Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea Medal: Dunkirk

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Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea Medal: Dunkirk

AssociatedAssociated with Lord Mountbatten of Burma (Frogmore House, Windsor, England, 1900 - 1979)

Medallist John Pinches, Medallists

DateMay 2004

Object NameMedal

MediumSterling Silver

ClassificationsMedals

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDMS072500.93

Keywords

Commemorative

About MeOn 25th May, 1940 Lord Gort decided to take the British Expeditionary Force out of the Battle of France and march to the coast at Dunkirk. Fortunately for him, Von Rundstedt decided at the same time to halt the panzer advance in order to re-group along the line of the Albert Canal, a decision confirmed by Hitler when he realised that France was about to collapse.

Vice Admiral B.H. Ramsay, in command of the Narrow Seas, promptly started planning for the evacuation in Operation Dynamo. Since the inner harbour of Dunkirk would be too vulnerable, he had to depend on the breakwaters of the outer harbour and the line of beaches, stretching up to the mouth of the Scheldt, but as this was a dangerous open coast protected by sandbanks, it was obvious that only small ships could be employed. Ramsay thought at the start that a maximum of 45,000 troops might be taken off. In the event, 366,162 men (a third of them French) were lifted.

The craft involved were a mixed collection drawn from the southeast ports. The largest ship was the AA cruiser Calcutta. Naval ships included 26 destroyers, of which 9 were lost. There were also about 250 trawlers, drifters, wherries, cockle boats, eel boats, lifeboats, speedboats, yachts and 203 private motorboats. This last contingent, whose zeal captured the imagination of the nation, took off 5,031 men by ferrying them to the nearest destroyer or and ship which could not reach the beaches.

Operation Dynamo began on 30th May and ended on 4th June, 1940. The shortest route to Dover was too vulnerable, so an 87-mile route to Ramsgate and Margate was adopted and protected, as far as possible, by Fighter Command, which lost 106 aircraft. Before the end, passenger steamers such as the Maid of Orleans and Whippingham arrived from the Solent to take off 3,000 men; others, such as the Brighton Queen and Scotia, were sunk.

All the equipment of the BEF was abandoned, but thanks to a combination of naval improvisation, the fighting qualities of the army and the courage, patience and devotion of all concerned, the evacuation from the beaches of Dunkirk under its pall of smoke and constant attack by enemy bombers was, indeed, a great deliverance.

The Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea, John Pinches Medallists Ltd.