BBC - Dunkirk evacuation: Operation Dynamo Dunkirk evacuation: Operation Dynamo Operation Dynamo was run from the secret war tunnels under Dover Castle At 18:57 hours on 26 May 1940, the signal was received to start Operation Dynamo. The evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force and French troops from Dunkirk's beaches on the north coast of France was about to begin. France had fallen before the German advance, and with less than a week to prepare, the operation was the responsibility of Vice-Admiral Ramsay. The aim was the evacuation of up to 40,000 troops under attack. The "little ships" were used to ferry the troops from the beaches to the ships. With the British and French armies cornered by the advancing German army near Dunkirk in 1940, Kent became the focus of the nation's attention as, between 26 May and 3 June, more than 330,000 troops were rescued from the beaches in one of the most astonishing operations of the war. Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay masterminded Operation Dynamo from a bunker deep within the Dover cliffs.

On 29 May, the evacuation was announced to the British public, and many privately owned boats started arriving at Dunkirk to ferry the troops to safety. This flotilla of small vessels famously became known as the 'Little Ships'. All available seaworthy craft in Kent, or the "Little Ships" as they became affectionately known, were assembled in Sheerness dockyard before making the hazardous crossing in flotillas to Dunkirk. The soldiers arrived in Dover before being put on trains. The contribution these civilian vessels made to the Dunkirk evacuation gave rise to the term 'Dunkirk spirit', an expression still used to describe the British ability to rally together in the face of adversity. Dover was the busiest of the berthing ports during the frantic seven days of the evacuation. Here, ships were unloaded and refuelled before returning to the French coast, while trains shuttled the arriving soldiers away from the coast. The cliff tunnels were the nerve centre of the operation. The best previous estimate was that only 45,000 of the troops could be brought back, yet Winston Churchill announced to the House of Commons on 4 June that 338,000 troops had been saved, despite the operation coming under attack.

The soldiers are able to shave, shower and change after arriving in England. Today at Dover Castle you can experience life as it was for the 700 personnel based there in the worst days of the Second World War. Relive the drama as a wounded Battle of Britain pilot is taken into the underground hospital to fight for his life in the operating theatre, and see the Command Centre in which Churchill made the plans that would eventually lead to Allied victory. Operation Dynamo, the evacuation from Dunkirk, 27 May-4 June 1940 Operation Dynamo, the evacuation from Dunkirk, 27 May-4 June 1940 Books Introduction Operation Dynamo, the evacuation from Dunkirk of 27 May-4 June 1940, is one of the most celebrated military events in British history, and yet it was the direct result of one of the most crushing defeats suffered by the British army. Only eighteen days before the start of the evacuation the combined British and French armies had been seen as at least equal to the Germans. If Belgium and Holland came into the war, then the combined Allied armies could field 144 divisions, three more than the Germans.

Even without Belgium and Holland the Allies outnumbered the Germans by almost two-to-one in artillery and by nearly 50% in tanks. For over six months the two armies had faced each other across the Franco-German border, but on 10 May the German offensive in the west began, and that all changed. After only ten days German tanks reached the Channel at Abbeville, splitting the Allied armies in two. All the Germans had to do to trap the BEF without any hope of escape was turn north and sweep along the almost undefended channel coast. Instead the BEF was able to fight its way to Dunkirk, where between 27 May and 4 June a total of 338,226 Allied troops were rescued from Dunkirk and the beaches. At the end of 4 June enough of the BEF had escaped from the trap to enable Churchill to convince his cabinet colleagues to fight on, regardless of the fate of France. The Land Battle The evacuation from Dunkirk was made possible by a combination of German mistakes and a brave decision made by Lord Gort , the commander of the BEF.

The whole purpose of the German “sickle cut” strategy in 1940 was to cut the Allied armies in half by breaking through the French lines in the Ardennes and then dashing for the Somme estuary. The Germans expected the Allies to help them by advancing into Belgium at the start of their offensive, exposing more Allied troops to capture. Two German Army Groups were to be involved in the plan. Army Group B, under General von Bock, was to attack in the north, occupying Holland and northern Belgium. Army Group A, under General von Rundstedt had the job of breaking the French lines on the Meuse and reaching the sea. Rundstedt had three armies in his front line, and an armoured group under General von Kleist to lead the way. Lord Gort after Dunkirk The BEF, under Lord Gort, was located to the north of the line that Kleist would take to the coast. Just as expected, when the German attack began, the British and French advanced into Belgium, hoping to link up with the Belgian army and stop the German advance. The Germans soon broke through the French line at Sedan.

On 16 May General Guderian, commanding a Panzer corps in von Kleist’s armoured group, was given a free hand for twenty four hours to expand the bridgehead, and instead plunged straight through the Allied lines, reaching the Oise at Ribemont on 17 May . This sudden success began to lay the seeds of the German mistake that would let the BEF reach Dunkirk. Kleist caught up with Guderian on 17 May, and instead of praising him for his success, attacked him for taking too big a risk. The German High Command was beginning to worry that their panzer spearhead was dangerously exposed to a combined Allied counterattack from north and south. Guderian promptly resigned, but General Rundstedt persuaded him to return to his post, and also gave him permission to carry out an armed reconnaissance to the west. 20 May Guderian took advantage of this new order, and on 20 May captured Amiens and Abbeville. The Germans had reached the sea and the Allied armies were cut in two. At this point the Germans were indeed vulnerable to a counterattack.

Belatedly General Gamelan, the French supreme commander, issued orders for a breakout to the south, supported by an attack from the south, exactly what the Germans were afraid would happen, but on 19 May, before the plan could be put into place, Gamelan was replaced by General Weygand. The Gamelan plan was suspended while Weygand visited the front. Three days were lost, and by the time Weygand decided to carry out a very similar plan, it was too late. 21 May On 21 May Guderian’s Panzers paused on the line of the Somme. General Hehring, Guderian’s chief-of-staff at this time, believed that the high command had not yet decided which way to move – north towards the channel ports, or south to deal with the larger part of the French army, which was still intact south of the Somme. On the same day the British launched their one major counterattack of the campaign, the battle of Arras. This attack achieved some limited local success before it was repulsed, but it had a much bigger impact on the German High Command. The British attack confirmed their view that an Allied counterattack would soon follow.

