De-Panne Travel Guide
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26km (16 miles) SW of Ostend; 7km (4 miles) SW of Oostduinkerke
De Panne, near Dunkirk, is Belgium's closest coastal point to France and England. During World War I, it was here that King Albert I clung to Belgian resistance against German occupying forces. But its most famous moment came in 1940, during World War II, when its sandy beach was the site of the massive evacuation of beleaguered Allied forces carried out by a makeshift armada of small craft gathered from boat owners around England. When "the miracle of Dunkirk" was over, almost all the soldiers were saved, and the 13km (7 1/2-mile) stretch of beach between Dunkirk and De Panne was a mass of military litter. It's a little-recognized fact that the British commander, Lord Gort, was not headquartered in Dunkirk but here in De Panne.
Today, that wide beach -- .5km ( 1/4 mile) at low tide -- and spectacular sand dunes bring hordes of visitors to De Panne each year. The dunes are made all the more beautiful by wooded areas that turn them into a wonderland of greenery banding the white sands of the beach and the gray sea beyond.
