Dunkirk Operation Dynamo Evacuation Beaches

6 650 meters: We’re at the end of the Bray Dunes Digue now. Here we find the shipwreck of Devonia.

 

We are walking towards Malo Terminus. At our right hand side we have the sea, at our left hand side nothing but dunes.

7 560 meters: Another paddle steamer: Crested Eagle. This one is rarely seen in German souvenir albums, maybe because she’s far away from the built up areas?

 

8 650 meters: We arrive at the Maritime Hospital.

 

9 440 meters: Another shipwreck: Empress.

 

10 980 meters: We arrive at the Batterie Zuydcoote, a French coastal defence battery. Behind the dunes is the Fort des Dunes, but we can’t see that one from the beach… If we look further west we can see some more shipwrecks: the Thames barge Aidie, the tugboat Fossa and SS Lorina, a transport ship.

 

11 500 meters: We arrive at Malo Terminus. At the east end of the Digue we find another jetty (the 5th since we started in De Panne). This is a relatively short jetty, made from trucks and lorries parked bumper to bumper.

 

11 550 meters: The tugboat Fossa.



Lots of British and French cars and trucks parked on the beach. Some are nicely lined up, parallel to the Digue. This is not a jetty, but may also have been a shelter against aircraft attacks.

 

11 700 meters: Malo Terminus Casino.



From the tower of he Casino we can see lots and lots of cars, trucks and lorries (both French and British), parked on the Digue. Malo "Terminus", nomen est omen.

We can also see the next jetty, and the two Thames barges Ethel Everard and Aidie. A little bit further into the sea we can see Lorina.

 

12 020 meters: Here we find the first of three Thames barges that beached on the shores of Dunkirk: Aidie. And only a few meters behind Aidie there’s another bumper to bumper jetty, the second one in Malo Terminus, the sixth since we left De Panne. Lorina can be seen in the background of the first picture, Fossa can be seen in the background of the second picture.





The number of abandoned cars and trucks on the Digue is ever increasing…

 

12 180 meters: The second Thames barge: Ethel Everard. Tugboat Fossa and Thames barge Aidie in the background.



In contrast to the other two barges, Ethel Everard’s hull wasn’t damaged, and the sea took her away a couple of weeks later. She ended up on the beach in Nieuwpoort. In this aerial view we can just see Ethel Everard (on the left), Aidie is in the middle of the picture.

 

12 450 meters: Lorina. Even at low tide the steamship Lorina is still surrounded by water. But due to her size she can easily be seen from the Digue, and she was to become another much photographed shipwreck.

 

13 180 meters: There are several British aircraft wrecks on the evacuation beaches, unfortunately the exact location of most of these can not be found. But this one is an exception. We have arrived at the wreck of a Spitfire here. The shipwreck in the background is Floride.

 

13 330 meters: We’re almost in Malo les Bains now, and here we find the 7th (and last) jetty. Another bumper to bumper construction, first cars, but deeper into the sea the engineers used lorries.

 

13 350 meters: Another shipwreck: the cargo Horst. Different photographs show different locations, which means that Horst’s hull was undamaged.





When we look at the sea we are now quite close to the wreck of the French torpilleur Floride.

 

14 470 meters: We’re in Malo les Bains now. On the Digue we see the much-photographed monument of the French WW1 pilot Guynemer.

 

14 720 meters: Also often photographed is this French shipwreck: Chasseur 9. The Guynemer’s monument can be seen in the background of the first picture.

 

14 780 meters: Another tugboat. This is Port de Beirouth, also often seen in German souvenir photographs.

 

15 050 meters: Adroit. No doubt about it, this French torpilleur is the most photographed shipwreck of the evacuation beaches. No German souvenir album is complete without a picture of this “monster”, killed on the beach…

 

15 320 meters: The Malo les Bains Casino, with the posh villas on the left of the Casino. Again: lots of cars and trucks on the Digue. Another popular scene in the Wehrmacht albums.

 

15 740 meters: Not a lot of armour on the beach. There was a carrier in front of Chasseur 9, and we’ll come across a pair of carriers in the next location as well, but these here are tanks. A line up of Mk6 ‘s. Adroit can be seen in the background.