A few hours later battalion rear headquarters, concealed for the night in a barn, were surprised, by foul enemy tanks who drove along the road from Rouen about dawn, spraying' woods and hedges at random with machine gun fire. As the little party of British soldiers watched through cracks in the barn door the first tank turned in at the farm gate. The other three tanks stopped on the road outside.
One man crawled out of the barn unnoticed, slipped along a bridge and opened a' second gate. At a signal from him the rest of the party flung wide the barn door and dashed out their smal car and two motor cles Picking up their comrade, they got clear away through the volleys of the enemy who shot wildly in their surprise and failed to score a hit.
At the same time the Headquarters Company was threading its way by compass through the forest of Trail in which all roads and paths were held by the enam; For more than six hours the company commander followed an accurate course in the thick of the smoke-filled forest, to emerge from the trees within a few hundred yards from the ferry at which he was aiming.
In the early hours of June 10, the ferries resumed their work. The approaches to all of them were jammed with refugees and military transport. At 6 o'clock Caudebec was bombed and fires were started. Air attacks continued all day.
At the height of the work the ferry captain refused to return from the far bank. He ignored the ringing of the bell and his craft did not resume its service until volunteers had swum the river and placed him under armed guard.
At long last the task was completed. All refugees and French troops were sent across first; ap} proaches to the ferry were cleared the British troops and their transport came last. In this way four-fifths of Newcomb's Rifles crossed the Seine with all their arms and baggage.
On June 19, Newcomb's Rifles brought their transport to the Quai Normandie and embarked for England—22 officers, 310 other ranks, with 29 anti-tank rifles and 15 Bren guns. So ends the plain story of a minor episode in a great tragedy. It is worth recording because it shows the British soldier stubbornly faithful to his duty.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.