A COAST ABLAZE

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21188, 10 August 1940, Page 19 (Supplement)

A COAST ABLAZE

BARREN EXPEDITION ! ALLIED TROOPS CAUGHT Stories of the gallant attempts by a fleet of pleasure-craft to rescue the Allied troops encircled at St. Valery-en-Caux are told by volun- j teers who had sailed their tiny ships j through a barrage of shells and | bombs, says the Manchester Guar- j dian.” One volunteer who had joined a ' “dawn flotilla” said that the attempt I failed because Nazi bombers and lan?, 1 . batteries built a fence of flame . and steel along the fog-shrouded French cliffs. He went in a lifeboat, which sailed across the Channel at dawn and was rowed back 24 hours later with several poilus on board. Two, badly wounded by machine-gun bullets, ' died soon after being lifted into the boat, and reluctantly the oarsmen, needing very ounce of strength for the long, hard pull, to England, slid their bodies into the sea. “It was murder,” this volunteer said. “The miracle of Dunkirk was not to be repeated. St. Valery has high cliffs, a beach like Dunkirk; there was a heavy fog, the sea was rough, and the Germans 'were ready for us this time.” First Time Under Fire “It was like lending toys out to light tanks,” said another volunteer, who had been under fire for the first time in his life, “My cabin cruiser got across the Channel without much

trouble, but there was a fog like a shroud right along the French coast —fog reddened by the dull glare of fires ashore and pierced incessantly by flashes of gunfire from coastal batteries.” A third man said his flotilla was spotted by German planes almost as soon as it got across, but their bombing was inaccurate. “A tin hat was issued to each volunteer before the trip started ‘in case it rains’ —and it certainly did ‘rain.’ I don’t know how many planes there were at one time, but they came in waves, and we didn’t have any peace until we were back on this side of the Channel. The noise was the most alarming part of the whole show to me, a civilian under fire for the first time, but I suppose one gets used to it. Our j bo’sum was a jewel. He had been | in action in the Wax-Id War an l he i

thought the word ‘suicide* was a pretty fair description of our own particular jaunt.” Flotilla Organised This volunteer explained that as soon as news of the Allied troops’ plight was received several flotillas of small craft —tugs, cabin cruisers, fishing boats, converted lifeboats—were organised and manned, with a naval officer in command of each flotilla of about, a dozen vessels. “There was a sprinkling of naval ratings, seasoned bo’sums, and gunners to form a hard core for the crew of each boat, but the personnel consisted mainly of volunteers. Some of them had been at Dunkirk. “Although the trip was designed as a rescue expedition, these volunteers were determined to make it an

offensive operation if opportunity arose. Mounted in each craft was a Lewis gun, its base hastily screwed to the deck and its crew put through a rapid course of instruction that in some instances lasted only a few minutes. “V/e did not have an awful lot of ammunition, but we let fly with it whenever we got a chance. Some of the men who had been at Dunkirk had service rifles and some had revolvers, but they were not used.” The flotillas suffered varying fates, but most reported that the French coast was “literally ablaze” with coastal batteries and planes laying down a curtain of Are that kept the rescue ships from getting nearer than four or five miles of St. Valery. Most of the soldiers rescued were those who had put to sea in rowing-boats.