I have my Grandads war records which state he was evacuated on 31st May 1940 ( well initially it said 2/6/40 but this was crossed out and 31/5/40 written over the top). I'm trying to find out a bit more detail about his evacuation, I've done lots of googling but can't find anything detailed. He was in 6th Bn York & Lancaster Regiment. 5 days before he was evacuated.......would he have been waiting on the beach, or on the mole? How do I find out which ship/ boat he was evacuated on? I'm hoping the answer is available free on line and not another thing I need to add to my list for Kew! Ironically at the end of the war his release papers give his address as Dunkirk Crescent Thanks
Some war diaries and later battalion histories record the date and name of the ship that took off the main body of men (if they left in good order) but most don't and it's impossible to be sure that your man was definitely with them. There is certainly no standard resource which has attempted to piece the information together...Kew it is, I'm afraid unless someone here can do a look-up.
Thanks for your reply- I was afraid that was the answer. I live in Yorkshire so not easy to pop to Kew. I got my Grandads war records a couple of years ago and we only knew from those that he'd been evacuated- he never mentioned the war at all. A couple of weeks ago I went to see the film 'Dunkirk' and i found it very hard to watch knowing my Grandad had been through all that. 5 days waiting to be evacuated and watching the horror of what was going on, not knowing if he'd be rescued, not knowing even if he did get on a ship whether it would survive the journey home ( in addition to what he went through when retreating from Belgium). I just felt like I owed it to him to find out more.
The battalion does at least have a surviving diary that runs until June - WO 167/849 - but give it a day or two as someone here may well have it.
forum members do a copying service of war diaries at Kew at a good rate as I said im sure someone will be along shortly to assist
I'd go with the 2nd June as the evacuation date reading the war diary. The diary records the battalion arriving at Dunkirk on the 1st June but then fragmenting into smaller groups in the confusion. The diary states the remainder of the battalion evacuated on the 2nd June at 0315hrs from small boats to the Medway Queen arriving in Ramsgate at 0730hrs. He may well have been split up from the battalion during the retreat to Dunkirk and left on a earlier boat.
