June 4, 1940 – Dunkirk Evacuation Succeeds

In one of the most critical operations of World War II, the British evacuated some 335,000 British and other Allied soldiers trapped on the beaches at Dunkirk in the face of relentless German bombardment from both ground and air.

The desperate nine-day effort, code-named Operation Dynamo, began May 27, 1940, less than three weeks after Germany invaded France. By June 4, the Royal Navy, aided by some 800 small private British boats (the famous “little ships of Dunkirk”) and RAF air support, had rescued the doomed Allied troops. In the nearby photo, a flotilla of small ships, responding to the government’s appeals for vessels and men to help the Royal Navy, heads toward the Channel on their way to Dunkirk to help rescue British troops. Click on the audio to hear such an appeal on a BBC broadcast on May 29, 1940. (Photo courtesy @RealTimeWWII. Audio source: www.bbc.co.uk)

While the miraculous rescue at Dunkirk avoided a complete disaster for the Allies, the British had to abandon large numbers of weapons, tanks, artillery and other heavy equipment in France, which impacted their military readiness for defense of their own country.

The Polish destroyer ORP Błyskawica initially scouted Dunkirk’s harbor on May 27 with HMS Vega, and afterwards provided constant escort and anti-air support to vulnerable transports. Most of the Polish ground and air forces fighting with the Allies in the Battle of France were deployed further south in France, so were not trapped at Dunkirk. The Poles continued the fight, until France surrendered to the Germans two weeks later.