I noticed on a map in a 1973 issue of "After the Battle" that there was an area behind the beaches where the equipment was to be parked and destructed: I guess that these pictures have been taken in this area: ...
... more: Although a lot of vehicles were driven to the beaches, it looks as if a considerable amount of lorries etc were indeed abandoned in these fields. Has anybody else got pictures of this area? Jan
Great Pics Jan ! I believe this was allocated around the end of May (poss 28th), after the outer perimeter was set up to defend Dunkirk, due to abandoned vehicles blocking roads and causing jams for vehicles that were allowed to pass through the perimeter like Ambulances. That siad though vehicles were destroyed all along that perimeter as units were entering the perimeter all along that defensive line. Looking at the map I'd guess that allocated area was one of the main routes into Dunkirk from Cassel.
Since I started this thread I have discovered that the very first picture was taken at the Furnes Dunkerque canal, not in the Area for destruction of equipment. On the other hand, I have also found some other pictures which may come from this area:
And these are two identical pictures from two different Wehrmacht albums. This must have been one of a series of "souvenir photographs" (n° 58 from the series? Both pictures are numbered "58" at the back...???). On the first one we can read the typical remark "Engl. Rückzug Dünkirchen" or "English retreat at Dunkirk". But the text on the back of the second picture is more interesting: "Engl. Fahrzeuge bei Haeghe - Meulen 2.6.40", or "English vehicles at Haeghe - Meulen 2.6.40". Haeghe - Meulen is a tiny village between Bergues and Hondschoote, and as we can see from the maps below it is right in the middle of this "area for destruction of equipment": Do we have another clue here? Jan
Jan There are just so many pictures of vehicles abandoned in fields that it is difficult to link them. Here are a few I have saved because of the vehicles they contain. The first looks like it has a distinctive water tower on the skyline. http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=45011&stc=1&d=1296967843 In the second, below, the land does not look flat enough to be the area you mention but it has an RAF fuel trailer, which is rarely seen, and a Fordson. http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=45012&stc=1&d=1296967843 This next below has a back which indicates the number 55 but it does not have the crinkled edge of the numbered pictures in your post. http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=45013&stc=1&d=1296967843 http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=45014&stc=1&d=1296967843 Finally, another group of vehicles including a Fordson http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=45015&stc=1&d=1296967843 Can you make anything of these locations? Andrew
Andrew, Thanks for sharing these! Unfortunately there are not enough "landmarks" in the background to be able to identify any of these places (yet)... But if we start collecting pictures here, as we have done in other threads, I'm sure we will recognise some of these areas! Please keep posting pictures here! Jan
Great pictures and can you believe what was all lying here on my backdoor ! Anyway, the pictures do say nothing to me about a place... but like Jan say : keep posting, maybe one day we can go out with a metal detector and find a bolt of something
Looking at one of these pictures I wondered if it might have been an abandoned headquarters rather than a vehicle dump. Then I started to try to identify the vehicles. Anyone provide any more help? http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=45109&stc=1&d=1297101264 1. Some sort of horsebox vehicle? 2. Radio vehicle 3. Staff car - ? 4. Austin or Bedford canteen vehicle 5. Staff car - Ford Prefect or Austin 8 6. Staff car - ? 7. Staff car - Ford 22? 8. 6x4 Wireless 9. Staff car - ? 10. Staff car - ? 11. 6x4 Wireless Andrew
Think the ramps a bit too steep for a horsebox - stores van ? I'd go with your Headquarters theory due to the number of staff cars ,there's another staff car and estate car to the right .
some of teh photos say BEUTE PARK, Beute means captured, so perhaps these vehicles have been concentrated in one area for sorting by the Germans
The map that shows this "area for destruction of equipment" also mentions an "inundations" zone: I wonder if this picture was taken there? Jan
More "abandoned vehicles": Maybe one day we'll find the exact locations. Please keep on posting pictures! Jan
The Czechs under General Liska would have been able to tell us more on the inundations and possibly about any remains still in situ regarding the dump. I accompanied a Czech veterans Dunkerk ceremony party last year. The British were amazed to see the Czechs in attendance but I guess we concentrate on our own input rather than others sometimes and I see there is a new Czech memorial being placed in Wormhout later this year to commemorate the German capitulation to Liska in 45. Many Czechs on that visit had vivid memories of the inundations also! WW1 repeated in many ways....
I 've read that the Germans were very efficient in clearing all the vehicles away ,with the total wrecks going as scrap metal. Must have been hundreds of wheels left with the locals though as every vehicle picture you see has some/all wheels missing ! I'm assuming it was the locals , wonder if they were nicked for farm trailers/carts?
