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DUNKIRK:
Rescued from defeat
INTRODUCTION
In the closing days of May 1940, just months into World War II, Britain teetered
on the edge of military disaster. The German army had advanced across Europe
and penned the British forces into a tiny area around the French port of Dunkirk.
Hitler’s tanks were just 10 miles away and the capture or death of the 400,000
troops seemed imminent. Yet by 4 June, over 338,000 men had been evacuated to
England in one of the greatest rescues of all time.
German Army
British rescue troops
British troops
TRAPPED
When war broke out against Nazi Germany on 3 September 1939, British
soldiers, known as the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), were sent across the
channel to help the French and later the Belgian armies against invasion by the
Germans. But the Allied forces underestimated the strength of Hitler’s army, which
used tanks and bombers to smash the Allied defences and drive them back into
France. Overpowered, the BEF was ordered to beat a hasty retreat towards the
port of Dunkirk.
Thousands of men are stranded on the beaches.
OPERATION DYNAMO
As they trickled into Dunkirk, the troops found themselves stranded without
shelter or supplies. They were also under constant attack from the air. On 26
May, the British Admiralty responded by launching Operation Dynamo - the
evacuation of the BEF by sea. This enormous rescue mission was led by Vice
Admiral Ramsay, who rounded-up a huge fleet of vessels - from tiny tugs and
barges, to lifeboats and navy destroyers - to send to Dunkirk.
A soldier is helped onto a waiting ship.
UNDER ATTACK
As the allied rescue ships approached Dunkirk they were easy targets for the
German Stuka bombers. The narrow sea approach with its deadly minefields left little
room for evasive action and the harbour was under constant bombardment. It was left
to the smallest ships to pick up soldiers from the shallow beaches and transport them
to the destroyers and transport ships waiting offshore. Of the 850 vessels which took
part in Operation Dynamo, 235 were sunk.
The French destroyer Bourrasque sinks off Dunkirk while loaded with troops.
HOME AT LAST
The soldiers were packed onto the ships like sardines for the hazardous
journey back to Britain. When they arrived, exhausted, at the ports of
Dover, Ramsgate and Margate they were greeted as heroes. The BEF lost
more than 68,000 men at Dunkirk, but a third of a million troops were
evacuated, making it the greatest mass rescue of all time.
British troops
disembark from a
destroyer at Dover
NO SURRENDER
By 4 June 1940, Dunkirk was occupied by the Germans. The British Prime
Minister, Winston Churchill, was determined that Britain would not be
demoralised by the defeat and he gave fiery speeches to rouse the spirits of
the British people. Despite heavy losses, the BEF soon regrouped and became
the nucleus of the new alliance which, five years later, won World War II.
News of the evacuation boosted the war effort.