22 May After a two day pause, Guderian’s panzers finally began the move north on 22 May. That day they reached the outskirts of Boulogne, where they encountered serious resistance for the first time. The fighting at Boulogne would last for another three days, before the garrison surrendered on 25 May. On the same day the bulk of the BEF had pulled back out of Belgium and had returned to the defensive lines east of Lille that it had constructed over the winter of 1939-1940. At this point both the British and the Germans were forty miles from Dunkirk. The British also had a garrison at Calais, and Lord Gort was beginning to place scattered forces on the route back to the coast. 23 May On 23 May Kleist reported that he had lost half of his tanks since the start of the campaign in the west. Accordingly, that evening Rundstedt stopped his advance, and ordered him to simply blockade the Allied garrison in Calais.

The Army High Command decided to give Army Group B the job of attacking the Allied pocket, while Army Group A would concentrate on guarding the southern flank of the German advance against a possible counterattack. 24 May 24 May was the pivotal day of the campaign. On the north eastern flank of the Allied pocket the Belgian army came under heavy attack, and was close to collapse. On the coast the Germans were blockading Calais, and were only twenty miles from Dunkirk, the last port available to the Allies. Meanwhile much of the BEF was still on a line running north from Arras, still attempted to maintain what was left of the front line. The most important event of the day took place when Hitler visited the headquarters of Rundstedt’s Army Group A. Rundstedt’s own war diary records that he suggested halting the tanks where they were and letting the infantry tackle the Allied troops trapped in the north. Hitler agreed, and issued an order forbidding the tanks from crossing the canal running from La Basseé-Béthune-Saint Omer to Gravelines (ten miles west of Dunkirk). The BEF would be left to the infantry and to the Luftwaffe.

Retreat to Dunkirk, Evening of 25 May 1940 At the start of 25 May Lord Gort was still under orders to attack to the south to support the French, but it was becoming increasingly clear that this was a forlorn hope, and that to obey that order would risk losing the entire army. At 6.00pm that evening Lord Gort made his courageous decision. On his own authority he ordered the 5th and 50th Divisions to move from Arras, at the southern end of the British pocket, to the north to reinforce II Corps, as the first step in an attempt to break out to the sea. The reinforced II Corps would have the job of holding the northern flank of the corridor to the sea if the Belgian army surrendered. On the same day Churchill made his final decision not to evacute the garrison defending Calais , hoping to gain crucial hours to improve the western defences of the Dunkirk beachhead. The fighting at Calais continued until late on 26 May, and tied up one Panzer Division.

Nieuport, 1940 On this day Lord Gort met with General Blanchard, the French command of the First Army Group, and together they put plans in place to create a defensive perimeter around Dunkirk, apparently without either side realising what the other had in mind. The French were to defend the line from Gravelines to Bergues, and then the British would take over from Bergues and hold a line along the canal to Furnes, then Nieuport and the sea. The same day finally saw the Germans begin to take notice of the activity at Dunkirk. Hitler lifted the “halt order”, allowing Kleist’s armoured group to advance to within artillery range of Dunkirk. On the same day the brave defence of Calais also finally came to an end, after having held the Germans up for a crucial few days. 27 May On the same day that the evacuation from Dunkirk finally got under way, the German advance finally brought the port within artillery range, and for the rest of the evacuation the town suffered from a constant heavy artillery bombardment. By now the Allies had defences in place around Dunkirk.

One of the most important aspects of those defences were the inundations, which flooded large areas of the low lying ground around the port, acting as a very effective anti-tank ditch. Heavy fighting would follow, but the Germans had missed their best chance to cut the BEF off from the coast. The BEF was still not safe. Rearguard elements of I and II Corps did not leave the frontier defences until the night on 27-28 May, and most of the BEF was still outside the Dunkirk perimeter at the end of the day. Worse was to come, for during the day the German Sixth Army reported that a Belgian delegation had arrived to request surrender negotiations. 28 May 28 May was a day of crisis for Lord Gort. On that day Belgium signed an unconditional surrender, which left the northern flank of the Allied pocket dangerously exposed to German attack.

Lord Gort was only given one hours formal notice of the surrender, which had the potential to destroy any hope of an evacuation, but over the previous days King Leopold III had indicated that his army was close to collapse, so the armistice didn't come as a complete surprise, and the Belgian army had played a vital part in the defence of the Allied left since the start of the fighting. During a day of hard fighting the BEF was able to prevent the Germans from crossing the Yser and reaching the beaches before the Allies. By the end of the day a large part of the BEF had reached the defended perimeter. A second crisis came during a meeting with General Blanchard. Only now did the French commander realise that the British were planning to evacuate their troops. Lord Gort’s Chief of Staff described Blanchard as having gone “completely off the deep end”. He made it clear that he did not believe any evacuation was possible, and refused to retire in line with the British. 29 May Despite Blanchard’s attitude on 28 May, eventually most of the French First Army would reach Dunkirk. However, on 29 May the Germans finally managed to cut off the Allied troops fighting around Lille.

Four British divisions had managed to escape the trap, but the French V Corps was captured. By the end of 29 May the most of the BEF had reached Dunkirk. The ground campaign was effectively over, and the attention turned to the naval evacuation. The Halt Order One of the most controversial aspects of the fighting around Dunkirk was the Hitler’s “halt order”, issued on 24 May 1941. After the war the surviving German generals did their best to shift the blame for this order on to Hitler. Even Rundstedt, on whose advice the order had been issued, would later claim that it had been Hitler’s idea, and that the intention had been to spare the British a humiliating defeat. Hitler was known to have expressed some admiration for the British Empire, and to have said that he wanted to arrange a division of the world with the British, but his pre-war admiration for Britain seems to have evaporated rather quickly once the war began. Problems Lord Gort had first raised the possibility of an evacuation from Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk on 19 May.

The Admiralty appointed Admiral Bertram Ramsey to take command of the planning for this possible evacuation, under the codename “dynamo”. On 20 May he held his first planning meeting at Dover. He had a number of serious problems to overcome. The shallow waters around Dunkirk meant that the largest ships could not be used. At the start of the evacuation Ramsey had a fleet of destroyers, passenger ferry steamers and Dutch coasters (Schuyts). What he lacked was enough small boats to get men from the beaches to the ships waiting offshore. Dunkirk itself had been under heavy bombardment for some days, and the inner harbour was out of use. British troops reach Dover, 1940 Once the ships were loaded they then had to get back to England. Sandbars just off the French coast meant that the ships would have to travel along the coast for some distance to reach a channel into deeper water. The western route (Route Z) was the shortest, at 39 sea miles, but it would soon be vulnerable to attack from the French gun batteries at Calais, which were captured intact by the Germans.

