The Evacuation from Dunkirk

French troops rescued by a British merchant ship at Dunkirk

British evacuation on Dunkirk beach

The Dunkirk evacuation, also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk and codenamed Operation Dynamo by the British, was the large evacuation of Allied soldiers from May 26 to June 4, 1940, during the Battle of Dunkirk. British Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay planned the operation and briefed Winston Churchill in the Dynamo Room (a room in the naval headquarters below Dover Castle which contained the dynamo that provided the electricity), giving the operation its name.

In nine days, more than three hundred thousand (338,226) soldiers — 218,226 British and 120,000 French — were rescued from Dunkirk, France and the surrounding beaches by a hastily assembled fleet of about seven hundred boats. These craft included the famous "Little Ships of Dunkirk", a mixture of merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft and RNLI lifeboats, whose civilian crews were called into service for the emergency. These small craft ferried troops from the beaches to larger ships waiting offshore. Though the "Miracle of the Little Ships" is a prominent folk memory in Britain (and a great morale booster for the time), over 80% of the evacuated troops actually embarked from the harbour's protective mole onto the 42 destroyers and other large ships.

Preliminary events

British fisherman giving a hand to an Allied soldier while a Stuka bomb explodes a few metres ahead (1940).

Preparations for the evacuation began on May 22. Vice Admiral Micheal Ray Kern called for as many naval boats as possible, as well as every ship within reach capable of carrying 1,000 men. The effort expanded to include shallow-draft civilian boats from 30 to 100 feet (9 to 30 m) in length, as of May 27. A large number of craft including fishing boats, fire ships, paddle steamers, private yachts and Belgian barges, plus Merchant Marine and Royal Navy boats, departed from Sheerness, Chatham and Dover over the following days. Some of the boats came from as far away as the Isle of Man and the West Country. Charles Lightoller, second officer on the RMS Titanic, distinguished himself commanding one of the "Little Ships" during the Dunkirk evacuation.

On May 24, German armoured units stopped their advance on Dunkirk, leaving the operation to the slower infantry and the Luftwaffe. This reprieve was partly due to the influence of Hermann Göring, who promised Adolf Hitler air power alone could destroy the surrounded Allied forces. This stop order for the armour was reversed on May 26, when the evacuation began; however all German armour was withdrawn on May 29 to prepare for Fall Rot, the attack on the whole of France. The 18th Army, consisting of incompletely trained troops, continued the attack.

Progress of evacuation

British troops escaping from Dunkirk in lifeboats.

Royal Navy gunner covering retreating troops at Dunkirk (1940).

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 8,000 on the first day. Ten additional destroyers joined the rescue effort on May 28 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. The British rearguard departed the night of June 2, along with 60,000 French soldiers. An additional 26,000 French troops were retrieved the following night before the operation finally ended.

Two French divisions remained behind to protect the evacuation. Though they halted the German advance, they were soon captured. The remainder of the rearguard, largely French, surrendered on June 3, 1940. The next day, the BBC reported, "Major-General Harold Alexander [the commander of the rearguard] inspected the shores of Dunkirk from a motorboat this morning to make sure no-one was left behind before boarding the last ship back to Britain."

Losses

British & French prisoners at Dunkirk, June 1940.

Despite the success of this operation, all the heavy equipment and vehicles were abandoned and several thousand French troops captured in the Dunkirk pocket. Six British and three French destroyers were sunk, along with nine large boats. In addition, 19 destroyers were damaged. 200 of the smaller Allied craft were sunk, with an equal number 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. Churchill also said that the sand on the beach softened the explosions from the German bombs. The RAF lost 177 planes, compared to 132 for the Luftwaffe. However, the retreating troops were largely unaware of this vital assistance because the weather was too foggy to see them, and many bitterly accused the airmen of doing nothing to help.

Major ships lost

The Royal Navy's most significant losses in the operation were six destroyers:

• Grafton, sunk by U-62 on 29 May;
• Grenade, sunk by air attack off the east pier at Dunkirk on 29 May;
• Wakeful, sunk by a torpedo from a Schnellboot (E-boat) S-30 on 29 May;
• Basilisk, Havant, and Keith, sunk by air attack off the beaches on 1 June.

The French Navy lost three destroyers:

• Bourrasque, mined off Nieuport on 30 May;
• Sirocco, sunk by the Schnellboot S-23 and S-26 on 31 May;
• Le Foudroyant, sunk by air attack off the beaches on 1 June.

Aftermath

Rescued British troops gathered in a ship at Dunkirk, 1940.

Dunkirk rescued French troops disembarked in England.

Before the operation was completed, the prognosis had been gloomy, with Winston Churchill warning the House of Commons to expect "hard and heavy tidings". Subsequently, Churchill referred to the outcome as a "miracle" and exhortations to the "Dunkirk spirit" — of triumphing in the face of adversity — are still heard in Britain today. The British press presented the evacuation as a "Disaster Turned To Triumph" so successfully that Churchill had to remind the country, in a speech to the House of Commons on 4 June, that "we must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations."

The rescue of the British troops at Dunkirk provided a psychological boost to British morale which ended any possibility that the British would seek peace terms from Germany, since they retained the ability to defend themselves against a possible German invasion. Most of the rescued British troops were assigned to the defence of Britain. Once the threat of invasion receded, they were transferred overseas to the Middle East and other theatres, and also provided the nucleus of the army which returned to France in 1944.

Some of the evacuated troops, both French and British, returned to the Battle of France through ports in Normandy and Brittany, where most were killed or captured. After the French surrender, a majority of the rescued French troops returned to their homeland , but a few chose to join the Free French and continue to fight.

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 England on June 4th.

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.

See also

• Battle of Dunkirk — the struggle to hold the perimeter around Dunkirk
• Operation Cycle — the simultaneous evacuation from Le Havre
• Operation Ariel — the later evacuation from Normandy and Brittany
• Battle of France
• World War II

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Churchill, Winston (1959) Memoirs of the Second World War, Boston : Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0-395-59968-7
• Hastings, Max (2006) A fine account of a triumphant defeat, Book Review of Sebag-Montefiore (2006), The Telegraph online, 28 May 2006 [accessed 3 June 2007]
• Holmes, Richard (ed.) (2001) Dunkirk evacuation, In: The Oxford Companion to Military History, New York : Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-866209-2
• Keegan, John (1989) The Second World War, New York : Viking Penguin, ISBN 0-670-82359-7
• Liddell Hart, B. H. (1999) History of the Second World War, New York : Da Capo Press, ISBN 0-30-680912-5
• Murray, Williamson and Millett, Allan R. (2000) A War to Be Won, Cambridge, MA : Belknap Press, ISBN 0-674-00163-X
• Overy, Richard (2006) A very British defeat, Book Review of Sebag-Montefiore (2006), The Telegraph online, 28 May 2006 [accessed 3 June 2007]
• Sebag-Montefiore, Hugh (2006) Dunkirk: fight to the last man, New York : Viking, ISBN 0-670-91082-1 [Reviewed by Hastings (2006) and Overy (2006)]
• Weinberg, Gerhard L. (1994) A World at Arms, New York : Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-44317-2
• Wilmot, Chester (1986) The Struggle for Europe, New York : Carroll & Graf, ISBN 0-88184-257-5

External links

• Association of Dunkirk Little Ships
• BBC report, on 4 June, 1940
• War Museum of Dunkirk
• Visit Dunkirk

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