LAST STAND BY BRITISH TROOPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 143, 18 June 1940, Page 8

LAST STAND BY BRITISH TROOPS.

ON FRENCH COAST. Cofnered By Germans In Thick Fog. "THEY WERE MAGNIFICENT." 7 British Official Wireless. (Received 2.30 p.m.) RUGBY, June 17.

An account is now given of tho last stand of the British regiment, forming part of the division which fell back on St. Valery-en-Cauz, and owing«to fog was not able to be evacuated. The story of how, surrounded by enemy, they fought all night at barricades in the midst of a blazing town, after driving the enemy back at bayonet point, is told by one of the few survivors—a French liaison officer attached to headquarters. Heaaidr "The men had fought their way back' magnificently right to the coa»t, and at last we reached St. Valery. British and French troops' were there. The French' and British general* gathered at a conference. Next day I was asked to pass certain instructions to the French artillery. The town was eo packed with cars and people that I had .to break through doors and pass through houses to reach the point. On the way back a German aeroplane circled over the town three times, making an observation. Then it all began. As I walked back to the British headquarters heavy shelling started. A shell burst on a house beside me, and I was wounded in one leg. This wa« bandaged and I went on." An hour later there was heavy bombing, and many parts of the town began to blaze fiercely. Then to my surprise I heard heavy machine-gun fire, and the British troops began *to rush up the streets with fixed bayonets. The Germans were beginning to come into the town. The battle became terrific, with fierce machine-gun and shell fire among the blazing buildings. The Germans were on the west cliff and the west side of the harbour. I joined some Englishmen and fired at the Germans only a few hundred yards away. Then Ihings suddenly quieteued down, and T understood the British had driven the Germans from the west cliff. "As night fell the battle began again. The British were magnificent. They manned barricades set up in the streets. First the enemy was shelled and then machine-gunned. Next morning we went off to the beach under machine-gun fire. The nearest bo.ats were some miles away. The beach was swept by machine-guns. Every few yards was a dead or wounded man. ' We ran and hid in crannies of the cliff foot. - To make more rapid progress the whole platoon walked along the beach in a widely-spaced line, side by side, just as if on parade. I stripped my clothes and swam to a small hoat| and eventually was taken aboard a small trawler. The men were pouring down to the beach. What happened to them I don't know.