Ramsey was then forced to use Route Y, the eastern route, but that was much longer, at 87 sea miles, and would itself become vulnerable as the eastern perimeter at Dunkirk shrank. A final route, X, of 55 sea miles was eventually created by clearing a gap in the minefields. Even once back at Dover the problems did not end. The port of Dover had eight berths for cross channel ferries, each of which would soon be used by up to three ships at once. Once off the ships the men then needed to be moved away from the dock, fed and housed. With all this in mind, it is perhaps not surprising that when planning began the best Ramsey hoped to achieve was to rescue 45,000 men over two days. The Evacuation 26 May The evacuation got underway on the afternoon of Sunday 26 May, when a number of personnel ships were sent into Dunkirk harbour (these were mostly fast passenger ships that had been used on the cross-channel routes before the war, and were manned by Merchant Navy Crews). This type of ship would eventually evacuate 87,810 men from Dunkirk and the beaches, second only to the destroyers.

Operation Dynamo itself did not start until 6.57pm on 26 May, when the Admiralty ordered Admiral Ramsey to start the full evacuation. 27 May A key figure over the next few days was Captain W. G. Tennant, the Senior Naval Officers, Dunkirk, who was appointed to take charge of the naval shore embarkation parties. At this point the navy was planning to evacuate most men from the beaches east of Dunkirk. Each British army corps was allocated one of three beaches – Malo beach, close to Dunkirk, Bray beach, further along the coast and La Penne beach, just inside Belgium. The inner harbour at Dunkirk had been closed by German bombing, and would never be used during the evacuation. The outer harbour was protected by two moles. These long concrete constructions had not been designed to have ships dock alongside, but on the evening of 27 May Captain Tennant ordered one ship to try using the east mole. Despite the difficulties this was a success, and the east mole was used for the rest of the evacuation.

The use of the mole allowed Tennant to make the best use of the destroyers, and over the rest of the evacuation they would rescue 102,843 men. Despite this initial success, by the end of the day Tennant had closed the harbour, and directed all ships to the beach. This day also saw the navy abandon Route Z, the shortest route between Dover and Dunkirk. For the first twenty miles from Dunkirk this route followed the French coast, and was thus vulnerable to German artillery, especially at Calais. A new route, Route Y, had to be adopted. This avoided the danger of coastal artillery but was 87 miles, reducing the number of trips each ship could make. It also exposed the ships to German aircraft for much longer. Over the first two days of the evacuation 7,699 men disembarked in England, virtually all of them from the harbour. Dunkirk and Ostend On 28 May the evacuation from the beaches began to pick up speed, and one third of the 17,804 rescued during the day were taken from the beaches.

Tennant re-opened the harbour early in the day, and six destroyers all picked up large numbers of men from the mole. The same day also saw the personnel ships withdrawn from daylight work, after the Queen of the Channel was sunk. These large fast valuable ships were reserved for night time work only, and the daylight operations restricted to warships and smaller ships. Fortunately the same day saw the Dutch schuyts begin to operate a continuous to Ramsgate and Margate. These forty ships would eventually evacuate 22,698 men, for the loss of only four ships. 29 May By 29 May the evacuation was getting up to speed – three times as many men were rescued as on the previous day. Despite this success, the day was marred by heavy losses. HMS Wakeful was sunk by an E-boat, HMS Grafton by U.62 and the personnel ship Mona’s Queen was sunk by a magnetic mine. Another destroyer and six major merchant ships were sunk by bombing in Dunkirk harbour. Despite this the harbour remained open, but rumours to the contrary reached Dover, and for some time Admiral Ramsey ordered all ships to use the beaches.

30 May As a result of this 30 May was the only day when more men were evacuated from the beaches than from the harbour. The loss of two destroyers on 29 May also convinced the Admiralty to withdraw all modern destroyers from the evacuation. Fortunately that morning Rear-Admiral Wake-Walker arrived to take over at Dunkirk. When he realised that he only had fifteen old destroyers at his disposal he contacted Admiral Ramsey, who was able to convince the Admiralty to return seven of the new destroyers to Dunkirk. Despite the lack of the new destroyers, 30 May was the most successful day yet. Seven of the older destroyers each managed to rescue 1,000 men, while low cloud and burning oil hid the beaches from German attack. The day also saw the little ships at work, ferrying men from the beaches to the larger ships offshore. 31 May By 31 May the number of British troops at Dunkirk had been reduced to point where a Corps commander could take over. At the start of the evacuation it had been decided that Lord Gort must not be captured – the propaganda value to the Germans would have been far too high.

On 31 May Lord Gort and General Brooke returned to Britain, and command of the troops at Dunkirk was passed to General Alexander . The day was not well suited to the evacuation. The wind dispersed the smoke and haze and the shelling and bombardment of the beach reached new heights. For part of the day the beach was unusable, and the harbour difficult. Despite this the day also saw the highest number of men evacuated – a total of 68,014. By the end of the day the shrinking British forces had been forced to abandon the easternmost beach at La Panne. Saturday 1 June 1 June saw the second highest number of men evacuated, most from the harbour, where a number of ships took off very large numbers of men – 2,700 on the Solent steamer Whippingham alone. The day also saw four destroyers sunk by enemy action, including Admiral Wake-Walker’s own flag ship, HMS Keith. By the end of the day only part of the British I Corps and the French troops guarding the perimeter remained at Dunkirk.

Sunday 2 June It had been hoped to finish the evacuation by the early morning of 2 June, but progress was slower than expected, and so work continued until 7.00am. At that point it was estimated that there were 6,000 British and 65,000 French troops left in Dunkirk. A final effort was planned for the evening and Allied ships began to move across the channel at 5pm. By midnight the last British rearguard had been rescued from Dunkirk. Monday 3 June The effort that began on 2 June successfully evacuated 26,746 men from Dunkirk, most from the harbour. Of these men three quarters were French, but there were still estimated to be between 30,000 and 40,000 French troops left in Dunkirk. One final effort was made to rescue these men from the shrinking perimeter at Dunkirk. At 10.15 pm the destroyer HMS Whitshed became the first of fifty ships to take part in this final evacuation.

