1LIHOUGH      THE      CHIEF     DUTY

f\ of the fleet sweepers is to clear dangerous areas, there have been times when they have responded to a call which was beyond their normal experience and made the utmost demand upon their endurance.

Such was Operation Dynamo : the evacuation of Dunkirk. Among all the ships which brought the British and French troops to safety the minesweepers have a proud record.

The " Smoky Joes " were there, among them H.M.S. Pangbourne (Commander Douglas Watson, R.N.), a veteran of the last war. When she reached Dunkirk on the afternoon of her first day she went alongside the mole and embarked 200 unwounded British troops. Later, under shell-fire all the time, she moved to the jetty on the south side of the harbour where a long line of ambulances was waiting. The cot cases were stowed side by side on the quarterdeck ; the walking cases found room where they could. There were fifteen men in each officer's cabin, others in the baths, round the funnel and round the " bandstand " of the gun.

It was still dark when the Pangbourne steamed out of harbour, expecting to take her direction from a green light outside. Unknown to Commander Watson, the buoy had been bombed. He followed what turned out to be the starboard light of a steamer, and the ship ran aground on a sandbank. Fortunately the tide was flowing and she backed off two hours later. The exhausted soldiers did not realize that they had been aground.

The Pangbourne reached Ramsgate, disembarked the troops, and returned for more. One sergeant, who had tucked himself away in a corner, slept so well that he found himself back at Dunkirk.

S.S. Clan MacAlister, which had been bombed at anchor outside the mole, was on fire aft and the German gunners were ranging on her. The Pangbourne took off the Master and twelve men. This time Commander Watson sent his whaler and motor boat to the beach.   A score of dive-

bombers circled overhead, peeling off one by one to attack their targets. One dropped five bombs close to the Pangbourne. The explosions lifted her out of the water, and the men in the boats tnought she had gone. Four of the gun's crew were killed, and the gun would not train. The First Lieutenant and the Sub-Lieutenant were wounded. A second aircraft bombed the ship beam on, but the only damage was from the splinters, which tore up the degaussing gear and holed the hull in over a hundred places above and below the water-line.

Commander Watson then gave the order to weigh, while the engineers plugged the holes