Royal Navy to escort Dunkirk Little Ships on commemoration voyage

More than 70 of the small craft are expected to sail from Ramsgate in Kent to the French port, shepherded by a Royal Navy ‘guard of honour’ of around half a dozen vessels.

In doing so, they will recreate a journey which saw 338,000 British and allied troops rescued in late May and early June 1940 as the Nazis advanced rapidly across Europe.

The Association of Dunkirk Little Ships will make the crossing for the first time since 2015 – the 80th anniversary in 2020 was cancelled because of Covid – and will be followed by a spectator fleet of modern craft alongside escorts from the Navy and RNLI.

The bulk of the Naval craft accompanying the little ships – which in 1940 comprised hundreds of fishing boats, pleasure yachts and lifeboats among a motley assortment – will be P2000 fast patrol vessels of the Coastal Forces Squadron.

Squadron Commanding Officer, Commander Carla Higgins, said: “It is hugely important to continue to commemorate such events in our history and highlighting the role such ‘little ships’ had to play in Operation Dynamo.

“Coastal Forces Squadron is very proud to be a part of this event, particularly since it has been 10 years since the last commemoration of this scale. 

“It will be quite a spectacle to see so many paying their respects across the channel. We wish for fair winds for all.”

The little ships will sail for commemorations from Ramsgate on May 21, arriving ten hours later in Dunkirk – weather and sea conditions permitting. Events will then take place until May 26.

In 1940 the German Army swept with devastating speed across northern France driving the Allied forces back into a small pocket around Dunkirk. Without a swift withdrawal across the Channel, the soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force faced certain death or capture.

The Admiralty initially calculated that under the evacuation plan 45,000 men might be rescued. In fact, between May 26 and June 4, 338,226 men were transported back to England. A vast armada of vessels joined the rescue, including destroyers, minesweepers, trawlers, all manner of merchant ships, and the famous privately-owned “little ships”.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill praised the evacuation as the ‘Miracle of Dunkirk’ and a ‘Miracle of Deliverance’ during his famous speech to Parliament on June 4, 1940:

“We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans…

“We shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…” 

The Dunkirk Little Ships (DLS) made their first return to Dunkirk in 1965. The voyage was the brainchild of Raymond Baxter, a WWII Spitfire pilot and later a BBC broadcaster who also presented the Tomorrow’s World science programme. 

Baxter was the owner of a DLS motor yacht named L’Orage and was astonished to learn of her wartime history. After that first return trip by a handful of ships, Baxter, Commander Charles Lamb and John Knight co-founded the ADLS, dedicated to the preservation of the Little Ships, in 1966. A return crossing now occurs every five years.