Queen Camilla mentions her father in moving Dunkirk anniversary statement

Operation Dynamo, later also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was an extraordinary mission to enlist civilian sailors of all stripes and approximately 1,000 vessels to rescue allied soldiers from Northern France – who had been cut off and surrounded by German forces.

“Today and together with the nation, The King and I would like to remember the heroic and unprecedented civilian war effort of Operation Dynamo on its 85th anniversary,” Camilla wrote in the statement.

“Over nine days, an eclectic collection of seafarers, ferry masters, barge hands, fishermen and children, with their little ships, achieved the great evacuation of more than 338,000 troops who were fighting with their backs to the sea at Dunkirk,” she continued.

“My father, who was amongst their number and safely transported home 85 years ago today, recalled wading out to a cement ship to find refuge and rest in its wheel-house.

“He noted in his memoirs that ‘The ship was commanded by a midshipman who looked about 12, assisted by a boatswain aged 80.’

“I know my father, together with his comrades of the British Expeditionary Force and the allied armies that were fortunate enough to find safe passage, would today be grateful beyond words for this lifeline.

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Camilla signed off the heartfelt statement with a simple: “Camilla R.”

The address, posted to Royal Family’s official Instagram account, was accompanied by sobering panoramic black and white image from the evacuation.

It showed a beach, strewn with abandoned vehicles and equipment, where dozens of British soldiers stood awaiting rescue.

Accompanying it was an image of Major Shand on a serving soldier and wearing his full uniform.

Camilla’s father served in the 12th Royal Lancers, a regiment which she now presides over as Colonel-in-Chief, and fought in multiple theatres throughout the war.

He was awarded the Military Cross for seeing action during the heroic evacuations at Dunkirk and later in North Africa.

During the campaign in Egypt that Major Shand was taken prisoner and severely wounded.

The Queen told Major Shand’s story while speaking with 99-year-old war veteran Douglas Cracknell during VE Day celebrations on May 8.

“My father, who was captured at El Alamein, he was shot at and the bullet went through one side of the face, came out the other,” she explained.

Camilla added: “He was so lucky because it didn’t hit his teeth or his tongue.”

The Queen also revealed that her father had kept a diary throughout the war and shared extracts of his writing, reading that Major Shand considered letters the “linchpins of our existence”.

"To later generations its hard to understand the emphasis, particularly in wartime, that was put on the amenity of correspondence, not to mention the art of precis writing imposed by the limits of letter cards and the sheets of prescribed lengths,” she read.

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Cracknell agreed, and admitted he shared Major Shand's reticence about sharing his experience of the war when he returned home.

However, the veteran added that he now believed the reality of the war "it should be talked about" in order to "let the younger ones know what we went through.”

Camilla added: “We need it for future generations. I think that’s so important, very important. Because they wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for all of you. So thank you.”