A DIARY, kept by a sailor in World War Two, outlines the role his ship, HMS Codrington, played in the evacuation of Dunkirk.

The ‘Miracle of Dunkirk’ began on May 27 and, eight days later, 338,226 Allied soldiers had been rescued from the beaches and harbour, by a hastily assembled fleet of more than 800 boats.

Many of the troops were able to embark from the harbour’s protective mole on to 39 British destroyers and other large ships, while others had to wait for hours in the shoulder-deep water to be ferried to bigger vessels by the famous little ships of Dunkirk.

One of those destroyers was HMS Codrington and one of its crew was Joe Devanney, of Coal Pit Lane, Brierfield, a Petty Officer in the sick berth.

A member of the St John Ambulance in his home town and thus on the ‘reserve’ list, he had been called up even before the war was officially declared.

One of his first experiences were the dreaded Arctic convoys, taking vital supplies to the Russians in Murmansk.

Joe had joined the Codrington crew when it was ordered to sail to Holland to bring the Dutch Royal family to safety, a mission safely completed in spite of the bombs dropped by German planes.

As Allied soldiers lost ground before the Nazi advance in France in May, 1940 and retreated towards the beach of Dunkirk, the Codrington was one of the Navy ships tasked with the job of helping rescue our stranded soldiers.

Joe kept a diary of his experiences and his entry for May 28 reads: Picked up survivors from the Aboukir which had been torpedoed by a German E boat while carrying refugees from Ostend.

Ordered to Dunkirk to pick up 30 wounded men. Getting bombed all the time. Sailed for Diver at 8pm and arrived midnight.

May 29, 2am: Turned round for Dunkirk.When we arrived the beach was getting bombed all the time. We leave the pier to make room for HMS Granada and we have no sooner moved, than the troopship is sunk.

We get another shipload of troops and are on our way back to Dover by 6pm.

May 30, 2am: We set off to Dunkirk again, arriving at 6am to load up again - there are 50 wounded. Dock at Dover at midnight.

May 31, 1pm: We are off again to take on another load, arriving home at 8pm. We are followed by an enemy plane across the Channel and are machine gunned, but there is no damage.

As Codrington docked for the fourth time, Joe writes that he was taken to the sick bay - his family believe probably from fatigue.

During its rescue missions, the Codrington saved 5,821 Allied soldiers from the Dunkirk beach - one of them was ‘Monty’ - and only one other ship rescued more. Joe, who was married to Mona and had a son Roy, then volunteered as one of the first Marine Commandos serving and was in the thick of the action at Anzio, Salerno and Monte Cassino. During his service he sent his son a postcard of his ship.

When the war finished, he was Superintendent of Brierfield St John Ambulance and worked as a nurse at Burnley General Hospital and then with the ambulance service. In 1962 he was one of the first at the Hapton Valley pit disaster and went down the mine.