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Pictured: Papers belonging members of Walter's family are also up for auction. Including Papers of Admiral Charles Wright Bonham, his sons Captain Thomas Parry Bonham and Lt. Col. Charles Barnard Bonham, D.S.O. of the Royal Engineers, and his grandson Lieutenant Henry Thomas Robert Bonham

A harrowing letter describing how soldiers 'burnt to hell' during the Dunkirk evacuation has come to light 81 years later.

Lieutenant Walter Bonham commanded a small vessel which ferried soldiers back to Britain while being dive-bombed by the Germans in May 1940.

He recounts pulling dozens of men 'almost dead from exposure and exhaustion' aboard who had jumped into the sea from a nearby burning ship.