Dunkirk evacuation
Operation Dynamo | |||||||
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Part of the Second World War | |||||||
British troops lined up on the beach awaiting evacuation | |||||||
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Netherlands[5] Poland[2] | Germany | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the north of France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940. 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.
After
Late on 23 May,
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 800 vessels. Many troops were able to embark from the harbour's protective
Background
In September 1939, after
During the 1930s, the French had constructed the
The initial plan for the German
On 10 May, Germany
Prelude
Without informing the French, the British began planning on 20 May for Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the BEF.
On 22 May, Churchill ordered the BEF to attack southward in coordination with the French First Army under General Georges Blanchard to reconnect with the remainder of the French forces.[37] This proposed action was dubbed the Weygand Plan after General Maxime Weygand, appointed Supreme Commander after Gamelin's dismissal on 18 May.[38] On 25 May, Gort had to abandon any hope of achieving this objective and withdrew on his own initiative, along with Blanchard's forces, behind the Lys Canal, part of a canal system that reached the sea at Gravelines.[39] Sluice gates had already been opened all along the canal to flood the system and create a barrier (the Canal Line) against the German advance.[40]
Battle of Dunkirk
By 24 May, the Germans had captured the port of
Air Marshal Hermann Göring urged Hitler to let the Luftwaffe (aided by Army Group B[49]) finish off the British, to the consternation of General Franz Halder, who noted in his diary that the Luftwaffe was dependent upon the weather and aircrews were worn out after two weeks of battle.[50] Rundstedt issued another order, which was sent uncoded. It was picked up by the Royal Air Force (RAF) Y service intelligence network at 12:42: "By order of the Fuhrer ... attack north-west of Arras is to be limited to the general line Lens–Bethune–Aire–St Omer–Gravelines. The Canal will not be crossed."[51][52] Later that day, Hitler issued Directive 13, which called for the Luftwaffe to defeat the trapped Allied forces and stop their escape.[53] At 15:30 on 26 May, Hitler ordered the panzer groups to continue their advance, but most units took another 16 hours to attack.[54] Some accounts quote Hitler as saying he deliberately allowed the British to escape.[55] The delay gave the Allies time to prepare defences vital for the evacuation and prevented the Germans from stopping the Allied retreat from Lille.[56]
The halt order has been the subject of much discussion by historians.[57][58] Guderian considered the failure to order a timely assault on Dunkirk to be one of the major German mistakes on the Western Front.[59] Rundstedt called it "one of the great turning points of the war",[60] and Manstein described it as "one of Hitler's most critical mistakes".[61] B. H. Liddell Hart interviewed many of the generals after the war and put together a picture of Hitler's strategic thinking on the matter. Hitler believed that once Britain's troops left continental Europe, they would never return.[62][page needed]
Evacuation
26–27 May
The retreat was undertaken amid chaotic conditions, with abandoned vehicles blocking the roads and a flood of refugees heading in the opposite direction.
On 27 May, the first full day of the evacuation, one cruiser, eight destroyers, and 26 other craft were active.[70] Admiralty officers combed nearby boatyards for small craft that could ferry personnel from the beaches out to larger craft in the harbour, as well as larger vessels that could load from the docks. An emergency call was put out for additional help, and by 31 May nearly four hundred small craft were voluntarily and enthusiastically taking part in the effort.[71]
The same day, the Luftwaffe heavily bombed Dunkirk, both the town and the dock installations. As the water supply was knocked out, the resulting fires could not be extinguished.
Altogether, over 3,500 sorties were flown in support of Operation Dynamo.
