Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Information Sheet

DUNKIRK AND THE FALL OF FRANCE, 1940

The war was already eight months old when the Germans finally launched the western offensive that would see Holland, Belgium and France subdued in little more than six weeks, and the last of the British Expeditionary Force dramatically evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk only hours ahead of the German advance. The French and British had used the months of 'phoney war' to prepare for the assault that was sure to come. Defences stretched from the Maginot Line to the sea and most of the ten division British Expeditionary Force (BEF) under the command of General Lord Gort had been on the Franco-Belgian border since October 1939. The Dutch and Belgians, though retaining their neutrality, had also mobilised their armies and were prepared. But the Allied defensive plans, which looked back to the last German invasion in 1914 and relied heavily on assumptions about pace and movement, would prove woefully inadequate in the face of the new German Blitzkrieg, or 'lightning war' tactics, making innovative use of tanks and mechanised and airborne troops. The blow finally fell on 10 May 1940, the day Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in Britain, when the Germans launched a series of daring and ingenious attacks on targets in Holland and Belgium. The French and British armies were drawn forward from the border to meet them, but it was further south, where the defences were at their weakest, that the breakthrough would come. In the first tank battle of the war, German armoured panzer divisions surged through the Ardennes to break through the French line between Dinant and Sedan on 13 May, splitting the Allied armies in two. In the following days, events escalated with alarming and devastating speed. Dismayed by the momentum of the German thrust for the coast, the Allies missed crucial opportunities to counter-attack and close the breach in their line. Lines of communication were in disarray and the rear areas were in chaos, choked with fleeing refugees.

The engraved Dunkirk Memorial window, designed by John Hutton, depicts the deliverance of the British Expeditionary Force

The Dutch, overwhelmed in the north, had surrendered on 15 May, and the French and British, now joined by the Belgians, were falling back to new defensive positions. When the Germans reached the Channel coast at the mouth of the Somme on 20 May, this northern Allied force was left cut off and in danger of encirclement. The Germans were themselves surprised at the speed of their advance and were beginning to sense the dangers of over extension when General Gort launched an unexpected counter-attack on the German flank near Arras on 21 May. Though not successful, the attack made the Germans cautious and influenced their decision to halt the advance of their panzers between 24 and 27 May. This was to prove of crucial importance in the evacuation to come. On 25 May, with the ring closing around the Allied force in the north and with the Belgian army to the north-east close to collapse, General Gort decided that the time had come to withdraw the BEF to the Channel ports to be taken off by sea. The garrisons at Boulogne and Calais, though resisting grimly, would soon be overwhelmed and so, fighting desperate rearguard actions, the main body of the BEF fell back on Dunkirk. On the other side of the English Channel preparations for the evacuation, known as Operation Dynamo, were in the hands of Vice-Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Flag Officer Commanding Dover. It began on the evening of 26 May, but it soon became clear that the few destroyers and other

vessels had been sunk and RAF Fighter Command, which supported the operation, had lost more than 100 aircraft. To the south of the German 'wedge' the three British divisions remaining in France fought on, but soon they too were forced to fall back for evacuation from points ever further west and south as the relentless German advance took out port after port: St Valery, Le Havre, Cherbourg, Brest, St Nazaire, Nantes. On 25 June, the day hostilities in France ended, the last British troops sailed from Bayonne and St Jean de Luz, to the south of the French Atlantic seaboard. All of the BEF's tanks, large guns, vehicles and equipment were left behind in France, but in all 368,491 British troops were successfully evacuated. Losses were more than 68,000 killed, wounded or taken prisoner.

The dead from the campaign are buried in hundreds of cemeteries and churchyards across northern France and Belgium. Unlike later campaigns, the nature of the fighting left few associated war cemeteries of any size. Thousands of burials were made in communal cemeteries and churchyards and, as the front swept across much of the ground fought over during the First World War, many graves were added to the existing cemeteries from that conflict. A representative selection of these burial sites, too numerous to mention here individually, is given in these pages. Further graves were added to many of them in 1944 when Commonwealth forces passed across the area again.

