Dunkirk evacuation Totally Explained

Everything about The Dunkirk Evacuation totally explained

The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo by the British, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk, France, between May 26 and June 4, 1940, when British and French troops were cut off by the German army during the Battle of Dunkirk in the Second World War. Winston Churchill called it the greatest military defeat for many centuries, warning that "the whole root, the core, and brain of the British Army" was stranded in Dunkirk. He hailed their subsequent rescue as a "miracle of deliverance."
In nine days, 338,226 soldiers — 198,229 British and 139,997 French — were rescued by a hastily assembled fleet of 860 boats. Many of the troops were able to embark from the harbor's protective mole onto 42 British destroyers and other large ships, while others had to wade toward the ships, waiting for hours to board, shoulder deep in water. Others were ferried from the beaches to the larger ships, and thousands were carried back to England, by the famous "little ships of Dunkirk," a flotilla of around 700 merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft and RNLI lifeboats — the smallest of which was the 15-foot fishing boat, Tamzine, now in the Imperial War Museum — whose civilian crews were called into service for the emergency. The "miracle of the little ships" remains a prominent folk memory in Britain. Operation Dynamo took its name from the dynamo room in the naval headquarters below Dover Castle, which contained the dynamo that during World War I provided the building with electricity. It was in this room that British Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay planned the operation and briefed Winston Churchill as it was underway.

Progress of evacuation

Initial plans called for the recovery of 45,000 men from the British Expeditionary Force within two days, at which time it was expected that German troops would be able to block further evacuation. Only 25,000 men escaped during this period, including 7,000 on the first day. Ten additional destroyers joined the rescue effort on May 26 and attempted rescue operations in the early morning, but were unable to closely approach the beaches, although several thousand were rescued. However, the pace of evacuation from the shrinking Dunkirk pocket increased steadily.
On May 29, 47,000 British troops were rescued in spite of the first heavy air attack from the Luftwaffe in the evening. The next day, an additional 54,000 men were embarked, including the first French soldiers. 68,000 men and the commander of the BEF evacuated on May 31. A further 64,000 Allied soldiers departed on June 1, before the increasing air attacks prevented further daylight evacuation. Another boat, Bluebird of Chelsea, a yacht originally owned by Sir Malcolm Campbell, holder of the world land speed record, made two round trips to England, carrying hundreds of men.
The term "Dunkirk spirit" still stands for a belief in the solidarity of the British people in adversity.

Losses

Despite the success of this operation, all the heavy equipment and vehicles were abandoned and several thousand French troops were captured in the Dunkirk pocket. Six British and three French destroyers were sunk, along with nine large boats. In addition, 19 destroyers were damaged.. Winston Churchill revealed in his volumes on WWII that the Royal Air Force played a most important role protecting the retreating troops from the Luftwaffe. Without the support of the RAF, the allies wouldn't have had such a successful evacuation. Churchill also said that the sand on the beach softened the explosions from the German bombs. The RAF lost 474 planes, compared to 132 for the Luftwaffe. British ships ferried French troops to Brest, Cherbourg and other ports in Normandy and Brittany, although only about half of the repatriated troops were deployed against the Germans before the armistice.
   In France, the perceived preference of the Royal Navy for evacuating British forces at the expense of the French led to some bitter resentment. The French Admiral Darlan originally ordered that the British forces should receive preference, but Churchill intervened at a May 31st meeting in Paris to order that the evacuation should proceed on equal terms and the British would form the rearguard. A few thousand French forces eventually surrendered, but only after the evacuation effort had been extended for a day to bring 26,175 Frenchmen to Britain on June 4th.
   The very significant loss of military equipment abandoned in Dunkirk reinforced the financial dependence of the British government on the United States.
   The St George's Cross flown from the jack staff is known as the Dunkirk jack, and is only flown by civilian ships and boats of all sizes which took part in the Dunkirk rescue operation in 1940. The only other ships permitted to fly this flag at the bow are those with an Admiral of the Fleet on board.

In Popular Culture

The Dunkirk Evacuation was featured prominently in Ian McEwan's novel Atonement, and the film adaptation of the same name. The film version contains a 4.5 minute continuous shot of Allied troops stranded on the beach of Dunkirk waiting to be evacuated (filmed on Redcar beach, North Yorkshire). The Academy Award-winning 1942 movie Mrs. Miniver also featured the evacuation prominently.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Dunkirk Evacuation'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://dunkirk_evacuation.totallyexplained.com">Dunkirk evacuation Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.