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Relics of remarkable the most rescue
LITTLEST SHIP WAS SOAKED IN BLOOD
The reason Dunkirk still stirs emotions so much is that the men of the BEF were plucked to safety mostly by an armada of small fishing boats, cruisers and pleasure steamers. In total, 700 privately owned boats went across the Channel, many of them on multiple trips and quite a few captained by civilians. They were dubbed the Little Ships and they completely outnumbered the 200 or so vessels of the Royal Navy or French Navy.
Tamzine, a pretty little wooden- hulled boat measuring a mere 14ft 9in long, was the littlest of these Little Ships. Made in Margate two years before the outbreak of war, it was designed as a fishing boat.
Its owner, Ralph Bennett, was away in May 1940 and it was requisitioned without his knowledge, a tactic commonly used by the Ministry of Shipping, which was under pressure to find as many vessels as it could, in as short a time as possible. It was fitted with an onboard motor but was towed, as many were, to save fuel or because they were too small to make the crossing.
Once at Dunkirk, it was dangerous and difficult work. The shallow waters and numerous underwater obstacles – weapons
and vehicles that had been left behind, then hidden by the rising tide – meant ships could only get to within a few hundred yards of the beaches. This is why it was essential to recruit as many shallow draught vessels as possible, to ferry men to larger ships moored further out.
As the evacuation drew to a close Tamzine was not abandoned as some other small boats were, but towed back to England by a
Belgian trawler, despite its hull being saturated with blood from the number of injured soldiers it had ferried to safety.
After Ralph Bennett died in 1980, the family donated Tamzine to the Imperial War Museum, London, where it is now on display (pictured far left). The blood stains can no longer been seen, however, as the museum had her bottom planks replaced.
Wars, as Winston Churchill observed, are ‘not won by evacuations’. However, Dunkirk marked a turning point not just in the war but in the national mood. Britain would not be defeated. The Spitfire was to become the backbone of the RAF during the Battle of Britain, fought later in the summer of 1940. Its silhouette against the South Downs sky was a symbol of hope that Britain would hold out.
But the Spitfire got its first real run- out during the evacuation of
Dunkirk. Many soldiers on the ground in northern France complained that they were not given enough support by the RAF. But over the nine days of Operation Dynamo, the RAF suffered heavy losses. In total,
106 fighter aircraft were shot down in France – a significant number, considering at that time Fighter Command had just 480 planes at its disposal.
Plane N3200, a Spitfire Mark 1a built in 1939, was one of the first to come off the production line.
Its pilot, Squadron Leader Geoffrey Stephenson of 19 Squadron, was flying the plane on 26 May, the first day of Operation Dynamo. It turned out to be the one and only mission for N3200.
The experienced Stephenson was shot down and forced to crashland his Spitfire on the beach at Sangatte near Calais, but only after shooting down a German Stuka dive bomber.