00:22It was June 1940, a few months into the war, over 400,000 Allied troops had been forced
00:28to retreat onto the beaches of northern France and Belgium. Hitler's armies were barely 10
00:33miles away. Lance Bombardier Charlie Jackson was part of the 88th Field Regiment supporting
00:38the Coldstream Guards. He was one of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers waiting long hours
00:43for rescue on these sand dunes along the Dunkirk coastline. There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing
00:51on the beach because the planes kept coming over, bombing and machine gunning. But most
00:59of the time we spent in the sandals to start with. It was just a case of digging holes and
01:07waiting and eventually they got some sort of system going. We marched to the entrance to
01:16the jetty or the mall and it was dark. It was the third night and when we got to the
01:25mall we just
01:27had to queue up and get over and then it was a case of galloping down to the destroyer that
01:32was pulled
01:33up. I can almost remember the name of it. It was HMS Impulsive and I just got my shoulders over
01:40the
01:40edge when the sailor grabbed me by the arms and pulled me onto the deck. I fell asleep and next
01:46thing I knew it was we were at Dover. I never, never thought we wouldn't get home. I'd had enough
01:57faith to know that a lot of people in England, especially in Blackpool were praying for me
02:05and I couldn't, I couldn't ever think of leaving Betty. Would you leave anybody like Betty
02:11behind after you'd just got married? I had a load of photographs of her at the wedding that she'd sent
02:18me. I used to get letters regularly. She used to send me parcels and I just thought the world of
02:28her.
02:30When he had to go back there's no time to be despondent.
02:37I just accepted it. It just never entered my head that he wouldn't come back.
02:44I can't imagine how or why or anything. I must have had some sort of optimism off you,
02:52mustn't I? Must have had.
03:00Ordinary Seaman Stan Allen served in the Navy throughout the war.
03:04His destroyer made five trips in all to rescue the troops from the beaches.
03:12It's a beautiful day here in Dunkirk and the beach is virtually empty behind you but it must have been
03:16a
03:16very different scene when you arrived at Dunkirk. Well it was a beautiful day still sun was very very strong
03:22but on the beach there were lots of soldiers there being taken out by boats and we went in alongside
03:30the mole which is a kind of jetty and tied up alongside and the soldiers started to board us
03:39and they came down in quite large quantities and we had the pleasure of the company of the Luftwaffe
03:47particularly the Stukas that made quite a lot of noise as they dived.
03:53But we were very lucky. Sounds terrifying. Well you were too busy to be terrified it was afterwards that
04:01you got the reaction when you came on the way back you thought well it was a close one you
04:07know. What was the
04:08most extraordinary part of the whole operation for you? I should say the calmness of the sea for nine days.
04:16The channel is not generally a calm sea and here it was like a mill pond and so the boats
04:24could come
04:25and take the soldiers off of the beaches and they could wade out in without getting knocked over
04:31and and be taken on board boats and taken out to and put on board ships.
04:38On the ninth day on the last day as we were coming out of the mole a swell started when
04:46we got to
04:47Dover it was very very rough.
04:50I never had a sense of crisis after Dunkirk because I don't think there could have been a
04:59more critical time in one's life. I was only 20 knocking on for 21 at the time and when I
05:06was in
05:07business and we used to have occasional things go wrong somebody once said to me you never seem to
05:14get worked up about it Stan. I said if you'd been to Dunkirk you wouldn't get worked up about things
05:19like this.
05:22While the British troops were waiting for rescue on the Dunkirk beaches a few miles along the coast in Calais
05:27nurse Doris Belanger was putting herself in danger trying to protect the wounded soldiers in her care.
05:35Doris is 93 now and moved to France from the West Midlands when she was 12.
05:40During the war a neighbour called me and she said I've got two British soldiers
05:48in my garden and I can't I don't understand what they say.
05:55When I got to them one was Douglas Trigue and he was very ill and needed me a little treatment
06:04but I knew a Patriot in the in the village that had got a horse and cart and I went
06:13to him and asked
06:14him if he'd take me to the hospital and we went to the Hotel de Saint Pierre in Calais but
06:21I think I
06:22didn't know the Germans had taken over the hospital. I said many times when I met a German control
06:32for Montfair it's my brother. One of the Germans turned turned to me and said
06:41if he's English you'll be shot. In English he said to me if you if he's English you'll be shot.
