Midnight: The river paddle-steamer Medway Queen is making her seventh trip to Dunkirk. The evacuation at Dunkirk was called a ‘miracle’ by Winston Churchill. In May 1940 Operation Dynamo was launched to rescue the retreating British Army soldiers from Dunkirk in northern France. British tanks were mostly superior to those of the German Army too, and while they had not invested as heavily in radio as the Germans, the BEF still had proportionally considerably more radio sets than the French. The official website for BBC History Magazine, BBC History Revealed and BBC World Histories Magazine, Save over 50% on a BBC History Magazine or BBC History Revealed gift subscription, In 1940, as British troops retreated through France under fire from an advancing German Army, a massive evacuation was launched to bring the soldiers safely home. After taking on additional stores Medway Queen departed for Dunkirk along with the HMS Sandown, HMS Thames Queen, HMS Gracie Fields… This meant he was repeatedly and fatally out of touch with his commanders at a time when swift and rapid decision-making was essential. A staggering 353 German planes crashed or were shot down. With the Queen of the Channel in serious distress the nearby coaster Dorrien Rose under Captain W Thompson and carrying military stores approached bow to bow and within thirty five minutes had taken off the troops from the sinking ship. Tennant arrived on the afternoon 27 May, and had been told they might be able to evacuate 45,000 troops if he were lucky. Passengers: ?? Of the 338,226 men lifted from Dunkirk, 239,555 – the vast majority – were taken from the eastern mole. The newcomer was larger than her predecessor and was typical of the Denny built motor ships for the General Steam Navigation Co Ltd … The initial halt order was issued by General von Kleist on 23 May. The PS Medway Queen is a paddle driven steamship, ... patrolling the Strait of Dover and the English Channel. A lifeline had been discovered and over the next five days and nights, the eastern mole not only remained intact but also undamaged by either the sheer weight of ships mooring alongside or by enemy bombs. Overnight, the transport Queen of the Channel was bombed and sunk. On June 14th 1935 the ship was recorded as working its first run on a day excursion service between the Thames and the Continent. By the end of the day 11,874 soldiers were taken … The crew can hear the frightening sound of machine-gun fire — the Germans are in the suburbs of Dunkirk. Initially the harbour facilities at Dunkirk provided the obvious means to bring in the larger ships and embark the weary troops. He did not understand new mobile panzer tactics and feared his armoured tank divisions were getting too far ahead of the foot-slogging infantry. It was an amazing operation. The crew can hear the frightening sound of machine-gun fire — the Germans are in the suburbs of Dunkirk. Over nine days, between 26 May and 4 June 1940, warships of the Royal and French navies together with civilian craft successfully evacuated more than 338,000 British and Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk, in the remarkable Operation Dynamo. Between 26 May and 4 June 1940, a mammoth 338,000 troops were rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk, France, in the remarkable Operation Dynamo, Here, military historian James Holland shares some lesser-known facts about the evacuation at Dunkirk, and the fighting that led up to it…. Most were transports bringing in airborne troops, but these Junkers 52s had only been brought to bear by scouring training schools and their losses severely set back aircrew training. He won the day, but had the BEF been lost, the outcome may well have been very different. See more ideas about dunkirk evacuation, dunkirk, world war two. If you subscribe to BBC History Magazine Print or Digital Editions then you can unlock 10 years’ worth of archived history material fully searchable by Topic, Location, Period and Person. Pre-war rearmament had sensibly focussed on naval and air power. The mole withstood this strain without any obvious difficulty. Stuart Discoveries and Inventions. Mention Dunkirk to most British people and images spring to mind of queues of men on beaches awaiting evacuation, little ships bravely crossing the Channel and naval officers brilliantly marshalling their limited resources to bring home over 338,000 men from northern France in May and early June 1940.. Shortly into the journey the ship came under attack from German dive bombers. He was half-right, or half-wrong, depending on which way one looks at it. ... Purchase Now Dollars in advance to pay for On Demand rentals from Video Express First. In contrast, the French had largely eschewed radio technology in favour of landline telephones and traditional dispatch riders. Crew: ?? Watch Dunkirk on Now Player. Dunkirk is a small town on the coast of France that was the scene of a massive military campaign during World War II. image caption The Medway Queen was one of the "little ships" that helped rescue thousands of soldiers during the Dunkirk evacuations of WW2 Of her 48 naval crew, seven were given … ... to the French port of Dunkirk. On 10 May 1940, Hitler began his long-awaited offensive in the west by invading neutral Holland and Belgium and attacking northern France. 