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The story of how 700 small privately–owned vessels helped to save 338,226 British and French soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940.

Peter Draper charts the fascinating story behind the restoration of his historic Dunkirk little ship.

During 1940 the German army swept with devastating speed across the Low Countries and into northern France and drove Allied forces back into a small pocket around Dunkirk. Without a swift withdrawal across the English Channel, the latter faced certain death or capture. The evacuation plan – Operation Dynamo – initially calculated that 45,000 men might be rescued, but between 26 May and 4 June 338,226 men were in fact brought back to England. Naval historian Philip Weir shows how this was made possible by a vast armada of disparate vessels including destroyers, minesweepers, fishing vessels and, most famously of all, the privately owned 'Little Ships'. He explores the vessels' various roles within the evacuation, and their subsequent fates, including preservation and participation in commemorative return runs to the port, which now take place every five years.

During 1940 the German army swept with devastating speed across the Low Countries and into northern France and drove Allied forces back into a small pocket around Dunkirk. Without a swift withdrawal across the English Channel, the latter faced certain death or capture. The evacuation plan – Operation Dynamo – initially calculated that 45,000 men might be rescued, but between 26 May and 4 June 338,226 men were in fact brought back to England. Naval historian Philip Weir shows how this was made possible by a vast armada of disparate vessels including destroyers, minesweepers, fishing vessels and, most famously of all, the privately owned 'Little Ships'. He explores the vessels' various roles within the evacuation, and their subsequent fates, including preservation and participation in commemorative return runs to the port, which now take place every five years.

Emerging like a butterfly from its chrysalis, a remarkable little ship, the Sheemaun, springs from her designer's drawing-board to sail through eight decades of history, gathering in her wake a unique collection of admirers, including former owners, former crews, and those who served courageously on her during WW2. Their stories are revealed here; tales of bravery and daring, accounts of bombs, mines, depth-charging and death; stories of espionage and smuggling; and memorable chronicles of Royal occasions, cruising, maritime festivals and much else.This fascinating, deeply engrossing true story takes the reader into the heart and soul of the Sheemaun and of all those who have loved her.

Lilian Harry's engrossing wartime saga about the heroes and heroines of Dunkirk. During just nine days in the early summer of 1940, nearly eight hundred 'little ships', from lifeboats and passenger steamers to small private yachts and dinghies, set off across the English Channel to rescue almost half a million men trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. Among them were three very different craft - a London fireboat from the docklands of the East End, manned by skipper Olly Mears and his crew; a small pleasure steamer from the River Dart in Devon, commanded by twenty-one-year-old Robby Endacott, an Able Seaman in the Royal Navy who grew up on the banks of the Dart; and a small motor yacht owned by Portsmouth solicitor Hubert Stainbank and crewed by his sons, Charles and Toby. As each boat ferries exhausted men from the beaches to the waiting ships, under incessant fire from enemy aircraft and in a sea awash with debris and bodies, the men are unknowingly united by a powerful driving force - the urgent need to find one man, brother or son, who matters more to them than anyone else. Each of these missing men has a family, a wife or a sweetheart at home who is anxiously waiting for news...One sweetheart in particular is determined to play her own part in the rescue.

Features the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships (ADLS), an organization of owners of pleasure craft used by the British navy to fight Germany during World War II. Offers a list of the ships, upcoming events featuring Dunkirk Little Ships, and information on the Dunkirk Little Ships Restoration Trust.

A young English girl and her father take their sturdy fishing boat and join the scores of other civilian vessels crossing the English Channel in a daring attempt to rescue Allied and British troops trapped by Nazi soldiers at Dunkirk.

A new life on the English Waterways... An informative and humorous new boater’ s perspective of life on the Inland Waterways; charting their learning curve from calamitous collisions to confident competence, all fuelled by copious curries. Two humans, a dog the size of a small horse, petrol, gas, and curry, all in a confined space on a vessel we’d bought and only in theory knew how to operate. What could possibly go wrong? Dotted throughout is information on narrowboats, rivers, and canals, explored as we learn it on our own journeys, written in easy-to-follow layman’s terms.