Dunkirk 1940 Museum

Dunkirk 1940 Museum - A small, old-fashioned museum about (mainly) the exceptional, large-scale evacuation operation which rescued some 340,000 British and French soldiers who had become trapped in the port city of Dunkirk in the wake of the May 1940 invasion of France by Nazi Germany in WWII . > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: The Battle of Dunkirk was one of the first large-scale engagements of British and French troops with the invading military of the Third Reich in WWII . The encircled Allies eventually managed to evacuate the majority of their stranded troops between 26 May and 4 June 1940, but had to leave most of their hardware behind. At the beginning of the war, France had been confident that its Maginot Line , a system of heavily fortified fortresses, bunkers and artillery positions that were constructed in the 1930s along most of the country’s eastern border, would be sufficient to fend off a German attack. However, the line did not extend along the Belgian border towards the coast on the English Channel, and it was significantly more weakly fortified in the wooded hills of the Ardennes, which the French had regarded as unsuitable as a route for invading forces. However, Germany started its attack on the western front from 10 May 1940 by invading the Netherlands and Belgium (as well as Luxembourg), which was expected by the French and the British Expeditionary Force ( BEF – a large military contingent sent in by Britain to France immediately after WWII had broken out and both the UK and France had declared war on Germany), so the Allies amassed their forces in the north to fight back such an attack there.