This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this siteplease consider making a donation.
Site Home
WW2 Home
Add Stories
WW2 Search
Library
Help & FAQs
WW2 Features
Airfields
Allied Army
Allied Air Forces
Allied Navy
Axis Forces
Home Front
Battles
Prisoners of War
Allied Ships
Women at War
Those Who Served
Day-by-Day
Library
The Great War
Submissions
Add Stories
Time Capsule
TWMP on Facebook
Childrens Bookshop
FAQ's
Help & FAQs
Glossary
Volunteering
Contact us
News
Bookshop
About
223796AB. Walter Frank Lunn DSM.
Royal Navy
Around the spring of 1940, my father Frank Lunn was drafted to the private yacht Ankh. The yacht sailed from Portsmouth arriving off the beachhead at Bray on the morning of 31st May. Captain Howson RN was also transferred to the yacht Ankh which he was to use as his HQ for the rest of the day. Captain Howson ordered 4 of the 9 yachts to the beach at La Panne. As the yachts drew a depth of 6-7 feet they were unable to get close in shore and therefore the yacht's motor boats were launched so that troops could be ferried from the beachhead to awaiting craft. It was during this ferrying to and from that Frank and his mate, Fred Barter, carried twenty men at a time instead of the eight that the boat was designed for back to the awaiting yacht Ankh. On one journey back to the yacht Ankh the launch was hit by enemy fire which caused the launch to breakup and sink leaving the soldiers in full kit floundering in the water.Then, Frank and Fred swam nearly a mile back to the Ankh under heavy fire to free another motor boat and proceed then to rescue the men in the water and then continued to transfer further members of the BEF to the yachts.
In total Frank Lunn & Fred Barter were able to ferry some 400 men to safety! For this action, under fire, they were both awarded the DSM on the 16th of July 1940 at Buckingham Palace.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area?
If so please let us know.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items.
The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved
We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.