Dunkirk: a Memoir
by Basil Dykes and John Gort, edited and with an Introduction by Nicholas Dykes
Paperback, 180 pages, illustrated.
£9.95 plus £2.50 p&p
To order, please write to nick@nicholasdykes.com
Nicholas Dykes’s father, Basil Dykes, was a Captain in the Worcestershire Regiment who went to France with the British Expeditionary Force in 1940. He later served , with some distinction in MI5 and MI6, being awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French. After his death in 1992, he left behind an account of his experiences during the retreat to, and evacuation from, Dunkirk. He was on almost the last boat to leave, the destroyer Venomous. The account was first published as a pamphlet in 2014 by Basil’s daughter Rosalie Daubney and her husband Piers.
Also found among Basil Dykes’s papers was a 1941 pamphlet containing the official account of the BEF’s activities in France, written by the Commander-in-Chief, General the Viscount Gort. Since there is quite a contrast between the two accounts, Nicholas and Rosalie decided to publish the two together as a small book to coincide with the release of the retelling of the Dunkirk story by filmmaker Christopher Nolan in 2017.