Captain Denis Swinney

	This page: general experience and audio clip.
	Includes inventory.
	Includes diary extracts.

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Denis was born in 1913 in Morpeth, Northumberland and went to Sedbergh school. He joined the Territorials in 1937 and was commissioned in the Royal Engineers, going to France with the 50^th Northumbrian Division in January 1940. After the long retreat from Arras to Dunkirk he got his men away in folding boats from the beach at Bray Dunes.

Back in England the company were engaged in mine laying on the South Coast for the expected German invasion. In April 1941 the Division went to the Middle East and eventually fought in the Gazala battle in North Africa in 1942. The company was captured by a German Panzer Division. Denis was taken to Gavi and then to Cheiti in Italy, where he escaped by jumping from the train when being taken to Germany. After two months in the mountains he was recaptured and taken to Brunswick. In April 1945 the American Armoured Divisions were fighting towards Berlin and Denis painted the fires from the POW camp. Two days later the prisoners were freed.

After the war Denis returned to his family and to Swinney Engineering, later becoming Chairman and Managing Director. At the age of 72 he retired and devoted himself to painting.

June 1942 after the Gazala battle.

Captured in Western desert.

By a sergeant major of the 25 panzer division.

We were hidden under a piece of corrugated iron.

Denis. Nov. 1941 M.E.F. Haifa

Denis. Nov. 1941 M.E.F. Haifa

Denis Swinney Audio Clip:
On the evacuation from Dunkirk

Audio Clip Requires Real Player - free download here

Dunkirk: the Evacuation.
This was painted soon after Denis returned home and shows the rowing boat in which he managed to escape, as discussed in his tape transcript

Transcript of Audio Clip

In the picture of Dunkirk, it's taken at dawn when there was still a lot of activity on the beach, but by late afternoon it had all disappeared and there was no more evacuations from the beach because the German guns had got too near to the sea and the ships had had to be withdrawn, and it was all over, there was no more, any further evacuation had to be from Dunkirk itself which was all hell let loose. So I had, there were six of us left on the beach, practically by ourselves by then. So I went up the beach and eventually found an old motorboat, rusted up and on its side and I thought we might get this into the sea, which eventually we did. There were, the six people who were left were the doctor, the French interpreter, who was a Paris barrister, and the REME officer and two of his men so we heaved and pushed and eventually we got it into the sea, with the strength of despair perhaps, because there wasn't much other hope by then. When we started to row of course they were very indifferent rowers and they wandered around this way and that, first one side pulling too hard or whatever and we kept hitting, bumping on the bottom, but eventually when we did get organised and we got into the breakers, we couldn't pull it, it was a heavy old boat, and we couldn't pull it through the breakers, with a, there was an on-shore wind and waves, it was too much, try as we might. But before, when we were still trying, a little motorboat, a small motorboat came along, probably from the Thames, with two old chaps and they held out a rope and brought their boat as back as far as they dared, and held out a rope and shouted "Row, lads, row" and we really laid into it and he backed his boat in, very courageously, because his prop by that time must have been scraping the bottom when he went down and if he'd ruined his motorboat, because there was nobody else around, he'd have been lost and we were full of admiration for him. Eventually when he got back as far as he could, he threw a rope and the second time he threw it, we caught it and he pulled us out through the waves into the open sea and he pulled us out to a mine sweeper. The sailors just took us and threw us on the deck of the mine sweeper and we just fell, and I don't know about the others, most of them just fell asleep, I fell asleep instantly and I didn't wake up until somebody bumped me and said they could see the White Cliffs of Dover and we were home.

	This page: general experience and audio clip.
	Includes inventory.
	Includes diary extracts.