The Dead
The Dunkirk Memorial, France (south-east part of Dunkirk, south of the canal, on the road to Veurne) With thousands of men separated from their units in the confusion of the fighting and the withdrawal, it later proved impossible to establish exactly where, or indeed when, many died. Others, buried hastily where they fell, did not find their final resting places until long after the fighting was over and by then few could be identified.

Heverlee War Cemetery, Belgium (3km south of Leuven) The BEF was involved in a few isolated incidents during the earliest days of the German offensive, but it was the Royal Air Force which suffered the first significant losses on 12 May 1940 when undertaking operations in support of the heavily pressed Belgian land forces. Pilot Officer Donald Garland and Sergeant Thomas Gray won the first of four Victoria Crosses awarded during the campaign while leading an attempt to destroy a bridge across the Albert Canal. They lie with their comrades in Heverlee War Cemetery.

Esquelmes War Cemetery, Belgium

when the BEF withdrew. Some of those who died are buried in these cemeteries, both of which were enlarged when burials were brought in from the surrounding area later that year by the Belgian authorities.

Ypres Town Cemetery Extension, Belgium (1km east of town centre) Ypres (now Ieper), which became a symbol for Allied resistance during the First World War, saw heavy fighting before it fell to the Germans on 29 May 1940. Three civilian hospitals in the town, Hpital de Notre Dame, the Clinique des Soeurs Noires and the Red Cross Hospital in St. Aloisius School, D'Hondstraat, cared for the wounded, and those who died were buried in the Town Cemetery Extension. Others buried on the battlefield were later brought in by the Ypres town services. Many of the

Heverlee War Cemetery, Belgium

The Dunkirk Memorial, France

Bruyelle (6km south of Tournai) and Esquelmes (10 km north of Tournai) War Cemeteries, Belgium The Germans attempted to cross the river Scheldt near Esquelmes on the morning of 21 May, but were repulsed after heavy fighting. They eventually crossed on 23 May,

naval vessels at his disposal would not be enough to clear the thousands of British and French soldiers already waiting on the beaches and harbour at Dunkirk, and the thousands more still making their way there. In the following days these vessels were joined by a huge, makeshift fleet of trawlers, passenger ferries, pleasure steamers, yachts and countless other privately owned craft - the 'little ships'- which plied back and forth across the Channel. By the early hours of 3 June 338,226 men, more than 140,000 of them French and Allied, were got away. By 4 June Dunkirk was in German hands. About 200

More than 4,500 soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force (including the Royal Indian Army Service Corps) who died in the campaign and have no known grave are commemorated by name on the Dunkirk Memorial which stands behind the Second World War Commonwealth war graves section of Dunkirk Town Cemetery (see below). Their names are engraved on a series of rectangular columns on either side of a broad avenue which leads to a shrine, at the back of which is a window of engraved glass showing scenes from the evacuation. The sailors and airmen who died in the campaign are commemorated elsewhere.

Ypres Town Cemetery Extension, Belgium

Bruyelle War Cemetery, Belgium

numerous First World War cemeteries around Ypres were used at this time; Bedford House Cemetery, Enclosure No 6 (2.5km south of Ieper) and Bus House Cemetery (4km south of Ieper) contain burials relating to the defence of the Ypres-Comines canal and railway. The canal lies on high ground on the west side of Bedford House Cemetery.

Violaines Communal Cemetery, France (4km north-west of La Basse) The Aire-Le Basse Canal was stubbornly defended towards the end of May in an attempt to hold the German advance as the BEF withdrew north. At Violaines, where the canal passes about 2km from the village, the dead were buried where they fell on the canal banks and in the surrounding fields. It was not until 1942 that the occupying forces permitted the local people to transfer the graves to the communal cemetery. Some of the others who died in

the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Norfolk Regiment, killed on 27 May by the German SS unit to whom they were obliged to surrender following a prolonged and stubborn resistance. The local people were ordered to bury the dead where they lay, but in 1942 the bodies were moved to the part of Le Paradis Churchyard which now forms the war cemetery.

Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery (36km south of Dunkirk) and Le Grand Hasard Military Cemetery, Morbecq, France (3km south-west of Hazebrouck) Both of these First World War cemeteries were used to bury some of those killed in late May 1940 during the fighting which covered the withdrawal to the DunkirkNieuport perimeter.

Mont-Bernanchon Churchyard, France

Merville Communal Cemetery Extension, France

defence of the canal are buried at Mont-Bernanchon Churchyard (6km north-west of Bethune) and in the communal cemeteries at Hinges (5km north-west of Bethune), Essars (4km east of Bethune) and Givenchy-lesla-Basse (6km of east Bethune).

Wormhoudt Communal Cemetery, France

burials. The casualties at Calonne-sur-la-Lys Communal Cemetery (11km north of Bethune) were buried by the Germans, and came mainly from the village school, which was used as an aid post. Originally, the graves were in the field behind the school, but in 1942 the local people moved them into the communal cemetery.

Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery, France

Le Paradis War Cemetery, France (10km north of Bethune) The withdrawal to Dunkirk saw much fierce rearguard fighting and some brutality. Le Paradis War Cemetery contains the graves of many of the 97 officers and men of

The day after the Le Paradis incident, some 80 men of the 2nd Royal Warwickshire Regiment, the Cheshire Regiment and the Royal Artillery suffered a similar fate at Esquelbecq, near the town of Wormhoudt. Many of their graves are to be found in Wormhoudt Communal Cemetery and at Esquelbecq Military Cemetery (both 20km south of Dunkirk).

Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille, France (northern outskirts of Boulogne) Wimille was devastated when the garrison at Boulogne succeeded in holding back the Germans between 22-25

Hinges Communal Cemetery, France

St Venant Communal Cemetery (between Hazebrouck and Bethune, 15km north-west of Bethune) and Merville Communal Cemetery Extension, France (15km north of Bethune) By the end of May 1940 St Venant and Merville were at the southern end of a deep but narrow area occupied by the BEF and saw desperate fighting when delaying actions covered the withdrawal to the coast. British troops were still fighting at St Venant after the evacuation, and 90 or more were buried in a mass grave in a nearby field. These graves were later moved into Plots 3 and 4 of the communal cemetery with the remainder of the May 1940

Terlincthun British Cemetery, France

Le Paradis War Cemetery, France

Esquelbecq Military Cemetery, France

May, giving vital cover for the withdrawal to Dunkirk. Some of those who died were buried in this substantial First World War cemetery which suffered considerable damage both from the shelling in 1940 and later under the German occupation.

Les Moeres Communal Cemetery, France

Pornic War Cemetery (51 km west of Nantes) The evacuation from ports west of Dunkirk continued well into June 1940. Casualties from the final evacuation were comparatively light but the troopship SS Lancastria was sunk by aerial bombardment off St Nazaire on 17 June, in what was the single greatest maritime loss of life in the whole war. The ship was crammed with between 6,000 and 9,000 servicemen and refugees - it has not been possible to establish the exact number - and only 2,500 were saved. The bodies of many of those who died were washed ashore along the western coast of France and are buried there in numerous communal cemeteries and churchyards. Most of the burials in Pornic War Cemetery are from the Lancastria. Other victims of the disaster are buried at Escoublac-la-Baule War Cemetery (13km west of St Nazaire).

Incheville Communal Cemetery, France

Les Moeres Communal Cemetery, France (13km east of Dunkirk) Les Moeres was the northern point of a line held by British units on 31 May 1940 and saw heavy fighting during the latter stages of the withdrawal to Dunkirk. The communal cemetery was used for the burial of those killed in the defence of the village.

