French scupper Dunkirk-style effort to bring home Britons

LONDON - A rescue mission, inspired by Second World War’s Dunkirk evacuation, to bring home Britons stranded due to flight cancellations was thwarted by the French authorities.

Television presenter Dan Snow prepared a grand plan to bring back the stranded people and he set out across the English Channel Sunday morning with a fleet of speedboats, The Telegraph reported.

Snow had invited the stranded Britons via Twitter to reserve a place on his boats after flights were cancelled due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland.

The plan was to be repeat of the Dunkirk evacuation that took place seven decades back. The evacuation of Dunkirk, codenamed Operation Dynamo, took place between May 26 and June 4, 1940. A flotilla of 900 naval and civilian craft was sent across the Channel under Royal Air Force protection and managed to rescue 338,226 people.

Snow planned to run a regular ferry service to Dover. It was to be a 40 minute trip across the 26 mile stretch of the English Channel.

French officials, however, only allowed him to use three boats to rescue 25 people.

“The French shut us down - it’s a real shame. I’m really a bit disappointed and feel bad for all the people we left behind. I got a lot of text messages saying ‘where are you? We are at the rendezvous point’. I feel really sad about that,” Snow was quoted as saying.

“They didn’t like the idea of all those RIBs (rigid inflatable boats) turning up and taking Brits back. They just told us they didn’t like us doing it and said it was bad competition for the ferries.”

A tweet Sunday afternoon read: “We have been shut down! No reason. Rescued 25 on way home shortly. No more boats we are very sorry.”