Position:Home>History> Can someone give me a summary about the battle of dunkirk in world war 2?

During the beginning of WWII, Germany rolled right through France!. British forces who were in France got backed up at the port of Dunkirk (check spelling!.!.!.)!. Faced with having a large number of their soldiers either killed or captured, the English got a huge armada of boats to risk crossing the English Channel to rescue the soldiers!. They saved over 100,000 soldiers as I recall!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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Dunkirk, was a test for a normandy style invasion!. Dunkirk was the shortest distance between England and France so the allies tested an assault at Dunkirk!. They selected a Canadian division to spearhead the attack!. The battle was a disaster as they were bogged down in the sand and the German bunkers and defences shredded them to pieces!. The allies were unable to extract them and the resulting consequence was the surrender of the troops!. It was a serious blunder which resulted in the loss of over 2,000 POWs for the allies!.

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The Battle of Dunkirk was the defense and evacuation of the British and Allied forces that had been separated from the main body of the French defenses by the German advance!.

After the seven months of the Phoney War, the Battle of France began in earnest on 10 May 1940!. To the east, the German Army Group B invaded and subdued the Netherlands and advanced westwards through Belgium!. On the 14 May, Army Group A burst through the Ardennes region and advanced rapidly to the west toward Sedan, then turned northwards to the English Channel, in what Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein called the "sickle cut" (known as the Manstein Plan)!.

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 near Armentières, the French First 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!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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It wasn't much of a battle really!. The French were divided and most would not hold their positions against the advancing Germans!. While it doesn't REALLY cover the happenings on the beach, a good book you might consider reading is:

"Four Days in June 1940 in London" The author is (Professor) John Lukacs and he covers Churchill's first four days , almost minute by minute, in office as Dunkirk was taking place!. I am not sure, but I think it was printed via Harvard Press and the copyright was around 1999!. Sorry, the book's at my other office!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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trigunna has Dieppe in 1942 confused with Dunkirk!.

Here's a short description from William Manchester's introduction to his biography 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!.

It was England’s greatest crisis since the Norman conquest, vaster than those precipitated by Philip II’s Spanish Armada, Louis XIV’s triumphant armies, or Napoleon’s invasion barges massed at Boulogne!.

This time Britain stood alone!. If the Germans crossed the Channel and established uncontested beachheads, all would be lost, for it is a peculiarity of England’s island that its southern weald is indefensible against disciplined troops!.

Now the 220,000 Tommies at Dunkirk, Britain’s only hope, seemed doomed!. On the Flanders beaches they stood around in angular, existential attitudes, like dim purgatorial souls awaiting disposition!. 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!.
But wars are not won by fleeing from the enemy!. And British morale was still unequal to the imminent challenge!. These were the same people who, less than a year earlier, had rejoiced in the fake peace bought by the betrayal of Czechoslovakia at Munich!. Most of their leaders and most of the press remained craven!. !.!.!.!.!.!."


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The German Army overwhelmed the French and British forces and drove most of them back to a small beachhead in Northern France at Dunkirk!.
In 9 days in May 1940 the Royal navy helped by hundreds of small civilian boats managed to evacuate over 300,000 French and British soldiers to EnglandWww@QuestionHome@Com

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