What was the miracle at dunkirk - SHORT! summary?

Question:i need a short summary like 4-6 sentences please (:

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In May, 1940 the French and British had been badly defeated by Germany in the Battle of France. Something over 350,000 men, including the entire British army and elements of the French and Belgian armies, were trapped in the port of Dunkirk in France. The British decided to try to evacuate them by sea. Initially they believed that they would be able to rescue, at most, 30,000 men. Over the course of ten incredible days, from May 26 to June 4, They accomplished a miracle. The navy put out a call for help from the civilian population and boats from all over Britain began appearing to help, fishing boats, yachts, pleasure boats, row boats, you name it. Under constant aerial attack the navy and civilians evacuated nearly 340,000 men straight from the beaches. They had to leave behind all of their heavy equipment but that could be replaced. When it was over, Britain still had a army with which to fight another day.

K.

British Expeditionary Force (BEF) is in France to help shore up French defenses at the Maginot Line.

Germans surprise allies by attacking through the Low Countries of the Netherlands/Belgium/Denmark, which are relatively flat and allow the German panzers to easily bypass the Maginot Line.

BEF realizes it has neither the manpower nor the machines to hold the Germans back, and makes a beeline for the port of Dunkirk.

Britain doesn't have enough transports--so it calls on all ships, military, merchant, and private--to help rescue the BEF members.

BEF escapes on yachts, tankers, rowboats, etc., back to Britain days (if not hours) before being wiped out by a 3-pronged German offensive.

Loads of Brits and French troops got evacuated - largely on privately owned small boats from England.

The German army held back when they could have creamed them. Apparently on Hitler's orders.

From William Manchester's bio of Churchill:

THE French had collapsed. The Dutch had been overwhelmed. The Belgians had surrendered. The British army, trapped, fought free and fell back toward the Channel ports, converging on a fishing town whose name was then spelled Dunkerque.
Behind them lay the sea.

.
If the Germans crossed the Channel and established uncontested beachheads, all would be lost,

. Now the 220,000 Tommies at Dunkirk, Britain’s only hope, seemed doomed.

There appeared to be no way to bring more than a handful of them home. The Royal Navy’s vessels were inadequate. King George VI has been told that they would be lucky to save 17,000. The House of Commons was warned to prepare for “hard and heavy tidings.”

Then, from the streams and estuaries of Kent and Dover, a strange fleet appeared: trawlers and tugs, scows and fishing sloops, lifeboats and pleasure craft, smacks and coasters; the island ferry Grade Fields; Tom Sopwith’s America’s Cup challenger Endeavour; even the London fire brigade’s fire-float Massey Shaw — all of them manned by civilian volunteers:

English fathers, sailing to rescue England’s exhausted, bleeding sons.

Even today what followed seems miraculous. Not only were Britain’s soldiers delivered; so were French support troops: a total of 338,682 men

The miracle was that a vastly greater number of troops than initially projected were rescued from their encircled position at Dunkirk.
More than 330,000 all told, and later another 200,000 from western French ports as the Germans swung to attack towards Paris.

The popular belief is that the majority of these were rescued off the beaches by a flock of small private boats but, despite their real, heroic and honoured contribution, the majority of soldiers were carried by transports and destroyers, and not from off the beaches.
The romance should not be allowed to overrule the history.

Sources:
Robert Jackson "Dunkirk"
Peter Fleming "Operation Sealion"