WAR ADVENTURES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23770, 25 September 1940, Page 11

WAR ADVENTURES

A SHIP'S STEWARD RESCUE FROM CHANNEL THE DUNKIRK EVACUATION More than a full share of wartime experiences and adventures has been the lot of Mr. S. Williams, a ship's steward, who is at present in Auckland. Since January he has been on a ship that was bombed and sunk, has played a part in the evacuation of Dunkirk, and has been on a small vessel which fell to pieces through tho concussion of heavy German bombing. Early in January Mr. Williams was a member of Ihe crew of a British cargo vessel which was bombed and sunk in the English Channel. He was thrown into a wintry sea and floated about for 84 minutes before being picked up by a tugboat. Seven weeks in hospital with pleurisy and pneumonia was the result.

After a further period of convalescence, he joined a small East Coast trader and was on this vessel when Dunkirk was evacuated. Diffident about discussing this event, "because it is all past and forgotten," Mr. Williams did admit that ho made four trips across the Channel in three days to assist in rescuing men and equipment from France, and made a fifth trip halfway across to bring back barges which had been towed from French harbours.

His ship escaped damage from German dive-bombers and he himself came out without a scratch, he said. One of the features of the evacuation which greatly impressed him was the manner in which British soldiers swam out from the French shore, holding grimly to their rifles and other equipment which they were determined not to lose. Mr. Williams had a third experience a few days later. He was still in the same ship, which was one of three small craft approaching Grimsby. The other two ships were bombed and mined respectively and sank. So greatly was his own ship damaged by the concussion of the German bombing that it was just able to reach Grimsby and then literally fell apart.