The story of the heroic rescues at Dunkirk has long fascinated me. I haven’t seen the movie (It sounds too harrowing). Our plan is to follow part of the WWI trail in France but we both wanted to see the Dunkirk beach. Derek drove from Calais to Dunkerque (no mishaps on the right side of the road) and we visited the Dunkerque 1940s Museum.
Over 330,000 allied soldiers were evacuated during Operation Dynamo, including 120,000 French soldiers. The French army held the road so that the British soldiers could make it to the beach at Dunkirk. Although the mission started as a secret, the arrival of thousands of soldiers onto English soil meant the secret was out well before the evacuation was complete. Sadly, within days most of the rescued French soldiers were returned to France where they were killed or captured when France surrendered to the Germans.
Later, we enjoyed a few hours walking along the beautiful beach, thinking about events which occurred in WWII, and adjusting to being in France. They have nice ice-cream here.