On 25 and 26 May, the Luftwaffe focused their attention on Allied pockets holding out at Calais, Lille, and Amiens, and did not attack Dunkirk.[73] Calais, held by the BEF, surrendered on 26 May.[78] Remnants of the French First Army, surrounded at Lille, fought off seven German divisions, several of them armoured, until 31 May, when the remaining 35,000 soldiers were forced to surrender after running out of food and ammunition.[79][80] The Germans accorded the honours of war to the defenders of Lille in recognition of their bravery.[81]
28 May – 4 June
The Belgian Army surrendered on 28 May,[82] leaving a large gap to the east of Dunkirk. Several British divisions were rushed in to cover that side.[83] The Luftwaffe flew fewer sorties over Dunkirk on 28 May, switching their attention to the Belgian ports of Ostend and Nieuwpoort. The weather over Dunkirk was not conducive to dive or low-level bombing. The RAF flew 11 patrols and 321 sorties, claiming 23 destroyed for the loss of 13 aircraft.[77] On 28 May, 17,804 soldiers arrived at British ports.[69]
On 29 May, 47,310 British troops were rescued[69] as the Luftwaffe's Ju 87s exacted a heavy toll on shipping. The British destroyer HMS Grenade was sunk and the French destroyer Mistral was crippled, while her sister ships, each laden with 500 men, were damaged by near misses. British destroyers Jaguar and Verity were badly damaged but escaped the harbour. Two trawlers disintegrated in the attack. Later, the passenger steamer SS Fenella sank with 600 men aboard at the pier but the men were able to get off. The paddle steamer HMS Crested Eagle suffered a direct hit, caught fire, and sank with severe casualties. The raiders also destroyed the two rail-owned ships, the SS Lorina and the SS Normannia.[84] Of the five major German attacks, just two were contested by RAF fighters; the British lost 16 fighters in nine patrols. German losses amounted to 11 Ju 87s destroyed or damaged.[85]
On 30 May, Churchill received word that all British divisions were now behind the defensive lines, along with more than half of the French First Army.[79] By this time, the perimeter ran along a series of canals about 7 miles (11 km) from the coast, in marshy country not suitable for tanks.[86] With the docks in the harbour rendered unusable by German air attacks, senior naval officer Captain (later Admiral) William Tennant initially ordered men to be evacuated from the beaches. When this proved too slow, he re-routed the evacuees to two long stone and concrete breakwaters, called the east and west moles, as well as the beaches. The moles were not designed to dock ships, but despite this, the majority of troops rescued from Dunkirk were taken off this way.[87] Almost 200,000 troops embarked on ships from the east mole (which stretched nearly a mile out to sea) over the next week.[88][89] James Campbell Clouston, pier master on the east mole, organised and regulated the flow of men along the mole into the waiting ships.[90] Once more, low clouds kept Luftwaffe activity to a minimum. Nine RAF patrols were mounted, with no German formation encountered.[91] The following day, the Luftwaffe sank one transport and damaged 12 others for 17 losses; the British claimed 38 kills, which is disputed. The RAF and Fleet Air Arm lost 28 aircraft.[91]
The next day, an additional 53,823 men were embarked,
Of the total 338,226 soldiers, several hundred were unarmed Indian
Evacuation routes
