DUNKIRK - The Fighting Five

Timmy and I and Elsie went over to Dunkirk every year, because he was in the organisation. You know it was the best laugh listening to all the other ones telling of their experiences along the beaches, and everything they did there. It wasn’t a laugh at the time, but you can see the funny side afterwards.

The associations went to Dunkirk every year and he went up until he died. They also had a meeting every month. When he came home I used to say “Well who has died now”. There were just a handful of them left. It’s not even like your son could join because he wasn’t in it, you had to be there. About 2 years before he died, there were only 3 or 4 left in his company. They were told to join an English organisation, but he wouldn’t, he said “When we’re finished we’re finished.” We had great times going over there; we took a bus with us. We never stayed in France, we always stayed in Belgium. We found the Belgian people were softer, friendlier people. Then the bus would take us into France for whatever we were doing.

My father went out and found the cenotaph with his brother’s name on it, for his mother was a widow and her five sons went to Dunkirk. My father and his 4 brothers joined up and they all went away about 4 weeks or so before the war broke out. They knew the war was going to break out when they joined up. There were photographs of them on the front of the paper, they were called the fighting five. One of them didn’t come back, that was Robert. Well my grandmother talked about him day and daily. She said “My Robert’s not dead; I think he has lost his memory.” When she died she still believed that. After my father was demobbed and home a wee while my mother and father booked a holiday to go to France. He saw what he didn’t expect, he went to the columns with all the war dead on them and it had his brother’s name on it. He took a photograph and I have that at home. I don’t know whether my aunt (she is 88 and still alive) knows, she had one wee girl of 6 months when he was killed. I don’t see them often, but I’ve often wondered do they know. I must look it up and show it to the cousins who are still alive and interested. The other brothers survived all right 2 army men, a sailor and my father was in the RAF. He was a winch operator; he was out in storms, gales and all the rest trying to save people. He was even commended for bravery.

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