Tuesday 4 June This last operation continued until 3.40am on the morning of 4 June, when the old destroyer Shikari, carrying 383 troops, became the last ship to leave Dunkirk. On the night of 3-4 June a total of 26,175 French troops were rescued from Dunkirk harbour, 10,000 in small ships from the west mole and the remaining 16,000 in the destroyers and larger personnel ships from the east mole. As the Shikari left the harbour, two blockships were sunk in the channel. By now the Germans were only three miles from the harbour, and there was no chance of any further evacuations. At 10.30 am on 4 June the fleet of small ships was officially dispersed, and Operation Dynamo officially ended at 2.23pm. British and Allied losses at Dunkirk were very heavy.

The BEF lost 68,111 killed, wounded and prisoner, 2472 guns, 63,879 vehicles, 20548 motorcycles and 500,000 tons of stores and ammunition during the evacuation, while the RAF lost 106 aircraft during the fighting. The number of prisoners captured is not entirely clear – German sources suggest that 80,000 men were captured around Dunkirk, other sources give much lower figures, but few go lower than 40,000. At least 243 ships were sunk, including six Royal Navy destroyers, with another 19 suffering damage. The Air Battle One of the most controversial aspects of the evacuation at the time was the role of the RAF. Many troops evacuated from Dunkirk returned to Britain angry at what they felt was the failure of the RAF to protect them from German attacks. The Luftwaffe seemed to be constantly over the beaches, while British fighters were rarely seen. The problem facing the RAF was one of balance. A large number of fighter squadrons had been virtually destroyed in France.

Fighter Command had fought to retain enough squadrons in Britain to defend against a German attack, famously keeping the Spitfire squadrons out of the battle in France and the Low Countries. Now those Spitfire squadrons had to be thrown into the battle over Dunkirk. Between 26 May and 4 June the RAF flew a total of 4,822 sorties over Dunkirk, losing just over 100 aircraft in the fighting. The problem was that much of the fighting took place away from the beaches. It was preferable to break up German raids before they reached the beaches, not once they were dropping their bombs. The RAF also had to patrol over the sea lanes being used to carry out the evacuation. Despite these difficulties, Dunkirk was the Luftwaffe’s first real setback. The exact number of German aircraft lost is not clear - British claims at the time were massively over-inflated, while some more recent revisions are probably too low. The Luftwaffe almost certainly lost more aircraft than the RAF, but that includes a large number of bombers. On some occasions during the fighting the Luftwaffe admitted that it had lost air superiority for the first time since the start of the war.

The Small Boats Hundreds of small privately owned boats took part in the evacuation from Dunkirk, making their main contribution from 30 May onwards. Anything that could float and could cross the channel made its way to Dunkirk in unknown numbers. Close to 200 of the little ships were lost during the evacuation. An examination of the Admiralty figures might suggest that they didn’t actually make a big contribution to the evacuation, for fewer than 6,000 men are recorded as having been rescued by the small boats. This is entirely misleading. The Admiralty figures record the numbers of men disembarking in England, and most of the small boats were not used to transport men across the channel. Their critically important role was to ferry men from the shallow inshore waters to the larger vessels waiting off the beaches. For around 100,000 men the journey home from Dunkirk began with a short trip on one of the small ships. Daily totals of men evacuated from Dunkirk. Date 338,226 On 20 May Lord Gort had ordered the evacuation of all non-essential personnel, and over the next few days 27,936 men had been evacuated from the continent.

Conclusion One of the most accurate judgements on the miracle of Dunkirk was made by Winston Churchill during his speech to Parliament on 4 June. The tone of his speech was generally upbeat, and concentrated on Churchill’s confidence that any Nazi invasion of Britain would be defeated, but Churchill did strike one note of caution – “We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations” – Operation Dynamo saved the experienced professional core of the British army from total destruction, but it did nothing to prevent the fall of France. Only in the context of a much longer war than was expected in Paris or Berlin by the end of June 1940 did the evacuation from Dunkirk begin to take on its true significance. The presence of the BEF in the south of England, even without their heavy equipment, made it much less likely that the Germans would be able to invade successfully, and made it much more likely that Britain would fight on.

Churchill’s speech ended with one of his most famous passages, which would have been pure bombast without Dunkirk: Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight in 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 in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender; and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old.” Books Dunkirk 1940: Operation Dynamo, Douglas C Dildy .

A clear well organised account of the evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940, supported by a good selection of maps, illustrations and contemporary photographs. Looks at the British & German plans for the evacuation or elimination of the Dunkirk pocket, the forces involved on both sides and the day-by-day events of the battle. [ read full review ] The War at Sea, 1939-1945, Volume I: The Defensive, S. W. Roskill . This first volume in the British official history of the war at sea covers the period from the outbreak of the war through to the first British disasters in the Pacific in December 1941. Amongst other topics it covers the Norwegian campaign, the evacuation from Dunkirk and the first two years of the Battle of the Atlantic. The text is meticulously researched, and is rooted in a detailed study of wartime records, both British and German. [ see more ] Dunkirk - Battle and Evacuation - Operation Dynamo Dunkirk - Battle and Evacuation - Operation Dynamo Dunkirk - Battle, evacuation, soldiers left behind and postwar evaluation and commemorations.

The devastation of Dunkirk: Haunting images from German soldier`s photo album seen for first time These photographs are part of a collection of WWII photographs taken by a German soldier in the aftermath of Dunkirk. The pictures show the lifeless beaches of northern France littered with thousands of allied vehicles left behind following the evacuation. Others show the devastation inflicted on the town of Dunkirk following days of fighting that saw the Allies pushed back to the beaches. The Battle of Dunkirk raged between May 26 and June 4 1940 but in one of the most debated military manoeuvres of the war, the Nazis halted their advance. (dailymail.co.uk) Conflict-Series: A highly rated strategy game series for Android If you love classic PC war games and legendary strategy board games make sure to check out the highly rated Conflict-series for Android. Some of the WWII Campaigns include D-Day 1944, Operation Barbarossa, Invasion of Poland 1939, France 1940, Kursk 1943, Market Garden, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Rommel's North African campaign, the Battle of Bulge, and the Battle of Berlin 1945.

