Operation Dynamo
Operation Dynamo

Author: Tim Benbow

Publisher: Naval Staff Histories of the S

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781910294598

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"In May 1940, as France collapsed in the face of the German blitzkrieg, the British army and some French forces fell back on the Channel coast. The advancing Germans pushed them back and then briefly paused, confident that this cornered remnant of the allied forces was trapped. Yet the German command had failed to appreciate just what sea power could do to deny them the full fruits of their apparent victory; at short notice an evacuation was improvised which, it was initially thought, might if all went well last two days and rescue 45,000 men. The heroic rear guard action of the troops ashore against the renewed German advance, the ability of the RAF to provide just enough air cover, the tireless efforts of naval crews and those manning the priceless 'little ships', and the organisational genius of Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay saw Operation Dynamo succeed beyond all realistic expectation: two days became nine, and over 338,000 men were saved. Operational disaster in the Battle of France did not become strategic defeat in the war, and albeit at great cost to the Navy, the British army survived to be rebuilt. Above all, Britain could continue to fight. This volume reproduces the complete text of the Battle Summary written shortly after the war by the Admiralty historical staff, comprising a detailed and authoritative account of these dramatic events. This is accompanied by a comprehensive introduction, newly written for this volume, that explains the context for the operation as well as an overview of further reading on the subject."--Publisher website.

The Miracle of Dunkirk
The Miracle of Dunkirk

Author: Walter Lord

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2012-03-06

Total Pages: 478

ISBN-13: 1453238506

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The true story of the World War II evacuation portrayed in the Christopher Nolan film Dunkirk, by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Day of Infamy. In May 1940, the remnants of the French and British armies, broken by Hitler’s blitzkrieg, retreated to Dunkirk. Hemmed in by overwhelming Nazi strength, the 338,000 men gathered on the beach were all that stood between Hitler and Western Europe. Crush them, and the path to Paris and London was clear. Unable to retreat any farther, the Allied soldiers set up defense positions and prayed for deliverance. Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered an evacuation on May 26, expecting to save no more than a handful of his men. But Britain would not let its soldiers down. Hundreds of fishing boats, pleasure yachts, and commercial vessels streamed into the Channel to back up the Royal Navy, and in a week nearly the entire army was ferried safely back to England. Based on interviews with hundreds of survivors and told by “a master narrator,” The Miracle of Dunkirk is a striking history of a week when the outcome of World War II hung in the balance (Arthur Schlesinger Jr.).

The Dunkirk Evacuation in 100 Objects
The Dunkirk Evacuation in 100 Objects

Author: Martin Mace

Publisher: Frontline Books

Published: 2017-09-30

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 9781526709905

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At 18.57 hours on Sunday, 26 May 1940, the Admiralty issued the directive which instigated the start of Operation Dynamo. This was the order to rescue the British Expeditionary Force from the French port of Dunkirk and the beaches surrounding it. The Admiralty believed that it would only be able to rescue 45,000 men over the course of the following two days. Between 26 May and 4 June 1940, however, when Dynamo officially ended, an armada of ships, big and small, naval and civilian achieved what had been considered impossible. In fact, in this period a total of 338,682 men had been disembarked at British ports. Such a figure has exceeded the expectations of most. Little wonder, therefore, that an editorial in The New York Times at the beginning of June declared, So long as the English tongue survives, the word Dunkirk will be spoken with reverence. Through 100 objects, from the wreck of a ship through to a dug-up rifle, and individual photographs to large memorials, all of which represent a moving snapshot of the past, the author sets out to tell the story of what came to be known as The Miracle of Dunkirk. The full-colour photographs of each 100 items are accompanied by detailed explanations of the object and the people and events which make them so special or relevant.

The Evacuation from Dunkirk
The Evacuation from Dunkirk

Author: W.J.R. Gardner

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-02-04

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1317973585

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This is the Naval Staff History of "Operation Dynamo", originally published internally in 1949. British ships evacuated nearly 100,000 men of the BEF from the beaches, and over 200,000 from harbours. Other nations' vessels carried more than 30,000.