Three routes were allocated to the evacuating vessels. The shortest was Route Z, a distance of 39 nautical miles (72 km), but it entailed hugging the French coast and thus ships using it were subject to bombardment from on-shore batteries, particularly in daylight hours.[102][103] Route X, although the safest from shore batteries, travelled through a particularly heavily mined portion of the Channel. Ships on this route travelled 55 nautical miles (102 km) north out of Dunkirk, proceeded through the Ruytingen Pass,[104] and headed towards the North Goodwin Lightship before heading south around the Goodwin Sands to Dover.[102][103] The route was safest from surface attacks, but the nearby minefields and sandbanks meant it could not be used at night.[105] The longest of the three was Route Y, a distance of 87 nautical miles (161 km); using this route increased the sailing time to four hours, double the time required for Route Z. This route followed the French coast as far as Bray-Dunes, then turned north-east until reaching the Kwinte Buoy.[106] Here, after making an approximately 135-degree turn, the ships sailed west to the North Goodwin Lightship and headed south around the Goodwin Sands to Dover.[102][103] Ships on Route Y were the most likely to be attacked by German surface vessels, submarines, and the Luftwaffe.[107]
You knew this was the chance to get home and you kept praying, please God, let us go, get us out, get us out of this mess back to England. To see that ship that came in to pick me and my brother up, it was a most fantastic sight. We saw dog fights up in the air, hoping nothing would happen to us and we saw one or two terrible sights. Then somebody said, there's Dover, that was when we saw the
Kent Online[108]
Ships
The
Type of vessel | Total engaged | Sunk | Damaged |
---|---|---|---|
Cruisers | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Destroyers | 39 | 6 | 19 |
Sloops, corvettes and gunboats | 9 | 1 | 1 |
Minesweepers | 36 | 5 | 7 |
Trawlers and drifters | 113 | 17 | 2 |
Special service vessels | 3 | 1 | 0 |
Ocean boarding vessels | 3 | 1 | 1 |
Torpedo boats and anti-submarine boats | 13 | 0 | 0 |
Former Dutch schuyts with naval crews
|
40 | 4 | Unknown |
Yachts with naval crews | 26 | 3 | Unknown |
Personnel ships | 45 | 8 | 8 |
Hospital carriers | 8 | 1 | 5 |
Naval motor boats | 12 | 6 | Unknown |
Tugboats | 34 | 3 | Unknown |
Other small craft[note 1] | 311 | 170 | Unknown |
Total British ships | 693 | 226 | |
Type of vessel | Total engaged | Sunk | Damaged |
---|---|---|---|
Warships (all types) | 49 | 8 | Unknown |
Other vessels | 119 | 9 | Unknown |
Total Allied ships | 168 | 17 | Unknown |
Grand total | 861 | 243 | Unknown |
Little ships
A wide variety of small vessels from all over the south of England were pressed into service to aid in the Dunkirk evacuation. They included speedboats,
The first of the "little ships" arrived at Dunkirk on 28 May.[110] The wide sand beaches meant that large vessels could not get anywhere near the shore, and even small craft had to stop about 100 yards (91 m) from the waterline and wait for the soldiers to wade out.[115] In many cases, personnel would abandon their boat upon reaching a larger ship, and subsequent evacuees had to wait for boats to drift ashore with the tide before they could make use of them.[116] In most areas on the beaches, soldiers queued up with their units and patiently awaited their turn to leave. But at times, panicky soldiers had to be warned off at gunpoint when they attempted to rush to the boats out of turn.[117] In addition to ferrying out on boats, soldiers at De Panne and Bray-Dunes constructed improvised jetties by driving rows of abandoned vehicles onto the beach at low tide, anchoring them with sandbags, and connecting them with wooden walkways.[118]
Aftermath
Analysis
Date | Beaches | Harbour | Total |
---|---|---|---|
27 May | — | 7,669 | 7,669 |
28 May | 5,930 | 11,874 | 17,804 |
29 May | 13,752 | 33,558 | 47,310 |
30 May | 29,512 | 24,311 | 53,823 |
31 May | 22,942 | 45,072 | 68,014 |
1 June | 17,348 | 47,081 | 64,429 |
2 June | 6,695 | 19,561 | 26,256 |
3 June | 1,870 | 24,876 | 26,746 |
4 June | 622 | 25,553 | 26,175 |
Totals | 98,671 | 239,555 | 338,226 |
Before the operation was completed, the prognosis had been gloomy, with Churchill warning the
The
The more than 100,000 French troops evacuated from Dunkirk were quickly and efficiently shuttled to camps in various parts of south-western England, where they were temporarily lodged before being repatriated.
