John Parsons with the BEF and at Dunkirk

My father, John Parsons (1919-2002) was a Sapper in the Royal Engineers from 1939 to 1946. He enlisted on 15th November 1939. He went to France with the BEF on 16th April 1940 and celebrated his 21st birthday on cheap Champagne in an army tent! On joining No3 Section, 252 Field Company he wrote home on 14th May: "I was travelling all day Friday and joined this field company at 1.00 am and we have been on the move ever since, getting to bed about 2.00 in the morning." That night they were in a barn which he said was "very comfortable on the straw but I don't like the rats running about all over me when I'm asleep...We have had nothing but air raids since Friday. Gerry has been over nearly every day." On 18 May he wrote home: "I have had no sleep for the last 3 nights, and last night we were working all night, we entered Belgium three days ago and had a wonderful welcome from the people...but as we got farther in we saw some pitiful sights, refugees old and young all loaded down with their few most necessary things and all the animals left to starve in the evacuated places, cows flowing over with milk, you can image what it was like...Well I must close now and get some sleep, it looks as if we are going out tonight again." On 22 May he wrote: "...I don't think we shall ever settle down in one place...At present we are billeted in a big school, but I expect we shall be somewhere else by the time you get this..it looks like rain now so perhaps it will steady Gerries air force down a bit." The War Diary for the Company shows how fluid the situation was: On 15th May they arrived Ghoy (Belgium) at 1600, left at 18.30, arrived Perpingham just after midnight. They were blowing up bridges over the canal on 17th May, went back to Ghoy on 18th, left there at midnight. For 19th May it states that the road was jammed with traffic and movement was very slow. At Renaix a complete block occurred for a couple of hours. It was just getting light when the column began to move again. Orders were received to get out of the town and scatter into the country. They continued retiring via Tournai. Traffic discipline appeared to have ceased and a continual stream of lorries raced part of the Company all the way to the French frontier. The Company arrived at Fretin at 1330. An air battle was in progress and bombs were dropped in the village as the Company was getting into billets. On 21st May they moved to Meurchin at about 2130 hrs and found excellent billets, but on 22nd May they left again at 0100 hrs.

Later Dad wrote: "Night of 27th-28th May on guard at Warneton Bridge, in the early hours of 28th Belgium capitulated, the bridge was choked with Belgian troops going north, in a steady stream for 2-3 hours." By the time he reached the coast, Dunkirk was in flames and a pall of smoke hung over the town. The moles had been bombed so he was sent up the coast to Le Panne. One of the stories he told us later was that at some stage he lost touch with his unit and found himself in the garden of a chateau. There was a maze in the garden and, being an inquisitive sort, decided to see if he could get to the middle of it. All was going well until a Stuka screamed down and started bombing the chateau. Dad said no-one had ever got out of a maze quicker than he did then - straight through the bottom of the hedges and away!
On arriving at the beach at Le Panne he was detailed to rowing; he later wrote: "Rowed men including Welsh Guards in folding boats from beach to ships at anchor in Channel". Someone even yelled at him to row faster! He had lost touch with his mate who had his half-share of chocolate so he was without food for several days. He continued rowing "until too exhausted to continue". He later told us he suddenly looked around and realised there were no big ships in the Channel and the beach seemed almost deserted. He decided then that enough was enough and it was time he got out of there or he would end up a prisoner. He spotted a fishing boat some way out and decided to swim for it - he always said it was his ability to swim that saved him that day.

He arrived in Dover on 1st June. He wrote a brief post card home to say he was safe and on 3rd June wrote home from Aldershot: "I hope you received my card that some kind person posted for me on the way here from Dover..you see I have no money so I have had to beg writing paper etc. We arrived here at 1.30 am yesterday and I was glad to get my wet clothes off that I had had to wear for about 26 hours, I got to bed about 3 am and didn't wake until 7.00 pm. ..We are moving from here tomorrow and our division are going to the North of Scotland, so it looks as if half my leave will be spent travelling, but we have to go there to be re-equipped, I lost all mine, I had to swim for it so rifle and all went into the sea..."

Dad's letter home on 6th June summed up his experiences when he wrote from Inverurie:
"How lovely and peaceful it is here surrounded by woods with the birds singing, it's like waking up after a terrible nightmare."

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