GB News reporter Dougie Beattie reported from Dunkirk as the 85th anniversary of Operation Dynamo was commemorated with the participation of the historic Dunkirk Little Ships.Kevin Finn, a commodore from the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships, told GB News: "It's incredibly important we remember. 85 years ago there were a quarter of a million troops on the beach and another 25,000 in the rearguard, none of them knowing if they were going to live or die or be rescued."Finn emphasised the contemporary relevance of the commemoration: "Based on what is happening today, we need to remember what happened then and commemorate that. It's so important to us. The boats are 97 to 105 years of age, so just getting them here is an achievement."The evacuation saw Poole contribute significantly to the rescue effort, with the Thomas Kirk Wright lifeboat making three perilous journeys to Dunkirk. The vessel departed Poole on 28th May 1940 and was bombed, machine-gunned and damaged during operations just 40 yards from German barrage positions.Leading Seaman Huntingdon recorded her final return: "Loaded with French soldiers, she comes under fire from German troops on the shore at close range – but no one's hurt, though she is seriously damaged with one engine burnt out and water a foot deep in her hold."The lifeboat now resides in Poole's Old Lifeboat Museum. Anne-Marie Clark, a Poole Lifeboat volunteer, said: "We shall never forget the part that the small flotilla, that left Poole Quay played, 85 years ago."
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NewsTranscript
00:00Welcome to Dunkirk. Yes, this was described as our darkest hour and of course it was British
00:07Expeditionary Forces that had to get lifted off the beaches and the real problem was that the big
00:13naval ships couldn't get in close enough so these little small boats that you see, 933 of them were
00:20called up and they managed to evacuate most of the troops out of there over that week period
00:27and unfortunately out of those 933 small boats unfortunately only 697 of them returned most of
00:37the majority of those that were wrecked at that stage were under enemy fire and every big anniversary
00:45these small ships return to Dunkirk to educate, to remember and then to sail back to Britain and
00:53there has been so much interest here in Dunkirk in these small ships there's only about 60 of the
00:58fleet left and last night I spoke to Kevin Finn the Commodore of the fleet. How important is it that we
01:06remember Dunkirk? Incredibly important 85 years ago there were a quarter of a million troops on the
01:11beach up there another 25,000 in in in the rear guard none of them knowing whether we're going to
01:17live or die or whether we're going to be rescued or even if they could be rescued and based upon
01:23what's happening today we need to remember what happened then and commemorate that and celebrate
01:28the fact that that that we still are aware of it and these boats exist as well so it's it's just so
01:33important to us. Lots of these little boats back in the day were only brand new and they just took
01:40them away and used them and the men that were on them didn't necessarily own them and there was
01:46quite a few of them destroyed. There were 240 of them destroyed over that whole period either
01:53sunk at sea or shot to pieces on the beach but I mean today there are 110 members of the association
02:02about 90 that float as they speak and we know that 63 to 64 made it here seven failed on the way
02:10through before that so we're at we're at 70 I mean they're they're all 97 to 105 years of age
02:17and so just getting them here is an achievement.
02:20Well it was Britain's darkest hour and these civilian vessels really really played their part
02:30and of course we mustn't forget of the 51st Highlanders they were the rear guard over 10,000 of
02:37them were captured or executed at the time and these little ships played a role over the next few weeks
02:43of going up and down very close to the coast trying to pick up those Highlanders that had managed to
02:49escape to the coastline so not only were they used in Dunkirk they were used for close-in shore work
02:55over that period of the next few weeks and months that came afterwards but what an experience it is
03:02for me because my own grandfather was here in Dunkirk 16 years of age and then he went and joined
03:09the Royal Navy and it is it is quite emotional to be on these little boats of which he probably was on.
03:15Yeah it's quite something quite something do you know we're going to be back to you throughout the course of
03:20the day but for now thanks very much indeed.
03:22Yeah it looks like a nice day there as well for it.
03:24Yeah but I must say we we talk about the little ships and everything and um and we marvel at how
03:30wonderful it was you don't think so much and it's worth being reminded of the incredible danger some
03:36of those ordinary fishermen uh were in um I mean the MOD or the the service personnel took over the ships
03:42in most cases but not in all cases some of them just went out there and drove their little boats out
03:48there or whatever you don't drive a boat what do you do yeah you do oh you do all right they drove
03:52their little boats out there and they came under fire and it must have been terrifying well and as
03:56Dougie said his granddad was 16 yeah 16 I mean it's kids isn't it a lot of them it's absolutely
04:03terrifying but it's quite right it's all being marked and remembered today wonderful
04:07there you go look that's real footage there we're seeing like if you're listening on the radio which by
04:14the way I do a lot now now I've got it now you've got it in your car now I can actually hear gbd news
04:18radio it's brilliant it's good to see oh it really is but it does remind you that we occasionally we
04:24ought to describe what we're seeing there we're seeing that lovely old black and white footage of
04:28very scary stuff happening there when the little ships went over no we can't sanitize it
04:33no I mean history time sanitizes things so we've got to be careful not to haven't we