Dunkirk Evacuation

In May 1940, Nazi Germany attacked France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. British and French troops became trapped in northern France along the Belgian border when the German military advanced. When the German advance paused, British and French soldiers retreated to the French port town of Dunkirk. The Allied troops were able to escape from Dunkirk with the help of British ships and boats that ferried them across the English Channel to Britain. The Dunkirk Evacuation, as it is known, was not just the work of British naval ships. More than 800 fishing boats and other “little ships,” including some piloted by civilians, rescued approximately 338,000 soldiers over nine days. However, most of the military equipment and heavy armaments had to be left behind. Following the evacuation, Churchill famously declared in Parliament that:

We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. 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.