Dunkirk The Real Story of Operation Dynamo (Britain At War Special).pdf

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DUNKIRK
The Real Story of Operation Dynamo
T
he Miracle Evacuation
T
hat Saved
T
he British Army
In association with
The Phoney War, Blitzkrieg and Retreat, Defending the Perimeter, Victoria
Cross Gallantry, RAF in Action, the Story of the ‘Little Ships’, Rescued by the
Royal Navy, the dramatic events of Operation
Dynamo
as they unfolded
day by day – heroic escapes told through the words of those who were there
£6.99
DUNKIRK
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THE ‘MIRACLE’ OF DUNKIRK
|
DUNKIRK 1940
DUNKIRK 1940
T
he ‘miracle’ of Dunkirk is one of
the most inspiring stories of all
time. The British Expeditionary
Force had been all but surrounded,
and, with the French armies collapsing on all
sides, it appeared that Britain was about to
suffer the heaviest defeat in its history.
When Winston Churchill’s War Cabinet
finally accepted that the Battle of France had
been lost, preparations were made to try and
rescue as many soldiers as possible from the
only port left open on the Channel coast of
northern France – Dunkirk. As the Allied
troops fought desperately to hold back the
powerful German divisions, it was estimated
that only 45,000 men of more than 200,000
front-line troops could be recovered from
France and brought back to the UK.
The Admiralty pressed every kind of
vessel into service. Royal Navy destroyers
and minesweepers, coastal merchant ships,
paddle-steamers, ferry boats, tugs, barges
and trawlers, in convoys and alone, the
ships and boats sailed to France to face
artillery, mines, U-boats, enemy torpedo
boats and especially the Luftwaffe. Crewed
in many instances by civilian volunteers,
this armada repeatedly crossed the Channel
facing death with every trip.
But as the port of Dunkirk became
untenable, the troops had to be taken
directly off the beaches and for that only
small boats could be used. So the call went
out for private yachts and pleasure boats,
even little skiffs and cockle boats, which
were often towed across to France.
As the French and British armies performed
heroics, holding back the Germans, the ships
and boats in their hundreds, bombed and
blasted by enemy aircraft and artillery, rescued
the bulk of the BEF. By the end of Operation
Dynamo
338,000 soldiers, British, French and
Belgian, had been saved to fight again.
Told on a day by day basis, this account
of the evacuation reveals how the nation
responded to the call for help and, against
every prediction, ‘miraculously’ rescued the
British Expeditionary Force.
Editor: John Grehan
Assistant Editor: Alexander Nicoll
Design: Dan Jarman
Executive Chairman: Richard Cox
Managing Director/Publisher: Adrian Cox
Commercial Director: Ann Saundry
Group Editor: Nigel Price
Production Manager: Janet Watkins
Marketing Manager: Martin Steele
CONTACTS
Key Publishing Ltd
PO Box 100, Stamford
Lincolnshire, PE9 1XQ
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Distribution: Seymour Distribution Ltd.
Telephone: 020 7429 4000
Printed by Warners (Midlands) Plc, Bourne,
Lincolnshire.
The entire contents of this special edition
is copyright © 2017. No part of it may be
reproduced in any form or stored in any
form of retrieval system without the prior
permission of the publisher.
Published by Key Publishing Ltd.
www.britainatwar.com
John Grehan
British and French
troops arriving back
at a South Coast
port during the
evacuation.
(Historic
Military Press)
DUNKIRK 1940
3
DUNKIRK 1940
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THE MIRACLE EVACUATION THAT SAVED THE BRITISH ARMY
CONTENTS
BELOW:
A heavily
6 PHONEY WAR
They called it the ‘Phoney War’, the ‘Bore
War’ or the ‘Sitskrieg’, as the soldiers of
the British Expeditionary Force waited
impatiently on the Belgian border for the
Germans to attack, but there was nothing
phoney about the fighting on the Saar
front where British troops manned the
famous Maginot Line.
loaded destroyer
edges its way into
Dover to disembark its
cargo of Allied troops
during Operation
Dynamo.
(Courtesy of
Pen & Sword Books)
14 ‘THE GREATEST BATTLE
OF HISTORY’
The French and British commanders
had spent months devising various
schemes to be adopted in the event of
a German attack. Yet when it came,
the Allies were taken by surprise as the
enemy launched one of the most effective
offences ever executed.
4
DUNKIRK 1940
THE MIRACLE EVACUATION THAT SAVED THE BRITISH ARMY
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DUNKIRK 1940
24 DAY 1: 26 May
50 DAY 4: 29 May
74 DAY 7: 1 June
It was evident that the German
penetration into northern France was
unstoppable and that the Allies were
heading for a catastrophic defeat. Unless
the BEF could be evacuated back to the
UK, it’s army would be annihilated.
On the first full day of Operation
Dynamo
it was evident that the rate at
which the troops were being evacuated
was far too slow. The call went out for
more ships – big and small.
In the first days of Operation
Dynamo
only small numbers of men had been
rescued but the situation was beginning
to change.
At last the ‘Little Ships’ were starting to
arrive at Dunkirk in large numbers and
evacuation from the beaches surpassed
that from the harbour and the Mole.
Against all expectations, the Germans
had failed to prevent the evacuation
of the BEF but there were still tens
of thousands of men waiting on the
exposed beaches.
Aware that the BEF was getting away,
the Luftwaffe undertook its largest raids
of the campaign.
It was hoped that this day would see
the last troops lifted from the East
Mole and the beaches – providing the
perimeter held.
The BEF had been saved to fight
another day. But there were still large
numbers of French troops at Dunkirk,
so the ships and boats were asked to
make one final effort.
58 DAY 5: 30 May
82 DAY 8: 2 June
34 DAY 2: 27 May
66 DAY 6: 31 May
90 DAY 9: 3 June
42 DAY 3: 28 May
The evacuation from Dunkirk was
proving painfully slow, but at last, the
‘Little Ships’ entered the fray.
DUNKIRK 1940
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