The 1940s Society For Everyone Interested in Wartime Britain Issue 85 May / June 2014 £3.00 Dunkirk 74 Years on - Sean Longden looks at the Men Left Behind Charters & Caldicott Peter Storey tells the story of the Comedy Duo Arthur Rosebury by Jeff “Two-Tone Boogie” Diary Events And much more... The 1940’s Society, 90 Lennard Road, Dunton Green, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 2UX Tel: 01732 452505 Web: www.1940.co.uk Email: [email protected] 1 A Grand Day Out? Last months call for members to support a local charity brought a fine selection of vintage clothes out into the open. The Sevenoaks Youth Area Trust who were organising the 1940s Murder Mystery evening were delighted with our attendance and the members that came along had a great evening. More importantly, some much needed funding was raised for a very worthwhile cause. Meeting up at such events is a fantastic opportunity to get to know one another and have a chat so perhaps it’s something we should do more often. If you have any ideas for a possible outing then do drop me a line and we can see if we can put something together. Of course one opportunity to meet up is on the 24th May at the Coco Club in Sevenoaks (see advert in this issue). At the time of writing tickets are still available but do call the box office to check before turning up. Brandyn Shaw is a superb entertainer and has been very much complimented and compared with Al Bowley. If you get a chance come along and see for yourself. Ian A few members of the 1940s Society who supported the SYAT charity event last month. Please support the Society with a subscription on-line at www.1940.co.uk or fill out and return the form on the back of this magazine. If you have any comments, articles or information of interest we would be pleased to consider it for future use. Please contact us at: The 1940’s Society, 90, Lennard Road, Dunton Green, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN13 2UX or email us at: [email protected] . All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part and in any form whatsoever, is strictly prohibited without the prior permission of the editor. Whilst every care is taken with material submitted to ‘The 1940s Society”, no responsibility can be accepted for loss or damage. Opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor or the 1940s Society. Whilst every effort has been made to contact all copyright holders, the sources of some pictures that may be used are obscure. The publishers will be glad to make good in future editions any error or omissions brought to their attention. The publication of any quotes or illustrations on which clearance has not been given is unintentional. Designed and produced by Ian Bayley. © Ian Bayley 2014 2 The 1940s Society For Everyone Interested in Wartime Britain Regular meetings at Otford Memorial Hall near Sevenoaks Friday 23 May 2014 - 8pm Dunkirk - The Untold Story A presentation by Sean Longden The story of the Dunkirk evacuation is traditionally told in terms of the men who escaped from Dunkirk on the famed ‘little ships’. However, tonight, the focus is not on the men who got away but on the men who were left behind in France. For every seven men that got away from Dunkirk, one man was captured by the Germans. We follow their experiences on forced marches across France and Belgium into Germany and the horrors of violence and starvation that they endured. Sean will look at their experiences in the first few months of living in POW camps as well as those soldiers who went into hiding in France and eventually escaped to Spain and North Africa. Some eventually made the journey home. 74 years ago this month the ‘miracle of Dunkirk’ took place. This evening’s talk gives a very different perspective to the Dunkirk story, one which remained hidden for many years. Sean Longden is a bestselling author of many books including one on the evacuation of Dunkirk. He is an excellent speaker and we are delighted that he is able to join us this evening. Do come along. Friendly meetings learning more about life in the 1940’s. Meetings start at 8pm at Otford Memorial Hall, Nr. Sevenoaks. Admission £3. Further details from Ian on 01732 452505 or visit the Web Site at: www.1940.co.uk 3 Advertise here for as little as £20 4 DUNKIRK THE MEN THEY LEFT BEHIND Our May speaker Sean Longden will be giving us a new perspective into the ‘miracle’ of Dunkirk later this month as we remember it’s 74th anniversary. Here he gives us a taste of his book - Dunkirk The men they left behind. ‘Is anyone there? Is anyone into the waters of the English there?’ With these words General Channel, there was nothing to Harold Alexander signalled the do but draw the proceedings to a end of the drama of Dunkirk. close. Searching along the quayside within the port and patrolling When Alexander had allowed the waters beside the beach, himself a final search of the the general held firmly on to perimeter, calling out to any who his megaphone, calling out for might yet remain on shore and and stragglers still waiting for receiving no reply, he returned evacuation. It was 2a.m. on to the harbour and boarded a the morning of 3 June 1940. waiting destroyer. Satisfied that For six long, arduous days the the evacuation was complete, beleaguered British Expeditionary the order to set sail was given Force (BEF) had been slowly and the ship cast off, zig-zagging but surely evacuated from the its way across the night waters harbour and beaches of Dunkirk. towards Dover. As his ship tied up For some, the story had seemed alongside the quay next morning, miraculous – somehow, with the and the general disembarked to enemy just miles away and their make his way to the War Office, planes dominating the skies above the story of Dunkirk came to the beaches, 338,226 soldiers an end. Now it was time for the had been embarked on ships legend to grow. and sent home to Britain. With the evacuation completed it was However despite the ominous time for Operation Dynamo to silence that had greeted end. As the last of the Royal Navy Alexander as he scoured Dunkirk destroyers slipped safely away and its beaches for waiting troops, 5 some men were still out there. make their own circuitous ways Somewhere in the darkness were home independently, whether over 68,000 British soldiers who by walking across France or had never reached safety. On rowing across the Channel. All the beaches and sand dunes of that mattered was that they were Dunkirk, in the fields of Flanders, heading home, no matter how beside the roads and amid the long it took or how far their journey ruins, lay corpses of hundreds would take them. who had not reached the boats. They had paid the ultimate price But for the majority left behind, Also during the fighting retreat. They now prisoners of war, the journey scattered were not alone in their defeat. was not to freedom. Hour upon across the Elsewhere were hospitals full hour, mile upon mile, day after countryside of the sick and wounded who day, they walked. The feet of had been left behind to receive the dejected and defeated men were treatment from the enemy’s shuffled over the cobblestones hundreds doctors. And further afield – still of the seemingly endless roads. of lost fighting hard alongside its French Shoulders hunched, staring at and lonely allies – was the entire 51st the ground in front of them, they soldiers. Highland Division, and a myriad of moved ever onward. Beneath the other units, some large and some searing summer sun the starving small, whose war had not finished rabble continued their journey into as the last boats slipped away the unknown. Like the remnants of from Dunkirk. some pitiful ancient tribe sold into slavery, they shuffled forwards. Also scattered across the Stomachs shrunken and throats countryside were hundreds of lost parched, they hardly dared think and lonely soldiers. These were of the food and water that might the ‘evaders’ who had missed the bring salvation. boats and evaded capture and were now desperately trying to Some were half-carrying, half- make their own circuitous ways dragging their sick and exhausted home– still fighting hard alongside friends. Others, too weak to help its French allies – was the entire the sick, were forced to abandon 51st Highland Division, and a their mates at the roadside. Yet myriad of other units, some large most simply trudged on in silence and some small, whose war had men like twenty-one-year-old Ken not finished as the last boats Willats who just five months earlier slipped away from Dunkirk. had been a chef in a London restaurant. Now, not having seen Also scattered across the food for days, he was too weak countryside were hundreds of lost even to raise a hand to wipe a POW’s being and lonely soldiers. These were squashed fly from his forehead. marched from the cliff tops. (from the ‘evaders’ who had missed the ‘Dunkirk’ by Sean boats and evaded capture and Longden) were now desperately trying to 6 Desperate men summoned up evacuation of over 300,000 fellow their last vestiges of energy and soldiers at Dunkirk. Their sacrifice fought for scraps of food. They had brought the salvation of dropped to their knees in ditches the British nation.