What did my father-in-law do at Dunkirk?
Q My father-in-law George Balls (later changed to Ball) was in the Royal Navy and served on one of the ‘little ships’ that rescued the soldiers at Dunkirk. There is a lot of information about the Army’s role, but I am having trouble finding any resources that give details of the Navy and the part George might have played. Please can you help?
A The Royal Navy (RN) – assisted by the French Navy, Merchant Navy and scores of small boats – rescued 338,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk between 26 May and 4 June 1940. The evacuation was a great success, although as Churchill said, “Wars are not won by evacuations.”
The most important question is: do you know which ship he served on? There’s a good list of the boats involved on Wikipedia at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_at_Dunkirk. If not, your father-in-law would have been given his service record when he was discharged, which is worth finding because it will name his vessels. A copy can be obtained by your husband (as next of kin) via the website gov.uk/get-copymilitary-service-records/applyfor-someone-elses-records. Naval records can be applied for online, so you’ll need to provide a digital copy of George’s death certificate and pay the £30 fee.
Once you know the ship he was on in May/June 1940, it should be possible to find some records. There are lots of resources: naval-history.net/index.htm has potted histories of most Second World War RN ships; The National Archives (nationalarchives.gov.uk) has many records in its ADM series relating to the evacuation; and the Imperial War Museum (iwm.org.uk) has hundreds of accounts, written and taped. You could also try the RN museum at nmrn.org.uk/our-museum/Portsmouth, which has searchable collections.
Local newspapers in George’s home town are worth scouring too. Dunkirk servicemen were local heroes, and some mention of their activities was often made.
The volunteer craft are listed on the website of the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships (adls.org.uk/the-list). If you can’t find George’s ship at Dunkirk, there were other evacuations along the French coast about the same time that he may have taken part in.