Walter Hart of the Royal Army Medical Corp today told the story of one of the units abandoned 3 weeks after the official evacuation in Dunkirk.

When Calais fell, the “Number 6 Genereal Hospital” unit and the wounded soldiers in their care were cut off from Dunkirk and after deciding that “it would be nonsense to send the wounded to Dunkirk”, the unit took a momumental risk to avoid being taken prisoner.

“We didn’t realise the danger we were in to the fullest extent…We were told to find our own way back to England”.

The unit progressed to Dieppe from Flocques in the Le Tréport region to give them the best chance of escaping to a near-by port and this proved to be correct.

The unit stole a French goods train to allow them to escape from the German ring of control.

 “3 members of the unit carried rifles; these were used to persuade the driver who was reluctant at first…But we were also prepared to take French refugees and he eventually stepped aside”

Hart told me of how even then, the army were under-equipped: “All the equipment we had was previously used in 1917.” He added: “After World War One, the English and French governments encouraged us to disarm, the Germans did the opposite.”

Walter Hart joined after the first conscription and was one of the main advocates for “Occupational Therapy” to help soldiers recover from their wounds whilst serving in Egypt between January 1941 and June 1944- The invasion of Normandy.