Marquise Communal Cemetery (between Boulogne and Calais). Malo-les-Bains Communal Cemetery (3km east of Dunkirk) contains almost 100 more. More than 500 servicemen (200 of them unidentified) who died in May and June 1940 are buried in Dunkirk Town Cemetery, in Plots 1 and 2, next to the Dunkirk Memorial. Many of the graves contain multiple burials and were made by the people of Dunkirk after the town had been occupied by the Germans.

Directions to the Featured Cemeteries and Memorials

Heverlee War Cemetery Leave Leuven on the Naamsesteenweg (N251), signposted Namen, Waver and Heverlee. Take the first left after crossing the railway line at Heverlee into the Hertogstraat. At the end, turn right at the Sport Hall onto the Kerpelstraat and carry on until you come to a crossroads where you will find the cemetery. Bruyelle War Cemetery is located to the south of the village at the junction of the N507 and the N52. Esquelmes War Cemetery Approaching Esquelmes from Tournai on the N50, turn right onto the rue du Village. Take the first left onto the chemin Garenne. The cemetery is about 200m along this road. Ypres Town Cemetery Extension Leave Ieper on the N332 heading east. At the junction with the N345, turn right. The cemetery is 300m along this road on the right hand side. Bedford House Cemetery Leave Ieper via the Lille Gate (Rijselpoort) on the N336 towards Armentires. The cemetery is 2km beyond the junction with the Ieper ring road (N37B) on the left hand side of the road. Bus House Cemetery Leave Ieper via the Lille Gate (Rijselpoort) on the N336 towards Armentires. After approximately 4km turn right at the roundabout into the Sint-Elooisweg towards Voormezele. The cemetery lies 500m along this road on the left hand side. Violaines Communal Cemetery Extension is 400m south-west of the church on the left hand side of the D167E (Rue de l'Eglise). The Commonwealth graves will be found in the near right hand corner. Mont-Bernanchon Churchyard is in the middle of the village and the Commonwealth plot is in the north-east corner. Hinges Communal Cemetery From the church head south-west on the Rue de Bethune. Hinges Military Cemetery (First World War) is 400m from the church on the left hand side and the communal burials are behind it. Essars Communal Cemetery is 500m east of the church on the left hand side of the main road. The Commonwealth graves will be found to the right of the entrance. Givenchy-les-la-Basse Communal Cemetery From the church in the centre of the village head north. After 300m turn right in front of the 55th West Lancashire Division Memorial. The cemetery is a further 100m along this road on the right. The Commonwealth graves will be found to the left of the entrance. St Venant Communal Cemetery Leave the church and head east crossing the main road at the base of the bridge over the river. The car park for the communal cemetery is about 500m along this road on the left hand side. Merville Communal Cemetery Extension is on the north-east side of the town to the north side of the road to Neuf-Berquin. The extension is now surrounded by the communal cemetery. Calonne-sur-la-Lys Communal Cemetery surrounds the church which is in the middle of the village. The Commonwealth graves are in four plots. Le Paradis War Cemetery is an extension of the Le Paradis Churchyard, Lestrem, which is found behind the village church. Wormhoudt Communal Cemetery is about 800m north of the church and 50m east of the main road; the turning for the cemetery opposite the Gendarmerie is narrow and not easily seen. The Commonwealth graves are on the right hand side at the far end of the cemetery.

