THE MIRACLE AT DUNKIRK: The Evacuation of Allied Soldiers From France During World War Two

This is the wind-swept coast of Northern France. Near this spot in 1940 a naval drama of sweeping proportions played out on these beaches. What follows is a story of a naval operation that had the potential to be one of the worst disasters of world war two: PAUSE The Dunkerque evacuation, code-named Operation Dynamo, also known as the Miracle of Dunkerque, it was the evacuation of Allied soldiers during World War II from the beaches and harbour of Dunkerque, in the north of France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940. PAUSE That in a moment, but first welcome to WWMD, the channel that chronicles disasters at sea. I’m Allan Stokell.
The operation commenced after large numbers of Belgian, British and French troops were cut off and surrounded by German troops during the six-week Battle of France. In a speech to the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called this "a colossal military disaster", saying "the whole root and core and brain of the British Army" had been stranded at Dunkerque and seemed about to perish or be captured. PAUSE In his "we shall fight on the beaches" speech on the 4th of June, he hailed their rescue as a "miracle of deliverance.” After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, France and the British Empire declared war on Germany and imposed an economic blockade.
The British Expeditionary Force or BEF was sent to help defend France. After eight months of the Phoney War from October 1939 to April 1940, finally there was action: Germany invaded Belgium, the Netherlands, and France on 10 May 1940. Three of their panzer corps attacked through the Ardennes and drove northwest to the English Channel. By the 21st of May, German forces had trapped the British Expeditionary Force, the remains of the Belgian forces, and three French field armies along the northern coast of France. BEF commander General Viscount Gort immediately saw evacuation across the Channel as the best course of action, and began planning a withdrawal from Dunkerque, the closest usable port. Dunkerque was only 24 miles or 38 kilometres across the English Channel to Britain. PAUSE In a moment, how a British flotilla saved thousands of troops.
Late on 23 May, a halt order was issued by General-oberst Gerd von Rundstedt, commander of German Army Group A. Destroying the trapped BEF, French, and Belgian armies was left to the Luftwaffe but the order was finally rescinded on 26 May the day the evacuation began. This gave trapped Allied forces time to construct defensive works and pull back large numbers of troops to fight the Battle of Dunkerque.
From 28 to 31 May, in the Siege of Lille, the remaining 40,000 men of the once-formidable French First Army fought a delaying action against seven German divisions, including three armoured divisions. PAUSE On the first day only 7,669 Allied soldiers were evacuated, but by the end of the eighth day, 338,226 had been rescued by a hastily assembled fleet of over eight hundred vessels. PAUSE Many troops were able to embark from the harbour's protective mole, an 8 foot wide, half-mile long pier used by thirty-nine British Royal Navy destroyers, four Royal Canadian Navy destroyers, at least three French destroyers, and a variety of civilian merchant ships to load evacuees. PAUSE
Those not as lucky had to wade out from the beaches, waiting for hours in shoulder-deep water. Some were ferried to the larger ships by what became known as the Little Ships of Dunkerque, a flotilla of hundreds of merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft, yachts, and lifeboats called into service from Britain. The BEF lost 68,000 soldiers during the French campaign and had to abandon nearly all of its tanks, vehicles, and equipment. In his 4 June speech, Churchill also reminded the country that "we must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations."
338,226 troops made it back to Britain. If the Luftwafe had been left to straif the beaches at Dunkerque, who knows how many would have been lost. After this serious military setback for the Allies, the war was ultimately won after the Soviet Union entered the war in June 1941 and the US finally joined in seven months later in December of the same year. PAUSE I hope you enjoyed the video. Please subscribe, and if you found it interesting, give me a thumbs up and support me on Patreon.

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