A SON has shared his dad's account of the Dunkirk evacuation in response to the release of a film about the operation.

The document explains how Sergeant Reg King, who grew up in Spring Gardens, Malvern, was evacuated from France on a yacht, called the Sundowner.

His 65-year-old son, Gavin, found a photocopy of his dad's statement in one of his old books earlier this year.

He said: "I opened it and found the photocopy in there. He wrote this written statement - I think it was probably for the Sundowner museum in Ramsgate harbour.

"He put it in the book...He knew that I'd done lots of research into the family history.

"I want people to know that Dunkirk was dirty and horrendous - nothing like the sanitised version this director thinks it was.

"I thought the film was very disappointing. The original film [1958] really stirs my emotions. It was more realistic."

Mr King, from Malvern, believes his dad enlisted in the Royal Artillery out of a sense of duty, although he rarely talked about his experiences.

He added that every year his dad would go on a 'pilgrimage' to De Panne, Belgium, where he received the order to retreat in 1940.

His father was born in Evesham in 1918 and died in 1992, following a battle with Parkinson's.

"He never forgot Dunkirk, even with Parkinson's. Those old soldiers relived those things...they were such vivid memories," Mr King said.

"The men came back and they were desperately ashamed at what happened, they were a retreating army, they thought they would be jeered."

But instead the soldiers found that they were welcomed as heroes upon their return to England and Winston Churchill described the evacuation as the 'miracle of deliverance'.

The 7th and 8th battalions of the Worcestershire Regiment were involved in the Dunkirk evacuation.

Louis Scully, who runs worcestershireregiment.com, said the 7th battalion marched into Belgium with 28 officers and almost 700 troops but came back from France with only 12 officers and 354 soldiers.

He added that the 8th battalion fared even worse and returned from Dunkirk with only 149 men, out of a battalion of 750 troops.

The battalion got back to England on a paddle steamer called the Glen Gower.

Maggie Tohill, a member of Worcestershire Archives and Archaeology Service, said local men also served in the 67th field regiment of the Royal Artillery, which was also evacuated from Dunkirk.

Some 338,000 troops were brought back to England through Operation Dynamo, according to the Imperial War Museum.

---

Here is the text of Sergeant Reg King's account of the evacuation:

“After waiting for a boat to pick us up one turned up and were we pleased! The strange to us was we were taken to HMS Worcester and this pleased us being Malvern lads. When we got aboard we found quite a number of Worcestershire RA and Midland Infantry on board. The Worcester was very full and as one of the last on board we were ordered over the side to get onto a tiny little ship below. Naturally we weren't at all happy but orders were orders and we climbed down and finally made it on board what we later found out to be The Sundowner. We were being fired at constantly by German planes and it was somewhat of a relief to find a couple of spaces free below. The men were lay one on top of the other, like sardines, so that they could cram in as many as possible. 130 of us we later learned. We were still being attacked when the HMS Worcester started to manoeuvre away. We only noticed this when the German pilots, who had made three runs at us and were bombing us hell for leather, suddenly switched attention to the moving Worcester. She was badly shot up and were so relieved later to hear she had made it safely back to harbour in Dover. As things started to quieten down we began to take stock of where we were. One of my oppos [friends] found that a bullet had gone straight through his back pack. For myself, I noticed that the rear of one of my boots had been sheared off. Close calls. On the Sundowner we found that apart from myself and my Sgt Major Jack Hunt, there were three other Malvern lads on board, Gunner Sampson, Gunner Cambridge and Gunner Green. All part of the rear guard. Word soon spread that the captain of the vessel was the only surviving officer from the Titanic! Some felt that if he could survive that he could survive this. We felt it was just our bloody luck and wondered if he was a Jonah! Thankfully, he wasn't. We landed Saturday night after a horrendous journey where most of us were seasick. It took over ten hours because we had to take the long route back to avoid the mines in the Channel. We were taken immediately to a train in nearby Ramsgate Station. We were so grateful to be back and the tea we were given was the best we had ever tasted. There was a sense of defeat however. We all felt that we had 'run away' and I'm sure all felt the same that this was something that would need to be put right. We weren't too happy however, when an officer appeared and told us the train would not be moving and that we would have to sleep on the train as it was quite possible we were going to be sent back to Dunkirk to fight a rearguard action. There were mixed emotions that night I can tell you. As it is that plan was never put into action and we left Ramsgate the next morning. One of the abiding memories of that night was of having a long conversation with the train driver and he mentioned how he had lost his pipe. As it was I happened to have a brand new pipe on me, one with a metal filter and I gave it to him. He was very pleased with the gift. I hope he enjoyed the smoke.”