Led by Colonel (retd) Bob Kershaw, author of the best-selling ‘Dünkirchen 1940: The German View of Dunkirk’, this insightful tour explores events surrounding both the fighting retreat and the ‘Miracle of Dunkirk’: the evacuation of the BEF. It will explain how, utilising fresh research, the Germans failed to grasp the opportunity and allowed their foe to escape their clutches. During this most comprehensive tour we evaluate the towns of Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk in a new light; explore the delightful rural hinterland interlaced with the myriad of inland waterways that played such an important part in the defence; walk along stunning beaches bordered between azure sea and the sand dunes that offered limited cover; and enjoy wonderfully situated French north coast hotels with those booking early benefiting from rooms with magnificent beach and sea views (subject to availability).

When Hitler’s panzers reached the French Atlantic coast at Noyelles-sur-Mer on 20th May 1940, just ten days after the launch of the Blitzkrieg in the West, it appeared that the fate of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was sealed. Yet during the last week of May and beginning of June some 338,000 British and French troops were evacuated under fire by the ‘little ships’ and British Royal Navy over nine days, from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk. The epic action snatched moral victory from the jaws of a catastrophic British defeat creating an incomplete German victory. Importantly America was now convinced that Britain would continue to fight.

Day 1: Operation Dynamo
Assemble at Ashford International station in Kent (40 minutes from London St Pancras) at 0930. Drive to Dover Castle to explore the tunnels below from where Vice Admiral Ramsey masterminded the evacuation. Via the channel Tunnel we travel to Boulogne for two nights. (D)

Day 2: Germans reach the sea. Attack on Boulogne.
Drive to Noyelles-sur-Mer, captured by Guderian’s German XIX Corps lightning advance on the 20th May 1940. Return to Boulogne stormed by the 2nd Panzer Division 22-25 May 1940 to explore its epic defence by the French and the Irish and Welsh Guards. (B,D)

Day 3: Siege of Calais.
Check-out of hotel. Exclusive visit to Fort de la Creche which dominates the Port of Boulogne before travelling to Calais to explore the last stand of the Rifle Brigade, abandoned by Churchill as an act of political expediency to keep the French in the struggle. Continue to Dunkirk for the next four nights. (B,D)

Day 4: First attacks.
Drive to Gravelines to cover the abortive 1st Panzer Division assault on the 24th May against the west side of the Dunkirk perimeter. Thence to Cassel overlooking the perimeter ending the day at the poignant site of the Wormhoudt barn, the scene of the Esquelbecq SS massacre of British troops. (B,D)

Day 5: Attacks from the east.
Consider the German concentric attacks: drive across the Belgian border to Nieuwpoort; view the Zuydcoote Military Hospital where thousands of Allied wounded were treated; walk sections of the evacuation beaches from De Panne to Bray Dunes where, at low tide, the wrecks of the ‘Crested Eagle’ and ‘Devonia’ are clearly visible; visit the fabulous Dunkirk 1940 museum set amongst one of the harbour gun emplacements. Dinner this evening is at your own expense. (B)

Day 6: Attacks from the south and the fall of Dunkirk
Examine the final 18th Division German advance from Bergues across the Furnes/Basse Colme canal and visit Fort des Dunes, the former French HQ; discuss the final three days of French resistance in Dunkirk after the British evacuation; from Malo les Bains beach assess the German Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine efforts to prevent the evacuation; and walk out along the rebuilt iconic Eastern Mole. This evening enjoy a final dinner aboard the Dunkirk veteran vessel, The Princess Elizabeth. (B,D)

Day 7: Last respects and home
Check-out of hotel and visit the Dunkirk Monument to the Missing and the CWGC cemetery. Continue to Calais for the return Channel Tunnel crossing, arriving at Ashford International station in the afternoon. (B)