Dunkirk evacuation

Operation Dynamo was the code name for a military evacuation operation by the British Admiralty during World War II, in which 85 percent of the bulk of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and parts of the French Army were transported to England by ship. These formations were encircled by the Wehrmacht at the Battle of Dunkirk, where a holding order - still not finally clarified - for the rapidly advancing German armoured forces opened a window of opportunity for the Allies to evacuate 338,226 soldiers, 198,229 British and 139,997 French, from 26 May to 4 June 1940, leaving almost all of their equipment behind. This largest rescue operation in world history up to that time formed the basis of Britain's staying power, for the loss of almost the entire British professional army could not have been compensated for at that time.

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After the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, which began World War II, there was initially no major fighting on the Western Front. Although the bulk of the Wehrmacht was tied up in the east during the first weeks of the war, the allies France and Great Britain did not take the opportunity to launch an offensive. On May 10, 1940, the German Wehrmacht began the Western campaign. Their advance was unexpectedly rapid, so that the British War Cabinet under Winston Churchill was considering an evacuation of the BEF as early as 19 May.

On 20 May 1940, German armoured forces under General Heinz Guderian, belonging to Army Group A, reached the French Channel coast west of Abbeville. Thus the entire BEF under General Viscount Gort and parts of the French 1st Army under General Georges Blanchard were trapped in the region around Dunkirk.

History

The stop command

The German armored troops advanced from Abbeville in the direction of Calais and came within 18 kilometers of the trapped Allied troops. Guderian received in the early afternoon of May 24 from Army Group Leader Gerd von Rundstedt and also from Hitler the explicit order to stop the further advance immediately. The reasons for this halting order could not be clarified down to the last detail until today.

It was not until the evening of 26 May - two days and 8 hours later - that Guderian's tanks received orders to advance again on Dunkirk to stop the evacuation of the BEF. It took the tanks 16 hours to restore their readiness to march. The British thus gained exactly three days extra time by the holding order. They used it to build a strong defensive ring around Dunkirk.

Evacuation

From Dover, Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay commanded the operation, in which all available watercraft - 900 in all - were used to evacuate troops from Dunkirk. Even fishing boats and RNLI lifeboats were used. Although most of the soldiers were evacuated by warships, Britain later referred to it as the Miracle of the Little Ships.

May 27 began with heavy German air attacks on the port and town of Dunkirk. Fighter squadrons of Luftflotte 2 flying from West Germany and the Netherlands, as well as Stukas from closer airfields, took part in the attack. Several ships were sunk, including the cargo steamer Aden and the French troopship Côte d'Azur, a former Channel ferry. At noon, the troops huddled for evacuation had to vacate the port area.

The British no longer saw any possibility of boarding ships via the harbour quays, which had been badly damaged by bombs. Instead, the beach between Dunkirk and the village of De Panne was earmarked for the further embarkation of the troops. There, however, landing bridges and loading facilities were lacking. By the evening of 27 May, only 7,669 men had been rescued.

On the morning of May 28, smoke from the fires at the harbor mixed with low-hanging clouds and made visibility difficult. The weather became increasingly bad. Although German air raids took place on Ostend and Nieuwpoort, only a few bombs fell on Dunkirk. Contrary to expectations, the port's long eastern breakwater was suitable for mooring larger warships after all. 17,804 soldiers could be transported away by the evening.

On 29 May, however, the German advance slowed again as the infantry, slow in comparison to the tanks, moved up. Dense low clouds and fog continued to hamper the German Luftwaffe, which did not intervene in the fighting until 2 pm. It sank the big ferries "Queen of the Channel", "Lorina", "Fenella", "King Orry" and "Normannia". The British Admiralty then withdrew the modern destroyers of the Royal Navy. Once again the port was reported as "blockaded and unusable". Nevertheless, 47,310 men could be removed that day.

The 30th of May did not permit any air attacks because of the persistently bad weather, and the German ground forces made only slow progress against an organized defense. 53,823 soldiers were evacuated. By 31 May, there were already 68,014.

June 1 began with sunny weather, allowing the Luftwaffe to attack with all available units, but it was also hard pressed by RAF fighters. Although the Royal Navy lost four destroyers and ten other large ships that day, it was able to carry over 64,429 troops. Because of the losses Ramsay gave the order to call at Dunkirk only at night.

On June 4, the BBC reported:

Results

By June 4, a total of 338,226 Allied soldiers - 139,997 of them French - had been brought to England. About 40,000 men, on the other hand, could not be evacuated. Saving lives was an absolute priority on the British side, since the Expeditionary Force consisted almost entirely of well-trained professional soldiers whose loss would have been irreplaceable. Operation Dynamo thus laid the necessary foundation for the later reorganization of the British Army. For this reason, the successful evacuation of the soldiers - regardless of their defeat in northern France - was considered a great moral victory in the minds of the British population. The Dunkirk myth was created, which decisively strengthened the British will to persevere. According to historian Karl-Heinz Frieser, the loss of almost the entire British professional army would have meant the end of Churchill's government and thus probably also the end of the war.

Some of the evacuated units were immediately shipped back to France to continue fighting against the German Wehrmacht. After France's surrender, the French troops who remained in Britain formed the Forces Françaises Libres (Free French Forces), which continued the fight against the German Reich under their commander-in-chief Charles de Gaulle.

On the other hand, the British suffered enormous losses of war material: about 700 tanks, 2470 guns, almost 64,000 vehicles of all kinds, 20,000 motorcycles as well as 470,000 tons of supplies had to be left behind. To compensate for their loss, the British later designed various cheap-to-produce weapons such as the Sten Gun. During the venture, more than 200 British ships were sunk - mostly by German air attacks. In addition, the British lost 177 aircraft and 90 pilots, while 132 aircraft were shot down on the German Luftwaffe side. It was the largest air battle of World War II to that point. Because the air battles took place out of sight of ground troops, many British soldiers believed the RAF had withdrawn from the fighting to spare their fighter planes.

British soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk after arrival in England