Last modified: 2010-12-03 by ivan sache
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![[Flag of Dunkirk]](../images/f/fr-59-dk.gif)
![[Logotype flag of Dunkirk]](../images/f/fr-59-d1.gif)
Flags of Dunkirk
Left, traditional flag - Image by Ivan Sache, 25 February 2001
Right, logotype flag - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 26 July 2004
See also:
The municipality of Dunkirk (in French, Dunkerque; in Dutch, Duinkerke; in local Dutch, Duynkercque or Duunkerke; 69,274 inhabitants in 2006; 3,734 ha) is located on the North Sea, 10 km south-west of the border with Belgium. Dunkirk is the cultural capital of French Flanders.
The municipality of Dunkirk was increased by the incorporation of the
neighbouring former municipalities of Malo-les-Bains (split from Rosendaë in 1881, incorporated to Dunkirk in 1970), Petite-Synthe (incorporated in 1972), Rosendaël (split from Teteghem and Coudekerque-Branche in 1856, incorporated to Dunkirk in 1972) and Mardyck (incorporated in 1980 with the status of associated municipality). In 1980, the borough of Albeck was separated from Dunkerque-Petite-Synthe and incorporated to the neighbouring municipality of Grande-Synthe. A project of incorporation of the municipalities of Saint-Pol-sur-Mer (split from Petite-Synthe in 1877) and Fort-Mardyck into Dunkirk failed in 2004.
In the 7th century, a chapel was built by a small fishers' colony
located in a small inlet protected by dunes; the place was named the
dunes' church, in ancient Dutch duyn kerke. The legend says that the town was fortified by the Viking Allowyn, who was converted to the Christian religion by St. Eligiius, and therefore protected from the assault of the pagan Vikings. The first town wall was indeed built in 960 by Baldwin III the Young, the fourth Count of Flanders. The port, specialized in herring fishing, increased, whereas the hinterland was completely revamped by drainings, organized according to the wateringue system, and a dense network of polder canals, locally known as watergangs.
Surrounded by thick walls, Dunkirk experienced several sieges,
for instance by the French in 1558. The wealthy town was highly coveted
by the great powers, and Dunkirk was successively ruled by Flanders,
Burgundy, Austria, Spain, Britain and France. During the famous Battle
of the Dunes, won by Turenne on 25 June 1658, the town changed three
times of sovereign: Turenne seized it from the Spaniards but
Louis XIV delivered it to England on the evening of the battle.
Dunkirk was eventually purchased from England and incorporated into the Kingdom of France in 1662; the town was personally favoured by King Louis XIV, who needed its corsairs, known since the 14th century. The most famous of them, Jean Bart (1650-1702), nearly ruined the Dutch maritime trade. Serving in the Dutch fleet under Admiral De Ruyter until 1674, Bart joined the Marine Royale in 1679, when the war between France and Holland broke out. He campaigned in the Mediterranean Sea against Spain and later in the Channel against England and Holland. On 18 June 1694, Jean Bart won the battle of Texel, recapturing 80 French ships loaded with grain escorted by eight Dutch war vessels; this act probably saved France from famine. On 5 July, the son and the brother-in-law of Jean Bart presented to the king in Versailles the two Dutch ensigns captured from the flagship Prince of Friesland.
Dunkirk, nicknamed "The Heroic Town", was the seat of the Dynamo
Operation in May 1940. In nine days, 338,226 allied soldiers were
evacuated from the "Dunkirk hell" by the sea.
On 20 May 1940, two German Panzer divisions commanded by Guderian
reached Abbeville and the sea, respectively, therefore splitting the allied troops into two parts: one million of French, Belgian and British soldiers
were caught in the trap. On 24 May, the German panzers set up six
bridgeheads on river Aa and reached the town of Bourbourg. An order by
General Von Rundstedt, confirmed by Adolf Hitler, who was only
interested in seizing Paris, stopped the breakthrough up to 27 May. The
Allies grouped their troops in a 100 x 40 km stripe between Lille and Dunkirk. The French General Weygand proposed to counter-attack but the British War Cabinet, supporting General Gort's plan, ordered the evacuation and set up the Dynamo operation. Commanded
by Vice Admiral Ramsay from a cellar of the castle of Dover, the operation lasted from 26 May to 4 June. On 29 May, the stripe was reduced to a thin
piece of land between Dunkirk, Bergues, Nieuwpoort and Veurne.
The Royal Navy commissioned 39 destroyers and several auxiliary ships.
