BOOKS The Miracle of Dunkirk, by Walter Lord (Viking Press , New York, 1982, 323 pp, illus., $17 .95) . "See that smoke in the sky? That's Dunkirk. -Make for it!'' With such words passed among grimy, weary men , the defeated British and French armies retreated on the small coastal resort town. Reeling back from the overwhelming German attack of May 1940, they were penned with their backs to the sea, awaiting destruction. But they were not destroyed. Fast naval vessels, fishing craft, holiday steamers and yachts came across from England and lifted 338,000 of the 400 ,000 back to England, in what Winston Churchill called a "miracle" at the time. (Although he also sombrely warned that "Wars are not won by evacuations.") And it was a miracle-a case, as Walter Lord points out in this elegantly constructed narrative , of a people rushing out (in anything that would float) to save its army . Lord has a good eye for things as disparate as the " paralyzing" effect of panzer tactics and the sullen , fearful refusal of some boatmen to go back into the hell of the bomb-harrowed beaches where the long silent lines of men stood waiting, chest-deep in water, for boats , any kind of boats , to take them home. Lord's account is , in a word, masterful, and in the best tradition of the multicentered narrative of complex events of which he was an inventor. As you read this book (as you must, for your own spirit!) you will find a mounting sense of wonder in how the miracle of Dunkirk actually came about. Most memorable of all the scenes of the terror, despair and devastation that is the experience of the losing side in modern war, are the scenes in English railway stations when people "saw the weary faces, the bandages, the torn uniforms , and suddenly realized who these new arrivals were ." The men had expected to be greeted with consternation, even reproach. They had been beaten . They were losers . But again and again, all across the land, they were greeted like victors-with wonder and gratitude and deep-welling , overflowing joy . PS Wooden Boat an Appreciation of the Craft, by the Editors of WoodenBoat (Addison-Wesely, Reading MA, 1982, 311 pp. illus ., $25) . ' A representative collection of articles from the magazine WoodenBoat about historical and contemporary wooden boats , boat shops and insights into the minds of the men who built them , mixed in with how-to-do articles from building, SEA HISlORY, SPRING 19S3
to maintaining, to painting and finishing wooden boats . A good textbook for the unfortunate person who either by bad planning or mental derangement owns a wooden boat. This is a book of another age, when painstaking craftsmanship was not the luxury it is today where the time it takes to do things right is not allowed , and so the boats pictured seem to be precious tours de force and not at all representative of our place in time and space, beautiful though they be.
''You're so good-looking ... ''
EXCERPT A Retired Admiral Pulls Men Off the Beaches at Dunkirk: From Walter Lord's The Miracle of Dunkirk. One way or another, most of the little ships eventually reached the right part of the coast and went to work. Essentially they were ferries, carrying or towing troops from the beaches to the larger vessels lying farther out. Sometimes it CLARK THOMPSON was easy-just a matter of towing some rowboat or inflated raft; other times it was difficult and dangerous-especially Ocean Ships, by David Hornsby (Ian when they had to pluck men directly from Allen, Shepperton , Surrey, TWl 7 SAS, UK , rev. ed. 19S2, 225 pp., illus. , the sea. "Well done , motorboat, wait for me ," £6.95). a voice hailed Lieutenant Irving , as he This new edition of a standard work of nursed Triton alongside a destroyer with reference gives wide coverage of the one more load. An officer wearing a World's Ocean shipping fleets, by types, lambskin coat leapt aboard. It was Comas they exist today . The core of the book modore Gilbert Owen Stephenson, a consists of alphabetical fleet lists, pro62-year-old retired vice-admiral , who fusely illustrated with excellent photos, giving tabular information on each ship. had been recruited for the crisis and put in charge of all offshore operations at La One is struck by the enormous amount of Panne. Hatless and wet through, he seemnew building since the sixties, especially ed oblivious to his own discomfort as he in bulk carriers, container ships and tankers, and by the growing number of told Irving to carry on. He added that he might later have ''one or two other jobs'' large fleets based in the Third World. Much relevant information is included in for Triton to do. Stephenson then threw himself into the the tables: possibly in future editions it rescue work too . Nothing was beneath would be helpful if the builder's yard him. He steered, passed lines , helped could be indicated by a symbol or in an appendix. This information is of conhaul the exhausted troops aboard. Through it all he kept up a line of cheerful siderable interest to enthusiasts . chatter. "Come on, the Army!" he JAMES FORSYTHE would cry; or, to some half-drowned soldier, " Where have I seen you before? Warships in Action Today, by E. L. You're so good-looking I'm sure I know Cornwell (Ian Allen Shepperton, Surrey you ." TW17 SAS , UK, 19SO, 96 pp., illus. , Late in the afternoon Stephenson had £5.50) . Triton take him to a certain spot off the A worldwide photographic review of beach . Instructing Irving not to move , he naval vessels in service today , from shots explained he was going ashore to look for of Royal Navy hovercraft in the Lord Gort . If he brought back the Falklands , and Soviet aircraft carriers in General, Irving was to take him straight the Channel, to USM Boeing hydrofoils. to England. With that, Stephenson plungit is interesting to be reminded that ships ed over the side and wadded ashore from World War II still survice, such as through the surf, often up to his neck in the Spanish carrier Dedalo. Excellently water. printed on art paper. In an hour he was back , again wading JF through the surf, but there was no sign of Major Forsythe , founder of the Norfolk · Lord Gort. Stephenson offered no exWherry Trust (SH17: 20-1) , is Hon. planation, nor did Irving ask. They simpSecretary of the World Ship Trust. ly went back to their rescue work, the Commodore still hatless and soaked to Lusitania, by David Butler (Random the skin. Along with his words of cheer for the troops, he had plenty to say to IrvHouse, New York, 19S2, 57Spp, $17.95), and A Stillness at Sea, by ing himself. Sometimes the lieutenant was a "good fellow"; other times, "a Ashley Aasheim (Dell, Banbury , Wayne PA, 19S3 , 35Spp, $3 .60 pbk) . bloody fool. " Irving didn 't mind . He 'd do anything for a senior officer like this . Two new novels on the torpedoing of the Cunard liner Lusitania in 1915 cover w w w 41