#Dunkirk80 #Dunkirk1940 #RAMC Following on from yesterdays Tweets concerning the Field Ambulances of 44th Div, here is a thread covering today's events, featuring an unwanted guest appearance from 6th Panzer Division... 1

The Fd. Amb's moved in the early hours of the morning to concentrate south of Godewaersvelde & the Mont des Cats. As they approached the area Bob Milnethorpe, of 133 recalls meeting a military Policeman "you can’t go down there – Jerry’s down there”. But they did...& he was...2

133 found 3 farms on the road between Godewaersvelde & Eecke by 8.15. My father and his brother were looking forward to opening a tin of pilchards, having been denied the chance for several days now due to 'annoying enemy activity' as Dad put it...3

But they were to be thwarted again as a hurried order to 'get on transport & get moving, fast!' echoed across the farmyard. Several trucks got going & joined those already out on the lane, trying to get away. Across the fields, tanks & infantry could be seen approaching...4

By now my father's lorry had made it to the lane but, at the same time the leading vehicle was hit & burst into flames, effectively blocking the units escape route & that of the other Fd. Amb's further down the road. One by one the tanks started to pick off the column...5

With tanks on his left, Dad followed the driver out on the right hand side and dived into a ditch. As Ray Brotherwood, another 133 man said, "You automatically followed the bloke in front of you in the ditch". Ray ended up back at the farm, Dad, & others, went the other way... 6

and eventually made his way to Dunkirk and safety, but more of that tomorrow. Ray ended up back in the farm & the majority of the men from all 3 units were now holed up wondering what was to happen next. Sadly, not all made it however, as Vic Hope of 133 told me... 7

'I watched my best mate, Graham Cooper's lorry take a direct hit and erupt in flames, there was nothing I could do to save him, nothing...' At least 3 other men from 133 were killed, Arthur Heard, Wilmot Isaac and Bernard Lomas. 131 & 132 also suffered losses... 8

As the tanks seemed to move on, the men in the farms considered what to do. Some suggested they lay low until dark and then try to get away. But, before long the decision was taken out of their hands as German troops arrived & called on them all to come out & surrender...9

And then, things turned sinister. Doug Underwood of 133 recalls, 'The able bodied were marched off...& led through a gate into a field where we joined others who had been captured in the farms. We were made to stand in a single line with our backs to a newly dug trench... 10

...in front were several machine guns with their crews ready to fire and, since this appeared extremely sinister, we shook hands with one another in farewell". This could be dismissed as a misunderstanding by Doug, perhaps, but several other men corroborate the story... 11

Ray Brotherwood (133), 'I was standing next to Rogers, who had also been picked up, and I said to him, “well, what do you think? Do you think we’ve had it?” And he said, “Probably!” I was just standing there waiting for them to open up and mow us down"... 12

Another 133 man, Ginger Barnett remembers, "I didn’t think we were going to get out, Eddie Martin said to me, “I think we’ve had our lot mate!” and I was inclined to believe him". E H Metherell, a Chaplain attached to HQ was also there & appears to have over heard the guards...13

He noted in his diary that they, "Halted in a field adjoining the farm buildings – machine gun in evidence, with which we were threatened – said their stretcher bearers had been shot at – (obviously had forgotten our ambulances which had been shot up and set on fire)"...14

According to Doug Underwood they were only reprieved when a senior officer turned up. "An order was given, the machine gunners stood up and we were taken farther into the field and formed into a circle. We had to give up any sweets, chocolate, cigarettes and English money"... 15

Doug though thinks the RAMC men had the last laugh! "Private Cyril Pointon related how a guard had snatched a fairly large bar of chocolate from him. In fact it was Ex-lax and we would have given much to know what happened to the consumer"... 16

If you have managed to read this far, thanks for bearing with me . More to come tomorrow, with my father and his pals en route to Dunkirk and Doug, Ray Ginger and others beginning the long march into captivity... 17