However, the flatness of the beaches forced the big vessels to moor at
a distance from the coast. The famous "Little Ships", that is some 370 ferries, trawlers, tugboats, barges and yachts, shuttled the soldiers to the big vessels. The evacuation was protected by the Royal Air Force
but the German bombers, supported by stukas, systematically bombed the
town of Dunkirk, the beaches and the big vessels. On 29 May, 400
bombers sunk 250 ships and two modern French torpedo boats, the
Jaguar and the Sirocco. Fortunately, the cloudy weather and the smoke caused by the blazes prevented the Luftwaffe to fly except on 27, 29 May and 1 June.
The evacuation was made even more complicated by the limited number of ships compared to the number of men. On 4 June, the
Shikari completed the evacuation, some seven hours before the
entrance of the German troops into the port of Dunkirk. The Germans
could capture "only" 35,000 soldiers, mostly French troops involved in
rearguard action. The operation was celebrated in London as a great
success, even if Churchill mentioned that wars cannot be won with
evacuations. The New York Times wrote (something like): "As long as
English is spoken, the name of Dunkirk shall be pronounced with the
greatest respect".
The port of Dunkirk, totally rebuilt along with the town after the Second World War, is the first port in France for ore and coal imports, fruits traffic, and cargo tonnage other than oil products, and the second port in France after Calais for trade with the United Kingdom. It is made of the Eastern (traditional, behind locks) and Western (tidal, dredged in 1972) Ports. The organization of a Port Authority (incorporated in 1966) traces back to the creation of the Chamber of Commerce of Dunkirk by King Louis XIV in 1700. The first modern basin (Bassin du Commerce) was dredged in 1848.
Dunkirk has preserved a very vivid carnival. Two centuries ago, there were two main festivals in Dunkirk: the carnival, scheduled for Mardi-Gras and, following the European tradition, with street parades, and the foye, a banquet offerred to the seamen by the shipowners before the leave for the grande pêche in Iceland. The foye was progressively incorporated into the carnival, which has therefore both Flemish and maritime roots. The carnival of the port of Dunkirk was already famous all over France in the early 19th century.
Several of the carnival brotherhoods, called bandes, have kept Flemish names such as the Kakernesches (the younger children), the Snustreraers (the martens) and the Visscherbende (Fishers' brotherhood) and the local Dutch dialect is still used on their songs. The main street parade, led by the masked masquelours and the musicians wearing the traditional fishers' dress, stops in front of the Town Hall and claims 450 kg of kippers. From the balcony, the Mayor throws six (plastic) lobsters down to the crowd. The happy few who can catch one of six threwn lobsters is awarded a real lobster, but most of the winners prefer to keep the plastic trophy. The throwing event is a common feature
of several most carnivals in the north of France and Belgium. The parade ends near the statue of Jean Bart where a special dance and song are
performed. During the parade, most bandes stop at "chapels", which
are indeed houses whose inhabitants offer food and beverages to the. Like in Binche and elsewhere, the intrigueurs and figuemans, dressed so that they cannot be identified, mock the
spectators and tell them a few plain truths, one of the main
traditional aims of the carnival. The parade then goes to the different
boroughs of the town, and fish is also threwn form the balcony of the
former town halls: herrings (80 kg) in Petite-Synthe (80 kg) and
Saint-Pol-sur-Mer (250 kg) and dried whitings (150 kg) in Rosendaël.
It is considered that some 930 kg of fish are released in Dunkirk
during the Carnival.
Dunkirk is the place of the cyclist race Les Quatre Jours de Dunkerque (Dunkirk Four Days), won for the first time by Louis Deprez in 1955. The list of the winners of the race is quite impressive, including Jacques Anquetil (1958, 1959), Freddy Maertens (1973, 1975, 1976, 1978), Bernard Hinault (1984), Stephen Roche (1990, Johan Musseuw (1995, 1997) and Alexandre Vinokourov (1998). The race is mostly a Belgian (22 wins) and French (20 wins) affair.
Sources:
Ivan Sache, 9 July 2006
The traditional flag of Dunkirk, made of six
horizontal stripes, white-blue-white-blue-white-blue, is one of the most ancient city flags in France, shown in ancient flag charts (for instance Danckert's flag chart [ca.1700] [dan05], flag #77, labelled "Vl. van Duynkerken").
TV images of the Quatre Jours de Dunkerque confirm every year that the traditional striped flag is widely used in the town, for instance on the sea front.
In July 2004, the historical flag of Dunkirk, usually hoisted over the balcony of the town hall, along with the French and Flemish flags, was replaced there by a white flag with the municipal logotype.
The municipal logotype of Dunkirk bears the motto Les grands horizons, which means "great horizons / forecasts".
