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Visit the CWGC at Esquelbecq, their final resting place.Dunkirk and the Fall of France
When war was declared on 1st September 1939 Britain reluctantly sent another Expeditionary Force to France & Belgium as we had in August 1914 and men who had served as part of the first force would have been quite familiar with their surroundings the second time around ! There followed a period of inactivity which was known as the “Phoney War”, or the “Bore War” during which Britain’s army dug-in and built numerous defensive bunkers across France, based on an assumption that an attack, when it came, would come broadly from the east. France in the meantime had placed her faith on the defensive position known as the Maginot Line but there was one fatal flaw with that plan – it did not defend the border around the Ardennes Forest. French military war games had calculated that it would take any attacker ( Germany ) a minimum of 9-10 days to penetrate the dense woodland with sufficient force to become a threat, and that this would give France ample time to place anti-tank guns in position to counter this. In reality it took Guderian’s panzers just 57 hours! On 12th May 1940 the phoney war became a nightmare reality.
The subsequent fighting was of a vicious and confused nature, with woefully inadequate communications between allies, and even between our own army units. The British Commanding Officer on the ground was General Lord Gort, VC. In the face of opposition from the war cabinet, in the forceful persona of Churchill, Lord Gort had difficult decisions to make. By 6pm on the night 25th May 1940 he had decided to withdraw the BEF to Dunkirk for evacuation to England, a brave personal decision to which the force owed its eventual survival. Our tour picks up the retreat as the BEF made its way back along the corridor to its eventual escape from the beaches and Mole at Dunkirk.
· Arrive Ypres and visit Bedford House CWGC, casualty clearing station and visit graves of those lost in the retreat.
· Arrive at Mont Cassel, site of Lord Gort’s last HQ and discuss the defence of this most important `halt’ by the 4/Oxf. & Bucks and the 2/Glosters.
Mont Cassel has a long and distinguished military past. Dominating the surrounding countryside as it does it was an obvious site for military defences and headquarters throughout the ages. Both Joffre and Haig had quarters here during the Great War, indeed there is a statue to Marshal Joffre atop the mount, and Lord Gort established a temporary HQ here during the retreat.
Mont Cassel
· Lunch in Cassel
· Visit the Hardifort Bunker at Peckel crossroads, site of a heroic action by Lt Cresswell MC and men of 1 platoon `A’ Coy. the 2nd Glosters.
· Retrace the final steps of the men involved in the massacre at Esquelbecq and visit the recently restored memorial site.
Men from the 2/Royal Warwicks, the 4/Cheshires and lements from the Royal Artillery were herded into this cow byre and brutally massacred by men from the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler ( LAH ). No-one was ever brought to book for this atrocity.
The restored barn at the Plaine au Bois, Esquelbecq.
Later in the war the site became a temporary Luftwaffe airfield and the little barn was knocked down. Largely through the efforts of the Warwicks Regt. Museum in conjunction with a local group the barn has been rebuilt as it was that fateful day. A garden of remembrance has now been started behind the barn with a small tree planted to commemorate each executed soldier.
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Visit the CWGC at Esquelbecq, their final resting place.
The bodies of those executed had originally been buried in the field adjacent to the massacre site. Later they were dug up and transferred to the local war cemetery that had been started during the Great War. Included here are the graves of CSM Augustus Jennings and Sgt. Stanley Moore who both threw themselves onto grenades to reduce casualties. Also buried here is a French soldier Robert Vanpee whose story you will hear. Time permitting we will trace part of the final walk taken by those shot here.
The CWGC at Esquelbecq
· visit the site of the Bergues-Veurnes canal `stop’ line, and see the site of action of Capt. Ervine-Andrews VC of the 1/East Lancs.
· Hear the tale of the defence of the perimeter by the 2/Coldstream Guards and the story of Lt. Jimmy Langley.
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Visit the evacuation beaches at Bray Dunes.
It was from these beaches that the majority of British
troops eventually got away
· See the famous Mole in Dunkirk harbour and visit the magnificent Dunkirk Memorial. Time set aside for reflection and the laying of remembrance material if desired.
The Beaches at Bray-Dunes
Leave Dunkirk approx 1900hrs, arrive Shuttle for the 20.58 departure, arrive back in the UK 20.45hrs.
(This tour can be spread over two days with additional visits to other WW2 sites such as the V1 bunker at Eperleques, the French Resistance memorial in Arras or La Coupole, the V2 launch site and museum at Wizernes).
Normandy and Dunkirk tours
Walks page
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D-Day Tour
The Battle of Britain
Waterloo
V1
Arnhem
Dunkirk and the Fall of France
Living History