Tuesday, 25 September -- Dunkerque, Dieppe, Bayeux

The drive from Ypres to Dunkerque (Dunkirk) was one and half hours, but we were moving through the 21 years between the first and second world wars, learning from Sam how one led to the other.
Dunkerque is now a peaceful seaside town with broad beaches, but in 1940 it was the site of the evacuation of 300,000 British and French troops, by the "Little Boats of Britain".
A little farther along the road, we passed the Chunnel entrance that we came through last Friday. It's very well-protected.
As we approached Dieppe, Sam explained the disastrous raid there in 1942, "Operation Jubilee".
Our first stop was at Puys, the Dieppe Raid's Blue Beach. Looking at it we could see the sheer impossibility of the raid, and wondered why it was even tried. The cost was a horrific: of 6100 troops (including 5000 Canadians) about 1200 dead (including 907 Canadians), 2340 prisoners and 119 planes and 1 destroyer lost. Later in downtown Dieppe, we met a local couple who maintain a museum in an old theatre, where we saw artifacts from the raid.





Larry found the name Harman Huffman on the list of Killed in Action, so now I'll be doing a bit of genealogical research to see what relationship might be there. Not too many Huffmans who aren't some relation of mine.
It was another long drive to Bayeux, where we'll stay for 2 nights.








1 comment:

  1. As always your blog is evolking in me a need to travel and see these places for myself. I even shed a tear. I await your deep dive into finding about Harman, family trees have weird roots sometimes.

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