Ivan Sache & Olivier Touzeau, 9 July 2006
![[Flag of Malo-les-Bains]](../images/f/fr-59-ml.gif)
Flag of Malo-les-Bains - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 9 July 2006
The former municipality of Malo-les-Bains (16,182 inhabitants in 1999; 376 ha) was founded east of Dunkirk, as the town's sea resort,
before 1870 by a shipowner from Dunkirk called Malo. The municipality
of Malo-les-Bains seceded from Rosendaél in 1881 and was incorporated to Dunkirk in 1970.
Malo-les-Bains, nicknamed "The Queen of the Northern Beaches" in the beginning of the 20th century, has kept its promenade and houses called "malouines.
In spring and summer, the flags of the former municipalities incorporated to Dunkirk are flown on the promenade of Malo, along with the municipal flag of Dunkirk. The flag of Malo-les-Bains and its use were independently confirmed by Ludovic Leu.
The flag of Malo-les-Bains is red with a white star near the hoist and
a yellow lower right quarter. The design is based on the municipal
arms (Armorial Général des Communes de France):
De gueules à une étoile d'argent, accompagnée en chef de deux roses du même, sur des ondes d'argent; au chef d'or chargé d'un lion de sable ("Gules a mullet argent surmonted by two roses of the same on waves argent a chief or a lion sable"). The chief is the chief of Flanders.
On 2 August 2009, "A. -C. P." explained in La Voix du Nord the origin of the red and yellow colours, which are seen everywhere in Malo-les-Bains (even the street plaques have yellow letters on a red background, something very unusual, if not unique, in France).
In 1899, the municipality of Malo-les-Bains and its Mayor, Adolphe
Geeraert, launched a contest, open to all French artists, for a
municipal coat of arms, intended to celebrate the secession from
Rosendaël. The winning design was proposed by a Mr. Amaury, from Paris
(unless he was a Mr. Amaury de Paris, the writing is ambiguous), as:
"Gules a star argent issuant from a sea of the same, which is Malo-les-
Bains proper, flanked by two roses or of Rosendaël, a chief or charged
with a lion sable and langued (sic), which is Flanders." The shield
surmonts a scroll.
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 29 August 2009
![[Flag of Mardyck]](../images/f/fr-59-mk.gif)
Flag of Mardyck - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 9 July 2006
The former municipality of Mardyck (in Dutch, Mardijk; 372 inhabitants
in 1999; 869 ha), located west of Dunkirk and Fort-Mardyck, was incorporated to the municipality of Dunkirk in 1980 with the status of associated municipality.
Mardyck is one of those places where nearly nobody would like to live, being located within the Dunkirk industrial park and surrounded by
three plants that have received the "Seveso" label (owned by
Total-Fina-Elf, Copenor and Stocknord). Within a 10-km radius, 14 plants deserve the "Seveso" label, not to mention the nuclear power plant of Gravelines. The Norwegian gazoduct Norfra, set up in 1998, runs at the limit of the village. In 1991, a risk analysis recommended to build an artificial hill of 100 m in height and 300 m in width to protect the village in case of an industrial accident.
After the explosion of the AZF plant in Toulouse in 2001, the project of transferring the villagers eleswhere has resurfaced. It would be
easier there to move the inhabitants than to move the dangerous plants
far away from the towns, as it has been recommended in Bordeaux, Marseilles and Lyon.
(Based on an article by Stéphane Sarpaux in L'Interdit, November 2001, no longer online)
On 2 January 2002, the Total plant released sulphur dioxyde in a
concentration much higher than the norm. Several inhabitants of Mardyck
were poisoned, a few of them had to be hospitalized. On 25 June 2002,
Mouvement National de Lutte pour l'Environnement asked the authorities to organize and fund the transfer of the inhabitants of Mardyck who would require it.
In Mardyck in particular and in France in general, concern for the
industrial risk has dramatically increased after the AZF explosion.
Mardyck was indeed one of the richest municipalities in France because
the chemical companies whose plants are located on the municipal
territory paid a lot of business taxes. Therefore, earlier proposals of
transferring the villagers were rejected in the 1980s. It is said that
Dunkirk "purchased" Mardyck in 1980, being mostly interested in the
business taxes.
The flag of Mardyck, as reported to Arnaud Leroy, is horizontally divided blue-yellow-blue-yellow-blue-yellow. The design was clearly inspired by the flag of Dunkirk while the colours are taken from the arms of Mardyck (Armorial Général des Communes de France): D'azur à une barque d'or portant un Saint-Nicolas de carnation, vêtu d'argent et d'or, crossé et mitré du même et bénissant de la dextre ("Azure a barque or carrying a Saint Nicholas proper dressed in argent and or with a crozier and a miter of the same blessing with the dexter").
