The first to be evacuated were the wounded. This was natural, as the longer they were denied the necessary medical care and hospitalization, the worse their condition became. At Dunkirk the French Navy medical units were bombed out of one first aid station after another and finally had to establish themselves some ten kilometers to the east of the city, close by an Army field hospital set up in the sanatorium of Zuydecote. Here conditions were really tragic. Some 600 to 800 wounded were always waiting for treatment by the first aid surgical teams, which were already working 24 hours a day, without a break. Many of the wounded died without ever having seen a doctor. Others were killed by bombs. In the midst of an operation, one surgeon had to take his anesthetized patient in his arms and quickly dump him under the operating table in order to protect him from German 77-mm. shellbursts which were riddling the operating room.
Ever since May 20, Admiral Abrial had been making a determined effort to evacuate the wounded at every opportunity. The mail steamer Rouen took 420 patients to Cherbourg on May 26. The following day two minesweepers disembarked 175 more in England.
An attempt to bring in French hospital ships was without success. One evening a large convoy of ambulances, waiting at the waterfront for the expected arrival of a hospital ship, came under heavy enemy fire directed at the quays. They were forced to leave and return to the hospital at Zuydecote; only a few ambulances and a few men survived the round trip. The British were having enough trouble with their own hospital ships, so finally the French Admiralty had to resign itself to giving evacuation priority to combat-fit soldiers.
Next on the priority list were certain categories of specialists whose return the Army asked for prior to the issue of the general evacuation order. For their sake Admiral, North, assembled a convoy on May 28 in which 2,500 men were embarked. Scarcely had it cleared the harbor when the cargo ship Douaisien, with 1,000 men on board, hit a magnetic mine. The majority of its passengers were rescued by small trawlers en route to Dunkirk.
On the following day, May 29, general evacuation began. The English generously offered space for 5,000 men on their ships. The French Admiralty sent three destroyers of the Cyclone class and five sloops from Dover to Dunkirk. The destroyers arrived in midafternoon, under a violent German bombardment. The Cyclone got away without damage, and returned to Dover that evening with 733 passengers, of whom 158 were survivors of a sunken English sloop picked up on the return trip. The Siroco, also undamaged, brought away 509 men. But the Mistral, her superstructure shattered by a bomb bursting on the quay alongside and with her commanding officer mortally wounded, had to back out at full speed without being able to take on board any troops whatsoever.
As a matter of fact, there were no longer any evacuees on the quay, everyone having taken shelter wherever he could find it. The port was now completely untenable. When the Mistral cleared the harbor, there was no longer a single ship left afloat there. The English had not been spared, either, and, as Admiral Ramsay wrote in his report, “The day closed with a formidable list of ships lost or damaged.”
The sloops arrived after nightfall and waited until dawn to enter the harbor. For once the air raids were lacking and they encountered only enemy artillery fire. They took safely away a full load of passengers, despite the interference of a German battery which saluted them off Nieuport. In all, embarkation figures for the 29th amounted to 5,178.44
Counted from 0800 on May 29 to 0800 on May 30. In principle, evacuees embarked on a ship that was sunk are not counted; instead, they are credited to the rescuing ship.
May 30, however, was a disastrous day. It brought the end for three ships: the Bourrasque, sunk off Nieuport; the Siroco, hit by two torpedoes from a German Schnell-Boot55 and then finished off by two bombs; and the Cyclone, disabled through having her bow blown off by a torpedo. This glorious ship of Captain de Porzamparc had participated in every engagement from the very first. She had fought at Flushing, at Boulogne, at Ijmuiden. She seemed invulnerable. But this time she got it. She did manage to reach Dover under her own power, and later crossed to Brest. There she had to be scuttled while in drydock, on June 18, the very day the Germans arrived.
Fast, small German craft, similar to the U.S. PT-boat.
Notwithstanding all these losses, 6,363 French soldiers were embarked on the 30th and safely landed, thanks to a decision to risk five supply ships which had been anchored in the Downs. These ships were able to evacuate a total of 3,000 men, with very few losses and only minor damage. In addition, two small torpedo boats of 600 tons each brought back survivors. The Branlebas evacuated 520 men, including a great number from the Bourrasque; the Bouclier saved 767 men—a prodigious number to those familiar with that type of ship.
The following day saw the entry into Dunkirk of four more of these small torpedo boats, and five more of the 600-ton Elan-class. All handled extremely well, and were skillful at evading bombs. They yielded remarkable returns.66 Unfortunately the French Admiralty recalled these ships to escort transports which, in compliance with the Army’s urgent demand, were returning the Dunkirk evacuees from England to France.
The record for these ships belongs to the Impétueuse (Lieutenant Commander François Bachy), which disembarked 649 men at Dover on May 31. In time of peace no commanding officer would dream of embarking half that number on a ship of that class.
MERS-EL-KEBIR, JULY 3, 1940. The battleship STRASBOURG underway within seconds after the first British salvo. The super-destroyer in foreground is getting underway.
TORPEDO PLANES from the ARK ROYAL attacking the DUNKERQUE at dawn on July 6, 1940.
MERS-EL-KEBIR HARBOR during the battle on July 3, 1940. In the foreground is seen the super-destroyer MAGADOR after being struck in the stern and set on fire by a large shell.
Finally, acknowledgment should be made of the services of the three mail steamers, Côte d’Argent, Newhaven, and Rouen, which between them transported almost 12,000 men during the evacuation.
At last, on May 31, there arrived the horde of small fishing craft which had been requisitioned. Admiral Landriau had established control stations in the Dover roadstead and was sending to Dunkirk everything that arrived. Needless to say, the trips were made under the least orthodox methods of navigation. There were insufficient charts—compasses were lacking—courses were mainly set by following the ship ahead. It was easy enough proceeding to Dunkirk, for the lofty columns of flame and smoke were visible from miles away. But the return trip was less easy, and many boats missed the mouth of the Thames altogether.
Also, there were engine failures. Thus, the motor of the little Jacqueline positively refused to function after arrival at Dover. Never mind—its crew of three sailors from the destroyer Triomphant set off boldly for Dunkirk under sail, and returned the same way, bringing off 33 men.
In all, 48 ships brought back 9,967 men on May 31. On the 1st of June, 38 craft brought off 7,483. Forty-three ships had actually started out, but five were sunk off Dunkirk, including the Foudroyant, last survivor of Porzamparc’s flotilla,77 and three sweepers sunk by the Luftwaffe. On the 2nd of June, 43 ships evacuated 6,177 men, and on the 3rd in a last go, with both Navies vying with each other, 63