Dunkirk 1940
Dunkirk 1940

Author: Douglas C. Dildy

Publisher: Osprey Publishing

Published: 2010-03-23

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781846034572

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During the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940, German forces successfully cut off several units of British, French and Canadian troops from supporting forces and supplies. Nearly 350,000 Allied troops were left stranded on the beaches and harbor of Dunkirk, in France, amounting to what Winston Churchill called "the whole root, core, and brain of the British Army." Between May 26 and June 4, 1940, in what was named Operation Dynamo, a total of 338,226 soldiers were rescued by hastily assembled boats to British destroyers and other large ships or directly back to England. This book fills a gap in Osprey's coverage of World War II (1939-1945), as no Campaign titles have yet covered the Dunkirk evacuation, and, unlike previous treatments of the subject, provides a description and assessment of the operation from an operation perspective. Author Doug Dildy relates the various overlapping and interconnected struggles--land forces vs. land forces, air forces vs. air forces, air forces vs. naval forces, all in a race against time--and their operational impacts on one another in one coherent, coordinated volume.

Air Power and the Evacuation of Dunkirk
Air Power and the Evacuation of Dunkirk

Author: Harry Raffal

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-07-15

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1350180467

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The evacuation of Dunkirk has been immortalised in books, prints and films, narrated as a story of an outnumbered, inexperienced RAF defeating the battle-hardened Luftwaffe and protecting the evacuation. This book revives the historiography by analysing the air operations during the evacuation. Raffal draws from German and English sources, many for the first time in the context of Operation DYNAMO, to argue that both sides suffered a defeat over Dunkirk. . This work examines the resources and tactics of both sides during DYNAMO and challenges the traditional view that the Luftwaffe held the advantage. The success that the Luftwaffe achieved during DYNAMO, including halting daylight evacuations on 1 June, is evaluated and the supporting role of RAF Bomber and Coastal Command is explored in detail for the first time. Concluding that the RAF was not responsible for the Luftwaffe's failure to prevent the evacuation, Raffal demonstrates that the reasons lay elsewhere.

Dunkirk Evacuation, Operation Dynamo
Dunkirk Evacuation, Operation Dynamo

Author: John Grehan

Publisher: Frontline Books

Published: 2020-04-30

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1526770369

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“Takes you right to the scene of the action in late May and early June 1940, when more than 300,000 soldiers were saved from capture or death.” —Rambles The “miracle” of Dunkirk is one of the most inspiring stories of all time. The British Expeditionary Force had been all but surrounded, and, with the French armies collapsing on all sides, it appeared that Britain was about to suffer the heaviest defeat in its history. When Winston Churchill’s War Cabinet finally accepted that the Battle of France had been lost, preparations were made to try and rescue as many soldiers as possible from one of the few ports left open to the British Expeditionary Force—Dunkirk. So rushed and chaotic was the retreat to the Channel coast, with thousands of guns, vehicles and tanks being abandoned, there was little time for soldiers to consider taking photographs of the shocking scenes of death and destruction which surrounded them. Yet images do exist of the ships and boats of all descriptions which braved the bombs and guns of the German Air Force to rescue Britain’s only field army from the clutches of Hitler’s panzer divisions. One man in particular, Sub-Lieutenant John Rutherford Crosby, a member of the crew of the minesweeper, and converted Clyde paddle steamer, HMS Oriole, left a legacy of dramatic images. These include the never-to-be-forgotten scenes of long lines of tired and anxious troops stretching into the sea and of bombs exploding on the packed beaches—all with his own personal little camera. Other images in this book paint a vivid and memorable picture, as no words ever could, of the greatest evacuation of troops under fire.