In addition there are American Civil War, First World War and American Revolutionary War scenarios available. (available on Google Play & Amazon App Store) From Dunkirk to Belsen: The Soldiers` Own Stories by John Sadler (book review) During the World War II, one British "band of brothers" saw action in every major land campaign from France and Italy through to the horrors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The Durham Light Infantry was not a regiment of professional soldiers but men drawn from civilian life, what General Montgomery called a "Citizens` Army". "From Dunkirk to Belsen" uses the personal and eyewitness accounts of the conscripts and volunteers who were pitted against the Wehrmacht. (thevisitor.co.uk) German soldier`s photo album reveals the devastation at Dunkirk, meeting Hitler and Mussolini Rare WW2 photographs taken by an unknown German soldier of the beaches of Dunkirk after the evacuation have been discovered. The pictures were taken after 330,000 British and French soldiers - defeated by the Nazis - were rescued by an armada of little ships. The amazing photo album was later seized from a German house as a WW2 keepsake by Corporal Frank Smith.

The collection - 200 photographs and postcards - includes pictures of the Nazis surveying a huge pile of rifles left behind, a British warship with a huge hole, the wreckage of downed aircraft, and scores of damaged or abandoned tanks and trucks. (dailymail.co.uk) Dunkirk: "It was a defeat. You could only look at it as a f*cking defeat. We were all terribly depressed." British World War II veteran George Kay travelled back to Dunkirk for the first time in 70 years. It was a journey that he last made when he was one of 198,229 British soldiers who crossed the Channel under attack from German Stuka dive bombers and Messerschmitt fighters. "To me, it was a defeat. You could only look at it as a f*cking defeat. We were all terribly depressed because we thought we had failed. We knew we had f*cking failed, even if it wasn`t our fault... [French] collapsed and left us in the lurch.

We were let down by our allies." (independent.co.uk) Dunkirk veterans travel back to site of evacuation to mark the 70th anniversary World War 2 veterans will make an emotional journey across the English Channel to mark the 70th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation. The former troops will attend a ceremony at the French port to mark the historic British rescue mission. 50 of the original "little ships" which took part in the evacuation - many of which were private fishing or pleasure boats - will also set sail for Dunkirk. The Dunkirk evacuation, called Operation Dynamo, rescued 338,000 troops from the beaches of northern France between May 27 and June 4, 1940. Wartime PM Winston Churchill described the operation as a "miracle of deliverance". (telegraph.co.uk) See how the evacuation of 340,000 troops from Dunkirk under "Operation Dynamo" unfolded 27 May - 4 June 1940.

(bbc.co.uk) Battle of Arras: How two British battalions stopped Rommel`s panzers on their way to Dunkirk Raymond Atkinson fought in a battle which is often ignored because of the event which followed it - Dunkirk. The 4th and 7th battalions of the Royal Tank Regiment fought a David and Goliath battle to stop the German advance to the Channel in May 1940. It was an uneven encounter. Rommel had 218 panzers, while most of the 74 British tanks were slow and poorly armed - lacking air or artillery support. But they still managed to stop Rommel in his tracks - and make German infantry flee. Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt called it "a critical moment". Military Illustrated magazine described it as "Rommel`s Bloody Nose". (dailymail.co.uk) David Mowatt recalls horrors troops faced after being left behind during the Dunkirk evacuation After Britain declared war on Nazi Germany, David Mowatt saw his call-up as an adventure. What came instead was a bloody introduction to combat, followed by a 5-year fight for survival as a WWII POW.

By January 1940, David`s battalion was in France with the British Expeditionary Force and straight into intense action: raw recruits against the battle-hardened Wehrmacht. While holding out against the Germans, David and his comrades were still expecting to be evacuated. But then Churchill gave orders that they were to fight to the last man, keeping the Germans at bay to enable the Dunkirk evacuation. [Documentary film Dunkirk: the Forgotten Heroes] (dailyrecord.co.uk) Dunkirk: The Men They Left Behind by Sean Longden It was a major moment of World War II in which 200,000 British troops were saved from death or capture after being defeated by the Germans. And now the story has came out of Scottish soldier David Mowatt who escaped, was recaptured and avoided execution by the SS after the intervention of a Wehrmacht officer. Amid the euphoria over saving the troops, few focused on the soldiers left behind who had fought with the French Army. In June 1940, the 51st Highland Division was encircled and forced to surrender.

For Mowatt, who joined the local Territorial Army battalion 2 years before, captivity came as a shock. (scotsman) The Medway Queen could be sunk: The most famous of the Dunkirk `Little Ships` For 6 days and nights she defied Luftwaffe to save 7,000 servicemen from the beaches at Dunkirk. Her heroics made her the most famous of the "Little Ships" that plucked 330,000 men from the hands of the Germans in 1940. Her crew win 4 awards for gallantry after facing 20 attacks. But now the Medway Queen, one of the oldest paddle steamers and one of the most important vessels in Britain`s maritime history, could be lost unless millions can be found to restore her. As the British Expeditionary Force was beaten back to the Dunkirk beaches, she was part of the flotilla of Little Ships which answered the call to go to the rescue of the troops.

(dailymail) 21 Royal Scots soldiers executed by SS Totenkopf Division at Dunkirk According to an officer`s war diary 21 soldiers from the Royal Scots, were massacred after surrendering to SS troops in May 1940. The men were part of a rearguard trying to buy time for the evacuation of the British army at Dunkirk. It had been believed that 97 members of the Royal Norfolk Regiment were the only victims of the Waffen-SS Totenkopf Death`s Head Division. Now Hugh Sebag-Montefiore has found evidence that civilians later dug up the Scottish troops, all shot through the neck. It verify a claim from a German dispatch rider, that he had been told that 17 British soldiers were captured, taken to the SS battle HQ, and that "they all had to bite the dust". (theherald) Long-lost journal tells dramatic evacuation of Welsh troops from France A largely forgotten evacuation of Welsh troops from WW2 France has been revealed by the discovery of a wartime brigade diary - found by historian Hugh Sebag-Montefiore.

