The Battle of Dunkirk By Sean Fleming

The Battle of Dunkirk The Battle of Dunkirk was an important battle in the Second World War between the Allies and Germany. It started on the 26th of May 1940 and ended 4th of June 1940. Germany had swept through Western Europe using Blitzkrieg, and both the French and British armies couldn’t stop them.

The Battle of Dunkirk The advancing German Army trapped the Allied Armies on the beaches around Dunkirk. Almost 340,000 men were trapped here and they were a sitting target for the Germans.

The Battle of Dunkirk The British troops were trained professional soldiers from the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.) and were some of the best British soldiers. Britain could not afford to lose them. Some of the B.E.F. ---->

The Battle of Dunkirk On 24 May Hitler met up with his generals and decided to halt the German ground forces for a few days. This unusual decision gave time for Britain to think up a plan to evacuate the soldiers. This is considered to be the first major mistake Hitler made in the war. Hitler meeting up with his Generals ---->

The Battle of Dunkirk There were many reasons why Germany decided to halt their ground forces. These are some of them: The terrain around Dunkirk was thought unsuitable for the German ground forces. Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goring asked for the chance to destroy the forces in Dunkirk and it was agreed on. Some people also think that Hitler was trying to agree peace terms with Britain.

The Battle of Dunkirk The Nazis believed that the British were surrounded. Germany is an inland country that hardly touches any seas or oceans so the Germans thought that the sea was an impassable barrier. But the British, that were from an island, thought it was their only chance of salvation. While the British soldiers were still on the beach the Luftwaffe dropped leaflets as well as bombs on the allies. The leaflets told the British to surrender. The British used these leaflets as toilet paper!! Remains of army vehicles on the Dunkirk beach ----->

The Battle of Dunkirk Operation Dynamo was a plan to get as much men as possible off the beaches of Dunkirk. Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay came up with the operation in a bunker deep within the Cliffs of Dover. the cliffs <--- of Dover The beach at Dunkirk was on a shallow slope so no large boat could get near to where the men were. Smaller boats were needed to get the men to the bigger boats which were further away from shore.

The Battle of Dunkirk On the 29 of May the plan was announced to the British public and the army asked if people had small boats that they'd sail it across the Channel and help save the soldiers. The flotilla of small boats became known as the ‘little ships’. Dover was the busiest of the ports during the evacuation. Here ships were unloaded and refuelled, before returning to the French coast. Trains shuttled the arriving soldiers away from the coast. Tamzine, the smallest -----> of the ‘little ships’

The Battle of Dunkirk The best estimate was that only 45,000 of the 340,000 soldiers could be saved. On the 4 June, Winston Churchill announced that 338,000 had been saved!!! The Germans had thought that the battle of Dunkirk would have been an easy victory, however, despite losing many soldiers and military vehicles the battle of Dunkirk ended up as a British victory.

THANKS FOR WATCHING ‘little ships’ at the Jubilee -----> All rights reserved. This has been a SAF Production. SAF Productions is not affiliated with anything about Dunkirk or WW2. Stuff about copyrights and things. Legal stuff. Legal stuff. Copyright things