The Heritage Buddy

Today marks 85 years since the start of the Dunkirk evacuation! A group of restored ‘little ships’ escorted by the Royal Navy from Ramsgate have been reenacting the historic event by making the exact same journey. As well as having the Royal Navy involved with this rescue mission from the German advancement into France known as Operation Dynamo, ‘Little Ships’ were civilian vessels ranging from fishing trawlers to lifeboats to leisure yachts. Speaking of ‘little ships’, let me introduce you to a special someone: Meet Tamzine! She’s a little fishing boat built in Margate in 1937 and worked off the coast of Birchington that was involved in the Dunkirk evacuations. She was known as a local hero after being towed back from Dunkirk by a Belgian fishing boat and having a recognisable Viking-like stem, local boatmen took her back to her owner covered in blood, but luckily undamaged. Unfortunately for some ‘Little Ships’, some suffered shrapnel damage or were pierced by bullets. When I first s...

Before I left for my Pilates class this morning, I heard on the radio that a flotilla of “Little Ships” will be setting sail from Ramsgate in honour of the 85th Anniversary of the Dunkirk Evacuations. There will be a special Dunkirk post coming up very soon, but in the meantime, I was doing a bit of research to remind myself of the subject when on YouTube I came across this video by BFBS Forces News: It’s so exciting how they have preserved all these civilian boats known as “little ships” that helped rescue troops from Dunkirk from the increasing German occupation in France. These boats are considered veterans; the human Dunkirk veterans are sadly not with us as I have learnt the last surviving veteran has now sadly passed away aged 105. Veterans don’t have to be human, objects and animals are too. For now, here is a news story on the flotilla from the Royal Navy: https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news/2025/may/21/250521-dunkirk-85-sailing-with-coastal-forces-squadron They say that once th...