Battle of Dunkirk The Battle of Dunkirk was an important battle in the Second World War between the Allies and Germany . As part of the Battle of France on the Western Front , the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation of British and allied forces in Europe from 26 May to 4 June 1940 . After the Phoney War , the Battle of France began in earnest on 10 May 1940 . To the east , the German Army Group B had invaded the Netherlands and advanced westward . In response , the Supreme Allied Commander — French General Maurice Gamelin — initiated " Plan D " and invaded Belgium to engage the Germans in the Netherlands . The plan relied heavily on the Maginot Line fortifications along the German - French border , but the Germans had already crossed through most of Holland before the French forces arrived . Thus , Gamelin committed the forces under his command , three mechanised armies , the French First and Seventh and the British Expeditionary Force ( BEF ) to the River Dyle . On 14 May , German Army Group A burst through the Ardennes and advanced rapidly to the west toward Sedan , then turned northward to the English Channel , in what " Generalfeldmarschall " Erich von Manstein called the " Sickle Cut " ( known as " Plan Yellow " or the Manstein Plan ) , effectively flanking the Allied forces . A series of Allied counter - attacks — including the Battle of Arras — failed to sever the German spearhead , which reached the coast on 20 May , separating the British Expeditionary Force ( BEF ) near Armentières , the French 1st Army , and the Belgian Army further to the north from the majority of French troops south of the German penetration . After reaching the Channel , the Germans swung north along the coast , threatening to capture the ports and trap the British and French forces before they could evacuate to Britain . In one of the most widely - debated decisions of the war , the Germans halted their advance on Dunkirk . Contrary to popular belief , what became known as " the Halt Order " did not originate with Adolf Hitler . Gerd von Rundstedt and Günther von Kluge suggested that the German forces around the Dunkirk pocket should cease their advance on the port and consolidate , to avoid an Allied break . Hitler sanctioned the order on 24 May with the support of the " Oberkommando der Wehrmacht " ( OKW ) . The army were to halt for three days , giving the Allies time to organise an evacuation and build a defensive line . Despite the Allies ' gloomy estimates of the situation , with Britain discussing a conditional surrender to Germany , in the end over 330 , 000 Allied troops were rescued . Prelude . On 10 May 1940 , Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom . By 26 May , the British Expeditionary Force ( BEF ) and the French First Army were bottled up in a corridor to the sea , about deep and wide . Most of the British were still around Lille , over from Dunkirk , and the French further south . Two massive German armies flanked them : General Fedor von Bock ' s Army Group B was to the east , and General Gerd von Rundstedt ' s Army Group A to the west . ( Both these officers were later promoted to Field Marshal . ) Halt order . On 24 May , Hitler had visited General von Rundstedt ' s headquarters at Charleville . Von Rundstedt advised him the infantry should attack the British forces at Arras , where the British had proved capable of significant action , while Kleist ' s armour held the line west and south of Dunkirk in order to pounce on the Allied forces retreating before Army Group B . This order allowed the Germans to consolidate their gains and prepare for a southward advance against the remaining French forces . The terrain around Dunkirk was thought unsuitable for armour ; Hitler was familiar with Flanders ' marshes from World War I . Despite his pilots ' need to rest after two weeks of nonstop combat , " Luftwaffe " commander Hermann Göring asked for the chance to destroy the forces in Dunkirk . The Allied forces ' destruction was thus initially assigned to the air force and the German infantry organised in Army Group B . Von Rundstedt later called this " one of the great turning points of the war . " The true reason for the decision to halt the German armour on 24 May is still a matter of debate . One theory states that Von Rundstedt and Hitler agreed to conserve the armour for " Fall Rot " , an operation to the south . It is possible that the air force ' s closer ties than the army to the Nazi Party contributed to Hitler ' s approval of Göring ' s request . Another theory — which has recently been disputed — was that Hitler was still trying to establish diplomatic peace with Britain before Operation Barbarossa . Although von Rundstedt after the war stated his suspicions that Hitler wanted " to help the British " , based on alleged praise of the British Empire during a visit to his headquarters , no evidence exists that Hitler wanted to let the Allies escape . Brian Bond stated : Few historians now accept the view that Hitler ' s behaviour was influenced by the desire to let the British off lightly in hope that they would then accept a compromise peace . True , in his political testament dated 26 February 1945 Hitler lamented that Churchill was " quite unable to appreciate the sporting spirit " in which he had refrained from annihilating [ the British Expeditionary Force , or BEF ] at Dunkirk , but this hardly squares with the contemporary record . Directive No . 