70th Anniversary of the Evacuation from Dunkirk
Little Ships Rescue of Allied Troops from Dunkerque in 1940
Aug 26, 2009
WW II was less than a year old in 1940. The British Expeditionary Force and French armies, who had been fighting against Hitler’s troops in Belgium and France, were forced to retreat to the French port of Dunkirk. Hailed as “the greatest rescue operation in history”, Operation Dynamo saw hundreds of civilian sailors, along with the Navy and the RAF selflessly risk their lives to evacuate around 350,000 troops from the beaches of France.
Government Calls for Volunteers and Boats
In May 1940, British and French troops fighting in Northern France found themselves being attacked from both the east and the west by the advancing German army. The Allies managed a counter attack of sorts on May 21st 1940 which stalled the German advance but also caused them to retreat to the harbour and beaches of Dunkirk.
In anticipation of some sort of evacuation of troops from France becoming a reality, the British Admiralty, a few weeks earlier, had carefully taken a census of all available small boats in the UK. The census included river boats, yachts, motor cruisers, dinghies and drifters. Adverts were also posted asking for volunteers.
An article in The Times newspaper of June 6th 1940, reporting after the evacuation, said: “At one employment exchange, in a small town, volunteers were invited for a job about which no particulars were published except that it would be very dangerous but would only last a few days”. It went on to report that 150 men volunteered within six hours.
Operation Dynamo Begins
On the night of May 24th 1940, the British government gave the order for Operation Dynamo to begin. This was the signal for all civilian volunteer sailing crew and hundreds of the little ships recorded on the census to head for Dover, Margate and other ports on the south east coast of England. The Navy and Royal Air Force positioned themselves in the Channel off Dunkirk ready to provide cover during the evacuation.
The little ships were needed because the beach at Dunkirk was too shallow for larger boats to reach the men. It was the civilian volunteers, crewing their skiffs and yachts and dinghies that ferried the troops across the shallow water and onto the larger boats which then carried them back to England. These heroic volunteers were under constant fire from the Germans but were covered by counter fire from the RAF and Navy.
The Little Ships Help Save Nearly 350,000 Troops
For the next seven days or so, this determined and heroic operation involving not only the Armed Forces and civilians but Merchant Navy ships too continued unceasingly day and night. By June 4th, when the operation was called off, some 233,000 British soldiers and 113,000 allied soldiers had been evacuated back to England. But there were casualties too – 106 aircraft, 235 boats and the heavier equipment on the beaches were lost.
Many bravery awards were given out as a result of Operation Dynamo but perhaps the most touching was that awarded by the Cruising Club of America. The Club has an annual award, called the Blue Water Medal, for the most meritorious display of seamanship by an amateur sailor. In 1941, this was presented to the Royal Cruising Club of Britain to be held on behalf of all those yachtsmen who helped at Dunkirk.
The Dunkirk Spirit
Thus was born the phrase “the Dunkirk spirit”. The evacuation of allied troops from Dunkirk in the face of such danger and over such a length of time truly has to be the greatest rescue in history if not quite the “miracle” that Winston Churchill called it. It represents the stubbornness and refusal to accept defeat by all those heroic civilians along with the armed forces who took part in the successful evacuation.
Sources:
- The Times Digital Archive
- The Wordsworth Dictionary of British History, JP Kenyon, 1994
 |
