We are headed to Bruges, Belgium today, and I can't wait! We've wanted to see Bruges every time we've come to this part of Europe, but it's just never made the final cut before. So we're going to soak up every bit of it for the next three days! On the way we've stopped at two really great WWII sights!
The first stop was at Dunkirk in France. There was a great little museum there about the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk in May 1940 (WWII); the evacuation was called Operation Dynamo. This evacuation is another fantastic story from WWII, and if you don't know much about it, you really need to read more than what I'm telling you here. It's an unbelievable "victory" (although it might not seem like a typical win) that really saved the British very early in the war and allowed them to carry on the fight against Germany for another five years. The museum wasn't modern and high tech, but it did have lots of cool displays of pictures, as well as artifacts from the evacuation ships that have been recovered from the beaches around Dunkirk.
All the quoted information below comes from the placards in the museum. (*Warning: if you aren't a history buff and don't want a quick summary of the events leading up to Dunkirk, then skip the next two paragraphs.) :-) I'm a history teacher and I just couldn't help myself! :-)
WWII started after British PM Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement against Nazi Germany failed. The Brits declared war in Sept. 1939 when Hitler broke his promise and invaded Poland. The Nazi blitzkrieg (lightning war) rolled east through Poland and then turned north towards Norway and Denmark and west towards the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. The French had a very defensive mindset because of their "belief in the invincibility of the Maginot Line, a massive chain of fortifications" they'd built along the French-German border after the German invasions of WWI. In fact, one of the placards in the museum quoted a British soldier as saying, "It was as though the Generals thought 1940 was the year after 1918" because of the French and British strategies of digging in for a trench war again. However the German blitzkrieg was anything but defensive.
Hitler already had his sights set on Belgium and France, and they were totally unprepared. France only had "five well-trained and experienced divisions of the regular army; England had sent only 13 divisions, only five of which came from a professional army, and the only British tank formation was still not operational." Another problem was their dependence on the Maginot Line, which did not cover the 250 miles along the border with Belgium, and that's exactly where the Germans were headed. Conversely, the Germans had 10 armored (Panzer) divisions, six motorized, and 118 infantry divisions. It's no surprise that Hitler basically took over almost all of Europe in about a year! Sadly, as Hitler moved through the Netherlands and Belgium, "thousands of Dutch, Belgian, and French civilians were on the roads. . . most of them had to be satisfied with a straw bed in a farm or a road side. Sometimes, they were the targets of the German aircrafts. Every day they had to find milk for the babies, some food, water or medical assistance. Several hundreds lost their lives on the roads to Dunkirk."
The Evacuation - As Hitler's blitzkrieg swiftly moved into France, the French and British troops were backed up against the coast at Dunkirk with the English Channel behind them. The Germans formed kind of a U shaped noose around them, and the only escape was across the water. (The picture to the right shows the noose, and the text is Nazi propaganda to try and make the British troops surrender before they could be rescued.) By this time Winston Churchill was the PM of Britain, and on May 26 he got the government to authorize Operation Dynamo. The hope was that maybe 45,000 men might be rescued in a two day operation, but in fact 350,000 were evacuated in a ten day period! Unbelievable!
Luckily for the British, the sea conditions were good enough for ships to cross the channel, but the weather sometimes prevented German bombers and fighters from getting through to the coast. Also, at this moment, Hitler decided to halt the Panzer advance on Dunkirk for two days. (There's some disagreement about why, but it was probably because he didn't want to risk the tanks getting bogged down in the rivers and canals around Dunkirk, and it might also be because Goering confidently told him that the Luftwaffe (air force) could put a stop to any attempt at evacuation across the English Channel.)
The British command in Dover "organized a motley fleet of craft ranging in size from destroyers and large ferries down to weekend pleasure boats. Captained by Royal and Merchant Navy officers, fishermen, lifeboat men, and weekend boaters, they made the hazardous voyages across the North Sea and the English Channel with whatever protection the Navy and the Royal Air Force could give. All routes ran the gauntlet of aerial attack, magnetic mine marine minefields, and assaults by German boats and submarines." It just makes my heart swell to see pictures in the museum of these civilian boaters who volunteered to join the evacuation! What honorable men!
"56 British and French destroyers were involved, of which nine would be lost; 45 ferries were pressed into service; 230 fishing boats and 48 barges (the little ships) were nicknamed the 'cockleshell navy.' A radio announcer said, 'Our great grand-children, when they learn how we began this war by snatching glory out of defeat . . . may also learn how the little holiday boats made an excursion to hell and came back glorious.'" I LOVE this quote!
