to Wurston, considerable artillery fire.
28:33With only one map in their battalion, the Royal Ulster Rifles did manage to retreat
28:37to this canal here.
28:39They moved along roads that were absolutely chock-a-block with various mixed-up units of the BEF.
28:45In fact, some units, apparently, didn't have maps at all.
28:48And one or two even headed towards the Germans by accident.
28:51They were under constant air and artillery bombardment.
28:54And by the time they reached this canal, about midnight,
28:57they discovered that that bridge up there had been blown up by their own Royal Engineers.
29:02There was a pontoon bridge across here, but it was on fire.
29:05And luckily, there was one last bridge, this narrow railway bridge, across which
29:09the Royal Ulster Rifles managed to escape to the relative safety of this far side of the canal.
29:14But not everyone made it.
29:30The path of the retreat is littered with the graves of fallen soldiers.
29:35Eight of the Royal Ulster Rifles are buried together in a nearby churchyard.
29:39In London, the war cabinet met for the third time in 24 hours.
29:55They were split as to how to resolve the crisis.
29:59The Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, was prepared to consider doing a deal with Hitler.
30:04However, he believed it was the only way to save Britain.
30:08He was not alone in this view, but Churchill had other plans.
30:11But now one bond unites us all, to wage war until victory is won.
30:19And never to surrender ourselves to servitude and shame, whatever the cost and the agony may be.
30:26He had only been in power 16 days, but already Churchill was faced with the loss of his entire army.
30:39The first vessels of the rescue fleet were approaching the French coastline, by the fastest route possible.
30:54But the Germans had anticipated them.
30:56Two of the first ships across, the Archangel and the Buritz, were actually hit by German artillery fire from around Calais.
31:10That made Ramsey realise that Route Z, although it was the quickest way of getting to Dunkirk, wasn't usable in daylight.
31:18Route X was one alternative, but it was laden with mines.
31:23Route Y was now the best option, but it increased the trip from 40 to 86 miles, a journey which took 12 hours.
31:34That meant that the little ships would be at sea for much, much longer,
31:38exposed to whatever the enemy and the weather could throw at them.
31:53The goal in Dünnkirchen is reached.
31:57Everything is ready.
32:13The Luftwaffe launched a series of devastating air raids,
32:17dropping 2,000 tonnes of bombs on Dunkirk town and its port.
32:37Arthur Taylor, an RAF wireless operator, witnessed the bombing first-hand.
32:43We've been walking for virtually two days.
32:48Coming into Dunkirk, there were bodies everywhere, but nobody had time to bury them or anything.
32:55They were just laying there.
32:56And so was it, I mean, what, the port, was it just a wreck?
32:59I mean, that must have just built that.
33:00That, you couldn't see it.
33:02It was smoke that had been bombed, and all the oil fields, all the oil was gone.
33:09The whole lot was gone that side.
33:21Many on the ground felt that the RAF had deserted them,
33:25that their only defence was their rifles.
33:28Feelings ran high.
33:29My immediate CEO was a lieutenant in the Royal Signals.
33:38And he said to me, right, you've got to cover your uniform.
33:42You've got to put a black mack on.
33:45You've got to wear gun boots.
33:46You've got to put a steel helmet on, otherwise you'll get beaten up being in the RAF.
33:53This is true.
33:54It happened to me.
33:58Hard as it was for those sailors and soldiers to believe,
34:02the RAF was making a huge effort to keep the Stuka dive bombers away.
34:06But most of this aerial battle could not be seen by the troops on the beaches.
34:22Ramsay needed his own men on the ground.
34:25So he sent a destroyer, HMS Wolfhound, to help make sense of the situation.
34:30The commander was Captain William Tennant.
34:36After spending just one hour in Dunkirk, Captain Tennant sent a dramatic message to his boss,
34:42Admiral Ramsay, in Dover.
34:45It said, please send every available craft to the beaches east of Dunkirk immediately.
34:51Vic Viner was one of Tennant's team on the beaches.
34:54His job was to help impose order.
34:57So you're a funny one, because as everyone else is trying to get off the beach,
35:02you were trying to get onto it.
35:03Yeah, we got onto it, you see, to help them off.
35:08They were all shattered, weren't they? Absolutely shattered.