06:51Doris managed to get Douglas past the German control to safety and medical help.
06:57I helped the nurse to put Douglas Trigue to bed and I was able to whisper in English to him
07:06I'll come
07:07tomorrow and I was able to see Douglas Trigue two or three times but on the fifth day
07:19I was met at the door and told that Douglas Trigue had died during the night.
07:28I called the British Legion and I gave them all the details of where Douglas was buried
07:35and they found Douglas Trigue's sister and she wrote several letters to me
07:41and thanked me for what I'd done for her brother.
07:52I didn't think it was doing anything special trying to help anybody. Being a British person
08:01and the nurse was a natural thing to to help.
08:10Just a couple of days ago many of the original civilian boats and pleasure craft which took part
08:15in the rescue set sail from the UK to make their annual trip to Dunkirk under the command of their
08:21present owners. Someone who's something of an expert on these little ships is Raymond Baxter and we caught up with
08:27him just before he set off down the Thames at the beginning of his journey across the channel.
08:32I regard the association of Dunkirk little ships as being one of the most worthwhile exercises
08:41in which I have ever been involved in my entire life. Not only is it a wonderful collection of people
08:49who met as total strangers and have become very close friends but also of course the little ships
08:57themselves are a piece of living history. So it's all very emotional.
09:04The role of the little ships like this one say up to 40 foot maybe 50 foot and some of
09:11the sailing barges
09:14was to beach on the sand after the port had become untenable
09:22and there were thousands and thousands of men stranded in the sand dunes under constant bombardment
09:30and the little ships went in and touched ground and then they scurried off to the nearest bigger ship
09:38lying offshore disgorged and went back to the beach so they ran a shuttle service.
09:46I think the Dunkirk spirit is relevant today and it is reflected in many ways. I mean you read stories
09:53of extraordinary heroism almost every day in the papers you read awful stories too and
10:03I think there is an attitude still which says you know we are British and we know what we're doing
10:13and we believe in what we're doing. That spirit may be becoming undermined to some extent which again is
10:21why it is so important to remember it I think.
10:24is
10:33the
11:55I joined as a stoker and was very green.
11:59And at Dunkirk, we had to open boats and we had to row, no motors.
12:08And rowing in and out at Dunkirk, picking them off the beach, back to anything that was handy, like anything
12:15bigger than us.
12:16And go back again, backwards and forwards.
12:20When we first got over there, I could feel the air on the back of my neck beginning to prickle
12:26up.
12:27And I thought, this is what I will let myself in for.
12:30But we moved down to actually off Dunkirk.
12:33And that's where we found all the troops on the beaches.
12:36We kept pulling backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards.
12:41And asking, well I did many a time, please God give me strength to keep pulling.
12:49And I believe that's where I got my strength from.
12:52I'd never rowed so much in all my life.
12:56But it was very, very, well, frightened really.
13:01You was trying to do the best for the troops and you was getting dive-bombed and machine-gunned.
13:06And everything by the kitchen sink.
13:12What I'll never forget are the three words, wait for me.
13:17Please Jack, wait for me.
13:21It's a terrible feeling when you see men pleading for help and you can't do anything about it.
13:28You've got your load and you've got to keep going.
13:32And I'd never seen men in panic, but I saw it then.
13:38It was pitiful.
13:39I'd never seen anything like it in my life.
13:42And that, you know, being a first taste of war, I thought to myself, this is war, I've had enough.
13:48And I was helping a chappy inboard onto this open boat.
13:52And two more decided to get on at the same time.
13:56And bye-bye.
13:59I got thoroughly wet.
14:00So I decided to swim for it.
14:04Whether the boat was ever salvaged again, I don't know.
14:07I swam out to the paddle steamer.
14:10Something of India, I believe the name was.
14:14But we just soldiered on.
14:16We'd had a job, we got a job to do and we just carried on.
14:21We all did our best, I think.
14:26It was very, very harrowing.
14:30It was very, very hard on.
14:31Yeah.
14:58It was her own time.
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