VERY recently the UK was in the grip of celebrations to mark the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day.

However, if it hadn't been for the likes of Maldon-based Thames sailing barge Pudge, that famous victory might never have happened.

For Pudge, now in the care of the Thames Sailing Barge Trust, is one of 76 surviving 'Little Ships' from the 700 vessels which undertook the rescue of British troops from Dunkirk in the early days of World War 2.

On May 19, Pudge will leave Maldon bound for Ramsgate in Kent. There she will join her fellow Little Ships to revisit the French scene of their wartime rescue mission 85 years ago.

In May 1940, Pudge was one of a flotilla of mainly privately owned boats over 30 feet long, commandeered by the Royal Navy on the orders of Winston Churchill.

They were instructed to cross the English Channel by night to Dunkirk, to snatch hundreds of thousands of British Expeditionary Force troops from the jaws of the German army as it rampaged across western Europe.

With the French army overrun and the Nazi forces close to surrounding them, the exhausted troops made for the coast in hope of rescue.

Had Churchill's rescue plan failed, it was feared the Nazi invasion of Britain would surely follow.

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Pudge and her fellow Little Ships were originally tasked with ferrying our troops to bigger rescue ships unable to dock in Dunkirk port.

After constant air attack from the German Luftwaffe, their mission switched to saving lives. Altogether 330,000 troops survived Dunkirk to fight another day.

Sadly, several of the 31 Thames barges who answered the call were lost at Dunkirk.

These included the Lady Roseberry and the Doris, who left home alongside Pudge under tow by the tugboat St Fagan. The tug also took a direct hit and sank.

Centaur, Pudge's sister Thames Sailing Barge Trust vessel, had been commissioned to carry water for the evacuated troops, although she never made it beyond Dover.

She was crushed against the quay by a tug and sent home to Maldon for repair.

The dozen Trust members and four crew who will make the 11-day commemorative voyage to Dunkirk aboard Pudge can expect a bitter-sweet experience.

As well as a formal dinner and visits to the port's attractions including the Dunkirk Museum, they can pay tribute to the fallen at a quayside service and at local war cemeteries.

Visit www.bargetrust.org for more information about the work of the Thames Sailing Barge Trust, or to book a trip aboard Pudge or Centaur.