The aftermath of Dunkirk

Eighty years ago today, a few days after the Dunkirk evacuation, the 51st Highland Division was forced to surrender to German forces under the command of Rommel at the coastal French town of St Valery en Caux.
The Division included men of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, the Black Watch, the Gordon Highlanders, the Seaforth Highlanders, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, RAMC, RASC, RA and other supporting and attached troops from other parts of the UK.
After the surrender the soldiers were marched into Holland and then on to POW camps in Germany and Poland. They were to remain in captivity for the next 5 years.
A friend of ours father, a Gordon Highlander, was sent to Stalag VIII at Lamsdorf, now Łambinowice, in south west Poland. A few years ago we accompanied her and her husband to the remains of the camp deep in the forest. The photograph shows part of the remains of the huge camp. The previous day we had visited the Auschwitz concentration camp and so it was all pretty intense.
In January 1945, as the Soviet armies advanced into Poland and Germany, many of the prisoners were marched westward in groups of 200 to 300 in the so-called Death March. Some died from the bitter cold and exhaustion. The lucky ones got far enough to the west to be liberated by the American army.