Dunkirk: The Men They Left Behind by Sean Longden Read Free Book Online Page B

positions. The Allies also had to contend with ‘fifth columnists’. These were the German agents and spies whose job was to help sow confusion across the Allied front and in the rear areas. Long hours were wasted on fruitless sweeps through woodland, searching for non-existent spies and firing nervously into the shadows. At Boulogne officers reported how the rumours of fifth columnists created an atmosphere of distrust and tension.
    Despite the impact these rumours had on morale, the real significance of the fifth columnists was in the front lines. During the siege of Calais there were numerous reports of snipers infiltrating into the town. One officer even reported a priest working as an artillery spotter from a church tower. Bob Davies recalled the fears: ‘There were eight of us put on a roadblock to check out the refugees. But how in the hell do you check out hundreds and hundreds of people, all pushing wheelbarrows and handcarts piled up with their belongings? For all we knew there could have been Germans among them.’ Without doubt some Germans did find their way through the roadblocks, as Davies later found out: ‘We realized we were being shot at from this row of old houses fifty yards away. We looked back and saw three or four French soldiers. They went into one of the houses and pulled a woman out. She had been hiding in the roof and firing at us. They belted the living daylights out of her and then carted her off.’
    In similar incidents, soldiers of the 48th Division even reported ‘refugees’ pulling out weapons and attacking their positions. Although these were very real examples of the fifth columnists attacking Allied troops, there were plenty of other incidents where the truth was uncertain. Rumours had spread that the spies and saboteurs might be dressed as priests or nuns, resulting in many innocents being interrogated to determine their true identity. For those suspected of being spies, justice was rapid. When the Tyneside Scottish captured a German spy he was interrogated. Then, with no need for an investigation or trial, he was swiftly executed by a Sergeant Chambers.
    The scenes of death and destruction were not entirely the work of the enemy and their agents. As British units withdrew they were forced to destroy anything they could not carry. Broken-down tanks and lorries had to be rendered unusable; petrol dumps were blown up; ammunition was dumped into rivers; assault boats were smashed by axe-wielding soldiers; even sandbags were set alight – anything that could be of use to the enemy was destroyed. At headquarters throughout northern France maps, plans, reports, stationery, official documents, and even unit diaries fed the bonfires that marked the retreat. When one regiment was forced to abandon their supply dump a total of 20,000 cigarettes were quickly divided up among the willing soldiers.
    Yet amid the chaos not every unit continued the journey directly towards the coast. There were plenty among them who were given firm orders to stop and prepare defensive positions. If an entire army was going to escape from the beaches of France they would need someone to hold back the enemy. The units chosen to be the rearguard had little choice but to muster whatever weapons and ammunition they could find. The experiences of these units provided a fitting reflection of the chaos of the campaign as it would be remembered in the minds of the defeated army. When one unit of the RASC were pulled into the line to the east of the Dunkirk perimeter, they were taken off their previous duties, guarding a dump of redundant shells for howitzers that the BEF did not even possess. A company of the Gloucesters equipped itself with a French anti-tank gun. The problem was they had only practice shells for it. These were useless since they did not explode when they hit the target. The HQ staff of the same battalion found themselves unable to return enemy fire since they did not even have any rifles. When the War