Missing The Boat: War Stories of Thomas Alan Dirkin

13 The Lighthouse The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) had a different role in the retreat towards Dunkirk following the short-lived conflict with German forces in May 1940. Many thousands of British troops had failed in their effort to resist the German advance into France, and it was left to the famous flotilla of small boats to get them back to England. The RASC played a role in delaying the German’s ability to advance quickly, and to potentially cause disastrous losses to the retreating troops. Blowing up critical bridges, key sections of road and other strategic infrastructure was part of the RASC’s job, and what my dad ended up doing in those days in May 1940. There was a consequence in slowing down the Germans. In the chaos of a strategic retreat, he was cut off from the main from the main body of the British Expeditionary force. My dad and a couple of his fellow soldiers ended up in the lighthouse at Cap Gris Nez, watching the assembly of the rag-tag flotilla take his comrades back home. The irony of providing a great view of history in the making is not lost on me. German troops entered the lighthouse. In a relatively calm realization that the probability of success of any other action was not an option, my dad Light House at Cap Gris Nez, where my father was captured. It was blown up a few days later. A light house has been