This is a section of a 1940 British Newsreel lamenting the crushing defeat we British – as a nation – suffered at Dunkirk at the hands of the rampant Nazi Germans! Not only did a flotilla of around 800 civilian boats volunteer to sail (unarmed) from the UK to Dunkirk to get as many of the 400,000 stranded British and French soldiers off the beaches – but a very professional British Army Rear-Guard was ordered to hold to the last round and fight to the last man! If not for their sacrifice, the small boats (and the ships of the Royal Navy) could not have succeeded in their task of saving the bulk of the British Army so that the UK could live to fight another day! Eventually, the Officers and NCOs gave the order ‘Every Man for Himself!’ What was left of the Rear-Guard was ordered to drop their weapons and run towards the sea and try to swim back to Great Britain! Some of these great men made it into the middle of the English Channel where they were picked-up by British ships! The above film shows the state they were in when they arrived back in their home country. They were quietly taken back to their Barracks for ‘de-briefing’.
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 