The Poppy Swim - Ramsgate to Dunkirk in Remembrance

From left to right - Graham Lock, Amanda Sharples, Tim Fraser, Christine Addison, Mat Record and Trisha Ellam-Speed - team ‘Dunkirk Dynamos’

Ernest Billige, Middlesex Regiment, Operation Dynamo

In July of this year, 6 channel swimmers commemorated the evacuation of Dunkirk of May/June 1940, by swimming the route hundreds of Little Ships sailed to bring soldiers home from the Dunkirk beaches in operation Dynamo.

The relay team - Dunkirk Dynamos - included The Flipper Club’s Amanda Sharples and Christine Addison, alongside accomplished team members, Graham Lock, Patricia Ellam-Speed, Timothy Fraser and Mat Record. It was organised by Christine, piloted by Mike Oram on Gallivant and ratified by the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation (CS&PF).

The relay swim on 10th to 11th July, starting at Ramsgate and finishing at Dunkirk, took 26 hours and 22 minutes, taking in the brutal tides of the northerly English Channel. Swimmers completed 1hr of swimming at a time throughout the day and night until they reached France - or as it turned out - Belgium. The team actually finally landed across the Belgium border, making them the first team to ever swim from Ramsgate to Belgium and record holders for the swim.

The Dunkirk swim and what it represents is something very close to our hearts. Amanda’s grandad, Ernest Billige (Grandad Ern) was one of the soldiers evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk. Ern was in the Middlesex Regiment and tasked with defending the soldiers during the rescue operation. He was therefore one of the last to leave on 1st June 1940. He sustained significant injuries from being bombed but was one of the lucky ones to return.

Every hour throughout the swim we released a poppy into the water and we remembered.

On approaching the beaches at the end of the swim, we travelled over many ship wrecks creating whirlpool-like water flow on the waters surface and we were gripped to the pilots tracker. The expanse of the French and Belgian beaches is quite incredible and on landing the swim and making our way up the gently shelving beach the enormity of Operation Dynamo really hit home. It is an incredibly challenging and exposed stretch of coast. The thought of travelling through the water in heavy uniform, with injuries, in the blinding cover of darkness and the exposure of the daytimes - well it beggars belief.

We got to choose the conditions we swam in and the weather was perfect, the tides however, wait for no-one and at one point we didn’t move for about 4 hours stuck in the strong tide alongside the French coast. Being forced to take to the waters at the end of May and beginning of June in 1940, soldiers had to make a different choice - life or death - risking everything in the English Channel to make the long and challenging journey home.

So poignant was the swim, the story was picked up by Meridian TV, the team was interviewed and fantastic coverage of the lIttle Ships is shown. Please do take a couple of minutes to watch:

Facts about Operation Dynamo from the Imperial War Museum:

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-dunkirk-evacuations

Picture highlights:

Some highlights from the swim including Amanda swimming with a seal, schools of mackerel, dolphins, jellyfish, beautiful sunset, stunning moonscape and lots and lots of sea and swimming… and poppies…