For those whose lives were touched by the Dunkirk evacuation, memories have been very real during its 60th anniversary commemorations. Reporter Phillip Chapman spoke to a York veteran on his return.

Sixty years after escaping the bullet and bomb-ridden beaches of Dunkirk, York veteran Douglas Proctor has been back in a bid to "feel more at peace".

He felt compelled to return for last weekend's 60th anniversary parade to commemorate the mammoth evacuation of more than 300,000 Allied troops retreating from Hitler's advancing tanks.

Many emotional memories were evoked as he sought out significant places and landmarks he encountered during his own evacuation.

All but one were there. The beach where he boarded his boat to freedom, the coast road where he and his fellow troops marched before being split by heavy fire, and remains of the mole (or jetty) which thousands of men used to escape Dunkirk.

But he could not find the farmhouse where his company of the 5th Division had a lucky escape from death.

Hearing a single German fighter overhead, they decided to move on only minutes before many more German planes returned to finish them off.

Douglas said: "There was much in my mind to settle and I hoped that by finding these places I should feel more at peace.

"At the beach in Dunkirk the dunes are now gone. There's just a huge promenade now with hotels and cafs.

"But during the memorial service on the beach last Sunday afternoon I suddenly realised we were on the spot where the original mole was. I was just 400 yards from the hotel where I was staying.

"I really wanted to visit the farmhouse where we were on May 29 but I just couldn't find it."

Soon after leaving the farmhouse in 1940 Douglas was to be split from most of his comrades by bombers strafing the marching column as it made its way to the beach.

Initially he had no luck getting a boat home, so he and some friends walked up the beach to La Panne and helped get the injured transferred to hospital ships.

He finally got home aboard a Thames lighter on the evening of June 1. Again he had a lucky escape, after the small boat became a sitting duck - grounded on a sandbank in the Channel.

The overcast conditions meant that, by the time they were afloat, no bombers were flying and Douglas and his shipmates made it home to Ramsgate safely.

Sixty years on many of those who made it home have since passed on. Those who survive are in their seventies and eighties and inevitably the Dunkirk Veterans' Association is being wound up.

While in Dunkirk, Douglas was stood near a West Yorkshire veteran who collapsed and died immediately after the emotional parade.

He said: "He just went down on his back and went white. They fought for at least three quarters of an hour to save him. It was a real shame.

"The parade itself was quite wonderful. We were cheered along the route and the Prince of Wales, who was there to inspect us, was just first class.

"I was there 60 years and two days after I last left. I'm glad I did it but I would not go again. Twice is enough for me."

Although the Dunkirk Veterans' Association has now disbanded, the York branch secretary Peter Shaw says there will continue to be get-togethers.

The York group will be informally called the Dunkirk Old Comrades, York.

Peter, who shook Prince Charles's hand last weekend, said: "The organisation which started in 1956 is to be run down. It's sad but there's nobody can replace the men who are getting old or passing on.

"But a few branches, including York, will be keeping together simply as groups of friends who remember what happened."

reporters@ycp.co.uk

PICTURE: Some of the floral tributes which were on show during the Dunkirk commemorations Picture: Douglas Proctor