From Dunkirk to Luneberg Heath

[phylo_roadking]

I'm not exactly sure where this would fit on the board so I'll ask it here, and perhaps if not appropriate could be moved elsewhere???

Does anyone know how many of the BEF evacuated from Dunkirk were actually alive at the end of the war?

[51highland]

Good question which I cannot answer, but, my father-in-law was evacuated from Dunkirk as a under age soldier serving with the RA. He survived the war, serving in Burma on Priests !!!

[Paul Reed]

Yes, a good question. I have never seen any statistics on that - sadly, as the 1940 men were not awarded a specific medal or bar, it would be a tricky one to compute.

My grandfather was evacuated in June 1940, but was discharged in 1941. He was working with the RAF as a civvie come the end of the war.

[CROONAERT]

I know that it's no marker to work off (many never having become members, others dying for whatever reason between 1945 and the "peak", others leaving the association, etc), but, at it's peak ,the Dunkirk Veterans Association numbered over 20,000 members worldwide.

Dave

[phylo_roadking]

Gives a good minimum to work from!

[saintconor]

My Great Uncle was evacuated from Dunkirk only to be captured when Crete fell. Spent the War as a POW but at least he survived. Thats two

[Rich Payne]

This question intrigued me and made me realise that I actually had no idea of total British Army casualties. I found a graph here suggesting around 150,000 for 1939 - 1945 :-

First go at a graph of British killed in the Second World War « Trench Fever

Ellis gives a figure of 368,491 evacuated (not just from Dunkirk of course) and I don't know if this includes RAF personnel.

All that can really be construed from this is that even if all the wartime army deaths had been Dunkirk veterans (which clearly wasn't the case) then more than half of them survived.

The BEF evacuation figures of course include many, many, rear echelon troops who would most likely have survived the war as would most of the older men and reservists - many of them would not have gone overseas again.

If the question was restricted to those in infantry battalions in 1940, I fear that the percentage of losses would be much higher. The impression I have is that most battalions who served in other theatres would have lost something between 30% - 60% of their original complement but that is a horrible wild sweeping guess.

[Paul Reed]

Originally Posted by Rich Payne

This question intrigued me and made me realise that I actually had no idea of total British Army casualties. I found a graph here suggesting around 150,000 for 1939 - 1945 :-

First go at a graph of British killed in the Second World War « Trench Fever

Blimey, I didn't know Dan Todman had a blog! Thanks for that.

[Rich Payne]

Originally Posted by Paul Reed

Blimey, I didn't know Dan Todman had a blog! Thanks for that.

Dan Who ? I didn't know either - the wonders of Google combined with Surf Canyon !

[Drew5233]

I remember my father telling me a about one of his uncles and nephews when I was younger.

I don't know how true the story is but it goes something like this:

The uncle and his son were both in France and during the evacuation the uncles manages to get back to England. His son is captured and becomes a POW.

When the uncle is re united with his family they break the bad news to him telling him he's become a POW.

Rumour/legend has it is reply was to the bad news was, 'What did the stupid bastard want to go and do that for?'

Always makes me chuckle when I imagine all the family there and the look on there faces to his reply.

It's probably not true but nice to think so. Anyway both survived the war but like so many families we've all drifted far apart and I couldn't tell you what happened to them all.