Page 66 - Ranger Demo

The journey lasted about 30 hours, via Caen, Rennes to a village Pornichet, near to and north of St. Nazaire, and approximately 4 miles from the coast. A marquee had been erected near to the railway station in which we were to sleep. There were no rations, only drinks of tea.
Early next morning, Thursday, May 29, we marched the 4 miles to the coast where a transit camp was established, almost on the beach. H.Q. was in a farmhouse or a villa. We arrived at the camp well after breakfast. We received no food until the mid-day meal. After this, we dug slit trenches in the sand.
A pretty futile effort and a waste of time. There was no covered accommodation. The few bell tents were oversubscribed, so we slept under the stars. Quite a rude awakening to field conditions compared to the comparative conditions of the comfort of Larkhill barracks. We felt like lonely wandering souls without guidance from an RAA officer and with no knowledge of the progress of the War in France.
We were roughly awakened at about 03.00 hours Friday, May 30 and told that there was to be a hasty move, in the same type of horseboxes, it was to be a reverse journey back to Cherbourg which we reached in the morning of Saturday, May 31. In the afternoon, we sailed on the same ship Bruges and anchored off the Isle of Wight in the late evening. My friend's home was on the Isle of Wight and could see the village in which he lived.
Next morning Sunday, June 1, we docked at Southampton when we learned of Dunkirk from the newspapers. They had printed photographs of the long lines of troops waiting on the beaches hoping to be picked up to be taken back to England. I was miles from Dunkirk and never saw action from the enemy, not even an aeroplane.
From Southampton, we were taken by railway to Northwich, in Cheshire, where we were given a heroes' welcome. Crowds lined the streets with a lot of flag-waving. We went from the station to the canteen of the ICI Salt Works and given an excellent meal. People were very kind during our stay of about 14 days (two separate billets). They invited us to their own homes for meals. We felt that we were frauds and not worthy of such kindness as we had not been through Dunkirk. 21
The Padre of 2nd Survey, the Catholic priest, Father Peter Venables, chose to stay and give comfort and any assistance to the numbers of severely wounded men in and around Dunkirk. This noble, Christian act resulted in five long years in captivity, and so he became 2nd Survey's, and indeed the Survey Regiments' first PoW in the War. 22
In contrast, the fortunes of war were indeed on the side of two other subalterns of 2nd Survey, including the elderly Lieut L.W. Warner, known affectionately to his friends as "Boy", were not required to experience the trials of the return journey through Dunkirk or Cherbourg.
Throughout May 1940 they were back in Britain either taking part in training schemes at Larkhill, on leave or being comfortably looked after by doctors and nurses in a hospital.
This study has shown that the general image presented about the events at Dunkirk still holds even for the Survey Regiments during most of the period. It is acceptable in the case of 2nd Survey and two of the three smallest groups of 3rd Survey, while in the case of 1st Survey and the rest of 3rd Survey, which together consisted in the most significant representation of Survey, it has to be qualified: 1st Survey had a Survey Troop which returned at a later date through other French ports located further down the coast. In contrast, the rest of the Regiment and the main contingent of 3rd Survey returned just before the date when the largest evacuees were assembling, and so did not face completely identical conditions.
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