Personal account from Lance-Corporal Charles Crisp – Sheerness May-June 1940
At the time of Dunkirk I was in Barracks at Sheerness in Kent and, as a Lance-Corporal awaiting posting, I was given the job of Company Orderly Corporal. Soldiers arriving from Dunkirk reported to the Company Office and were sent on leave. On, at least, two occasions French Infantry were landed at Sheerness from Dunkirk and I, as a French speaker, was one of those detailed to escort them to the dining room and finally to the railway station. We went inside the Naval Base to collect them and I remember seeing a destroyer with a great hole blown in its side. On one occasion we took the junior NCOs to the Corporal's Mess in the NAAFI and bought them drinks, as of course, they had no English money. After all this time I cannot recall what we talked about, but I do remember we got on well together.
When the French soldiers had marched to the station, they were ordered to fall in. No sooner had they done so, when a whole crowd of English people arrived from the town with presents of chocolate, cigarettes and food and the French immediately broke ranks and fraternised with the civilians. The only other incident I can recall was when I was ordered to take a French officer's rifle and water-bottle to our Officer's Mess. I handed them over to an officer who grumbled because no one had emptied the water out of the water-bottle. I knew the bottle was full of red wine because I had opened it, but I thought, "don't argue, let him find out for himself."
At times we could hear the rumble of the bombardment from the other side of the Straits. Many tales passed round. I was struck by one story of four troopers of the King's Dragoon Guards who were picked up at sea from a small boat they were rowing across in. One NCO I knew was unable to ride a motor-cycle. When his unit was ordered to proceed to Dunkirk, they put him on a motorbike, pointed it in the right direction and he rode all the way to the beach and then fell off.
After Dunkirk the remnants of the BEF were evacuated from other ports along the Channel and Bay of Biscay. I was posted to Plymouth and saw it all happen. I particularly remember the last British soldier to arrive. He came from Biarritz in a ship full of civilians and had travelled the length of France before he was able to get away.
At the time of Dunkirk I was in Barracks at Sheerness in Kent and, as a Lance-Corporal awaiting posting, I was given the job of Company Orderly Corporal. Soldiers arriving from Dunkirk reported to the Company Office and were sent on leave. On, at least, two occasions French Infantry were landed at Sheerness from Dunkirk and I, as a French speaker, was one of those detailed to escort them to the dining room and finally to the railway station. We went inside the Naval Base to collect them and I remember seeing a destroyer with a great hole blown in its side. On one occasion we took the junior NCOs to the Corporal's Mess in the NAAFI and bought them drinks, as of course, they had no English money. After all this time I cannot recall what we talked about, but I do remember we got on well together.
When the French soldiers had marched to the station, they were ordered to fall in. No sooner had they done so, when a whole crowd of English people arrived from the town with presents of chocolate, cigarettes and food and the French immediately broke ranks and fraternised with the civilians. The only other incident I can recall was when I was ordered to take a French officer's rifle and water-bottle to our Officer's Mess. I handed them over to an officer who grumbled because no one had emptied the water out of the water-bottle. I knew the bottle was full of red wine because I had opened it, but I thought, "don't argue, let him find out for himself."
At times we could hear the rumble of the bombardment from the other side of the Straits. Many tales passed round. I was struck by one story of four troopers of the King's Dragoon Guards who were picked up at sea from a small boat they were rowing across in. One NCO I knew was unable to ride a motor-cycle. When his unit was ordered to proceed to Dunkirk, they put him on a motorbike, pointed it in the right direction and he rode all the way to the beach and then fell off.
After Dunkirk the remnants of the BEF were evacuated from other ports along the Channel and Bay of Biscay. I was posted to Plymouth and saw it all happen. I particularly remember the last British soldier to arrive. He came from Biarritz in a ship full of civilians and had travelled the length of France before he was able to get away.