Introduction

The heroism powerfully portrayed in these pages—and in the summer blockbuster Dunkirk—shaped the course of history

Exit Strategy

Between May 16 and May 21, the Nazis (represented by green shading) pushed the Allies into a corner of northwest France, almost to the sea. They thought the English had no choice but to surrender, but they were wrong.

THE RESCUE OF British and French soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk has come to represent heroic perseverance in the face of adversity. Surrounded by German ground forces and bombarded by Nazi warplanes, some 340,000 Allied troops were carried out of harm’s way by a makeshift flotilla of military and civilian ships. The operation, executed in 1940 between May 26 and June 5, demonstrated, for many, the indomitable spirit of freedom.

In purely military terms, the evacuation can also be regarded as a defeat. Three weeks earlier, the British Expeditionary Force had been transported across the English Channel to support the French Army in the Battle of France. But despite the Allies’ best efforts, they were no match for the German blitzkrieg, which combined the lightning speed of Panzer tank divisions with the force of bombers and fighter planes. Pushed by the Nazis toward the sea, the British were effectively cornered at Dunkirk and had little choice but to evacuate. For the Germans, it was a decisive victory: the British suffered 66,000 casualties and the French, 290,000. Adolf Hitler, despite 140,000 German casualties, was exultant. “Soldiers of the West Front!” he declared in his Order of the Day on June 5, 1940. “Dunkirk has fallen . . . with it has ended the greatest battle in world history. Soldiers! My confidence in you knows no bounds. You have not disappointed me.”

And yet, through the eyes of history, the events at Dunkirk are recognized as essential to the Allied victory five years later. Most important was the survival of the British Army, which escaped to fight another day. In this, the British were aided by Hitler himself, who on May 24 approved General Gerd von Rundstedt’s recommendation that German forces pause for a critical three days. The interruption allowed the British time to plan the evacuation of Allied soldiers who otherwise would have been captured or killed. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, without an army to defend his nation, would have been forced to surrender.

Had that scenario unfolded, many historians believe President Franklin Roosevelt would have been unable to convince Americans to enter the war. And with that failure, it would have been equally improbable that Joseph Stalin’s Russia, left without allies, could have defeated a unified German Army.

In the United States, the “Miracle of Dunkirk,” as it came to be known, aroused the public’s conscience. The New York Times expressed the sentiments of the nation on June 1, 1940: “So long as the English tongue survives, the word Dunkerque will be spoken with reverence. For in that harbor, in such a hell as never blazed on earth before, at the end of a lost battle, the rags and blemishes that have hidden the soul of democracy fell away. There, beaten but unconquered, in shining splendor, she faced the enemy . . . This shining thing in the souls of free men Hitler cannot command, or attain, or conquer . . . It is the great tradition of democracy. It is the future. It is victory.”

Within two weeks of the evacuation, half a million rifles were on their way from the United States to help replace the weapons lost at Dunkirk. America had begun to believe that Britain’s war was America’s war too.

In Great Britain, the tale of Dunkirk is part of the national heritage. Now, Americans too are embracing this story of bravery and tenacity. And that is as it should be: democracy and the future of freedom truly were in the balance at Dunkirk. History was crying out for heroes. Luckily, enough of them were there to answer the call.

DARK SKIES Nazi bombs were lethal at Dunkirk, but their plumes of smoke also obscured visibility for their pilots.

LONG WAY HOME Allied soldiers wait on the dunes of Dunkirk to be picked up by destroyers and taken to England. These experienced troops later will play a crucial role in defeating the Nazis.

THE BIG BOATS Larger transport ships were almost as varied in size and shape as the “little ships”—from the Royal Navy’s destroyers to passenger steamers like the 260-foot King George V. The soldiers shown here were among the last to arrive home.