Remembering World War 2 in Chesterfield

D-Day – the term brings to mind World war 2, our minds eye produces a vision of thousands of troops landing on the beaches of Normandy in France.  In military terms it simply refers to “the first day” “the start” of any operation, if it wasn’t for the success of Operation Overlord on 6 th June 1944 then we probably wouldn’t give the term a second thought. Thanks to the brave troops who took part in the largest seaborne invasion in history we commemorate the most celebrated D-Day in our history today, 76 years  on from the first day of Operation Overlord .  T he actions on that one day led to the eventual overturn of Hitler and his Nazi oppression throughout Europe. Chesterfield’s part in the D-Day landings…. I wrote a blog post for the 70 th anniversary of D-Day telling some of the stories which emerged from Chesterfield in relation to the day.  The blog “ D-Day for the  Chesterfield townsfolk ” is still available to read, just click on the ...

The city of Dunkirk (Dunkerque) in the north east France was the location of the now infamous Operation Dynamo; the Dunkirk Evacuation.   In May 1940 the German armies were tearing their way through Allied countries; the Netherlands and Belgium were forced to surrender and France was swiftly being overrun.   For the British army and their Allies all options of retaliation were beginning to look less promising as the German army moved at pace through the country of France.   The German advance resulted in hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops becoming trapped close to the city of Dunkirk, just 10 Kilometres from enemy occupied Belgium.   Winston Churchill was all too aware that the situation may well result in a devastating defeat and in consequence lead to the British Isles becoming the next target for an invasion.   Something had to be done, urgently.   With no means of escape other than by sea, a feat which until that time would have be...