DUNKIRK STORY

Hokitika Guardian, 10 July 1940, Page 6

DUNKIRK STORY

UNFORGETTABLE SCENES.

NEW ZEALANDER’S LETTER.

NEW PLYMOUTH, July 4

Among the British troops who left France through Dunkirk under a German aerial and artillery bombardment was Captain A. W. Lawn, now an officer in the Durham Light Infantry, which he joined soon after the outbreak of the war. The nightmare days of the retreat, and evacuation were described in a letter to his mother, Mrs C. H. Lawn, of Stratford, from Captain Lawn, who said they saw scenes that would haunt them for ever. “Time has been a tiling we knew by hours; days were the same as dates, a nebulous quantity, and it was not until we reached, England that I knew it was Friday, June I,’’ Captain Lawn wrote in a description of the -last fortnight from May 18, when the regiment began to retreat from the defensive line alone the Canal Due Nord, and was continually on the move until Dunkirk was reached. Painful to Stand Up, “There were periods when our food consisted only of hard biscuits. Our clothes and hoots were never off, and consequently our feet suffered severely,, until it was painful even to stand up, hufc through it all the men were tough and cheerful, although the continual retreat without much contact with the enemy was hard on the morale of the troops. “The continual bombing and machinegunning from the air was a devastating factor, although we soon became so used to it that we took little notice until it became too hot, when we took to ditches and hoped for the best

After tracing the retreat step by step to Poperiughe and Houdeschotoe, Captain Lawn concluded: “Next day we went on to a rendezvous near St. Avele, where we had to jettison our transport, after destroying most of it. From St. Avele we marched through the night to the forward banks of tlie Dunkirk canal, where we held the line as a reserve for a day, until on May 31 we received orders to make for the beach at Bray Dunes. Gruelling March. “We got there about 6 p.m., to find ships lying off the shore and a sea running. The remains of our division were, not and I suppose besides us there were G 0,090 troops on tlie sands. 4 “We divided into groups of 50, ana at eight o’clock began the gruelling inarch to the mole at Dunkirk about eight miles-away. We were shelled all the way, and it was a march 1 shall never forget. Our boat was tlie Mu lines, and at mid-day we pulled out with about six inches to spare. “Everyone fell asleep immediately and reaction began to. set in. We uvere thirsty, tired and hungry, and had seen on the beach and near Dunkirk scenes that will haunt us forever.”