The Dunkirk Cemetery and Memorial are located near the site where hundreds of thousands of allied troops were evacuated as part of Operation Dynamo – the historic campaign to rescue cut off troops from advancing German forces during World War II. Dunkirk had also played an important role as an allied base in World War I.
Dunkirk Cemetery houses 460 World War I graves and 793 from World War II, of which 223 are unidentified. At the entrance to Dunkirk Cemetery is the Dunkirk Memorial, commemorating 4,500 British Expeditionary Force troops who died or were captured there during World War II and who have no known grave.