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

having first crossed the decks of the Maid of Orleans to which Icarus was
moored. He heard the skipper urging them to load up quickly. ‘The captain
wanted to get off before the Stukas came down at first light,’ he says. With
a further 677 troops on board, Icarus cut her ropes and headed out of the
harbour once more, but as she was clearing the harbour entrance astern, two
more ships were coming in. Icarus then backed around out of the harbour
and as she did so accidentally rammed a trawler, causing serious damage
including to her gyro compass. Fortunately, she could still sail, however,
and so set off for England once more.
Sid Nuttall collapsed on one of the lower decks, where he and his mates
were given cocoa and thick bully beef sandwiches – both of which were
most welcome after more than three days without food and barely any
fluids at all. Sid drank and ate, blissfully unaware that because of the
damage to the gyro compass Icarus managed to sail right through the
middle of a minefield. Andrew Begg back down in the engine room had
been told by the chief ERA. ‘That’s why we’re going at five knots,’ the
ERA said in hushed tones. ‘Don’t let the rumour get around in case the
soldiers panic.’ For the next hour, Andrew wondered whether they would
blow up at any moment, but then the signal came to increase speed and they
were clear.
They reached Dover around seven that Sunday morning. It was Icarus’s
last trip. In all she saved 4,704 men, one of whom was Sid Nuttall.
During Churchill’s visit to Paris two days before he had promised the
French that British and French troops would leave in partnership, arm to
arm, and that it would be British troops that would form the rearguard and
be last to leave, not the French. This pledge had not been passed on to
Alexander and, in any case, would have been impossible such was the state
of the last remaining Tommies. By that Sunday, and despite Alexander’s
preparations around Malo-les-Bains, it was the French who were holding
the final defensive line around Dunkirk – and doing so with a kind of steel
too infrequently shown during the previous three weeks. Carrying out a
number of local counter-attacks, they forced the Germans briefly on to the
back foot. The remains of the First Army were also fighting fiercely in their
pocket at Lille, despite the hopelessness of the situation. It was all too little
too late, but it gave the men at Dunkirk – the last of the BEF – the chance to
lie low during the day and ready themselves for one last night of