De Panne Communal Cemetery, Belgium (18km east of Dunkirk) De Panne was the site of the final General Headquarters of the BEF in 1940 and there was a casualty clearing station on the beach, which was an embarkation beach for the evacuation from 27 May to 1 June. The first German troops reached the village between 14.00 and 15.00 hrs on 31 May and, after heavy fighting, the commune was completely occupied by about 09.00 hrs on 1 June. The beaches east of Dunkirk were used for embarkation and many men were killed in raids by German aircraft as they waited to be taken off. After the war, more than 150 graves were moved from the beaches at Bray Dunes to
Dunkirk Town Cemetery, France

After the Evacuation from Dunkirk - Cemeteries South of the Somme

On 4 June 1940 the 51st (Highland) Division, with some tanks, artillery and infantry of the French Tenth Army, carried out an attack on Abbeville, strongly held by the Germans. The attack failed and the 51st Division suffered heavy casualties. The next day the Germans launched a powerful offensive against the whole Somme front from St Quentin to the sea. The 51st Division, by this time exhausted after twelve days of continual movement and battle, and without reinforcements, was forced back 24 km to the line of the River Bresle, again with considerable losses. Some of those who died in these actions are buried in MareuilCaubert Communal Cemetery (6km south of Abbeville) and Incheville Communal Cemetery (26km south-west of Abbeville). The Division made its last stand fighting alongside the 2nd French Cavalry Division at St Valery and was practically wiped out, most of its members being taken prisoner. Many of those who died are buried at St Valery-en-Caux Franco British Cemetery (32km west of Dieppe) and Veules-lesRoses Communal Cemetery (24km west of Dieppe).

Esquelbecq Military Cemetery is about 1km west of the village, 200m south of the road to Zegerscappel. Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery From the Grand Place in Hazebrouck take the D916 Bethune road. Cross the first set of traffic lights and the communal cemetery will be found 200m further along on the right hand side of the road, as indicated by a signpost. The Commonwealth graves lie immediately inside the entrance to the cemetery. Le Grand Hasard Military Cemetery From the church in Morebecque head north on the D916 towards Hazebrouck. After approximately 1km there is a plant nursery on the left hand side. Take the small road which goes through the nursery and the cemetery will be found on the right hand side, in farm land. Terlincthun British Cemetery From junction 3 of the the A16 between Calais and Boulogne, follow the D96E for Wimereux Sud. The cemetery is about 1km along this road on the left hand side. The entrance to the cemetery is in St Martin's Road, the road on the left immediately after the cemetery. Les Moeres Communal Cemetery is about 150m north of the church and the Commonwealth graves are near the eastern boundary. De Panne Communal Cemetery The N35 Pannestraat joins De Panne to Veurne. From this road, take the N34 towards Adinkerke. The communal cemetery will appear on the left after about 2km, just after a distinct bend in the road. Marquise Communal Cemetery From the church take the road towards Desvres/Rinxent. At the T-Junction turn

right onto the D191 and then immediately left onto the rue du Cimitiere. The car park is 200m on the right hand side. The Commonwealth plot is to the right of the entrance. Malo-les-Bains Communal Cemetery is 275m east of the Town Hall approached via Rue General Hoche and Rue Pasteur. The Second World War graves are in the northeastern corner and some graves from the First World War will be found in the south-western part. Mareuil-Caubert Communal Cemetery is situated in the old commune of Mareuil on the D503 road to Limeux Incheville Communal Cemetery is situated on a minor road to the west of the village. The Commonwealth graves will be found to the rear, on the left side in a hedge enclosed plot. St Valery-en-Caux Franco-British Cemetery lies on the south eastern outskirts of the town adjoining the civil cemetery about 200m from the church. Follow St. Valery town centre, and the first CWGC sign is on the right of the main road. Veules-les-Roses Communal Cemetery is on the west side of the village. The Commonwealth graves will be found in a small corner plot at the top end of the cemetery. Pornic War Cemetery is on the north-eastern outskirts of the town 1km east of the church on the south side of the road to Chauve. Escoublac-la-Baule War Cemetery is south-east of Escoublac and east of La Baule behind the small airport. The cemetery is well signposted.

Published by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 2 Marlow Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 7DX, England. Tel: 01628 507200 Fax: 01628 771208 Web site: www.cwgc.org E-mail: For Casualty & Cemetery Enquiries: casualty.enq@cwgc.org ISA22 12/02