VETERAN and serving soldiers were among a group journeying to Dunkirk to pay their respects on the 70th anniversary of the crucial wartime operation.

Members of the Buckhurst Hill branch of the Royal British Legion joined with parish councillors and local residents to travel to France on the anniversary of the 1940 operation which successfully evacuated the British Expeditionary Force during the Second World War.

Departing from Dover and travelling by ferry to Calais, the sea voyage was marked by a short ceremony in which a wreath was thrown overboard to mark the death of Cyril Nichols.

Mr Nichols, of Powell Road, in Buckhurst Hill, was a volunteer captain of a vessel heading to Dunkirk when his ship was sunk by a German dive-bomber. He was the first Buckhurst Hill casualty of the war.

Upon arrival in France, the contingent visited the war memorial in Dunkirk before travelling to the nearby village of Leffrinckoucke.

There, Mayor Bernard Weisbecher presented the group with an original 1940s Enfield rifle which had been found on the Dunkirk beach by local resident Johann Tytget using a metal detector.

The tour continued with a parade through Dunkirk, and the group met with several British officials paying their respects including Prince Michael of Kent.

Among the British Legion contingent was James White, 89, of Roding View, Buckhurst Hill, who was part of the original evacuation mission in 1940.

He said: “I was on the original Dunkirk run. I don't like to talk about it. It was heartbreaking in a way, but although it was sad in many ways, it was good to go back.”

The youngest member of the group was serving Royal Marine Sergeant Tom Baird, 29, who attended with his grandfather and Buckhurst Hill British Legion member George Surridge.

Mr Baird laid a wreath for the Royal Marines and was also able to organise for the group to visit HMS Monmouth.

He said: “It was an absolute pleasure and an amazing experience. I'll never forget it.”

Janice Curd was among four members of Buckhurst Hill Parish Council who made the trip.

She said: “We had a fantastic crowd of people. People you never knew and people you had known for a long time. Although it was a very important, very serious event, we went with a happy heart and embraced every occasion.”

The group's experience at the village of Leffrinckoucke was so successful there are now suggestions it should be twinned with Buckhurst Hill.

The rifle offered to the group by the village's mayor will be permanently displayed at the parish council offices, in Queens Road.

Buckhurst Hill British Legion chairman Stephen Goddard said: “It was a complete surprise when the mayor of the town came forward and presented us with the rifle. I was very pleased with our visit because we were the only British contingent to go there.

“Everyone who went on the trip was very pleased with it, and it was a great success.”