Dunkirk Research Paper

A ‘’miracle’ ’Dunkirk ,the troops trapped on Dunkirk and the evacuation associated with them, was called by Winston Churchill .In the spring of 1940 the Wehrmacht swept through western Europe ,using Blitzkrieg ,both the French and British armies could the onslaught .for western Europeans ,World war two was about to start .The ‘’phoney War’’ had surely come to an end. The advancing German army trapped the British and the French armies on the beaches on Dunkirk. Over 300,000 men were trapped here and they were a sitting target for the Germans .Admiral Ramsey formulated operation dynamo to get off of the beaches as many men as was possible. The British troops ,led by lord John, were professional soldiers from the British investigation force ;trained men that we could not afford to lose. From May 26th 1940,small ships transferred soldiers to larger one which then brought them back to Britain southern port.
The Dunkirk beach was on a shallow slope so no large boat could get near the actual beaches where the men were. So Therefore, smaller boats were needed to take men on board who would then be transferred to a much bigger boat based further off shore. No less than Eight hundred of these legendary, referred to as ‘’little ships’’ were used. It was thought that the mission seemed highly
unlikely at the time. The British army, joined by some Belgian and French forces would have to fight their way to the small port of Dunkirk, protect and defend the town from attacks and hope that they could hold on long enough for ships from England to come get them of the beach.
On May 24, Hitler for reasons still unclear, ordered his tanks to stop the persuit of retreating allied forces. In England any ships to help with the rescue were called out for. On May 26 an unbelievable fleet set sail. Sloops, fishing boats, motorboats, yachts, barges, ferries and every other array of boat thinkable poured out of the Thames River and the ports that lined the English channel to make their way across the channel to save the besieged troops.
Guided by the fumes and flames filling the sky above Dunkirk,the ragtag rescue convoy made its way through non-stop German attacks and harzadous waters to the stranded troops. The rescuers found the beaches choked with men.Some clamoured along piers to reach the rescue ships,others packing out shore to waters nearly over their heads for rescue. All the time the beach was under attack from German large guns,bombers and fighter planes.

Through this stage in the war, the heroic effort on the part of the Allies in defending against the tide of intruding axis armor was all but spent.
Holland and Poland had already fallen to the Germans and Belgium was soon to follow. French and British forces began assembling at the French port city of Dunkirk with British soil sitting some ways across the Channel. Sensing total destruction of the forces, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered a fleet of civilian ships to help transport troops to awaiting transports from the port. The struggle would become one of epic proportion as thousands of souls were saved in the bold rescue
operation.
The Belgium resistance had now fallen however the allies benefited from the German military resources partly tied to this effort. The window of opportunity approved more allied forces to arrive at Dunkirk and the comparative safety that it offered. The operation then came underway and the allied troops that were rescued from certain death or captivity was over 338,000 in what became known as the "Miracle at Dunkirk". Despite this struggle, an age bracket of French and British children would grow up without fathers such was the price.
A final French Army stood at Dunkirk and won the Germans some 40,000 French soldiers as Prisoners of War while thousands of small arms and vehicles were bagged. The Germans would end the stand and eventually take the port city under their control.
The small boats are towed down the Thames to Dunkirk .These were used to carry troops from the beach to bigger ships off shore