35:11I walked up to one column, and the voice from the column said,
35:16what the bloody hell are you doing here, Vic?
35:18My school chum, I said, I've come to take you home.
35:22And that's...
35:23And was he pretty grateful for that?
35:24I should think so, yes.
35:27With thousands of troops arriving on the beaches,
35:30the Navy attempted to embark them using their own rowing boats or whalers.
35:33The idea was that we would take the chipped whaler onto the beach to pick them up.
35:41We were doing this rowing, and when we got back to my destroyer,
35:45I sort of felt all sweaty.
35:47When I looked down, it was blood.
35:48We'd actually sweat blood in rowing.
35:51So we realised that it was impossible.
35:54It's going to be a hopeless situation.
35:56It was difficult enough to get the men onto the ships.
36:04It was impossible to take their heavy equipment with them.
36:08And that meant the area here behind the beach was littered with abandoned vehicles of all shapes and sizes.
36:13Of course, because they didn't want the Germans getting their hands on them,
36:16the men were all ordered to sabotage them as well.
36:24The British could build new trucks.
36:26They couldn't build new, highly skilled, professional soldiers.
36:30There were now 20,000 troops waiting on the beaches, and more arriving every day.
36:40Until more little ships could make it, Ramsey needed a different plan.
36:47There was only one part of Dunkirk port that remained undamaged.
36:51A long breakwater known as the Mole.
36:53Ramsey needed to find out whether this could be used as a key,
37:01because it stretches out into the deep water.
37:03So he thought that big ships might be able to come alongside,
37:06and the men climb onto them directly.
37:09So he sent his man on the spot, Captain Tennant, along here to have a recce.
37:14Later that night, Tennant radioed Dover and said he thought it was worth a gamble.
37:19Just a few hours later, the first ship, the Queen of the Channel,
37:23a big passenger steamer, came alongside and left loaded with over 1,000 men.
37:29The Mole did offer the stranded troops a lifeline, but it was far from perfect.
37:35The tide rises and falls here by 15 feet, and even at high tide,
37:40troops had to jump down a great distance onto the decks of the ships.
37:46The queue was 20 wide, and it went for miles.
37:51You couldn't sleep because the queue was moving all the time,
37:55and so ships came in and filled up, and away we went.
37:57And then all of a sudden, they said stop.
38:00The dive bomber had come down and blown a hole at the end.
38:08The Germans had realised what was going on,
38:11and the Stuka pilots found the mile-long Mole an inviting target.
38:18Oh, the devil, it's on his sirens.
38:22There's nowhere you could go.
38:23It's all right. It feels as if it's coming straight down your neck.
38:27And they just make you cower.
38:30My stomach feel turns over, even after all these years.
38:42But despite the casualties, destroyers and other large ships,
38:46now made directly for the Mole.
38:49Were you worried you wouldn't make it home?
38:50No, not at all. We had faith in the ships coming in,
38:54once we knew the ships were coming.
38:58And we could see, looking out to the sea,
39:00we could see the little ships coming in.
39:06Goering, the head of the Luftwaffe, remarked,
39:10only a few fishing boats are coming across.
39:12One hopes that the Tommies know how to swim.
39:16In fact, there were nearly 600 little ships en route to Dunkirk.
39:20As the ships arrived here off the harbour wall,
39:28they have looked inland and seen a vision of hell.
39:31The port had been destroyed by German shelling and bombing.
39:34Flames licking through the ruins.
39:36There was a giant pall of black smoke.
39:39The harbour here was absolutely blocked with sunken wrecks.
39:43And there on the beach, perhaps the worst sight of all,
39:46was the chaotic remnant of the BEF.
39:50When we got back on the beach, you'd see the queues,
40:04water up there, underneath their chins.
40:07It was a question, really, of getting people to help.
40:12You shout, saying, I'm the captain here, now please do this.
40:16Or do that, or do the other.
40:18That's what it is, you know, that's...
40:20And of course, being soldiers, of course, they took some notice on.
40:23It was so terrible trying to lift them out of the water.
40:28When they got the boots on, so heavy, you couldn't do it.
40:31Apart from the mates behind pushing them up.
40:34If the tide was heavy and the water was going down, we had to make certain that we didn't stay there
40:40more than about five minutes at the most, ten minutes at the most.