It sheds light on how the Welsh Guards escaped by sea from Nazi forces advancing on Boulogne in May 1940, 48 hours before the evacuation of Dunkirk. 4,500 people, Welsh and Irish guards, were evacuated from Boulogne on British ships. The incident has been overshadowed by the escape of 338,000 Allied troops. The evacuation was ordered at 6pm on May 23 as German Panzer tanks approached nearby hills. The diary reveals that the ships and those waiting, were bombarded by shells, sniper fire and Luftwaffe. (icnetwork) Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man - Debunking the myth of Dunkirk The uniqueness of historian Hugh Sebag-Montefiore`s book lies in the attempt it makes to tease out the core of the Dunkirk myth. The book does not try to refute the claim that the evacuation was an important act. Adolf Hitler`s meddling in military matters, Sebag-Montefiore argues, may have compromised the fighting abilities of the German army; however, he does not believe that the decision to stop the battle tanks from storming Dunkirk offers any proof of this.

The period of rest was imposed by the German generals. Hitler accepted their decision and issued the order, but only after the army had already halted without any such command from Berlin. (haaretz) Tribute for Dunkirk hero - Admiral who saved thousands of soldiers Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay who saved thousands of soldiers at Dunkirk has received recognition in his own country - finally. He had already been honoured by the Russians, French and Germans for his efforts. A plaque has now been placed in St Paul`s Cathedral in memory of his contribution during the war. His family have welcomed the recognition of his vital role in helping win World War II. As well as the evacuation at Dunkirk he also planned the Normandy landings later in the conflict. "After Dunkirk we asked Churchill for a medal but he said we couldn`t have a medal - it wasn`t a victory, it was a defeat." (bbc) Dunkirk - Separating myth from miracle in WWII battle On May 10, 1940, Nazi Germany invaded France, ending the Phony War. France was cut in two, and the forces in the north (incl. British Expeditionary Force, BEF) were isolated from the French army and trapped by the Wehrmacht.

On May 26, the British War Cabinet met. The only hope of repulsing an invasion was the RAF, much of which was with the BEF. Lord Halifax proposed accepting Germany`s domination. Churchill opposed, preferring to fight it out until "each one of us lies choking in his own blood upon the ground." In "Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man " Hugh Sebag-Montefiore focuses the men ordered to hold the line and keep the pocket around Dunkirk from collapsing. (seattletimes) The youngest Canadian to get the Distinguished Service Cross War hero Robert Timbrell was commander of Canada`s last aircraft carrier, HMCS Bonaventure, rescued hundreds of British troops on the beaches of Dunkirk, and became a rear admiral and the head of Canada`s navy. On his first trip across the Channel, his boat was strafed by Luftwaffe fighters. He was able to repair the boat, make two more trips and carry more than 300 men to safety. At one point, he was shipwrecked on the Dunkirk beach, and pulled to safety with the help of an army tank that drove as far into the water as it could before the engine quit.

He later helped sink two German submarines. (cbc) Canadian Naval hero Robert Timbrell rescued British troops Robert Timbrell, who became the first decorated Canadian naval officer of the WW2 for his bravery in rescuing British troops in 1940, has died. He skippered a ship that was commandeered to evacuate as many troops as possible from a 16-kilometre stretch of beach at Dunkirk. Thousands of allied troops had been pushed back to the Channel by a powerful German army and were in danger of being captured. A call was made for all vessels that could float to make their way to the French coast. 800 private boats commandeered by the British navy with the help of 222 warships, rescued more than 338,000 Allied troops from the clutches of the German army. (cbc) Dunkirk Teaser Trailer Released! Dunkirk Teaser Trailer Released! Still from trailer / Warner Bros SHARE: Facebook Twitter The first teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan’s World War II story, Dunkirk, has been released!

The movie, starring Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, and Fionn Whitehead, tells the story of Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of 300,000 Allied soldiers who got surrounded by German soldiers in and around Dunkirk in the summer of 1940. On May 10th 1940 Nazi Germany invaded France and the low countries, by May 16th, Germany had punched through the Ardennes and well into France. Three Panzer Divisions were sent to secure the Somme River and raced along it, reaching the English Channel just a few days later. Blitzkrieg had swept aside the French armies and by May 21st they had cut off French First Army, the British Army, BEF, and the Belgian army, with their backs to the sea. In a decision which has been debated ever since by historians and military strategists (and certainly in German high command during the rest of the War), Hitler and the Wehrmacht ordered a halt to the German advance on May 22nd.

Though this gave the Allies time to regroup and prepare what defenses they could, it took away the German concern that they were advancing too fast to retain their supply chain and were leaving forward troops vulnerable to counterattack until reinforcements arrived. On the 27th and 28th of May, the Belgian Army surrendered, putting the full weight of German Forces on the BEF trying to secure the coast and the French First Army, which was further inland at Lille, trying to keep their forward position until everyone could retreat to the sea. By this time, the British Cabinet was already debating the evacuation of the BEF, though they avoid including the French government in their deliberations so as not to give their ally the impression that they were being abandoned. Thousands of men of the BEF had been forced to surrender Calais on May 26th. On May 31st, after holding off seven German divisions – including tanks for which they were woefully unprepared – the 35,000 men remaining of the French First Army at Lille capitulated. Prime minister Winston Churchill ordered Operation Dynamo, the codename for the evacuation, to begin on May 26th.

Though over 28,000 men had been returned to Britain already, it was clear on the first day of Dynamo, when only 7,669 men in total were taken from Dunkirk, that they were going to need more than the British Royal Navy if they were going to save the BEF. While the Luftwaffe bombed the harbor at Dunkirk, making evacuation even harder, the Royal Navy was requisitioning every craft they could find that was seaworthy and could carry men. Many citizens with boats of their own volunteered and sailed out to rescue men from across the channel. In total, almost 700 British ships were involved in the evacuation. With craft from other Allied nations included, 861 boats ferried men from Dunkirk to Dover and other British ports. As German forces closed in on the BEF and remaining French troops, General John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort and commander of the BEF, was struggling to supply food and water to all the men. Many were drinking whatever they could find. Though many thousands of men were able to be rescued from the harbor by small craft, many other thousands had to wade out into the sea to shoulder-deep water to wait for hours.

