Rest Day Tuesday 23 Sept: Dunkerque Field Trip

A travel day for us today as we moved from our B&B in Calais to our lovely gite near Licques. First we had to pick up our cars, ready to start our new shuttling model of hiking. We took a side trip to Dunkerque including a visit to the museum and beach.

The Lyn/n mobile (Gary suggested the Bat mobile 🥴)

The **Leughenaer Tower** (old spelling of the Dutch word leugenaar meaning “liar”) is a 30-metre-high octagonal tower. Built around 1450, this tower is the oldest monument in the town. It is reputed to have sent false signals to lure ships into the rocks to be plundered, hence its name.

Outside the Museum Dunkerque 1940 Operation Dynamo

Thanks to Operation Dynamo, more than 330,000 men were evacuated from the beaches and the port of Dunkirk over nine days.

The tragic story of John Atkins, the youngest soldier to die at just 15 years

John Atkins story: Born in Gravesend (Kent), John Atkins was just 15 years old when he embarked on the Lady Rosebery in Dover on 31 May 1940, bound for Dunkirk. He had been part of the voyage to Dover where, given his age, he should have been disembarked. But nonetheless, he managed to stay on board.

He had been hired a few months earlier as a cook and third mate on the Lady Rosebery. In a letter that was published in the newspapers after his death, he wrote to his family “Dear Mum, we have gone under the Navy, now we are going to France today, I may never come back. Don’t worry, John”

Lieutenant-Colonel Warner, who was at charge of the Saint-Fagan that night, wrote a letter to John’s parents: “I probably would have sent him ashore if we had been inside the harbour [of Dover] although he was a very brave young man.

For his safety, I asked to take your son on board the tug. We arrived at our position off Malo-let Bains at around 3.40am. At the time of the explosion of the Saint-Fagan, I am unable to say where your son was (…) Of the 26 sailors on board; only eight were saved and we lost 18.” John Atkins’ body was never found.