Western Europe · United Kingdom and France vs Germany
Dunkirk evacuation
26 May 1940 – 4 June 1940
Operation Dynamo lifted 338,226 British and French troops from the harbour and beaches of Dunkirk under air attack, using destroyers, ferries and hundreds of small craft. Almost all heavy equipment was abandoned. The last rearguard surrendered on 4 June.
Explore Dunkirk evacuation on the interactive map · Wikipedia
Day by day
— Dynamo
The Admiralty orders the evacuation at 18:57. The BEF and the French First Army are falling back into a pocket forty kilometres deep; the panzers, halted on the Aa canal since the 24th, are released the same evening. Calais falls today.
— Belgium surrenders
King Leopold capitulates at 04:00, opening the eastern flank; the 3rd Division marches through the night to fill it. The perimeter is now the Bergues-Furnes canal. At Wormhout the SS Leibstandarte murder eighty prisoners of the Royal Warwicks.
— The little ships
The best day: 68,014 men lifted, a third of them from the beaches by the small craft that began arriving on the 29th. Gort hands over to Alexander and sails; the French take over the western half of the perimeter.
— The last British
The last of the BEF leave on the night of 2-3 June; Ramsay sends the ships back once more for the French. The perimeter is a few kilometres of dune and canal, held by French troops who will not get away.
— Dunkirk falls
The Germans enter the town at 09:00. Some 338,000 men were taken off, 123,000 of them French; 40,000 more are captured on the beaches, along with every gun, tank and lorry the BEF possessed.
