DUNKIRK EVACUATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 September 1940, Page 10

DUNKIRK EVACUATION.

STORY OF EYE-WITNESSES A further account of the epic of Dunkirk is provided in a letter by Mr. Harry W. C. Wood, an old boy of the Ne" Plymouth Boys' High School now serving in Admiralty transports just received by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. H. A. Wood, Rawhitiroa, Eltham, i "We have just returned from evacuating troops from Dunkirk and as our ship was badly holed in a collision we regard ourselves as being fortunate in having made the English port from which I write," he states. "The job is far from finished yet and I will be leaving in another vessel this evening to resume the work. "I was awaiting a ship at London when the call came for volunteers, and among those who offered their services were two other New Zealanders — but to tell you something of our experiences up to the present. It has all been very exciting and sad. and the courage shown by soldiers and seamen alike has been wonderful. "All manner of craft have been called into service, and even small launches and motor-boats are busy taking men from the beaches to the larger vessels which anchor some little distance from the shore. All the while planes drone overhead and bombs, machine-guns and artillery blaze away incenssantly. Troops From the Shore. "We lowered out lifeboats and assisted in bringing troops from the shore where they would wade out to us — or in some cases be carried out to us — for many were badly wounded and others too exhausted and f agged to even climb into the boat. The beach was a teeming mass of men, yet amid it all there seemed to remain a semblance of discipline and a definite freedom from panic or fear — just a grim intensity, so grim it almost frightened me. "The bombers hit a ship close to us and the men were left struggling in the water; as we put out to rescue them the German planes dived and machinegunned us and the poor devils in the water but we managed to pick most of them up all rlght. "All through the night we pulled our little boat from ship to shore and back loaded to the very gunwales with troops, until shortly before dawn, tired, weary and with aching arms we left with our cargo of mud-stained men. "Every member of our crew Is going over again to-night in another ship — there is no thought of anything other than getting on with the job, and I am very proud to be associated with such fine chaps," he concludes.