Dunkirk

Dunkirk

Early in 1939 he and a number of friends joined the Territorial Army (Royal Artillery) and was mobilised in August of that year. Lance Bombardier Bettany fought in France and Belgium with the 88th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, manning 25 pounder field guns, and after evacuation from Dunkirk, served in various locations in southern England, in preparation for the anticipated German invasion.

He was then re-equipped and shipped to the Far East, travelling on the troopship ‘Empress of Canada’ via Freetown (West Africa), Cape Town and Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka). In the Malayan campaign he fought the Japanese at Ipoh and Alor Star. He was at Kuantan on the east coast, off which the ‘Prince of Wales’ and the ‘Repulse’ were sunk. In the company of the Australian 8th Division and the Indian 9th Brigade, he saw most of the major actions in Malaya until capitulation in Singapore in February 1942.

Dunkirk Evacuation: Operation Dynamo:

‘The Dunkirk evacuation, code-named Operation Dynamo, also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was the evacuation of allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 27 May and 4 June 1940. The operation was decided upon when large numbers of British, French, and Belgian troops were cut off and surrounded by the German army during the Battle of France in the Second World War.

By the end of the eighth day of the evacuation, a total of 338,226 soldiers had been rescued by a hastily assembled fleet of over 800 boats. Many of the troops were able to embark from the harbour’s protective mole onto 39 British detroyers and other large ships, while others had to wade out from the beaches, waiting for hours in the shoulder-deep water. Some were ferried from the beaches to the larger ships by the famous little ships of Dunkirk, a flotilla of hundreds of merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft, and lifeboats  called into service for the emergency. The BEF lost 68,000 soldiers during the French campaign.’

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkirk_evacuation