Bad weather has been hampering events planned to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the evacuation of World War Two Allied forces from Dunkirk in northern France.

A fleet of eighty small ships that took part in the operation were due to gather in the English coastal town of Dover, before sailing across the Channel on Thursday.

But rough seas and gales have forced twenty ships to cancel the voyage, and only four of the remaining ones have so far arrived in Dover.

But the organisers say the rest may make the voyage in time, if the weather improves. More than two-hundred thousand mainly British troops were evacuated from Dunkirk -- mostly in small civilian vessels -- in May and June of 1940 when the town was surrounded by German troops.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service