Product Description

At 2am on the morning of the 3rd of June 1940, General Harold Alexander searched along the quayside, holding onto his megaphone and called “Is anyone there? Is anyone there?” before turning his boat back towards England. Tradition tells us that the dramatic events of the evacuation of Dunkirk, in which 300,000 BEF servicemen escaped the Nazis, was a victory gained from the jaws of defeat. For the first time, rather than telling the tale of the 300,000 who escaped, Sean Longden reveals the story of the 40,000 men sacrificed in the rearguard battles. On the beaches and sand dunes, besides the roads and amidst the ruins lay the corpses of hundreds who had not reached the boats. Elsewhere, hospitals full of the sick and wounded who had been left behind to receive treatment from the enemy’s doctors. And further afield – still fighting hard alongside their French allies - was the entire 51st Highland Division, whose war had not finished as the last boats slipped away. Also scattered across the countryside were hundreds of lost and lonely soldiers. These ‘evaders’ had also missed the boats and were now desperately trying to make their own way home, either by walking across France or rowing across the channel. The majority, however, were now prisoners of war who were forced to walk on the death marches all the way to the camps in Germany and Poland, where they were forgotten until 1945.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22373 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Review
Serves as a great and convincing riposte to the banner-waving tale that is normally told. --Catholic Herald

A meticulously-researched, very well written and deeply moving account of the experiences of the forty thousand British soldiers who fell into German hands during the Dunkirk campaign. --Andrew Roberts

In Sean Longden [the POWs] have found a sensitive and capable chronicler, and his sensitive book cannot fail to elicit sympathy for their suffering and admiration for their sacrifice. --Dominic Sandbrook, Evening Standard

The Soldier, July 2008.
"gritty emotional and shocking ... It has changed my understanding of life for British POWs in the Second World War."

Dominic Sandbrook, Evening Standard
"few readers will be unmoved by Sean Longden's account"

Customer Reviews

Read this book, you won't regret it!
My mum bought me this for my birthday. I read it in two long days! My Grandfather was captured at Calais (one of The Rifle Brigade). He wouldn't talk too much about it, only opening up a little towards the end of his life. He would talk for a while, then change the subject. He was very bitter about not being rescued like those at Dunkirk. I used to say to him, 'Had you been rescued, you might not have been here today, as you could have died elsewhere'. He felt let down by the government and therefore had no desire to try and escape. Until I read this book, I had little understanding of what he and others went through. I was not aware of the continued fighting and other rescues after Dunkirk, despite having read a lot about the War. Perhaps it was a shame it wasn't written earlier. I might have asked my Grandfather more before it was too late.

mixed thoughts!
I really enjoyed reading this book it shows an angle to Dunkirk and POW's that is not often told.

My one concern is the number of spelling mistakes and typing errors. I don't think I have ever noticed typing errors in a book before but I noticed dozens here.

Also some of the distances quoted are wrong. On page 204 I quote "the French attempted to form two defensive lines, the first in an arc 100 miles (thirty kilometres) away."

Well 100 miles = 160 km? And 30 km = 18 miles? so which one is correct. You expect figures to be accurate in an history book!

Anyway apart from being littered with errors I still managed to really enjoy this book and would recommend it and hope the errors get fixed for any future releases.

A great account of an often ignored subject
A grim and often horrific account of the men of the British Expeditionary Force that were left behind in France after the Dunkirk evacuation. The author describes the experiences of these men using a wide array of sources, including eye-witness accounts that pull no punches.

A very readable and fascinating book, although perhaps the editing could have been a little tighter, as the author sometimes repeats himself, and there are a fair number of errors in the text, though these are purely cosmetic.

Highly recommended.