Rescue was in sight for Sherwood Forester Gordon Sugg as he waded through the waves from the Dunkirk beach.

Just 70 yards to go when the straggling line of Foresters, the last of the British troops to escape, came under attack from German dive bombers.

Private Sugg, from Kirkby-in-Ashfield, was hit by a piece of shrapnel which pierced his ankle. As he slipped beneath the surface, two mates lifted him up and carried him the rest of the way.

Recalling that agonising moment Gordon Sugg, who celebrated his 100th birthday at the weekend, has no doubts about his good fortune that day.

He was on the last boat evacuating members of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk - and had to be carried to the boat after being hit by shrapnel.

20-year-old Private Sugg landed in France in April of 1940 with the 9th Battalion The Sherwood Foresters, a pioneer unit ill-equipped for the ferocious action they would face in the retreat to Dunkirk.

For week after week Pte Sugg and his comrades held positions along the River Escaut, rarely glimpsing the enemy but regularly attacked by German dive bombers. As the casualty list mounted they were finally given orders to withdraw, marching towards Dunkirk along a “depressing” ten-mile corridor of wrecked and burned-out vehicles.

But as they neared the beach they were ordered to turn round and head for the front line in a desperate bid to hold back the German advance to allow more time for the evacuation to succeed.

Sherwood Forester Gordon Sugg pictured during the Second World War
Sherwood Forester Gordon Sugg pictured during the Second World War

“We were the only force marching back to the enemy,” an officer later wrote in the regiment’s war diary. “It was a proud moment in the history of the Battalion.”

Armed with any weapons they could find, the Foresters dug in along the Dunkirk perimeter, some in old First World War trenches, as a stream of retreating British and French troops passed through.

They were constantly bombarded by German artillery, strafed by German planes and as night fell, their positions were illuminated by the blazing buildings of Dunkirk.

At one point a company of Foresters joined a brief counter-attack, but the action failed, leaving more than 30 of their men dead or wounded.

At 4am on June 2, Pte Sugg and his pals were finally sent to the beach for evacuation, the last of the BEF to escape … but the young soldier’s ordeal was not yet over.

 “We were queueing on the beach, waiting for the boat,” recalled the Nottinghamshire-born veteran.

“We knew it was going to be the last one so you can imagine how we felt. We knew time was running out.”

Gordon and Gwen Sugg pictured on their wedding day in 1942
Gordon and Gwen pictured on their wedding day in 1942

The Luftwaffe’s deadly Stuka dive bombers launched a final attack on the straggling line of British soldiers wading through the waves.

“I was wounded by a piece of shrapnel in the left leg,” he said, “just above the ankle, about 70 yards from the boat and two local lads – their names were Alf Taylor and Lee Hunt – picked me up and carried me to it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here now, I was one of the lucky ones.

“I was very fortunate indeed because it was only the walking wounded who made it to the boat. If I had been left behind I would have spent six years as a prisoner-of-war … or I would have been shot!

 “But I will be forever grateful to Alf and Lee for carrying me, and to the crew of that boat. It was called HMS Winchelsea and it made several trips from Dover to Dunkirk and brought back more than 3,000 troops. It was a fantastic effort considering it was bombed, heavily bombed.”

Gordon Sugg pictured with his late wife Gwen
Gordon pictured with his late wife Gwen

When he got back to England, Pte Sugg spent three-and-a-half months in hospital. “They didn’t have penicillin then and that’s why my injury took so long to heal.”

In 1942 he married his late wife Gwendoline and 60 years later Mr and Mrs Sugg earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records when they became the sixth couple from four generations of his family to celebrate a diamond wedding anniversary.

Gordon Sugg remained on English soil for the rest of the war, rising to the rank of sergeant, before returning to his home in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, where he established a successful string of shoe shops with branches in Sutton and Alfreton. He maintained a lifelong love of sport, still playing golf at Coxmoor, and badminton, well into his 90s, and was a Rotarian and Freemason.

A great grandfather, Gordon’s only child, Arthur, died at the age of 73 in 2016.

Gordon Sugg pictured at his 100th birthday party
Gordon at his 100th birthday party

A celebration organised by his daughter-in-law Jennifer Sugg, 76, and granddaughter Nicola Pipes, 52, was held in the Sutton care home where he now lives.

Mrs Sugg said: "What a life he has had and what an achievement. We are immensely proud of him.”

Among the dozens of greetings he received -- including a telegram from the Queen -- was a card from The Mercian Regiment, which now incorporates the Sherwood Foresters, with a message from Colonel of the Regiment General Ian Cave, who said: “The courage and spirit you showed during your time with the 9Battalion, The Sherwood Foresters, is the very essence of what drives our soldiers today.”