40:44So people got on board and in ten minutes we had to pull her off a bit.
40:46And what, surely sometimes too many guys would try and get on board and you'd have to kick them off?
40:51I wouldn't like to say that we'll kick them off, but yes, I mean, we just have to say stop, that's enough, we can't take any more.
41:00The boat crews needed to get as many troops as they could onto the destroyers and other larger ships
41:07waiting in the deeper water.
41:11We was taking the troops from the shore, unloading them and then making our way back to the beach.
41:17We were driving the taxi service. Backwards and forwards.
41:25We never counted. I mean, you just couldn't do it. You couldn't count people or anything like that.
41:31But I would reckon she must have been taking anything from up to between 120 to 180.
41:37Packed? Packed. Oh yeah.
41:41But these crowded ships were prime targets.
41:45On the 29th of May, 36 ships, both naval and small craft, were sunk.
41:50This is all that remains of the paddle steam of the crested eagle.
42:08She was hit four times by Stuka dive bombers and unable to steer, she grounded right here.
42:14Any men that could escape by jumping overboard, but they were then machine gunned by the planes,
42:19as were any ships that came to her rescue.
42:22300 men were burned to death right here.
42:29Vic Viner's brother was among those on the crested eagle.
42:33According to the fellows I asked, they said,
42:39well, I believe brother Bert was just about where the bomb came down, you know.
42:43So that was it.
42:46He was missing, presumed killed, and that's all we know.
42:50It must have been quite hard doing your job after you've seen your brother's ship get blown up.
42:54Well, it's all part of being in the RN, isn't it, you know.
42:59It's part of your job, and I can't give any other expression other than
43:07realising, hoping that of course he was all right, and then finding out he wasn't.
43:11This loss of men and ships was a disaster for the evacuation, and a national trawl for more volunteers
43:24was broadcast.
43:26This is the BBC Home Service.
43:29The Admiralty want men experienced in marine internal combustion engines
43:33for service as enginemen in yachts or motorboats.
43:36Others who have had charge of motorboats and have good knowledge of coastal navigation
43:41are needed as uncertified second hands.
43:45But on the same day, the Admiralty withdrew its eight most modern destroyers,
43:49in case they too should be lost.
43:52This threw the focus back to the beaches, as fewer troops could now be evacuated off the mole.
43:59Sid Hasling had been walking for several days with little food or water.
44:04It must have felt pretty good getting to this spot here, seeing the sea.
44:08What a relief.
44:10So they said we'll go out into the water and stand there and wait and see what happens.
44:14So how long do you spend in the water?
44:17I suppose we went in about three or four o'clock in the morning,
44:22ten hours, or you know, ten hours.
44:24Enough for the tide to come in and go out again, I know that.
44:27How cold was that?
44:28It's pretty cold, you know, but you've only got one thing in mind,
44:34and that was to get off the honeybeet and get on the boat.
44:37Men were being pushed to their absolute limits.
44:56It's unbelievably cold and they'd have been in here waiting to be rescued,
45:00waiting to be pulled off these beaches.
45:01They'd have been shelled, they were being strafed by fighters.
45:05Seeing boats coming to pick them up.
45:09Seeing them hit wrecks and become wrecks themselves.
45:14Seeing full boats of soldiers going out from this beach and being dive-bombed and blowing up,
45:19capsizing, men drowning.
45:22Somewhere in the water for hours.
45:24I just don't know how they could have lasted that long.
45:26An hour waiting in queues, waiting to get picked up.
45:30Those lines weren't just about good old British politeness.
45:32They were being kept in line by officers who threatened to shoot anyone who jumped the queue.
45:40For the boat crews, young men in their twenties who had no experience of war,
45:45what they came face to face with was horrifying.
45:49What condition were the men like when they were coming on board?
45:52Pretty ghastly.
45:53I think they were all, don't forget they'd been on the beaches for perhaps maybe two or three days,
45:59with nothing to drink and one thing or another.
46:02Pretty ghastly.
46:03The chap, British plunk, who he knew me, lofty, lofty, he said, get me an officer.
46:13Now he's got no legs, can't use his legs at all.
46:16But it wasn't later that the penny dropped.
46:18All the officers was carrying the revolvers then.
46:22He wanted to get one of them revolvers and blow his own brains out.