13 , issued by the Supreme Headquarters on 24 May called specifically for the annihilation of the French , English and Belgian forces in the pocket , while the Luftwaffe was ordered to prevent the escape of the English forces across the channel . Whatever the reasons for Hitler ' s decision , the Germans confidently believed that the Allied troops were doomed . American journalist William Shirer reported on 25 May , " German military circles here tonight put it flatly . They said the fate of the great Allied army bottled up in Flanders is sealed . " BEF commander Lord Gort agreed , writing to Anthony Eden " I must not conceal from you that a great part of the BEF and its equipment will inevitably be lost in the best of circumstances " . Hitler did not rescind the Halt Order until the evening of 26 May . The three days thus gained gave a vital breathing space to the Royal Navy to arrange to evacuate the British and Allied troops . About 338 , 000 men were saved in about 11 days . About 215 , 000 were British , 123 , 000 were French – of whom 102 , 250 escaped in British ships . Battle . " Fight back to the west " . On 26 May , Anthony Eden told Gort that he might need to " fight back to the west " , and ordered him to prepare plans for the evacuation , but without telling the French or the Belgians . Gort replied : " I must not conceal from you a great part of the BEF and its equipment will inevitably be lost " . He had foreseen the order and preliminary plans were already in hand . The first such plan , for a defence along the Lys Canal , could not be carried out because of German advances on 26 May , with 2nd Division and 50th Division pinned down , and 1st , 5th and 48th Divisions under heavy attack . 2nd Division took heavy casualties trying to keep a corridor open , being reduced to a brigade strength , but they succeeded ; 1st , 3rd , 4th and 42nd Division escaped along the corridor that day , as did about one - third of the French 1st Army . As the Allies fell back , they disabled their artillery and vehicles and destroyed their stores . On 27 May , the British fought back to the Dunkirk perimeter line . The Le Paradis massacre took place that day , when the 3 . SS Division " Totenkopf " machine - gunned 97 British prisoners near the La Bassée Canal . Meanwhile , the Luftwaffe dropped bombs and leaflets on the Allied armies . The leaflets showed a map of the situation . They read , in English and French : " British soldiers ! Look at the map : it gives your true situation ! Your troops are entirely surrounded – stop fighting ! Put down your arms ! " The Allied soldiers mostly used these as toilet paper . To the land - and air - minded Nazis , the sea seemed an impassable barrier , so they really did think the Allies were surrounded ; but the British saw the sea as a route to safety . As well as the " Luftwaffe " s bombs , German heavy artillery ( which had just come within range ) also fired high - explosive shells into Dunkirk . By this time , the town contained the bodies of over 1 , 000 civilian casualties . This bombardment continued until the evacuation was over . Battle of Wytschaete . Gort had sent General Adam ahead to build the defensive perimeter around Dunkirk . General Brooke was to conduct a holding action with the 3rd , 4th , 5th , and 50th Divisions along the Ypres - Comines canal as far as Yser while the rest of the BEF fell back . The Battle of Wytschaete was the toughest action Brooke faced in this role . On 26 May , the Germans made a reconnaissance in force against the British position . At dawn on 27 May , they launched a full - scale attack with three divisions south of Ypres . A confused battle followed , where visibility was low because of forested or urban terrain , and communications were poor because the British at that time used no radios below battalion level and the telephone wires had been cut . The Germans used infiltration tactics to get among the British , who were beaten back . The heaviest fighting was in the 5th Division ' s sector . Still on 27 May , Brooke ordered Major - General Montgomery to extend his 3rd Division ' s line to the left , thereby freeing 10th and 11th Brigades of 4th Division to join the 5th Division at Messines Ridge . 