9 things you (probably) didn’t know about Dunkirk. The harbour facilities had been smashed and the port’s quays were unusable, so Tennant signalled back to Dover asking for every available craft, no matter how small, to sail to Dunkirk to help lift men from the beaches. Page added February 22nd 2009. Queen of the Channel was built to replace a ship of the same name, which had been lost assisting in the Dunkirk evacuations. Stuart Food. Builder: William Denny & Brothers, Dumbarton. It is widely accepted that the Germans had it pretty much their own way from the moment they launched Case Yellow (the invasion of France and the Low Countries) on 10 May 1940. Mona's Queen was the sixth vessel to be built in the Birkenhead yards for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, and was completed in June 1934. By then, the German Army was using some 2,000 different vehicles, all of which required different parts, from gaskets and distributors to fuel pumps. There are many other stories about those desperate weeks as the Germans swept across … With German artillery and the Luftwaffe also repeatedly cutting phone lines, the French were ever more dependent on dispatch riders, who were forced to battle through roads clogged with refugees. Image credit: Press Association Images. The crew of HMS Medway Queen had no idea of the enormous operation known as "Operation Dynamo" that was building up. Often they became lost, took too long, or failed to return altogether. You have successfully linked your account! The Second World War. Gamelin firmly believed any future war would be much like the previous one of 1914-18: long, drawn-out and largely static war of attrition. The Senior Naval Officer tasked with overseeing the shore end of the Dunkirk evacuation was Captain Bill Tennant. Queen of the Channel (1) (New Medway: 1936-1940) Queen of the Channel (1) was built for the New Medway SP Co in 1936, the year that it was taken over by GSN. Dunkirk is a great movie but there aren’t enough “women” or “people of color” in it, according to a review in USA Today. Company postcard of Queen of the Channel (1). He immediately countermanded all Halder’s decisions and gave the authority to lift the halt order back to von Rundstedt. And instead of the hoped-for 40,000 or 50,000 troops safely home from Dunkirk, Operation Dynamo resulted in 338,000 British, French, and Belgian troops brought off the beaches. She was bombed and sunk at the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940. They heard no replies; all that remained were the silhouettes of abandoned vehicles. It is widely accepted that the Germans had it pretty much their … Logical military thinking played no part in Hitler’s decision, rather, it was motivated by a determination to show who was boss and stamp his authority on his subordinates. The loss of this ship saw daylight operations restricted to naval vessels and the smaller vessels. The reason for defeat in France in 1940 was not a failure in equipment, tactics or training, but the BEF’s small size: just 10 divisions. After all, France was an ally with a vast army. He became separated from most of his men, making him among the last in his battalion to be lifted. Shortly into the journey the ship came under attack from German dive bombers. Meanwhile, the new British uniforms were the most modern in the world at the time, and unlike anything any soldier had worn before. Last Updated May 20th 2011. He hated the Prussian military elites, and was deeply suspicious of the army leadership. HMS Medway Queen became part of the flotilla of little ships. The Queen of the Channel was the result and, as Shippick was unable to pay for her outright, ... before long both ships would be back in the Navy minesweeping again during WW2 and taking part in the evacuation of Dunkirk. Compared to the smaller paddle steamers that the Queen of the Channel was replacing, this ship was definately a step up with regard to the appointment of her fixtures and fittings. Clearly, they needed to be taught a lesson. The following is an excerpt from TIME-LIFE’s new special edition, World War II: Dunkirk, available on Amazon. Engines: Two Sulzer 8 cyl two-stroke single acting 1,500hp engines, Type TS. Return to Picture menu. Needless to say, of those British vehicles that did make their way to the USSR, very few ever headed west again. The situation looked bleak. (To put that in perspective, the worst day for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain saw them lose 67 aircraft). Spearheading the attack and apparently ruling the skies was the Luftwaffe, with its mix of screaming Stuka dive-bombers, Messerschmitt fighters and Heinkel and Dornier medium bombers. In fact, of the 135 German divisions used in the attack in the West, only 16 were mechanised; the other 119 used horses and their soldiers’ own two feet. Although many of those left at Dunkirk had sand poured into the radiators and fuel tanks, a large proportion were salvageable and were used again. Launched: 1935 This list consists of all major naval and merchant ships involved in Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of allied troops from the Dunkirk area from 26 May to 4 June 1940. This was a salivatingly large number for the vehicle-short Germans. How the British Managed to Escape Dunkirk and Keep Fighting. The cross-Channel steamer, Queen of the Channel, was called to test it and after gently nudging her stern against the concrete piles, managed to drift alongside. Draught 9ft 3in This caused a minor panic, and the RN began to send as many craft as possible to take troops off the beaches. Return to Ship menu Royal Sovereign (3) (New Medway: 1937-1940) She joined the 10 th Mine-sweeping Flotilla at Dover as HMS Medway Queen, and made seven runs to Dunkirk as part of Operation Dynamo, ferrying 7,000 servicemen safely across the channel and shooting down three enemy aircraft in the process. 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