VETERANS gathered at a French cemetery to remember those who lost and saved at Dunkirk 75 years ago.

The ceremony in the French port town marked the anniversary of the moment 338,000 British and French troops were saved from German forces and others died during the Second World War rescue known as Operation Dynamo.

Michael Bentall, 94, who was born in Brighton and moved to Canada after the war, was among one of the veterans to take part.

Dressed in a blue suit adorned with medals he joined Garth Wright, 95, of Plymouth, on deck of the Princess Freda to travel to the commemoration.

Despite their harrowing memories, they grinned and showed no glimpse of unease as they sailed across the English Channel, reliving the route they took decades ago in 1940.

They were both evacuated from Dunkirk – which Mr Bentall described as “Dante’s Inferno” – surviving on cherry brandy and sandwiches as they were strafed by German planes like clockwork every half hour.

Mr Bentall, now a father-of-six, recalls when he and a group of men headed for the beaches but found them littered with broken vehicles, equipment and even furniture, so headed towards De Panne in Belgium.

He said: “It was just chaotic.

"We were in the sand dunes, we had no food and I had my cherry brandy I picked up on route - somebody had got it for me from the pub.

"That kept me going and I think somebody had some sandwiches. We lived on practically nothing for about two or three days."

In a lull during shelling a group of 13 managed to clamber on to a discarded boat and eventually found a minesweeper and got safely back to Britain.

He said: "It was fate. I don't know how I escaped. It was a miracle, and today I really don't believe I am here.

"I feel very lucky that I managed to get away in one sense, but I am also sad that I lost so many friends, pals and comrades. I don't understand how I have lived so long.”

Dozens of soldiers, sailors and airmen, some veterans and others currently serving, packed into the Dunkirk Military Cemetery for the ceremony.

Beforehand servicemen and their families wandered among the plinths bearing the names of those who had died.

The Sussex and Brighton Universities Royal Naval Unit also took part in the commemorations at a series of events in Ramsgate this week.