Saint-Pol-sur-Mer

Petite-Synthe (French pronunciation: [pətit sɛ̃t]; West Flemish: Klein-Sinten) is a former commune of the Nord département in northern France. The commune of Saint-Pol-sur-Mer was created in 1877, by its territory being detached from Petite-Synthe. In 1971 the commune of Dunkerque absorbed Petite-Synthe and Rosendaël. In 1980, a large part of Petite-Synthe was detached from Dunkerque and merged into Grande-Synthe.

The arrondissement of Dunkirk (French: Dunkerque, Dutch: Duinkerke) is an arrondissement of France in the Nord department in the Hauts-de-France region. It has 111 communes. Its population is 372,180 (2020), and its area is 1,442.7 km2 (557.0 sq mi). It roughly corresponds to the French Westhoek (part of French Flanders), where traditionally French Flemish is spoken.

Dunkirk station (French: Gare de Dunkerque) is a railway station serving the town Dunkirk, Nord department, northern France. This part of French Flanders is near West Flanders in Belgium.

Dunkirk Lighthouse (French: Phare de Dunkerque or Phare de Risban) is an automated first order (i.e. 60 km beam or further) port lighthouse, the highest of this type in France. It is sited near Dunkirk. Construction of the lighthouse was completed in 1843.

Duchesse Anne (formerly called Großherzogin Elisabeth) is the last remaining full-rigged ship under the French flag. She was built in 1901 with a steel hull by the yard of Joh. C. Tecklenborg of Bremerhaven-Geestemünde (Germany) according to plans drawn by Georg W. Claussen. The mainmast is 48 m tall and 25 sails were rigged. She was utilised as a training ship for young aspiring sailors in the German merchant marine.

The Nieuwpoort–Dunkirk Canal (Dutch Kanaal Nieuwpoort–Duinkerke, French Canal Nieuport–Dunkerque) 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. The canal starts at the so-called Ganzepoot lock complex at the mouth of the Yser in Nieuwpoort, where it connects the Yser, the North Sea and the Plassendale–Nieuwpoort Canal. The canal first circles around the old city center and then turns eastward, past the village of Wulpen in the municipality of Koksijde. Then the canal turns inland towards the city of Veurne, where it connects with the Lovaart Canal. The canal goes around Veurne, and then bends back towards the shoreline by Adinkerke. After almost 19 kilometres (12 mi) in Belgium, the canal continues into France, passing the communes of Bray-Dunes and Zuydcoote. In Dunkirk it connects again to the North Sea where the Nieuwpoort–Dunkirk Canal finally ends in linkups with the Bourbourg and Bergues canals. The Plassendale–Nieuwpoort–Veurne–Dunkirk Canal was built around 1630; it connects with other canals built in that period, the Ghent–Bruges Canal (1613), and Bruges–Oostend Canal (1618). The Canal de Furnes is the French name for the portion of the Nieuwpoort–Dunkirk Canal running in France, from Dunkirk to the Belgian border town of Veurne (Fr. Furnes). The Belgian border is at PK13.

The Battle of Dunkirk (French: Bataille de Dunkerque) was fought around the French port of Dunkirk (Dunkerque) during the Second World War, between the Allies and Nazi Germany. As the Allies were losing the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation of British and other Allied forces to Britain from 26 May to 4 June 1940. After the Phoney War, the Battle of France began in earnest on 10 May 1940. To the east, the German Army Group B invaded the Netherlands and advanced westward. In response, the Supreme Allied Commander, French General Maurice Gamelin, initiated "Plan D" and British and French troops entered Belgium to engage the Germans in the Netherlands. French planning for war relied on the Maginot Line fortifications along the German–French border protecting the region of Lorraine but the line did not cover the Belgian border. German forces had already crossed most of the Netherlands before the French forces had arrived. Gamelin instead committed the forces under his command – three mechanised forces, the French First and Seventh Armies and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) – to the River Dyle. On 14 May, German Army Group A burst through the Ardennes and advanced rapidly westward toward Sedan, turning northward to the English Channel, using Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein's plan Sichelschnitt (under the German strategy Fall Gelb), effectively flanking the Allied forces. A series of Allied counter-attacks, including the Battle of Arras, failed to sever the German spearhead, which reached the coast on 20 May, separating the BEF near Armentières, the French First Army, and the Belgian Army further to the north from the majority of French troops south of the German penetration. After reaching the Channel, the German forces swung north along the coast, threatening to capture the ports and trap the British and French forces. In one of the most debated decisions of the war, the Germans halted their advance on Dunkirk. What became known as the "Halt Order" did not originate with Adolf Hitler. Generaloberste (Colonel-Generals) Gerd von Rundstedt and Günther von Kluge suggested that the German forces around the Dunkirk pocket should cease their advance on the port and consolidate to avoid an Allied breakout. Hitler sanctioned the order on 24 May with the support of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (German high command). The army was to halt for three days, which gave the Allies sufficient time to organise the Dunkirk evacuation and build a defensive line. While more than 330,000 Allied troops were rescued, the British and French sustained heavy casualties and were forced to abandon nearly all their equipment; around 16,000 French and 1,000 British soldiers died during the evacuation. The British Expeditionary Force alone lost some 68,000 soldiers during the French campaign.

The Church of Saint-Éloi (French: église Saint-Éloi), nicknamed the Cathedral of the Sands, is a Roman Catholic church in Dunkirk, France. It was listed as a Historic Monument in 1916, whereas the belfry of the original church across the street was listed in 1840. The belfry is also part of the World Heritage-listed Belfries of Belgium and France.

Dunkirk (UK: dun-KURK, US: DUN-kurk, French: Dunkerque [dœ̃kɛʁk] , West Flemish: Duunkerke, Dutch: Duinkerke or Duinkerken) is a commune 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.

The siege of Dunkirk took place in the Autumn of 1793 when British, Hanoverian, Austrian, and Hesse-Kassel troops under the command of Prince Frederick, Duke of York besieged the fortified French border port of Dunkirk, as part as the Flanders campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars. Following a Coalition defeat at the Battle of Hondshoote they were forced to raise the siege and withdraw northeast.

The siege of Dunkirk in 1658 was a military operation by France and the Commonwealth of England intended to capture the fortified port city of Dunkirk, Spain's greatest privateering base, from a Spanish garrison strengthened with English Royalists and French Fronduers. Dunkirk (Dutch for 'Church in the dunes') was a strategic port on the southern coast of the English Channel in the Spanish Netherlands that had often been a point of contention previously and had changed hands a number of times. Privateers operating out of Dunkirk and other ports had cost England some 1,500 to 2,000 merchant ships in the past year. The French and their English Commonwealth allies were commanded by Marshal of France Turenne. The siege would last a month and featured numerous sorties by the garrison and a determined relief attempt by the Spanish army under the command of Don Juan of Austria and allied English Royalists led by Duke of York and rebels of the French Fronde under the Great Condé that resulted in the battle of the Dunes.

The Ateliers et Chantiers de France (ACF, Workshops and Shipyards of France) was a major shipyard that was established in Dunkirk, France, in 1898. The shipyard boomed in the period before World War I (1914–18), but struggled in the inter-war period. It was badly damaged during World War II (1939–45). In the first thirty years after the war the shipyard again experienced a boom and employed up to 3,000 workers making oil tankers, and then liquid natural gas tankers. Demand dropped off in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1972 the shipyard became Chantiers de France-Dunkerque, and in 1983 merged with others yards to become part of Chantiers du Nord et de la Mediterranee, or Normed. The shipyard closed in 1987.