By June 4th, the entire remainder of the BEF was evacuated, over 336,000 men and the vanguard of 40,000 French troops surrendered to Germany. Of the British, 68,000 had already perished in the fight. Each day during the evacuation, tens of thousands of British, French, and other Allied troops were returning to Britain. Many thousands of the French troops were soon returned to France, only to be killed or captured as the Nazis swept through their nation. France formally surrendered on June 22nd. Trailer The trailer is very short but very tense. We see the beach at Dunkirk where soldiers are looking out into the sea, unburied casualties next to a huge line of waiting soldiers, the Dunkirk harbor filled with soldiers waiting to be evacuated. It ends with a crowded jetty, again filled to the brim with soldiers who try and find a safe place when a German Stuka dive bomber, judging by the sound, makes a strafing pass over them. All the while there the sound of a ticking clock, time was ticking during the evacuation to get as many soldiers off the beaches before the Germans closed in.

The film is set to be released on July 19, 2017, so we still have a long wait ahead of us before we can see the finished product. FEATURED VIDEO BBC - History - World Wars: Dunkirk World Wars Dates: 26 May to 4 June 1940 Location: Dunkirk Outcome: Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of around 350,000 British, French and Belgian troops from Dunkirk, enabled the Allies to continue the war and was a major boost to British morale. Britain: Viscount Gort's British Expeditionary Force (BEF) comprising 13 infantry divisions Germany: 19th Panzer Corps, under General Heinz Guderian; 41st Panzer Corps, led by General GH Reinhardt As France fell rapidly, the Allies' northern and southern forces were separated by the German advance from the Ardennes to the Somme. The Allied armies in the north were being encircled. By 19 May 1940 the British commander, Viscount Gort, was considering the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) by sea.

But London was demanding more action and on 21 May, Gort launched an attack from Arras. This attack lacked the necessary armour and General Heinz Guderian's tanks continued past Boulogne and Calais to cross the canal defence line close to Dunkirk, the only port left for an Allied withdrawal from Europe. On 24 May, just as Guderian was expecting to drive into Dunkirk, Hitler gave the surprise order to withdraw back to the canal line. Why the order was given has never been explained fully. One possible explanation is that Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, head of the Luftwaffe, assured Hitler that his aircraft alone could destroy the Allied troops trapped on the beaches at Dunkirk. Others believe Hitler felt that Britain might accept peace terms more readily without a humiliating surrender. Whatever the reason, the German halt gave the Allies an unexpected opportunity to evacuate their troops. Evacuation began on 26 May and gained urgency the next day, when Field Marshal Walter von Brauchitsch, the German Commander-in-Chief, persuaded Hitler to rescind his orders and German tanks again advanced on Dunkirk. By this time the Allies had strengthened their defences and the tanks met heavy resistance.

Almost immediately, Hitler ordered them instead to move south for the imminent attack on the Somme-Aisne line, another lucky break for the Allies. Heavy German bombing had destroyed Dunkirk's harbour, and there were hundreds of thousands of men on the beach, hoping to be rescued. The Luftwaffe attacked whenever the weather allowed, reducing the town of Dunkirk to rubble. On 29 May, the evacuation was announced to the British public, and many privately owned boats started arriving at Dunkirk to ferry the troops to safety. This flotilla of small vessels famously became known as the 'Little Ships'. The contribution these civilian vessels made to the Dunkirk evacuation gave rise to the term 'Dunkirk spirit', an expression still used to describe the British ability to rally together in the face of adversity. By 4 June, when the operation ended, 198,000 British and 140,000 French and Belgian troops had been saved, but virtually all of their heavy equipment had been abandoned. Six destroyers had been sunk, along with eight personnel ships and around 200 small craft, from a total of around 860 vessels of all sizes.

A further 220,000 Allied troops were rescued by British ships from other French ports (Cherbourg, Saint-Malo, Brest, and Saint-Nazaire), bringing the total of Allied troops evacuated to 558,000. Although the Germans had taken over a million Allied prisoners in three weeks at a cost of 60,000 casualties, the evacuation was a major boost to British morale and enabled the Allies to fight another day - even if that fight was to be on home turf, resisting the expected German invasion of Britain. BBC ON THIS DAY | 4 | 1940: Dunkirk rescue is over - Churchill defiant Search ON THIS DAY by date About This Site | Text Only 1940: Dunkirk rescue is over - Churchill defiant The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, has described the "miracle of deliverance" from Dunkirk and warned of an impending invasion. His moving speech to Parliament came on the day the last allied soldier arrived home from France at the end of a 10-day operation to bring back hundreds of thousands of retreating allied troops trapped by the German Army. Many French troops remained to hold the perimeter and were captured.

Major-General Harold Alexander inspected the shores of Dunkirk from a motorboat this morning to make sure no-one was left behind before boarding the last ship back to Britain. The beach and sea were in chaos. There were bodies floating in the water and we were under constant attack from machine-gun fire, bombing, explosions sending shrapnel in every direction. There were bodies floating in the water and we were under constant attack from machine-gun fire, bombing, explosions sending shrapnel in every direction. People's War memories » Battle-weary and hungry soldiers from the retreating British Expeditionary Force (BEF) as well as French and Belgian troops had spent many days waiting to board ships from the one remaining pier, the east mole. Many thousands were taken straight off the beaches, struggling in shallow waters to board small vessels that transferred them to the waiting ships. When those who survived the evacuation arrived exhausted in England they were welcomed as returning heroes and offered plenty of tea and sandwiches as they boarded special trains. Commander-in-chief of the BEF, Lord Gort, arrived back in England on 1 June and was also feted as a hero.

When his force was almost swallowed up by the Germans - after the French were driven south from Sedan and the Belgians surrendered - he took the vital decision to withdraw to Dunkirk where, according to the Times newspaper, four-fifths of his men were rescued. This afternoon Mr Churchill admitted to the House that when Operation Dynamo was launched on 26 May to rescue allied forces cornered by the advancing Germany Army, he expected about 20,000 or 30,000 would be saved. But thanks to the valour of the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, no less than 338,000 British and French troops were rescued and brought back across the Channel to fight another day. Mr Churchill tempered his admiration for the success of Operation Dynamo with these words: "Wars are not won by evacuations". He said there was no doubt in his mind that the last few weeks had been a "colossal military disaster". The BEF had to leave behind all its heavy armour and equipment. The French army was weakened, the Belgian army had surrendered, Channel ports, valuable mines and factories in France and Belgium had been taken over by the enemy. He said the nation should brace itself for another blow.

