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Originally Posted by 51highland  Not sure of place of departure but 4th Camerons were at Aldershot late 1939 and then Bordon in November 39, before they sailed. some camerons were quarantined because of a Measles outbreak.
4th Camerons disembarked at Havre from The Lady of Man
A company was billeted in Bolbec, the point of de-trainment. B company went to Gruchet. Remainder of battalion went to the Lanquetot and Bolleville area. |
I was just reading about the
Lady of Mann trying to track the SS Manx who was sunk on this day in 1940.
I.of Man S.P. story
The company's ships accounted for 1 in 14 rescues from Dunkirk.
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In the summers of 1937 and 1938 the company boasted a fleet of 18 steamships, the maximum number in its history. Each one, of course, was fully occupied during the summer season but, in winter, the most important members of the fleet were laid up on a care and maintenance basis. The Lady of Mann herself usually spent the winter months at Barrow.
The first major event of the World War 2 came in June 1940 when, between May 28 and June 6, no less than eight ships belonging to the IOMSP fleet were engaged in the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk; 24,669 were rescued by the Isle of Man packets, including the 'Lady', which undertook four passages from Dover and brought back as many as 4,262 troops. Some 333,800 men, in total, were brought back to safety, in other words, one in every 14 were transported back across the Channel on board Manx ships. A fortnight later, the Lady of Mann took part in Operation Ariel, lifting beleaguered British troops from Cherbourg, Brest and Le Havre. During one voyage she made passage with 5,000 men on board. From August 1940 until 1944, when she was converted into an LSI in preparation for the Normandy invasion carrying six landing craft, she was engaged as a Troop transport, often based in Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. During the invasion she operated as Headquarters Ship for the 512th Assault Flotilla, responsible for the landings on Juno Beach. |