All during the ten days, the Germans were bombing Dunkirk and the ships/boats like crazy! A heroic group of British and French soldiers are holding the German noose at bay during this time to give the other almost 350,000 men time to be evacuated. The Germans ended up capturing 40,000 of them. "Operation Dynamo saved the British Expeditionary Force, but it cost 68,000 killed, wounded, or prisoners. Additionally 500,000 tons of food and ammunition, 2,472 guns and 63,879 vehicles had to be abandoned on the beaches. 1,000 boats took part in the evacuation, and one shall not forget the 243 boats sunk.
There were amazing pictures in the museum of ships that had been hit, and men hanging on to ropes and life boats waiting to be rescued! And there was a beautiful photo of about 20 small boats, the size you probably go boating on Lake Chelan in during the summer, lined up waiting to leave port in England. Some of these were too small to bring men back in so they they were hauling hundreds of gallons of water to supply the 300,000+ men waiting on the beaches at Dunkirk.
Another picture showed the beach and it looked like the photos of WWI, where men were huddling in foxholes and behind low hills during the shelling; only in this case the sand dunes were being used for protection while the men waited for rescue and hoped the bombs wouldn't hit them. It is simply an amazing story, and I'm so glad we got to see this museum!
After Dunkirk, we headed back across the border to Oostende, Belgium to see the open air Atlantic Wall Museum. This was such a FANTASTIC stop!!!! We both absolutely loved it! It's a two hour long walk (following arrows and placards) through the well preserved Aachen Battery. This is just one small portion of the defenses (bunkers, batteries, and minefields) that Hitler put in place along the Atlantic from Spain to Norway to defend against an Allied invasion from the west (like what happened on D-Day).
These bunkers and tunnels are nestled into the dunes all along the beaches here. From the outside, you’d never imagine there is such an extensive network (over 60 bunkers and two miles of trenches) being hidden. It was a history buff's heaven to be able to explore all these brick tunnels, artillery, bunkers, etc. for a couple of hours! So much fun! Here are a few pics, although they really can't possible show you how large the guns were and how small the tunnels were!
This picture shows the marks where the Germans had pre-sighted their firing range for the big guns like the one above.
Some of the bunkers and underground rooms had mannequins and authentic equipment in them to show what it would've looked like when the Germans were there.
Even though the mannequins are a little cheesy, it's so cool to see all the uniforms, ammunition, supplies, etc. just the way they would've been 65 years ago!
After wandering around this amazing WWII site for hours, we headed down the highway to Bruges. The weather was drizzly and there's no sun in sight, but this city is absolutely beautiful. It reminds me a lot of Amsterdam with its brightly colored buildings and interesting gables on the top of every building. Its old town is a medieval city that still has remnants of the wall that used to protect it, and it has beautiful canals, and winding cobblestone streets.
The best part of arriving in Bruges, though, was walking into our small hotel, The Hotel Patritius. It's an 18th century, neo-classical mansion with hardwood oak floors, high-ceilings, and chandeliers in the breakfast room. It's absolutely gorgeous! And let me tell you that after our last two rooms in Albert and Ieper, this really is a mansion! I am soooooo happy that we're here for three+ days! (The pic to the left is of the staircase in the hotel foyer.)
This is a little sitting area off the foyer. It has leather chairs, a chandelier, and beautiful crown molding around the high ceiling.
This is the breakfast room with chandeliers and floor to ceiling windows.
And this is our room. It has gorgeous Queen Anne chairs with rich purple fabric, and a creamy wallpaper with a beautiful purple floral design. I'm in my dream hotel!
After settling into the room, we headed out to dinner. Our room is only three minutes away from the old town square, but we didn't want to eat down there because it's all expensive tourist food. So the hotel clerk recommended a chic little Italian place down around the corner, and it was real Italian! Not an English translation in sight! :-) We split a plate of prosciutto and melon, which is my favorite Italian appetizer. The melon they serve for this dish in Europe is always some sort of sweet green melon, but it's not a honeydew And the prosciutto was exactly how it should taste, salty and mild and it just melted on the tongue it was so thin. Then Tammy had a pizza with prosciutto, mozzarella and arugula!! Yummy!! My main dish was risotto fruitti di mare (seafood risotto). Now let me just tell you that I am a serious risotto lover! I make a mean dish of risotto at home, and I order it whenever it's on the menu at good restaurants. This one was superb! The seafood was shrimp, mussels, clams, and calamari, and it was sweet and tender, perfectly cooked. The risotto was al dente and rich without being heavy! It was the perfect meal after a long, chilly day!
After our fabulous meal, we had a nice stroll down to the square. It's Sunday night so all the streets are very quiet, and there were only a few tourists down in the city center. The sun had come out during dinner, so it was warm enough to just sit in the square and bask in the sweet, old-town beauty that is Bruges. It was an absolutely perfect evening!
Tomorrow is when we'll really start exploring it!
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