46:26With his hands, he dragged himself across the deck,
46:31flung himself committing suicide in the water to get rid of the pain.
46:35I don't know.
46:39Probably bad. Terrible, that.
46:48But the little ships had turned the operation around.
46:51On May the 30th, 30,000 men were lifted from these beaches in one day.
46:5730,000 who, without the little ships, wouldn't have made it.
47:01There was now a glimmer of hope that they might just pull off a miracle.
47:05And for me, that's what the Dunkirk spirit is all about.
47:08It's about ordinary people doing extraordinary things when the circumstances demanded of them.
47:17If we got an hour's sleep in 24, it was doing well.
47:22Had all these sand dunes along the beach.
47:26Flop into them to get some sleep.
47:27When you don't have an hour, I'd love something to punch you out of a bloody boat.
47:42But the Germans were getting closer.
47:45Key to the defence of the eastern perimeter was the town of Felm.
47:49And this is where the Royal Ulster Rifles were now clinging on.
47:57It's about a mile wide sector of the front line.
48:19To the left over there, there were some Grenadier Guardsmen.
48:22And to the right, there were the King's Own Scottish Borderers.
48:26Royal Ulster Rifles were digging in here.
48:28Trenches and foxholes standing by to repel wave upon wave of German attacks.
48:33And the enemy made themselves felt about midday.
48:36The war diary says that the battalion headquarters area was coming under fire from enemy artillery.
48:42But then at five o'clock, something remarkable happens.
48:45The colonel attended a brigade conference.
48:48And he received orders regarding withdrawal from the position and embarkation.
48:54So it turns out those orders to fight to the last man were reversed.
48:59The Royal Ulster Rifles were heading for the sea.
49:01The French army had agreed to hold what remained of the line so that the British could withdraw.
49:10Men of the French 12th Division sacrificed themselves so that units like the Royal Ulster Rifles had a chance to make it home.
49:20Ramsay, too, had been in action, fighting the Admiralty.
49:24He persuaded them to send the withdrawn destroyers back to Dunkirk for one last gasp.
49:31Crews of the little ships knew nothing of all this.
49:34They simply carried on with the jobs they'd been given.
49:37Eight days I was doing this.
49:39We'd done a trip there with soldiers.
49:43And on the way back, the siren went in Dunkirk itself.
49:47That meant that the Germans was returning with another load of bloody bombs and stuff.
49:53One of these German bombers was after this British destroyer.
50:02Ducking and weaving and getting bloody closest to our launch.
50:07Over it come.
50:11Dropped these bombs with this destroyer and missed it completely.
50:14Oh, it was out of the way.
50:17How close they was, I never did know.
50:18But I felt our boat being lifted out of the water.
50:21The whole lot.
50:24When I come round, I was floating on my back, life jacket being my saviour.
50:29Look round, couldn't see any sign of any damage, your boats or even where the bloody shore was.
50:35Lofty's little ship was blown to pieces and the rest of his crew was killed.
50:40He struggled ashore and now had to join the long queues of troops still waiting on the beaches.
50:45I can't imagine the relief to be on that boat and be heading out.
50:49Oh, fantastic.
50:51Yeah.
50:51As it went off, I think a big cheer went up as they picked up anchor and got away.
50:56It was an incredible feeling.
50:59When we got to the end there, they said, that's your ship.
51:02The Lord Grey, a minesweeping fishing trawler.
51:06It took 163 of us all the way across.
51:19On the 1st of June, the Royal Ulster Rifles caught sight of the sea.
51:30Between three and four in the morning, the battalion finally arrived on the beach.
51:34They couldn't find anyone in charge and the tide was so low that few ships could get in and pick anyone up.
51:40They were among the last battalions to make it.
51:47By nine in the morning, it finally worked out where they were going to be evacuated from.
51:51It was an eight-mile march down the beach that way.
51:55As they went, they were constantly strafed and dive-bombed by enemy aircraft.
52:03The Royal Ulster Rifles were lifted off the mole that night by an Isle of Man steamer.
52:09They were finally going home.
52:13But other members of the rearguard were not so fortunate.
52:19I was in that machine gun post for five days before I blew up, run out of ammunition.
52:26And, of course, whatever hit us, I don't know what it was that hit us.
