dunkirk

My father Signalman Edward Cyril Attrill of the Royal Corps of Signals went out to France and Belgium in early 1940. He got as far as Brussels when they were given orders to retreat. They had to smash all their radio equipment and run the lorries till they seized then walked to Dunkirk. They arrived on the beach and joined the queues. The Stukas were terrifying and he said he tried to dig to Australia when they started strafing and bombing.He was taken off onto the Clan MacAlister, a 6,900 ton Glasgow cargo boat on Wednesday May the 29th and put his rifle down and stripped his clothes off to try and dry them when she was hit by bombs and the men each side of him were killed and the ship sunk at 3.45pm. He was picked up by H.M.S. Pangbourne a minesweeper and borrowed a pair of trousers from a sailor. He was taken to Dover where two military policemen looked at him and said very loudly "oh look, another one that threw away his gun" which rankled in Dads mind for the rest of his life. He died in 1999.

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