Visiting the Dyle Line and the Escaut

[IanC]

Friends,

Hope you can help.

I am planing my trip to visit a number of places where the British Expeditionary Forces fought during 1940. The first two places I am planning to visit are the Dyle Line and the areas of the Escault that the BEF subsequently defended.

Has anyone visited these places? Is there anything there that commemorate the battles fought or anything else of interest? At the moment the only memorial I have found for the Dyle line is this one located in Gastuche Belgium:

http://durhamlightinfantry.webs.com/document.jpg

Unfortunately I have not found anything for the battles around the Escaut area. I was expecting to find more because one Victoria cross was won near the River Dyle by Dick Annand and two were awarded on the Escaut by George Gristock and Harry Nicholls.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Regards

Ian

[robin morley]

Hello Ian,

Thats very interesting, I have an uncle who unfortunatly died before I was born, He served in ww1 in France as a mechanic in the RFC. On return to The UK he joined the territorial army in the DLI rising to the rank of company sergeant major and was sent to the continent with the BEF being eventually evacuated from Dunkirk along with a German prisoner that he had captured (allegedly) I look forward to seeing some photos of your trip and hope you have a good time.

Regards

Robin

[IanC]

Thanks Robin.

If you are interested in finding out more about the fighting on the Dyle and Escaut I can highly recommend the book "Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man" by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore. I was told about it by another another member here and it goes into detail about the the actions of the BEF from the Dyle to Dunkirk.

Cheers

Ian

[robin morley]

Hi Ian, I will look it up. I have been meaning to try and research my uncles part in the battle for France. I will pull my finger out and get it done. I was in Belgium and France with my father last year and on the return journey visited Dunkirk. Very interesting.

All the best

Robin