Page 64 - Ranger Demo

One of these was a drifter, on which were 20 men, including Gunner Cyril Beard 11 of 2nd Survey. While moving through the crowded beaches at La Panne, in an attempt to find a corner to lie down, he became dispersed from the main group of his unit in II Corps. So, he decided to walk along the beaches until he could find another Survey group. Beard remembers that the ship's skipper he sailed on supplied all men with corn beef sandwiches and water, which seemed a feast for someone who had not eaten for many days. Instead, luckily, he reached Ramsgate safely in the small hours of May 30.
Similar to the other two Survey Regiments, 2nd Survey had until May 15 initially split over a broad front.
For another two days, everyone was kept occupied for hours by whoever claimed to be in authority to join queues of groups for the arrival of possible ships, and this meant that men found themselves dispersed among other units, without their officers and made control and order difficult.
Besides, the Germans regularly appeared over the horizon, amusing themselves in dropping bombs, flares, and pale
green bullets, and then seeing the congregated groups breaking up for cover into the more sheltered dunes
Around 19.45 May 28, a group of 30 men succeeded in embarking on to the Grafton which had lain off Bray Dunes to pick up men from smaller boats. The Grafton, now complete with 800 passengers, sailed at 00.30 and was bombed without damage, but a German U-boat attacked the destroyer and of two torpedoes fired one hit her stern below the wardroom just before 03.00.
Afterwards, with no precise information reaching Dunkirk and press censorship, rumours and wild farfetched theories germinated and were allowed to circulate within the Regiment. These comprised the report that Major Norman Streatfield and Captain Spence Browning and others had died after jumping into the black icy waters, swimming towards the accompanying ship, the S.S. Malines, and in the ongoing confusion being crushed between the two vessels.12
Even after the explosion, many of the crew and its passengers were completely unaware of what had happened. It was after another few weeks when all the Regiment concentrated that the more precise
HMS Grafton – H89 Destroyer G-class
details of the event came to light. According to Captain Browning's batman, Gray, all the officers of the unit, consisting of Browning, Streatfield and, the recently commissioned, Lieut Robert Rochester of the Flash Spotting Battery, were all located in the wardroom of the ship, and they were killed
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