Dunkirk
Dunkirk

Author: Hugh Sebag-Montefiore

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2007-05-31

Total Pages: 1005

ISBN-13: 0141906162

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* * * Special 75th Anniversary Edition * * * Hugh Sebag-Montefiore's Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man tells the story of the rescue in May 1940 of British soldiers fleeing capture and defeat by the Nazis at Dunkirk. Dunkirk was not just about what happened at sea and on the beaches. The evacuation would never have succeeded had it not been for the tenacity of the British soldiers who stayed behind to ensure they got away. Men like Sergeant Major Gus Jennings who died smothering a German stick bomb in the church at Esquelbecq in an effort to save his comrades, and Captain Marcus Ervine-Andrews VC who single-handedly held back a German attack on the Dunkirk perimeter thereby allowing the British line to form up behind him. Told to stand and fight to the last man, these brave few battalions fought in whatever manner they could to buy precious time for the evacuation. Outnumbered and outgunned, they launched spectacular and heroic attacks time and again, despite ferocious fighting and the knowledge that for many only capture or death would end their struggle. 'A searing story . . . both meticulous military history and a deeply moving testimony to the extraordinary personal bravery of individual soldiers' Tim Gardam, The Times 'Sebag-Montefiore tells [the story] with gusto, a remarkable attention to detail and an inexhaustible appetite for tracking down the evidence' Richard Ovary, Telegraph Hugh Sebag-Montefiore was a barrister before becoming a journalist and then an author. He wrote the best-selling Enigma: The Battle for the Code. One of his ancestors was evacuated from Dunkirk.

Operation Aerial
Operation Aerial

Author: David Worsfold

Publisher:

Published: 2023-09

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781781220245

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Dunkirk resonates through British history. The "miracle of deliverance", as Prime Minister Winston Churchill described the evacuation of nearly 340,000 troops from the small French port, in most people's minds marks the end of British involvement in France in 1940. Dunkirk finally fell to the advancing German forces but it was far from the end of the story. Tens of thousands of troops and British civilians were still in France. By the end of June, a further 250,000 people had been brought back to the United Kingdom. This is the story of that second miracle of deliverance that has never been fully told. Operation Aerial was an audacious plan to bring home the disparate units of the BEF that were cut off south of the River Somme or isolated near the Maginot Line as the Germans - and Rommel's tanks in particular - advanced in May and early June 1940. This evacuation was also to include thousands of British citizens who were trapped in France and given little guidance beyond instructions to head to ports on the west coast. Dunkirk had been a military evacuation and civilians had not been catered for. The Royal Navy, supported by a fleet of merchant navy ships, worked its way down the western coast of France trying to keep one step ahead of the Germans. As one port was captured they moved down the coast to the next from Cherbourg, to St Malo, to Brest, to Saint-Nazaire, to Lorient, to La Rochelle, to Bordeaux, to Bayonne and finally Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Operation Aerial is almost unknown alongside Operation Dynamo partly because it doesn't have the romance of the little ships but also due to controversies, disasters and accusations of a cover-up. Amid these controversies are stories of incredible resourcefulness, simple courage and remarkable heroism, underpinned by largely excellent organization and command. There were the nurses on board the hospital ships who returned time and time again despite being attacked, the demolition teams that stayed until the Germans were breathing down their necks and took their chance when it came to being evacuated, and the many ordinary soldiers and civilians who struggled through the chaos, confusion and disintegration of France to get back home so they could continue the battle against Hitler. Now it is time that story was told.

Mastermind of Dunkirk and D-Day
Mastermind of Dunkirk and D-Day

Author: Brian Izzard

Publisher: Casemate

Published: 2020-04-15

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1612008399

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This detailed biography brings to life one of the greatest military heroes of WWII—and demonstrates why his contributions were crucial to Allied victory. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay masterminded the evacuation of some 330,000 members of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk. He went on to play a crucial role in the invasion of Sicily and the planning and execution of the D-Day invasion, where he commanded the 7,000 ships that delivered Allied forces to the beaches of Normandy. All this from a man who had retired in 1938—only to be persuaded back to the service by Winston Churchill himself. In 1944, Ramsay was promoted to Admiral and appointed Naval Commander-in-Chief for the D-Day naval expeditionary force. A year later, he died in a mysterious air crash. Though Ramsay’s legacy has been remembered by the Royal Navy, his key role in the Allied victory has been widely forgotten. Now biographer Brian Izzard corrects this oversight, arguing that without Ramsay the outcome of both Dunkirk and D-Day—and perhaps the entire war—could have been very different.