DUNEIRK

or DUNKER QUE, fort. seaport., dep. Nord, France (51° 2’ N., 2° 23’ E.), on Strait of Dover, 152 m. N. of Paris; ranks third among Fr. ports, rivalling Bordeaux; large artificial harbor; numerous connecting canals; extensive and varied manufactures and exports, and important fisheries; has fine church of St. Eloi, 1560; chapel of Notre Dame des Dunes, 1405; town burned by English, 1388; taken by them in 1658, but sold to Louis XIV. by Charles II., 1662. Pop. 39,000. In World War, after fighting front stretched northwards to the shores of the North Sea, Dunkirk became an important Allied base, which the Germans attempted to gain in their great battles in Flanders from the Yser in 1914 to the Lys in 1918. After the fall of Antwerp Belgian refugees poured into Dunkirk, which became a Belgian military depot. Subsequently Joffre cone ent rated strong French forces in the vicinity. Throughout the war the town maintained a cosmopolitan character. It was the base of the Fr. patrol service on the northern coast, and a station for Fr. and Brit. naval aeroplanes. Naturally such an important military point was frequently bombed by Ger. aircraft, and many civilians perished as a result. In April 1915 a powerful Ger. land-gun threw shells into Dunkirk, at a range of about 25 m., from a position near Dixmude; but Allied aeroplanes succeeded in putting it out of action. On March 26, 1917, Ger. torpedo boats made a raid on the town, which also suffered heavily by an attack of Ger. aircraft on Nov. 9, 1917, a hospital at Zuydcoote being hit by incendiary bombs.