"We are told that Herr Hitler has a plan for invading the British Isles," he said. Returning troops were vital if Britain were to resist such an invasion. He ended his speech with a defiant message to Hitler's armies. "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." Britain would "ride out the tyranny of war, if necessary for years, if necessary alone." Mr Churchill paid special tribute to the Royal Air Force that had provided what protection it could for the ships and stranded soldiers . The Royal Navy sent 220 light war ships and 650 other vessels under a hail of bombs and artillery fire. World War Two 1940 - History Learning Site World War Two 1940 Citation: C N Trueman "World War Two 1940" historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 20 Apr 2015. 16 Aug 2016. 1940 January 5th: Hoare-Belisha dismissed as Minister of War.

January 8th: food rationing began in the UK (butter, bacon and sugar) February 1st: Major Soviet offensive against Finland starts. February 14th: Britain announced that merchant ships in the North Sea would be armed. February 15th: Nazi Germany announced that all UK merchant ships in the North Sea would be classed as warships. February 17th: The UK government made plans to evacuate 400,000 children to rural areas. March 13th: Treaty of Moscow ended the Winter War. March 20th: Daladier was overthrown as head of the French government and replaced by Reynaud. April 8th: The Royal Navy started laying mines in Norwegian waters. April 9th: Nazi Germany invaded Denmark and Norway thus ending the Phoney War. May 10th: Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands, Luxemburg and Belgium. Churchill replaced Chamberlain as UK Prime Minister. May 11th: Churchill gave Bomber Command permission to bomb Berlin. May 13th: France was attacked at Sedan. May 14th: The Luftwaffe attacked Rotterdam and inflicted 30,000 casualties.

The UK government made its first appeal for Local Defence Volunteers – later the Home Guard. May 15th: The RAF attacked the Ruhr. The first major tank versus tank battle of World War Two occurred at Philippeville. German tanks advanced 37 miles into France. The Netherlands surrendered. May 18th: The major port of Antwerp surrendered. May 20th: German tanks reached Abbeville and cut off Allied forces in the north of France. May 21st: Allied forces launched a counter-offensive at Arras. May 24th: Hitler ordered a halt to the advance of German armour. May 26th: Allied forces were trapped at Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo started. June 4th: The evacuation from Dunkirk ended. June 5th: Germany launched a full-scale attack against French forces at the Somme. June 7th: German forces advanced 37 miles into France spearheaded by Rommel’s force. June 10th: Mussolini declared war on France. June 13th: French troops leave Paris. June 14th: German troops entered Paris.

June 16th: Raynaud’s cabinet, in Bordeaux, was ousted by Pétain. June 17th: Pétain broadcasted to the French people urging them to stop fighting. He also asked the Germans for the terms of an armistice. June 18th: The RAF attacked Hamburg and Bremen. June 20th: Italy launched an offensive on the Alpine front. June 21st: A delegation from France met Hitler at Rethonde. June 22nd: France surrendered and was effectively split in two. The north was governed by the Germans and the south became known as Vichy France under the control of Pétain. June 24th: France signed an armistice with Italy. July 16th: Hitler issued his plans for Operation Sealion – the invasion of the UK. It was officially known as ‘Directive 16, Preparations for the Landing Operation against England’. August 1st: Hitler ordered the destruction of the Royal Air Force as a precursor to the German invasion. August 5th: The Battle of Britain began.

August 13th: ‘Eagle Day’ – the German Luftwaffe launched 1,485 sorties against Britain. The Luftwaffe lost 45 planes and the RAF 13. August 15th: Germany launched the most intense attack on Great Britain – 1,790 sorties. The Luftwaffe lost 75 planes and the RAF 34. The Greek cruiser “Helle” was torpedoed and sunk – the Italians were strongly suspected of doing this. August 20th: Italy announced the total blockade of all Britain’s Mediterranean and African territories. August 24th Central London was attacked for the first time by the Luftwaffe August 25th: The RAF launched its first attack on Berlin. September 3rd: Lend-Lease was signed. September 7th: The Blitz on London started with an attack by 300 German bombers supported by 600 fighters. September 13th: Italy invaded Egypt. September 15th: The RAF claimed to have shot down 183 German planes during the day – an exaggerated claim.

September 17th: Hitler announced that Operation Sealion was to be postponed “until further notice”. September 28th: The Battle of Britain ended. October 12th: Operation Sealion was formally cancelled as Hitler concentrated his attention towards the USSR. October 28th: Italy attacked Greece. November 11th: The Royal Navy attacked the Italian fleet at Taranto and destroyed 3 battleships. November 14th: Coventry suffered extensive damage during a bombing raid. Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dunkirk’ Movie: Jack Lowden & Aneurin Barnard Eyed | Deadline One Direction Singer Harry Styles Offered Role In Christopher Nolan's 'Dunkirk' Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh and Tom Hardy will be part of an ensemble made up largely of unknowns. Nolan, his co-producer and partner Emma Thomas, oversaw an extensive casting process for the film, with virtually every young British and Irish actor putting themselves on tape for this. Nolan was known to be looking for unknowns for the major roles, thereby giving scores of young thesps the hope of a once-in-a-lifetime big break to nab a major role with a visionary filmmaker.

Pic will be shot on Imax 65mm and 65mm large-format film. Dubbed Operation Dynamo , the evacuation of Dunkirk was a British military operation that saved some 330,000 Allied soldiers trapped in the harbor and surrounded by the German army. Winston Churchill described it as “a miracle of deliverance.” Lowden is one of the most exciting young actors in the UK right now. He has won plaudits for his performance in BBC-Weinstein Co co-production War And Peace. He also plays iconic left-wing politician Tony Benn in Amma Asante’s much-buzzed about A United Kingdom, starring Rosamund Pike and David Oyelowo. He also stars opposite Rachel Weisz, Andrew Scott and Timothy Spall in Mick Jackson’s Denial. He is repped by Conway van Gelder Grant and UTA. Barnard impressed with his portrayal of King Richard in the BBC-Starz miniseries The White Queen. He is repped by The Artists Partnership. Warner Bros has dated the film for July 21, 2017. The studio declined to comment when contacted by Deadline.

Question: What was the aim of the World War 2 allied operation Dynamo?
Answer: Evacuation from Dunkirk