Sixty years after they escaped the German army in an armada of fishing boats, Dunkirk veterans marched though the French port yesterday at what was to be a last official remembrance ceremony.
Veterans in blue berets fell silent and let their banners drop to the ground as they remembered their epic flight from a German advance in June, 1940.
Cornered on the beaches and facing likely death or capture, almost 340,000 allied soldiers were plucked to safety and ferried across the Channel to Britain during Operation Dynamo.
"The water seemed to be boiling with bullets hitting it, but for some incredible reason none of us were hit," recalled Mr Brian Mackenzie (80), who used his combat helmet to paddle a lifeboat to a waiting ship.
For the veterans yesterday, tears lurked behind the pageantry. "That is what gets you, if you go around the cemeteries and look at the ages of the blokes, 19 to 20, the poor sods got no life whatsoever," said 79-year-old Reginald Rymer.
Speaking to veterans, Prince Charles said the evacuation had been a turning point in the war that had allowed British troops to eventually return in the 1944 D-Day invasion that led to Germany's defeat.
Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that the former Goon and TV presenter, Harry Secombe, said farewell to his former regiment at its last reunion. The singer joined other surviving members of the 132 (Welsh) Field Regiment Royal Artillery Territorial Association when they met at Swansea's Sir John Chard Territorial Army Barracks.
Secombe (78), who is married and has four children, served as a bombardier signaller in the regiment. He has been battling against prostate cancer since he was diagnosed as having the condition in June 1998, and had a stroke in January last year.