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 9 July 2006
![[Flag of Petite-Synthe]](../images/f/fr-59-ps.gif)
Flag of Petite-Synthe - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 9 July 2006
The former municipality of Petite-Synthe (in Dutch, Klein-Sinten; 16,707 inhabitants in 1999; 1,145 ha), located in the south-west of Dunkirk, was incorporated to the municipality of Dunkirk in 1972. In 1980, the borough of Albeck was separated from Dunkirk-Petite-Synthe and incorporated to the neighbouring municipality of Grande-Synthe. The municipality of Saint-Pol-sur-Mer seceded from Petite-Synthe in 1877.
In spring and summer, the flags of the former municipalities incorporated to Dunkirk are flown on the promenade of Malo, along with the municipal flag of Dunkirk. The flag of Petite-Synthe and its use were independently confirmed by Ludovic Leu.
The flag of Petite-Synthe is vertically divided blue-red. Blue is not shown on the municipal arms, which are D'argent à la croix de gueules, cantonnée de quatre grelots de sable ("Argent a cross gules cantonned by four hawk's bells sable"). However, the traditional bicolour flag of the neighbouring municipality of Grande-Synthe is vertically divided blue-yellow. Petite-Synthe might have replaced the yellow stripe by a red stripe alluding to the cross on the arms, but this explanation might be too far-fetched.
Arnaud Leroy & Ivan Sache, 9 July 2006
![[Flag of Rosendael]](../images/f/fr-59-ro.gif)
![[Flag of Rosendael]](../images/f/fr-59-r1.gif)
Flag of Rosendaël, two versions - Images by Arnaud Leroy, 9 July 2006
The former municipality of Rosendaël (in Dutch, Rozendaal; 18,272 inhabitants in 1999) is located east of Dunkirk and Malo-les-Bains. The municipality of Rosendaël seceded from Teteghem in 1856 and was incorporated to the municipality of Dunkirk in 1972.
In spring and summer, the flags of the former municipalities incorporated to Dunkirk are flown on the promenade of Malo, along with the municipal flag of Dunkirk. There the flag of Rosendaël seems to be horizontally divided green-red-green-red-green-red. However, Ludovic Leu reported that the flag is horizontally divided red-green-red-green-red-green. It is therefore possible that the flag
was once hoisted upside down on the promenade.
The canting arms of Rosendaël are "Argent a rose gules". The origin of
the green colour on the flag is not known. However, the footballers of
FC Rosendaël wear a vertically red and green striped jersey, of the official colours of the club.
Arnaud Leroy & Ivan Sache, 9 July 2006
![[Other flag of Dunkirk]](../images/f/fr-59-d2.gif)
Historical, unidentified flag of Dunkirk - Image by Ivan Sache, 18 July 2004
Danckert's flag chart [ca.1700]
[dan05] shows an other flag for
Dunkirk, as #79, labelled "Franse Vl. van Duinkerk" - French
flag of Dunkirk.
The flag is white with a red cross placed in a square canton outlined in white.
Ivan Sache, 18 July 2001
![[Burgee of YCMN]](../images/f/fr-59~dk.gif)
Burgee of YCMN - Image by Ivan Sache, 13 June 2010
Soon after the end of the Second World War, the Yacht Club
Dunkerquois was founded in Dunkirk. Beforehand, the yachtmen
from Dunkirk sailed with the Yacht Club du Nord de la France (YCNF) in the
neighbouring town of Calais. The two clubs merged under the flag of the Yacht Club du Nord de la France.
In 1958, the Dunkirk section of YCNF seceded and formed
the Yacht Club de la Mer du Nord (YCMN). In 1963, the club was awarded the national Neptune d'Argent, as the
most dynamic and competent yacht club of the year. The sailing boat
Dunkerque, sailing under the YCMN flag, won the Yachting Tour de France in 1979, 1980, 1981. In 1983, four members of the YCMN won the World Quarter Ton Cup on the Comte de Flandres.
The match-racer and skipper Bertrand Pacé learned to sail and skip with the YCMN.
The burgee of the YCMN (photo) is in proportions 1:2, white with a light blue cross and a black lion in canton. The blue cross recalls the flag of Dunkirk, whereas the lion is the Flemish lion.
Ivan Sache, 25 December 2004
![[Flag of CCI Dunkirk]](../images/f/fr-59$dk.gif)
Flag of CCI Dunkirk - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 29 March 2004
The flag of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Dunkirk is made of the logotype of the CCI on a white field, with the hoist and the fly delimited as if the white field was made of ellipse on a blue field. The limit between the white and blue fields are of c. 1/4 of the length at the upper hoist and lower fly, and of c. 1/8 at the upper fly and lower hoist.
Olivier Touzeau, 29 March 2004