subject: Thames River Cruise With Jeff The War Hero [print this page] The "little ships of Dunkirk" were seven hundred private watercraft that sailed between Ramsgate in England and Dunkirk in France from 26th May and 4th June, 1940 part of Mission codename Dynamo, which was intended to liberate upwards of 300,000 soldiers, who were stuck on the beaches at Dunkirk during World War two, the codename referred to the dynamo room in the RN HQ below Dover Castle, which housed the dynamo which generated electricity for the building throughout World War 2. British Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsey planned the operation from the same room and also briefed Winston Churchill as the mission was under-way. The mission took place after, British, French and Belgian soldiers were cut off by the German army in the course of the Battle of Dunkirk. The situation of the troops, which had been forced back from their advance in to France by a pincer mechanism from the German army, which had been deemed by the British leader Winston Churchill as one of the biggest military embarrassments for 100's of years. It appeared likely that Dunkirk would lead to an invaision of Britain as it left the island vulnerable to attack by Nazi Germany. Due to the shallow waters, Royal Navy ships had been not capable of approaching the Dunkirk shoreline, and troops had been forced to wade out to the warships, many of soldiers waiting hours in chest deep water. On the very first day, only seven thousand individuals were recovered, yet by the 9th day, over 300,000 men had been recovered by the rag-tag flotilla of vessels.
Even though many of the allied soldiers were in the end in a position to embark via the Dunkirk harbour's see wall onto forty two Royal Navy war ships and other ships, others had no choice but to swim away from the beaches toward the ships, holding out for several hours in order to board. Thousands of these men were picked up by the renowned "little ships of Dunkirk", the flotilla consisted of merchant marine watercraft, fishing vessels, pleasure craft and RNLI lifeboats. On 27th May, the small craft division of the British Ministry of Shipping hunted down boat builders around the country, requesting them to collect all boats with "shallow draft" which would enable them to navigate the shallow seas. Particular attention was initially g the pleasure boats, private yachts and launches moored along the River Thames as well as boats on the south and east shorelines. Many boats had been obtained with the owners' permission ? along with the owners ? while most were requisitioned by the government with simply no time for the owners to be approached. Each boat was checked to be sure they were sea worthy, fuelled-up, and transported to Ramsgate to set sail for Dunkirk. They had been manned by RN Officers, Ratings and seasoned volunteers.
The smallest Dunkirk boat was the fifteen foot fishing boat "Tamzine", now which today has pride of place in the Imperial War Museum. Whilst the Dunkirk little ship "Jeff" is operated by its owners Turks to this day and is used to provide a regular Thames River cruise service even today, taking up to 45 guests for boat trips on the Thames, many of whom are probably unaware of the little boats heroic exploits.
