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​Operation Dynamo, the evacuation (and “Miracle”) of Dunkirk, took place between the 27th May and the 4th June 1940.

In May 1940, the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) were concentrating their efforts in Belgium when the Germans broke through the Ardennes. The Ardennes is a region of large forests and rough terrain in Belgium and Luxembourg which also stretches into France and Germany, and the British and French forces had not considered the area passable by the German forces. Because of this, it had mostly been left undefended.

The Germans had more speed and force than anticipated, bursting through into the weakly defended areas of Eastern France and progressing forwards, splitting the BEF into two and cutting them off from the majority of their French allies. They were being forced back until they were trapped along the beaches of Northern France. As the BEF moved towards the beaches, they were met by fleeing refugees in their paths. On the 26th May, Winston Churchill, who had become Prime Minister just 16 days earlier, ordered BEF Commander Lord Gort to withdraw British forces from France. The evacuation was code named “Operation Dynamo”, named after the Dynamo room in the secret tunnels beneath Dover Castle, England where it was being planned. The operation was led by Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay. Captain Bill Tennant was dispatched to Dunkirk aboard the HMS Wolfhound, a destroyer ship, to organise the evacuation.

As the Germans pushed towards them, the BEF’s only hope of getting their soldiers out of France was a corridor of land which was only just in their hands. Many British men had been killed leading up to this, and those who remained were incredibly tired, having not slept for days. They lacked sufficient ammunition and had not eaten or drunk much, if anything at all, for days. They were improvising defences as they made their way to Dunkirk. There were last ditch efforts on the front line to keep the corridor open for escape. This time, they were attacked from the South. Those left in-land were dangerously exposed. There was a grave danger that they may be surrounded before they could escape to Dunkirk.

Some BEF troops ran out of ammunition and surrendered. They were made prisoners of war with uncertain futures. 97 men from the Royal Norfolk Regiment, who surrendered, were shot dead in cold blood by the Germans. Soon after, the corridor had collapsed. All that was left was an area 25 miles wide and 6 miles deep along the beaches. A final line of defence was put in place around the perimeter to buy time for the men at the coast to escape. The BEF were trapped by the sea and the German aircraft were in easy reach of the beaches. Most artillery and vehicles owned by the BEF had to be abandoned and destroyed on their way to and at Dunkirk. This included 2,472 guns, 63,879 vehicles, 20,548 motorcycles, 76,097 tons of ammunition and 416,940 tons of stores. The French First Army were also trapped and headed towards the coast.

The port of Dunkirk was selected for evacuation as it was the last remaining port in the hands of the British on the ground. The initial plans were to take ships into the harbour and take on-board the evacuating soldiers there, however they soon discovered that the port had been destroyed by German aircraft.

Along the beaches, order had broken down and more and more soldiers were arriving, some adrift from their units. It was thought that it would take just 36 hours for the German tanks to make it to the beaches. It was taking 8 hours for each destroyer ship to load 400 men – the ships could not stop close to the beaches in fear of them getting stuck, and those that were able to get closer were vulnerable to air attacks.  Many of the destroyer ships were unable to lift their guns high enough to combat the German aircraft, and had to rely on smaller guns. The rowing boats being used to take the men to them could only hold around 25 men at a time. The men on the beaches were weighed down by their equipment and wet clothing as they swam out to the boats. Hundreds of men were killed along the beaches as they were bombed by the German aircraft. The British Royal Air Force fought to combat them, losing 145 aircraft while the Germans lost 156.

A call was sent out for vessels to help the royal navy evacuate troops. On the morning of the 31st May, around 700 fishing boats, motor launches, paddle steamers and more, manned by civilians and now known as the “Little Ships of Dunkirk”, set sail for France to help the evacuation. They would pick up the soldiers from the beaches and either take them back to larger ships or all the way home. Many made several round trips, returning time and time again to evacuate more troops.

Captain Bill Tennant made the decision to use the East Mole of Dunkirk, a long stone structure running out from the harbour with a white painted wooden jetty extending out to the sea. Although it wasn’t made to dock ships, there was deep water at its sides, and it proved efficient for boarding men onto ships quickly as it took 1 hour to board 700. 239,446 men were eventually evacuated in this way, compared to 98,780 from the beaches. 933 ships took part in Operation Dynamo. 236 were lost and 61 were put out of action.

Operation Dynamo came to an end at 10:30am on the 4th June 1940. By the end of the operation, 68,111 men of the BEF were captured or killed, and around 40,000 French soldiers were in captivity. More than 1000 Dunkirk citizens are thought to have been killed during the air strikes. A total of 338,226 allied troops were rescued.

On the same day the operation came to an end, Winston Churchill delivered a speech, in which he said “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender”.