10th Brigade arrived first , to find the enemy had advanced so far they were closing on the British field artillery . Between them , 10th and 11th Brigades cleared the ridge of Germans , and by 28 May they were securely dug in east of Wytschaete . That day , Brooke ordered a counterattack . This was to be spearheaded by two battalions , the 3rd Grenadier Guards and the 2nd North Staffordshires . The North Staffords advanced as far as the Kortekeer River , while the Grenadiers reached the canal itself , but could not hold it . The counterattack ' s effect was to disrupt the Germans , holding them back a little longer while the BEF retreated . Action at Poperinge . The route back from Brooke ' s position to Dunkirk passed through the town of Poperinge ( known to most British sources as " Poperinghe " ) , where there was a bottleneck at a bridge over the Yser canal . Most of the main roads in the area converged on that bridge . On 27 May , the Luftwaffe bombed the resulting traffic jam thoroughly for two hours , destroying or immobilising about 80 % of the vehicles . Another Luftwaffe raid — on the night of 28 / 29 May — was illuminated by flares as well as the light from burning vehicles . The 44th Division in particular had to abandon many guns and lorries , losing almost all of them between Poperinge and the Mont . The German 6 . " Panzerdivision " could probably have destroyed the 44th Division at Poperinge on 29 May , thereby cutting off 3rd Division and 50th Division as well . Thompson calls it " astonishing " that they did not , but they were distracted by investing the nearby town of Cassel . Belgian surrender . Gort had ordered Sir Ronald Adam , 3rd Corps Commander , and French General Falgade , to prepare a perimeter defence of Dunkirk . The perimeter was semicircular , with French troops manning the western sector and British troops the eastern . It ran from Nieuport in the east via Furnes , Bulskamp and Bergues to Gravelines in the west . The line was as strong as it could be made under the circumstances , but on 28 May the Belgian army , who were largely outnumbered by the attacking Germans , and still under the direct command of King Leopold who had refused to abandon his troops and the Belgian refugees inside the little enclave of what remained of unoccupied Belgium , surrendered . This left a gap on Gort ' s eastern flank between the British and the sea . The British were surprised by the Belgian capitulation , although King Leopold had warned them in advance . As a constitutional monarch , Leopold ' s decision to surrender without consulting the Belgian government led to his condemnation by the Belgian and French Prime Ministers , Hubert Pierlot and Paul Reynaud . King George VI sent Gort a telegram that read : Gort sent the battle - worn 3rd , 4th and 50th Divisions into the line to fill the space the Belgians had held . Defence of the perimeter . While they were still moving into position , they ran headlong into the German 256th Division who were trying to flank Gort . Armoured cars of the 12th Lancers stopped the Germans at Nieuport itself . A confused battle raged all along the perimeter throughout 28 May . Command control on the British side disintegrated , and the perimeter was driven slowly inwards toward Dunkirk . Meanwhile , Erwin Rommel had surrounded five divisions of the French 1st Army near Lille . Though completely cut off , the French fought on for four days under General Molinié , thereby keeping seven German divisions from the assault on Dunkirk and saving an estimated 100 , 000 Allied troops . The defence of the perimeter held throughout 29 – 30 May , with the British falling back by degrees . On 31 May , the Germans nearly punched through at Nieuport , and the situation grew so desperate that two British battalion commanders had to personally man a Bren gun , with one Colonel firing and the other loading . A few hours later , the 2nd Bn Coldstream Guards rushed to reinforce the line near Furnes , where the British troops had been routed . The 2nd Bn Coldstream Guards restored order by shooting some of the fleeing troops , and turning others around at bayonet point . The British troops returned to the line , and the German assault was beaten back . In the afternoon of the same day , the Germans breached the perimeter near the canal at Bulskamp but the boggy ground on the far side of the canal , with sporadic fire from the Durham Light Infantry , halted them . As night fell , the Germans massed for another attack at Nieuport . Eighteen RAF bombers found the Germans while they were still assembling , and scattered them with an accurate bombing run . Retreat to Dunkirk . Also on 31 May , General Von Kuechler assumed command of all the German forces at Dunkirk . His plan was simple : he would launch an all - out attack across the whole front at 11 : 00 on 1 June . Strangely , Von Kuechler ignored a radio intercept telling him the British were abandoning the eastern end of the line to fall back to Dunkirk itself . 