Carriers of the 2nd Battalion Essex Regiment advancing into Belgium on 11 May 1940. Refugees are seen moving in the opposite direction.

Lieutenant Richard Annand VC seen here on his marriage to Shirley Osborne in November 1940.

Captain Cyril Townsend who was wounded at St Venant and managed to return to England.

German armoured vehicles enter the outskirts of Calais on 26 May 1940

Top: The site of the bridge over the Dyle which was defended by Lieutenant Richard Annand’s platoon and resulted in his award of the VC. Above: The DLI Memorial on the bridge.

A British anti-tank crew at Louvain with their 25mm Hotchkiss gun. The gun fired a 2-pound solid shot which could penetrate the armour of German light tanks.

Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Lumsden who commanded the 12th Lancers in France and Flanders.

Lieutenant Michael Farr photographed in the dress uniform of the DLI.

The speed of the German armoured thrust through France took the Allies by surprise.

The Royal Welch Memorial at St Venant stands on the site of the bridge where Lieutenant Colonel Harrison was killed.

The British Commander-in-Chief, Lord Gort VC, inspecting troops.

The Matilda Mark II Tank.

John Hyde-Thompson, photographed before the Flanders campaign of 1940.

Mark Henniker photographed after the war in the uniform of a major general.

The gallant HMS Keith was one of the destroyers deployed to evacuate the Boulogne garrison. Coming under fire from German units ashore, Captain David Simson was killed on the bridge. She was sunk off Dunkirk on 1 June 1940.

A German anti-tank gun crew with their 3.7cm Pak 35/36 on the Menin-Ypres road. It was the rapid advance of the German Sixth Army after the capitulation of Belgium that first alerted Gort to the danger on his eastern flank.

Erwin Rommel commanded the 7th Panzer Division during the invasion of Belgium and France in 1940.

Brigadier Nigel Somerset, commanded 145 Brigade at Cassel.

The barn on the Chemin du Paradis where the men of the Royal Norfolks were murdered on 27 May 1940.

German troops in the main square at Cassel after the evacuation by 145 Brigade. The buildings behind the German motorcyclist show some of the damage inflicted on the town by the Luftwaffe bombardment.

The blockhouse at Peckel just north of Cassel on the D916 defended by Second Lieutenant Cresswell and 8 Platoon of 2/Gloucesters.

The pond on the Plaine au Bois where Captain James Lynn-Allen and Private Albert Evans sought refuge after escaping from the barn where their comrades were being murdered.

The monument on the D17 dedicated to the men who were murdered on the Plaine au Bois.

The bridge at Pont-à-Vendin on the Deûle Canal that Second Lieutenant Anthony Irvine watched being blown in ‘a gentlemanly manner.’

This is thought to be the cottage occupied by Lieutenant Jimmy Langley on the banks of the Canal de la Basse Colme.

A contemporary photograph of the Foundation Warein Orphanage on the Rue de la Sous-Préfecture at Hazebrouck. Major Heyworth established the 1/Buckinghamshire Battalion HQ in this building before it was destroyed.

The Junkers 87b ‘Stuka’ was used extensively during the France and Flanders campaign. It was aircraft such as these which surprised Major Alan Coleman commanding 257/Battery in Arras.

Private Jim Laidler who fought with the 1/Tyneside Scottish at Ficheux.

A 1939 caricature of Jimmy Langley and Angus McCorquodale.

The château at West Cappel defended by 2 Company 1/Welsh Guards showing the moat bridge that sheltered both Gurney and Llewellyn from German tanks.

The headstones at Hondeghem Churchyard Cemetery marking the graves of Gunner Albert Adaway and Bombardier Jon Turner.

The Mairie at Ledringhem where Lieutenant Colonel Guy Buxton, commanding the 5/Gloucesters, established his battalion headquarters.

Captain Marcus Ervine-Andrews who won his Victoria Cross on 31 May near Hoymille.

WOII George Gristock died before his award of the Victoria Cross was announced.

The isolated communal cemetery at Mont-St-Eloi where five men of 208 Battery, 52/Anti-Tank Regiment are buried in the shadow of the ruined abbey.

British motorcycle combinations of the 4/Northumberland Fusiliers.

The Royal Sussex Memorial at Amiens.

Second Lieutenant Garrick Bowyer who fought with the 7/Royal Sussex at Amiens on 19 May.

The beach at Malo les Bains after the evacuation. The Dunkirk mole can be seen in the distance.

The Dunkirk Memorial commemorates more than 4,500 men who fell in the France and Flanders campaign of 1940.