{"id":15767,"date":"2022-05-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/?p=15767&preview=true&preview_id=15767"},"modified":"2022-05-09T11:34:56","modified_gmt":"2022-05-09T09:34:56","slug":"what-did-my-father-in-law-do-at-dunkirk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/2022\/05\/03\/what-did-my-father-in-law-do-at-dunkirk\/","title":{"rendered":"What did my father-in-law do at Dunkirk?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What did my father-in-law do at Dunkirk?<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n
\"\"
Marina\u2019s fatherin-law served in the Royal Navy<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Q<\/span><\/strong> My father-in-law George Balls (later changed to <\/span>Ball) was in the Royal Navy and served on one of the \u2018little ships\u2019 that rescued the soldiers at Dunkirk. There is a lot of information about the Army\u2019s role, but I am having trouble finding any resources that give details of the Navy and the part George might have played. <\/span>Please can you help?<\/p>\n\n

Marina Ball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

A<\/span> <\/strong>The Royal Navy (RN) \u2013 assisted by the French Navy, Merchant Navy and scores of small boats \u2013 rescued 338,000 <\/span>Allied troops from Dunkirk between 26 May and 4 June 1940. The evacuation was a great success, although as Churchill said, \u201cWars are not won by evacuations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The most important question is: do you know which ship he served on? There\u2019s a good list of the boats involved on Wikipedia at en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_ships_at_Dunkirk<\/a>. <\/strong>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<\/a>. <\/strong>Naval records can be applied for online, so you\u2019ll need to provide a digital copy of George\u2019s death certificate and pay the \u00a330 fee.<\/p>\n\n

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<\/a> <\/strong>has potted histories of most Second World War RN ships; The National Archives (nationalarchives.gov.uk<\/a>) has many records in its ADM series relating to the evacuation; and the Imperial War Museum (iwm.org.uk<\/strong><\/a>) <\/strong>has hundreds of accounts, written and taped. You could also try the RN museum at nmrn.org.uk\/our-museum\/Portsmouth<\/a>, <\/strong>which has searchable collections.<\/p>\n\n

Local newspapers in George\u2019s home town are worth scouring too. Dunkirk servicemen were local heroes, and some mention of their activities was often made.<\/p>\n\n

The volunteer craft are listed on the website of the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships (adls.org.uk\/the-list<\/strong><\/a>). <\/strong>If you can\u2019t find George\u2019s ship at Dunkirk, there were other evacuations along the French coast about the same time that he may have taken part in.<\/p>\n\n

Phil Tomaselli<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u2018little ships\u2019 that rescued the soldiers at Dunkirk. There is a lot of information about the Army\u2019s role, but I am having trouble finding any resources that give […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5420,"featured_media":15753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"","purple_seq_number":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"","purple_source_article":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"","purple_source_issue":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"June-2022","purple_external_id":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"June-2022-1b2d7c4c-e5a5-4057-9cfc-918694644598","purple_issue_code":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000105659||","purple_android_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.wdytya.191","purple_ios_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.wdytya.191","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-05-04T13:08:07Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"ea21753c-a449-4f23-8155-cd07fc60202e","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-05-09T09:35:02Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/A6iF1PKRJTyOBVc0H_GAgLg","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/04\/George-C1940_preview-1.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"maya.hack@immediate.co.uk","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/author\/maya-hackimmediate-co-uk\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/04\/George-C1940_preview-1.jpg",1063,988,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/04\/George-C1940_preview-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/04\/George-C1940_preview-1-300x279.jpg",300,279,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/04\/George-C1940_preview-1-768x714.jpg",768,714,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/04\/George-C1940_preview-1-1024x952.jpg",800,744,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/04\/George-C1940_preview-1.jpg",1063,988,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/04\/George-C1940_preview-1.jpg",1063,988,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"maya.hack@immediate.co.uk","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/author\/maya-hackimmediate-co-uk\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"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 \u2018little ships\u2019 that rescued the soldiers at Dunkirk. There is a lot of information about the Army\u2019s role, but I am having trouble finding any resources that give…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15767"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5420"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15767"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15772,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15767\/revisions\/15772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}