1 June dawned fine and bright – good flying weather , in contrast to the bad weather that had hindered airborne operations on 30 and 31 May . ( There were only two and a half good flying days in the whole operation . ) Although Churchill had promised the French that the British would cover their escape , on the ground it was the French who held the line while the last remaining British were evacuated . Enduring concentrated German artillery fire and Luftwaffe strafing and bombs , the French stood their ground . On 2 June ( the day the last of the British units embarked onto the ships ) , the French began to fall back slowly , and by 3 June the Germans were two miles from Dunkirk . The night of 3 June was the last night of evacuations . At 10 : 20 on 4 June , the Germans hoisted the swastika over the docks from which so many British and French troops had escaped under their noses . Evacuation . The War Office made the decision to evacuate British forces on 25 May . In the nine days from 27 May – 4 June 338 , 226 men escaped , including 139 , 997 French , Polish , and Belgian troops , together with a small number of Dutch soldiers , aboard 861 vessels ( of which 243 were sunk during the operation ) . Liddell Hart says British Fighter Command lost 106 aircraft dogfighting over Dunkirk , and the Luftwaffe lost about 135 – some of which were shot down by the French Navy and the Royal Navy ; but MacDonald says the British lost 177 aircraft and the Germans lost 240 . The docks at Dunkirk were too badly damaged to be used , but the East and West Moles ( sea walls protecting the harbour entrance ) were intact . Captain William Tennant — in charge of the evacuation — decided to use the beaches and the East Mole to land the ships . This highly successful idea hugely increased the number of troops that could be embarked each day , and indeed at the rescue operation ' s peak , on 31 May , over 68 , 000 men were taken off . The last of the British Army left on 3 June , and at 10 : 50 , Tennant signalled Ramsay to say " Operation completed . Returning to Dover . " However , Churchill insisted on coming back for the French , so the Royal Navy returned on 4 June in an attempt to rescue as many as possible of the French rearguard . Over 26 , 000 French troops were lifted off on that last day — but between 30 , 000 and 40 , 000 French soldiers were left behind and forced to surrender to the Germans . Aftermath . Following the events at Dunkirk , the German forces regrouped before commencing an operation called " Fall Rot " ( " Case Red " ) , a renewed assault southward , starting on 5 June . Although two fresh British divisions had begun moving to France in an attempt to form a Second BEF , the decision was taken on 14 June to withdraw all the remaining British troops ; an evacuation called Operation Ariel . By 25 June , almost 192 , 000 Allied personnel , 144 , 000 of them British , had been evacuated through various French ports . Although the French Army fought on , German troops entered Paris on 14 June . The French government were forced to negotiate an armistice at Compiègne on 22 June . The loss of materiel on the beaches was huge . The British Army left enough equipment behind to equip about eight to ten divisions . Left behind in France were , among huge supplies of ammunition , 880 field guns , 310 guns of large calibre , some 500 anti - aircraft guns , about 850 anti - tanks guns , 11 , 000 machine guns , nearly 700 tanks , 20 , 000 motorcycles , and 45 , 000 motor cars and lorries . Army equipment available at home was only just sufficient to equip two divisions . The British Army needed months to re - supply properly and some planned introductions of new equipment were halted while industrial resources concentrated on making good the losses . Officers told troops falling back from Dunkirk to burn or otherwise disable their trucks ( so as not to let them benefit the advancing German forces ) . The shortage of army vehicles after Dunkirk was so severe that the Royal Army Service Corps ( RASC ) was reduced to retrieving and refurbishing numbers of obsolete bus and coach models from British scrapyards to press them into use as troop transports . Some of these antique workhorses were still in use as late as the North African campaign of 1942 . The Dean of St Paul ' s was first to call the battle the " Miracle of Dunkirk " ( on 2 June ) . A marble memorial to the battle stands at Dunkirk ( " Dunkerque " ) . It translates in English as : " To the glorious memory of the pilots , mariners , and soldiers of the French and Allied armies who sacrificed themselves in the Battle of Dunkirk , May – June 1940 . " " Dunkirk Spirit " . British propaganda later exploited the successful evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940 , and particularly the role of the " Dunkirk little ships " , very effectively . Many of the " little ships " were private vessels such as fishing boats and pleasure cruisers , but commercial vessels such as ferries also contributed to the force , including a number from as far away as the Isle of Man and Glasgow . These smaller vessels — guided by naval craft across the Channel from the Thames Estuary and from Dover — assisted in the official evacuation . Being able to reach much closer in the beachfront shallows than larger craft , the " little ships " acted as shuttles to and from the larger craft , lifting troops who were queuing in the water , many waiting shoulder - deep in water for hours . The term " Dunkirk Spirit " still refers to a popular belief in the solidarity of the British people in times of adversity .