The 'kerke' suffix is common in west Flanders as an area surrounding a church (similar to kirk in Scotland and North East England). The closest French towns are Ghyvelde and Bray-Dunes, which can be accessed via the E40 (A16) motorway, N39 (N1) main road, or N386 (D 60) minor road in addition to a canal. The roads names in brackets employ French nomenclature once crossing the border.
There are regular NMBS trains to Brussels. Access by train to Dunkirk is via Gare de Lille Flandres which is in France. The line across the border is out of use. Dk' bus run buses from the station forecourt to Gare de Dunkerque. A campaign group called Trekhaak-73 is seeking to re-open the railway line.
In the First World War, from June to November 1917 the Commonwealth XV Corps held the front from the Belgian coast to St. Georges [where?]. The 24th and 39th Casualty Clearing Stations were posted at Oosthoek (between Adinkerke and Veurne) from July to November, and the 1st Canadian Casualty Clearing Station was at Adinkerke for a short time in June and July.[1]
During the Second World War, the British Expeditionary Force was involved in the later stages of the defence of Belgium following the German invasion in May 1940, and suffered many casualties in covering the withdrawal to Dunkirk. Commonwealth forces did not return until September 1944, but in the intervening years, many airmen were shot down or crashed in raids on strategic objectives in Belgium, or while returning from missions over Germany.
Adinkerke Military Cemetery contains 365 burials (168 Commonwealth dead of the First World War, 55 from the Second World War, also 142 Czech, Slovak and German war graves). Further Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) graves can be found in the Adinkerke Churchyard Extension, which contains a Belgian military cemetery as well as 67 Commonwealth burials.
Tobacco
Belgium has lower taxes on tobacco than France or the UK; as Adinkerke is the closest Belgian town accessible to the French ferry ports, it attracts many French smokers and British booze cruisers every day to make the trip across the border to buy cheaper tobacco. Adinkerke has the claim to fame of having the greatest number of tobacconists per capita of any area in Europe.[citation needed]
Previously, tobacconists were open around the clock, which provided the advantage of offering other commercial and fuel services that would not normally be found in a town of such a small size. While this may have proved beneficial to travellers, local people were inconvenienced by the constant traffic, so the local mayor ordered the tobacco stores to close during the night. Due to the smuggling associated with reduced tobacco duty, it is not uncommon for the E40 to be closed at night at junction 1 and French and Belgian police to question drivers and passengers of vehicles on the N34 road over the motorway.[citation needed]
A weak euro[2] combined with increasingly expensive tobacco prices has resulted in more and more UK shoppers to make the day trip to Adinkerke to stock up on cheap tobacco. Tax increases[3] have made the UK the second most expensive place to buy tobacco in Europe.[4] Adinkerke tobacco shops cater to English shoppers, selling popular UK brands and accepting payment in sterling.[5]51°04′N2°36′E / 51.067°N 2.600°E / 51.067; 2.600
Dunkirk is a major port city in the department of Nord in northern France. It lies 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from the Belgian border. It has the third-largest French harbour. The population of the commune in 2019 was 86,279.
De Panne is a town and a municipality located on the North Sea coast of the Belgian province of West Flanders. There it borders France, making it the westernmost town in Belgium. It is one of the most popular resort town destinations within Belgium. The municipality includes the village of Adinkerke. On 1 January 2011, De Panne had a total population of 10,748 on a total area of 23.90 km2, which gives a population density of 449.7 inhabitants per km2.
The Menin Gate, officially the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, is a war memorial in Ypres, Belgium, dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves are unknown. The memorial is located at the eastern exit of the town and marks the starting point for one of the main roads that led Allied soldiers to the front line.
European route E40 is the longest European route, more than 8,000 kilometres long, connecting Calais in France via Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan, with Ridder in Kazakhstan near the border with Russia and China.
Armentières is a commune in the Nord department in the Hauts-de-France region in northern France. It is part of the Métropole Européenne de Lille.
Bray-Dunes is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is situated on the Belgian border, with Adinkerke being the closest Belgian town. Bray-Dunes is the northernmost commune and the northernmost point in all of France.
In British slang, a booze cruise is a brief trip from Britain to France or Belgium with the intent of taking advantage of lower prices, and buying personal supplies of (especially) alcohol or tobacco in bulk quantities. This is a legally allowed process not to be confused with smuggling.
Brussels-South railway station is a major railway station in Brussels, Belgium. Geographically, it is located in Saint-Gilles/Sint-Gillis on the border with the adjacent municipality of Anderlecht and just south of the City of Brussels.
A tobacconist, also called a tobacco shop, a tobacconist's shop or a smoke shop, is a retail business that sells tobacco products in various forms and the related accoutrements, such as pipes, lighters, matches, pipe cleaners, and pipe tampers. More specialized retailers might sell ashtrays, humidification devices, hygrometers, humidors, cigar cutters, and more. Books and magazines, especially ones related to tobacco are commonly offered. Items irrelevant to tobacco such as puzzles, games, figurines, hip flasks, walking sticks, and confectionery are sometimes sold.
Assevillers is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.
Nieppe is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is in the Lys Plain and a portion of it is in the Lys Valley.
The Nieuwpoort–Dunkirk Canal is a canal which links the Belgian coastal town of Nieuwpoort with the French port Dunkirk. The Nieuwpoort–Dunkirk Canal forms an extension of the Plassendale–Nieuwpoort Canal, and runs for 32 kilometres (20 mi) pretty much parallel to the coast line, within two to four kilometers from the sea.
Dunkirk station is a railway station serving the town Dunkirk, Nord department, northern France. This part of French Flanders is near West Flanders in Belgium.
Alfred Dunhill was an English tobacconist, entrepreneur and inventor. He is the progenitor of Alfred Dunhill, Ltd. a London-based luxury goods company owned by Swiss company Richemont and the Dunhill tobacco products company owned by British American Tobacco.
The 1940 Dunkirk Veterans' Association was an association of British service veterans "who served at Dunkirk and other ports of evacuation between 10 May and June 1940" – that is in the Dunkirk evacuation of 1940, including those who were taken prisoner. Associate membership was available to those "otherwise not qualified, but who had assisted at the ports of evacuation".
Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burial ground for the dead of the First World War in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front. After Tyne Cot, it is the second largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces in Belgium. Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery is located near Poperinge in the province of West Flanders. Most of those buried in the cemetery are war casualties who had been wounded near Ypres and later died in the four large Allied casualty clearing stations located in this area.
Adinkerke Military Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burial ground for the dead of the Western Front of the First and Second World War. It is located near Adinkerke in the municipality of De Panne in western Belgium, close to the French border. The cemetery is surrounded by farmland and can only be reached via a 50-metre grassed path which is not suitable for vehicles.
The Dunkirk Memorial is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorial to the missing that commemorates 4,505 missing dead of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), most of whom fell prior to and during the Battle of Dunkirk in 1939 and 1940, in the fall of France during the Second World War.
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