French military graves at the Zuydcoote National Necropolis

British military graves from 14-18 at Zuydcoote National Necropolis

German military graves from 14-18 at the Zuydcoote National Necropolis

In 1953, a new plot was created to group together the bodies of French soldiers who died in May and June 1940. This plot contains 904 French soldiers and 14 Spaniards killed during the events of May-June 1940. Once they have been returned to their families, the last bodies of the French soldiers will be transferred there from the communal cemeteries in the region, including around a hundred from the temporary cemetery at Zuydcoote. There are only two national necropolises in the Dunkirk region for the French dead of the Battle of Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo. The first is at Zuydcoote and the second is at Leffrinckoucke, at the Fort des Dunes, where 192 soldiers are buried.Almost opposite the Necropolis are the Zuydcoote sanatorium and the North Farm. Opened in 1910, the hospital treated over 100,000 sick and wounded between 1914 and 1918.&nbsp;The first wounded arrived on 10 May 1940, adding to the 420 children hospitalised. 5 operating theatres worked non-stop despite countless air alerts. More than 12,000 wounded soldiers were treated here, while more than sixty bombs and shells fell on the Sanatorium. &nbsp;The dead soldiers were buried in the dunes.After 4 June 1940, the Germans, who evacuated the wounded French and British soldiers and nursing staff, occupied half of the establishment to turn it into a hospital. On 13 September 1940, the Sanatorium was completely evacuated on the orders of the German authorities. &nbsp;On liberation, the Sanatorium was in a sorry state. All the framework had been dismantled to make anti-tank or Rommel piles. All the metal had been salvaged: beams, beds, etc. for a loss of more than a billion francs at the time. &nbsp;The Sanatorium was completely rebuilt 25 years later.  &nbsp;&nbsp;Built in 1910 for the exclusive use of the Sanatorium, Ferme Nord included stables, cowsheds, pigsties, hen houses, a dairy and a slaughterhouse.&nbsp;&nbsp;After the violent bombing raids on Malo on 24 May 1940, it was decided to move the navy's main infirmary to Zuydcoote. The Sanatorium was already overcrowded, so the doctors had to make do with the North Farm, where only one room was available: the sheepfold. The sheep were driven out and within a few hours, the infirmary was set up.&nbsp;&nbsp;For eleven days, the farm functioned as a hospital. 350 wounded could be accommodated there, 150 in beds, the others on straw. The farm was respected by the planes that raided the roofs, but not by the German artillery. Nevertheless, wounded people flocked there, the most serious of whom were sent to the Sanatorium.&nbsp;After the war, the North Farm was devastated, with gutted buildings and the surrounding land mined and overrun with Rommel stakes. Around thirty German prisoners came to clear the area of mines.

Nécropole Nationale de Zuydcoote