Harold Biles

Harold Biles, who died on March 15 aged 98, was decorated for his part in the evacuation from Dunkirk, but always felt a sense of shame that he had not, in his view, completed his job. 

Harold 'Bricky' Biles

In May 1940 Biles was the chief engineer in Hebe, one of 10 Halcyon class minesweepers, all of which took part in Operation Dynamo, the rescue of the British Army from the beaches of Dunkirk. Hebe arrived off La Panne on May 28 and, despite being dive-bombed, picked up 66 troops (including several stretcher cases) and carried them to Dover.

"It was torrid, dangerous and nerve-wracking with all-day long German air attacks," recalled Biles, whose 28th birthday fell during the evacuation. "Hebe was lying about 200 yards off the beach, and there was just a seething mass of soldiers. All we knew was that we were on the water; they were on the beach and were trying to get to us. There was constant bombing and shellfire."

Hebe returned to the beaches as headquarters ship, her arrival greeted by three Heinkel bombers, and in the early hours of May 29 sent a gig ashore to collect Lord Gort, C-in-C of the British Expeditionary Force. Biles later told the BBC: "As we sped back to Dover, I remember seeing Gort standing in the waist of the ship, holding the guardrail to offset the rise and swell of the waves. He was resplendent in his red-trimmed uniform, but he was motionless, with his head sunk to his chest. It was not for him to receive any acclaim for the evacuation of some 330,000 men and saving them from Nazi PoW camps. In his eyes, there was only defeat. He had lost an army." Hebe landed a further 365 troops in Dover.

Then, on May 30, Hebe embarked survivors, many with severe burns, from the bombed-out paddle-steamer Crested Eagle, returning to Dover with 633 troops, again under sustained air attack. Two days later she came under fire from shore batteries, and when dive-bombed by four aircraft she shot down one.

Few of Hebe's crew had slept for five days, and all were suffering from strain. A sub-lieutenant collapsed in convulsions, and the hysteria was contagious; 27 members of the crew were landed suffering from shock, among them the ship's doctor, who mumbled that he could not face another trip to Dunkirk.

When Vice-Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay called for one last effort on the night of June 1, the coxswain of Hebe and Biles, as chief engineer, were obliged to tell her captain that another trip to the beaches was impossible. Hebe was ordered to Portsmouth for rest. Biles described this much later in life as "the greatest blow, which I feel to this day". Nevertheless, Biles was mentioned in despatches for his role in the evacuation; Hebe's captain was awarded a DSC.
Harold Brickwood Biles (always known as "Bricky") was born on May 31 1912 and brought up by his mother after his father, who was serving in the Royal Naval Division, was killed at Gallipoli by a Turkish sniper. Harold was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School, entered the Royal Navy in 1928 as an apprentice artificer and was at sea in the eastern Mediterranean (1933-36) and Singapore (1937-39) before serving in minesweepers and destroyers during the Second World War. Biles was again mentioned in despatches, in 1942.
In February 1944, when chief engineer of the destroyer Cottesmore, he was badly injured by shrapnel from a German shore battery. He was invalided out in 1947.
Postwar, Biles was sales manager for Crane Packing, makers of mechanical seals. In 1967 he was sent to South Africa to build, equip and staff a new factory.
He retired first to Salt Rock, north of Durban, but later moved to Amersham, Buckinghamshire. His hobby was sea-fishing, and he claimed, after an ocean-going trip in 1974, to have landed a 34lb salmon.
Harold Biles married, in 1953, Joan Weaver, who died in 1991; he is survived by their son.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/naval-obituaries/8433130/Harold-Biles.html