Dunkirk Untold Tale

My father was in France with his Tank Regiment when the Army had to retreat to what became the Dunkirk evacuation from the beaches.
As most Tank Regiment men were also mechanics he was ordered together with a few men to destroy all the vehicles that had been abandoned by the army to prevent them being of use to the Germans.
I believe they did this by draining the Oil and Water from the engines and then running them untill they seized up when the bearings melted.

This work obviously took some time as when they eventually got to the beach everybody had gone.

With the Germans fast advancing he took his men down the coast of France with only some supplies consisting of Chocolate bars in a Haversack and eventually found the last boat leaving the port of Brest.
The distance to Brest from Dunkirk is about 200 miles and I do not know if they walked,managed to use a vehicle or the time taken .
The boat brought them across to England and dropped them off at Plymouth.

My Mother who was a nurse in southern England had only been married for a couple of years, obviously knew about the evacuation as she was dealing with some of the casualties and knew when it was completed.
As the days went by because she had not heard from my father or been informed that he had been rescued she obviously feared the worst.

When my Father and his men eventually arrived in England they only had the clothes that they were wearing and no money.
A Nurse found them sitting on a kerb in Plymouth.She apparently took pity on them,bought them some fish and chips and sent my Mother a Telegram saying that my Father was alive.

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