Letter from Dunkirk

Peter brought in a letter from his father's brother (Bruce Gray) to his mother relating his experiences of rescuing troops from the beaches of Dunkirk. It was sent from Granville Hotel, Ramsgate on 2 June 1940.

The letter starts by asking his mother matter of fact for his driving licence and a list of guests to send wedding invitations to. It then tells of how Bruce boarded a 300-ton boat and helped rescue 300 troops from the beach. It talks of Bruce grabbing a Bren gun for the boat to protect it from German airplanes. They spent over 3 hours in Dunkirk under fire. Bruce was in the army at the time.

He later served in the North Africa Tank Regiment. Peter knew Bruce well - he had no children so he doted on Peter. Here's a transcription of the handwritten letter from Bruce Gray to his mother:

"Granville Hotel,
Ramsgate,
2/6/40

My dearest Mother,

Before giving you my news there are two things I would like as soon as possible (1) my driving licence and (2) your list of persons to whom wedding invitations should be sent, or a copy if Joan has the original.

It has been a most interesting though hard week, and I've had hardly any sleep for more than 48 hours, so this must be a brief letter.

We've tried to keep our course going, to mount various guards, to look out for parachutists or other enemy landing and to assist the disembarkation of the B.E.F and allied forces; all this at the same time. The course was soon discontinued and there is still talk of an early move for all of us. Devon has been ground ------, so xxx has it, and Bournemouth is now first favourite, yet no-one seems to know.

British, French, and Belgian troops have been landing here in thousands. Where there have also been wounded xxxx xxxx, we have been assisting in various ways. Whom not otherwise seen said - and it has been most interesting and enlightening.

Boats of all shapes and sizes have been plying between this coast and Dunkirk, and Friday morning they run asking for volunteers to take Bren guns on board and man them for protection from low flying German aircraft. We'd learned how to handle these guns in Aldershot and about a dozen of us, including myself managed to get taken on; it was a wonderful experience and I wouldn't have missed it for anything, though admittedly I was taken on earlier than some and the later ones had the most trying time, many others had to be turned down.

Our boat was of 300 tonnes, speed 8 knots; these xxx three of no with a single Bren that we had grabbed from a pile of various small arms, dumped by the troops already over. We took it to bits and cleaned it up on the way over, for the journey lasted 7 hours and the gun was in a filthy state.

I've anchored a quarter-to-half-a-mile from Dunkirk beach and troops (mostly French) were brought on in smaller boats; we were there for nearly 6 hours during which time we saw a great many German planes but hardly a single British one. A good many bombs were dropped, mostly on land, where the beaches were buried with soldiers, and the nearest to us must have dropped 500 to 600 yards away. There was a terrific barrage of AA shells from our destroyers and shore batteries. Fortunately, I've kept away from any splinters. We saw several planes come down (including some British), but I don't think any came within range of our guns though I did fire at ???. We cast away with some 300 soldiers on board, straight through a minefield apparently, and got back in 8 hours having been away about 20 in all. The sea was very calm - a most important factor in operations and both crossings were comfortable enough though we were on the bridge almost the whole time. Our lads on other boats brought down two German machines that came in too low, so we didn't do too badly; all passengers came back safely which was a great thing. A number of unmanned boats had been sunk by bombs previously and once they started mounting xxx and Lewis guns things were very different.

My lot got back here yesterday morning (Sat) about 7.0 or 8.0, so I got a bit of sleep.

The night for the usual parachute business; they close 11.30 am to tell us today. Just to make xxx that we xxx xx xx decent sleep after the last 2 nights! There was a lot of sickness about this but it does us good. I hope for some sleep.

With much love to you and Daddy,

From,
Bruce"