VETERANS held a special ceremony at Gheluvelt Park in Worcester to commemorate the 75-year anniversary of the evacuation of Dunkirk.

Wreaths were laid at the regimental memorial stone, the Last Post was played, a one minute silence was observed and words of remembrance were spoken during the service at 11am today.

The event was organised by the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regimental Association in honour of the local soldiers who were involved in the evacuation in May, 1940 – a pivotal moment in the Second World War which saved the lives of more than 300,000 Allied men from a German offensive.

But the 7th and 8th Territorial Battalions of the Worcestershire Regiment still suffered horrific casualties at Dunkirk.

Each lost about half of its recruits while six men of the 8th Battalion’s ‘D’ company fell to an even crueller fate, when SS soldiers shot them in the back or killed them with grenades during the Wormhoudt massacre.

Harold Massam, chairman of the Worcester branch of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regimental Association, said: “It is important to hold ceremonies like this.

“If you don’t the sacrifices and bravery of the soldiers involved will be forgotten.

“We organised this event to commemorate all of the men that served and our memorial stone is the perfect place to hold it.”

Maurice Smith, secretary of the association, who led the ceremony, said: “The evacuation of Dunkirk was very important.

“If the soldiers had surrendered, the Germans would have advanced and we would all now be speaking German.

“This event has enabled us to commemorate the men of the 7th and 8th Territorial Battalions who suffered heavy losses.”

Mr Smith, 85, of Kempsey, added that as a boy he witnessed soldiers returning from Dunkirk and marching from Foregate Street in Worcester to the barracks in Norton. They looked “exhausted from being shelled, bombed and under machine gun fire”, he said.

The evacuation from Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo, started on May 27, 1940.

A fleet of small naval boats lifted more than 300,000 Allied soldiers, who were under German attack, from a five-kilometre stretch of beaches in the Dunkirk area and transported them to larger vessels off-shore.

A Worcestershire man played a leading role in the escape.

Captain William Tennant, son of an Upton family, was the Naval Beach Commander during the operation and helped save thousands of lives.

After a distinguished career he became Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire until his death in 1963.