Historical background

HMS BASILISK was part of the 19^th Destroyer-Flotilla and evacuated 695 soldiers in two trips from Dunkirk to Dover during the Operation DYNAMO on 30.05.1940. German airplanes attacked ship on 01.06.1940 while loading troops for evacuation close to La Panne at 08:15. One bomb hit the ship near the boiler room. Lots of Boiler room and engine room stuff died. Belgian Trawler JOLIE MASCOTTE and British Destroyer HMS WHITEHALL tried to tow the badly damages BASILISK, which was stuck on Trapegeer Sandbank. Towing stopped due to new air attack around 12:00. After that, BASLISK finally sunk in shallow waters and was destroyed by gunfire from HMS WHITEHALL. Before that, JOLIE MASCOTTE rescued 131 survivors.

literature

J. English, Amazon to Ivanhoe. British Standard Destroyers of the 1930´s (Kendal 1993).

H.T. Lenton, British and Empire Warships of the Second World War (London 1998).

M.J. Whitley, Zerstörer im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Technik, Klassen, Typen (Stuttgart 1991).