For some reason, I knew next to nothing about the Dunkirk evacuations until about 15 years ago. Oh, I knew that it had happened but, probably because none of my immediate family or their friends had been involved, it was just a piece of history. I wasn't born until 10 years later and my father's service was with the Merchant Navy and various cousins, etc had also been serving elsewhere so it was never talked about at home in the way some other events were. It was only while I was working at a BBC local radio station around the turn of the century and the Beeb were compiling their "Peoples' War" archive that I had to transcribe a number of accounts of the Dunkirk evacuations from people who'd been there - either as rescued troops, boat crews or air crew. I became absolutely absorbed in the story and, several times, cried over what I was typing. I've been to Dunkirk any number of times and, since then, I've seen that coastline from a different perspective.
Some time later, I wrote a fictional account of that time which anyone who's interested can read at
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24301298/Watch%20and%20Wait.doc