Footsteps of WWII · Dunkirk & the Channel coast
Dunkirk Memorial and Town Cemetery (CWGC)
Cemetery · 1939–1940 (unveiled 29 Jun 1957)
The story
The Dunkirk Memorial commemorates more than 4,500 men of the British Expeditionary Force who died in the 1939–40 campaign, or later in captivity after being taken prisoner then, and have no known grave. Designed by Philip Hepworth, it was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother on 29 June 1957. It forms the entrance to the British war graves section of Dunkirk Town Cemetery, on the road towards Veurne (Furnes) in Belgium, where men of both world wars are buried.
What to look for
A colonnaded entrance with the names of the missing on its panels and an engraved glass panel by John Hutton showing the evacuation. Through it lie the Second World War plots (I and II) and First World War plots IV and V; the other First World War plots are reached via the civil cemetery entrance.
Plan your visit
Free, open daily. Wheelchair accessible, with a disabled parking space in front of the memorial and a slope from the pavement. Address: route de Furnes, Dunkirk.
Things change, so check opening times before you travel.
Nearby sites
- Dunkirk 1940 Museum (Bastion 32) · 2 km
- Malo-les-Bains evacuation beach, Dunkirk · 2 km
- East Mole (Jetée de l'Est), Dunkirk · 3 km
- Fort des Dunes, Leffrinckoucke · 5 km
- Zuydcoote and Bray-Dunes beach wrecks · 9 km
- La Plaine au Bois massacre memorial, Esquelbecq (Wormhout) · 17 km
All 160 sites in Footsteps of WWII →
Footsteps of WWII: Europe 1939–1945
A free field guide for your phone: the route, the maps and the stories built in, even with no signal. The whole Second World War in Europe, from the first shots at Westerplatte on 1 September 1939 to the German surrender in May 1945: Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, Normandy, Arnhem, Bastogne, Stalingrad, Berlin and the camps, in 15 areas from Britain to Russia.
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