In France, the unilateral British decision to evacuate through Dunkirk rather than counter-attack to the south, and the perceived preference of the Royal Navy for evacuating British forces at the expense of the French, led to some bitter resentment. According to Churchill, French Admiral François Darlan originally ordered that the British forces should receive preference, but on 31 May, he intervened at a meeting in Paris to order that the evacuation should proceed on equal terms and that the British would form the rearguard.[127] In fact, the 35,000 men who finally surrendered after covering the final evacuations were mostly French soldiers of the 2nd Light Mechanized and the 68th Infantry Divisions.[128][129] Their resistance allowed the evacuation effort to be extended to 4 June, on which date another 26,175 Frenchmen were transported to England.[69]
The evacuation was presented to the German public as an overwhelming and decisive German victory. On 5 June 1940, Hitler stated, "Dunkirk has fallen! 40,000 French and English troops are all that remains of the formerly great armies. Immeasurable quantities of materiel have been captured. The greatest battle in the history of the world has come to an end."[a][130] Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (the German armed forces high command) announced the event as "the greatest annihilation battle of all time".[131]
Casualties
During the entire campaign, from 10 May until the
Six British and three French destroyers were sunk, along with nine other major vessels. In addition, 19 destroyers were damaged.[137] Over 200 British and Allied sea craft were sunk, with a similar number damaged.[138] The Royal Navy's most significant losses in the operation were six destroyers:
- Grafton, sunk by U-62 on 29 May[139]
- Grenade, sunk by air attack at Dunkirk on 29 May[140]
- Wakeful, sunk by a torpedo from the E-boat S-30 on 29 May[141]
- Basilisk, Havant, and Keith, sunk by air attack off the beaches on 1 June[142]
The French Navy lost three destroyers:
- Bourrasque, mined off Nieuport on 30 May
- Siroco, sunk by the E-boats S-23 and S-26 on 31 May
- Le Foudroyant, sunk by air attack off the beaches on 1 June
The RAF lost 145 aircraft, of which at least 42 were Spitfires, while the Luftwaffe lost 156 aircraft in operations during the nine days of Operation Dynamo,[143] including 35 destroyed by Royal Navy ships (plus 21 damaged) during the six days from 27 May to 1 June.[144]
For every seven soldiers who escaped through Dunkirk, one man became a prisoner of war. The majority of these prisoners were sent on forced marches into Germany. Prisoners reported brutal treatment by their guards, including beatings, starvation, and murder. Another complaint was that German guards kicked over buckets of water that had been left at the roadside by French civilians, for the marching prisoners to drink.[145]
Many of the prisoners were marched to the city of Trier, with the march taking as long as 20 days. Others were marched to the river Scheldt and were sent by barge to the Ruhr. The prisoners were then sent by rail to prisoner of war camps in Germany.[146] The majority (those below the rank of corporal) then worked in German industry and agriculture for the remainder of the war.[147]
Those of the BEF who died in the fighting of 1940, or as a prisoner of war following capture during this campaign, and have no known grave are commemorated on the Dunkirk Memorial.[148]
Dunkirk Jack
The
Portrayals
Films
- Dunkirk (1958)
- Weekend at Dunkirk (1964)
- Atonement (2007)
- Dunkirk (2017)
- Darkest Hour (2017)
Television
- Dunkirk (2004)
Books
- The Snow Goose: A Story of Dunkirk, a novella by Paul Gallico
See also
Notes
- ^ Original German: "Dünkirchen ist gefallen! 40 000 Franzosen und Engländer sind als letzter Rest einstiger großer Armeen gefangen. Unübersehbares Material wurde erbeutet. Damit ist die größte Schlacht der Weltgeschichte beendet."
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- Thompson, H. L. (1953). New Zealanders with the Royal Air Force. OCLC 270919916.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-520-23301-8.
- ISBN 0-7183-0349-0.
- ISBN 0-670-91082-1.
- ISBN 0-521-44317-2.
- Wilmot, Chester (1986). The Struggle for Europe. New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN 0-88184-257-5.
External links
- Spitfires Join the Fighting – aerial battle over Dunkirk Archived 28 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- Official website of Dunkirk memorial and museum
- BBC Archive – Dunkirk Evacuation
- Dunkirk, Operation Dynamo – Battle of Britain 1940
- Nazis invade France Video analysis on WW2History.com
- BBC Archives – J. B. Priestley's 'Postscript' – radio broadcast from 5 June 1940