Dunkirk rescue

Bob Hilton was commissioned into the army in 1936 but was badly injured soon after and medically discharged. In May 1940 he volunteered to take any available ship to Dunkirk. But they insisted on crews of three and he only had one companion, a ginger-haired man by the name of Shaw. They overcame their difficulty by offering a drink and £1 in cash, to a longshoreman at Tilbury, just to sign on. They were given Ryegate II and found her laden with jerry cans. „It was just like Piccadilly Circus“ Bob recalls: „There were masses of ships going to-and-fro. There was no need to navigate, we just followed the others. We just got on with the job, which was to sail in as close as we could to the shore, pick up all we could carry and ferry them out to the off-lying ships.“

„After some time, the engine seemed to be seizing up and the tide went out, so we tied up behind a ship called the Horst and used their lifeboat to row ashore to pick up soldiers. Several times we turned over when the men, who had waded out into the water up to their armpits, all grabbed our boat by the gunwales to climb aboard. In the end we were ordered home, packed like sardines, in a small steamer.“

Ryegate II was towed home. After Dunkirk Bob Hilton joined up again, this time in the Navy, received the King´s commission for the third time and won the DSC as Lt. Commander RNVR.