At the eastern edge of the main Dunkirk port – at the ‘Eastern Mole’ site where British Expeditionary Force troops and French soldiers were evacuated in May 1940 - you can find a small bunker site.
This area – also known as Bastion 28 – is the location of an old fort and on the site of a former French naval gun batterie. Little remains of the batterie, but you can see a barracks block from the fort as you make your way to the tip of land where Widerstandsnest Molenfuss Ost now stands.
Here you can get up close to a R631 casemate which was built for a 4.7cm Skoda fortress gun. While the gun has long since been removed you can still see the ball embrasure where it was once located along with a second embrasure in the rear of the building for close quarters defence.
Just a few yards inland behind the breakwater and river you can find the steel cupola of a R114a six embrasure turret bunker which is now almost completely covered over inside a small ‘artists’ park.
This site is worth the visit just to stand and look out across the wide sandy beach to the east and let yourself picture the scene in May and early June 1940 where thousands of troops and abandoned vehicles stood as they waited, under fire, to be rescued and brought home to a hero’s welcome.