We Remember Dunkirk

Sep 20, 2024 10:42 AM

Author:Frank Shaw,Joan Shaw

We Remember Dunkirk

‘Yes we were scared. It could be seen on the faces of the men. No food didn’t help. We stopped to suck pebbles during the day as our tongues began to swell through lack of water … We had an order come through to us one day. Every man for himself. And then the soldiers – Belgian, French and British – were side by side in silent soddy ranks in columns, zig-zagged across the beaches. I still believe this was done to minimise casualties. We had to wade out up to our necks in water to get onto a boat, ducking under the water when the Germans tried to mow us down. Eventually I managed to grab a chain hanging off a Naval motorboat, and it was fully loaded but I hung on …’

Arthur Thomas Gunn, Walsall

Between 27 May and 4 June 1940 over 900 vessels rescued 338,226 people trapped at Dunkirk. Cut off by the advancing German Army hundreds of thousands of Allied troops gathered on the beaches – exhausted, hungry and scarred by war. Operation Dynamo saw British destroyers and the hundreds of ‘little ships’ bring these men safely back to England, where they were welcomed back by the locals with tea and sandwiches, and hailed as heroes.

In We Remember Dunkirk we hear stories from the soldiers who made the perilous journey to Dunkirk and came under constant attack from Nazi aircraft as they boarded British ships and attempted to cross the Channel. But we also hear from the nurses who tended the many returning wounded; the young women who, along with the rest of their communities, rallied to make food and gather whatever they could to give the soldiers; and what it was like witnessing all this through a child’s eyes. Above all, we see how the solidarity of the British people gave rise to the unfailing ‘Dunkirk Spirit’.

Reviews

An epic examination of a Nazi war criminal

—— Guardian

The most gripping and illuminating account of Nazi genocide that I have read, shedding light, as she intended, on "a whole dimension of reactions and behaviour we have never yet understood"

—— Stephen Vizinczey , Sunday Telegraph

She takes us sharply and deeply into the hierarchy of the death camps; the methods used; the experiences of the very few survivors, both inmates and guards

—— Philip Toynbee , Observer

It is no exaggeration to call it a masterpiece

—— Michael Hilton , Daily Telegraph

An engaging, absorbing work

—— Chris Baker , The Long, Long Trail/Great War Forum

With this book Aslet makes an important contribution to social history... the stories are not tidy portraits of heroism but achingly real portraits of wartime loss experienced by a changing rural community

—— Daily Express

Magnificent...impressive...a vivid account

—— Geoff Dyer , Observer, Book of the Week

A magnificent, rigorously researched account of the expeditions that set out to regain glory for an empire in decline but, instead, created some of the most enduring legends of the twentieth century

—— Financial Times

Into the Silence succeeds not only because Davis's research has been prodigious, but because every sentence has been struck with conviction, every image evoked with fierce reverence – for the heartbreaking twilight era, for the magnificent resilience of its survivors, for their mission, for Mallory, for his mountain. An epic worthy of its epic

—— Caroline Alexander, author of The Endurance and The War That Killed Achilles

Into the Silence is a breathtaking triumph. An astonishing piece of research, it is also intensely moving, evoking the courage, chivalry, and sacrifice that drove Mallory and his companions through the war and to ever greater heights

—— William Shawcross, author of The Queen Mother

Combining the pace of a thriller with a degree of detail as nuanced as any academic study, this is an atmospheric and exhilarating book

—— Mark Elliot , Time Out

The product of a decade's research, Into the Silence has two supreme strengths, the first of which is the emotional, spiritual and historical context it provides, against which to understand the central events. The other is the author's effortless knack for sketching character

—— Spectator

The ambivalent emotional charge of their passing, coming as it did at such a turning point in the history of the British empire, fully justifies the efforts the author has made to encapsulate it. And encapsulate it he has, precisely, grippingly and with comprehensive wisdom

—— Spectator

Powerful and profound, a moving, epic masterpiece of literature, history and hope

—— Iain Finlayson , The Times

The meticulously researched and definitive account of a legend... Fascinating and immensely enjoyable

—— Leo Houlding, rock climber

So did they reach the summit? It's anybody's guess. But all Wade Davis' experts in this fascinating book, shake their heads

—— Christopher Hudson , Daily Mail

Utterly fascinating, and grippingly well-written. With extraordinary skill Wade Davis manages to weave together such disparate strands as Queen Victoria's Indian Raj, the 'Great Game' of intrigue against Russia, the horrors of the Somme, and Britain's obsession to conquer the world's highest peak

—— Alistair Horne

Davis’ descriptions of the trenches – the bodies, the smell, the madness – are some of the best I’ve ever read

—— William Leith , Scotsman

Sheds new light on history that we thought we knew... meticulously detailed and very readable

—— David Willetts , New Statesman

The miracle is that there isn’t a dull page. As it moves towards its deadly climax, the story hangs together as tightly as a thriller. Into the Silence is as monumental as the mountain that soars above it; small wonder that it won the 2012 Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction … Once you start wandering the snowy passes with Mallory and the lads, you won’t want to come down again. There can be no better way, surely, to spend a week in winter

—— Arminta Wallace , Irish Times

He sees the climbers as haunted dreamers, harrowed by their desperate experiences in the First World War, living amid romantic dreams of Imperial grandeur and the elemental, sublime grandeur of the mountain

—— Steve Barfield , Lady

This is the awesomely researched story of Mallory, Irvine and the early Everest expeditions. It puts their efforts and motivations into the context of Empire and the first world war in a way I don’t think previous books have ever managed

—— Chris Rushby , Norfolk Magazine

A vivid depiction of a monumental story…Wade Davis’ passion for the book shines through and I can only hope that his next book doesn’t take as long to write as I will certainly be reading it

—— Glynis Allen , Living North

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