SOLDIERS from the Durham Light Infantry who gave their lives in one of the most famous episodes of the Second World War are to be remembered in France on the 70th anniversary of their sacrifice.

A memorial plaque is to be unveiled to the 2nd Battalion of the DLI in the village near Dunkirk where about 100 Durhams died in a couple of days in May 1940.

Part of the commemoration will be the positioning of an information board at the spot where Private Tom Rodgers, from Wingate, fell while defending a bridge.

His brother, George, said yesterday: “Our late father would have been absolutely overcome with sorrow and grief but also so proud to see him remembered in this way.”

The DLI had gone over with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in September 1939 at the start of the war, but had gradually been driven back towards Dunkirk by the Germans.

In May 1940, the 2nd Battalion was part of the British rearguard. Its job was to hold up the Germans while as many British soldiers as possible escaped in the famous fleet of little ships.

More than 300,000 troops were rescued from the Dunkirk beaches, but the 2nd Battalion paid a heavy price.

Only about 60 of its 760 men made it home from the BEF intact. The others were killed, injured or captured.

During the retreat, Lieutenant Richard Annand, who lived in Durham City, won the war’s first Victoria Cross when he used handgrenades to hold back 20 Germans while he rescued his injured batman in a wheelbarrow.

The Association de Recherches Historiques et Archeologiques Militaires is commemorating the anniversary with an exhibition that will include unseen photos and videos of the BEF’s time in France.

Military memorabilia collected from the beaches will be on show in the village of St Venant in the Pas-de-Calais from May 22 to 27.

Wreaths will be laid on graves – half of the 176 British soldiers buried in St Venant cemetery are Durhams – and there will be tours of the battlefields.

Individual soldiers, such as Pte Rodgers, will also be remembered.

Five members of his family in Hartlepool will travel to see his plaque unveiled beside the old humpback bridge he was defending with his Bren Gun when he died. He was one of more than 300 British soldiers who lost their lives around St Venant in three days.

“This is the first time a French association has organised an exhibition of this importance about British soldiers,”

said Dominique Faivre, president of the association.

“To make it a success, we are asking for help in locating photos, stories and anecdotes from soldiers who fought as part of the BEF in France and Belgium in May and June 1940.”

Anyone with anything for the exhibition, or who wants information, can write to M Faivre at 369 Rue de Calonne, 62350 Saint-Floris, France, or email him at dominiquefaivre@ wanadoo.fr ■ Pte Tom Rodgers’ story was told in the Echo in 2008. It will be posted on Chris Lloyd’s blog on our website this morning.