The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

more abandoned vehicles.’ These were the trucks, carriers and cars that had
made the BEF one of the best equipped armies in the world – but they could
not be taken back across the sea, so orders had been given to abandon them
either at or near the perimeter of the Bergues–Furnes Canal, and then to
destroy them. It was the men who needed to get home – soldiers with as
little kit as possible. ‘Some had been sabotaged and some hadn’t,’ says Sid.
‘People were shoving sand and earth in and then running them, trying to
ruin the engines.’ A few were setting them on fire but that ran the risk of
attracting enemy aircraft.
The battalion reached Killem some time after 9 p.m. and abandoned the
trucks, but then, as darkness began to fall, Sid lost sight of his MT sergeant.
‘So it was just me,’ says Sid, ‘and a chap called Middleton, the other
vehicle mechanic, and “C” Company.’ They crossed a bridge over the canal
and then kept going until, at dawn, they found themselves at Bray Dunes.
The men of 4th Division were also moving back. It seemed that no sooner
had the 2nd Royal Fusiliers safely crossed the River Lys than news had
arrived of the Belgian surrender. With it came new orders to retreat, this
time towards Dixmude. The problem was that many of the battalion’s
vehicles had been put out of action. For Second Lieutenant Norman Field,
the battalion adjutant, this was a difficult time. Verbal orders – the battalion
had no radio or telephone links – were issued for an immediate withdrawal
but delivering them was tricky because enemy troops had managed to
occupy some houses near the battalion’s farmhouse HQ and now began
peppering the building with small-arms fire. The British managed to subdue
these troops, however, so that by 7 p.m. the battalion had pulled back
successfully with hardly any casualties.
Its immediate rendezvous was on the Poperinge road, but it now seemed
that half the BEF plus countless civilians were also using the road.
Nonetheless, the battalion managed to reach the town, more or less in one
piece. The guns Sid Nuttall had seen earlier were now silent. Abandoned
vehicles littered the roadside, as did bomb craters. Through this mayhem,
the soldiers marched onwards until early the following morning they found
the 12th Brigade commander, Brigadier Leslie ‘Ginger’ Hawkesworth,
standing at a crossroads some five miles south of Furnes, issuing company
commanders with their new orders, which for the Royal Fusiliers, was to
hold the perimeter line around Nieuport, just inland from the coast. This