52:29Whether it was a bomb or whether it was a shell or a bullet or what it was.
52:32But I know two of them was killed and I was wounded.
52:39I've been very lucky, really. Very lucky.
52:44We're still here.
52:48The Germans had overrun the perimeter and Harry was captured.
52:53He had gone to spend five years in a prisoner of war camp.
52:56But 285,000 troops had been rescued.
53:06At 2300 hours, Ramsay received a message from Captain Tennant.
53:11It simply said, BF evacuated.
53:19Before abandoning Dunkirk, Tennant toured the beaches, calling,
53:23Is anybody there?
53:25But he got no reply.
53:30But there were 25,000 French soldiers who'd been making up the rearguard
53:35were still in the Dunkirk pocket.
53:37Now, Churchill realised that it would be politically unacceptable simply to abandon them.
53:41And so he got Ramsay to organise one more wave of ships to try and pick up as many of them as he could.
53:50Ramsay objected that it was putting his men to a test beyond the limits of human endurance.
53:56But he agreed to one final effort.
54:01I sat down on the sand and all of a sudden, a smartly-bressed British sailor came up.
54:08He's got everything on you. You've got his chin strapped down.
54:12His shoes were shining. British sailor.
54:16He looked at me and I said, I must have, you imagine what I looked like.
54:19A real tramp that's lost his tongue. I'd been over there eight days.
54:23I hadn't washed or shaved or anything.
54:26And he looked at me and he said, can you speak English?
54:29Of course, did I let him have it.
54:31I called him a dockyard ponch.
54:34I said, I'm sorry, I didn't know you was a muck, though.
54:36Which you know is a pretty sailor.
54:40He said, I'm sorry. I said, it's quite all right.
54:43I said, what's happening?
54:44So he said, well, what's happening now?
54:46And we've been warned to come over to say, that boat there, get aboard it.
54:52Lofty managed to get one of the last little ships leaving for Dover.
54:57The evacuation had now been underway for ten days.
55:00And at 3.40 a.m., this ship, the destroyer HMS Shikari, was the very last one to leave Dunkirk.
55:08Carrying 383 men.
55:11Ramsey then gave the order for Operation Dynamo to be terminated.
55:16At 9.40 that morning, the German troops finally took Dunkirk.
55:37For every seven Allied soldiers that had been rescued, one was left behind.
55:43The beaches were littered with the detritus of the BEF and the remains of the rescue fleet.
55:58But on the other side of the channel, 338,000 evacuated soldiers had landed at Ramsgate and Dover.
56:15Churchill had set his sights on rescuing just 45,000.
56:28The only thing was that everybody was, of course, soaking wet.
56:34And you had no way of drying.
56:35I mean, you just sat there.
56:36In fact, when we got to Dover, eventually, they put us on trains to go.
56:43We went down to Yeovil, actually.
56:45And you sat there in your wet pants all the time.
56:49Not very comfortable.
56:58But even as the soldiers arrived back here safely on the British coast,
57:04they knew that the fighting was far from over.
57:06The British army might have survived one blitzkrieg, but they knew that there were more to come.
57:12With the Germans just over 20 miles away across the channel,
57:16many thought that an invasion attempt was now inevitable.
57:22Churchill realised the gravity of the situation.
57:24He knew that Dunkirk wasn't a victory, but it had given the army a second chance.
57:32A miracle of deliverance achieved by valour, by perseverance, by perfect discipline,
57:40by faultless service, by resource, by skill, by unconquerable fidelity, is manifest to us all.
57:49These men are among the last of the Dunkirk veterans,
57:57who were rescued by the most unlikely armada ever to sail the channel.
58:03You've got men coming back who were completely shattered.
58:07I think that's the most important thing to say.
58:10And what I heard them saying was, the sea, thank God we found the sea.
58:14Yes, I quite agree.
58:15You know, and haven't seen the sea, they knew they could be saved.
58:22This little steamer, like all her brave and battered sisters, is immortal.
58:27She'll go sailing proudly down the years in the epic of Dunkirk.
58:34And our great-grandchildren, when they learn how we began this war by snatching glory out of defeat,
58:41and then swept on to victory, may also learn how the little holiday steamers
58:48made an excursion to hell, and came back glorious.
58:52The End