pte sidney wilson

[diverden]

my father Sidney Wilson 3532378 was in the 1/9 Manchester regiment and was in France with the B E F in 1939,he said very little about his time in France except that he was captured at Dunkirk, upon reading his army record it stated that he was captured at AVESNES which is  south of Dunkirk ,can any of you experts help me find out why they were so far south of Dunkirk.

[sphinx]

When Dunkirk was no longer a viable option for evacuation the remaining men of the BEF sought alternative ports for rescue.

Almost 192,000 Allied personnel, 144,000 of them British, were evacuated through various French ports from 15–25 June under the codename Operation Ariel

Google Operation Ariel and you may find your answer.

regards

[Robert Bonner]

The 9th Battalion was the Vickers machine-gun battalion of 42nd Division but on arrival in Belgium were taken out of the 42nd Division to become the machine-gun battalion of 5 Corps (5th & 50th Divisions).  Individual companies supported individual brigades of 5th Division and were in locations south of Brussels.  Later they  were split up even more and fought in the rearguard actions  and in the defence of Arras.  Being split up meant that it was the major part of the battalion which eventually embarked for England from Dunkirk on 1 June 1940. Other elements  reached St. Nazaire in mid June from where they eventually embarked for England.

The full story of the battalion's exploits in France & Belgium are detailed in the book Volunteer Infantry of Ashton-under-Lyne 1959 - 1971 available from the museum website.

[diverden]

a very big thank you to sphinx and Robert for your reply's , I had never heard of operation aerial before it explains a lot  ,and the book Robert suggested I have ordered ,once again thank you.