History of The Evacuation of Dunkirk

The battle at Dunkirk (1940) was fought on the Western French-German border and the Allies were beginning to lose. When this happened the Nazi forces advanced forcing the allies to retreat to the beach of Dunkirk, the Nazis were going to take their time to finish them off while both the French and British armies held their position on the beach. Eventually, when the British population heard about the situation civilians with their fishing boats and other vessels helped out by coming to extract the armies from the beach. Over 930 vessels helped with the evacuation. It wasn’t all good however as the German forces did end up capturing 80’000 total troops with 40’000 of both French and Brittish troops. This essay will be exploring the nazi intentions and destruction they caused, and look at the individual Grath Wright and his experience in the battle as well as the theory that Hitler intentionally let the Allies escape.

The Nazi’s intention was to obviously wipe out a large amount of allies troops in a very vulnerable position however there was a disproved theory that Hitler intentionally let the allies escape, however for the german army it looked almost too easy. The plan was to completely wipe out all the allies on Dunkirk beach. They, however, took too long and the British military assembled enough vessels to evacuate the soldiers and although there were casualties this saved hundreds of thousands of ally soldiers with the sacrifice of a lot of resources as seen in image 1 that were then used by the Nazi forces. Roughly 226 British civilian vessels were destroyed during the evacuation. There were also major casualties to both the British and French armies as well as large portions of both armies captured. The German army remained relatively untouched although they did loses more than 100 planes to heavy fire from the beaches.

John Whyte was an Irish/Scottish soldier of the Britsih army and one of the 338’000 troops to have evacuated Dunkirk 1940. He was a 20-year-old was part of the 153 Battery and 51st Light Anti Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery. He talks about how trapped they were on the beach with the shore to shallow for the warships to dock leaving them stranded with only the English channel between them and Britain. He also talks about the german planes when he says.

“They came over every half hour — waves of ME109s and Stuka 87s,” Wright recalls. “It was a walk in the park between the raids, but on the tick of the half-hour, squadrons racked the beach with machine-gun fire.”

This shows how the Germans could have ended the allies forces and you would wonder why wouldn't they finish them off then. Wright even talks about how he as a gunner felt so exposed as well as his fellow troops. This can show how most of the soldiers viewed it as a losing battle and expected to die. This fits in general with the population of the soldiers there but with almost all involved with the situation. Almost all parties viewed this initially as a loss for the allies.

Histories usually view Dunkirk as an overall positive event as it was very unlikely that the events would turn out so well given the circumstance. It was expected that everyone on the beach would die but even with the losses, it was a huge win. There is speculation or theory that has now been disproven that Hitler intentionally let the allies escape the beaches. He was said to have done this out of “good sport” in hoper that the Brittish PM would agree to Nazi Germanies agreements thereby ending the war. It is now commonly known however that the Germans just took too long to attack the vulnerable forces in the battle that could have won Germany the war.

The evacuation of Dunkirk will always go down as a miracle in military history and a statement on the kindness of the Brittish population at the time that risked their lives to help out both French and Brittish armies. As seen we still don’t fully understand why Nazi Germany didn’t take full advantage of the situation in an event that could have easily turned the tide of the war. It is also shown that the soldiers on the beach at the time thought they knew about the inevitable loss of the battle until the civilians came to rescue them. When the troops returned they were celebrated even though they didn’t win any battle the fact that they returned home safe was enough to inspire hope for the allies.

In 2017 the director Christopher Nolen Adapted the event into a movie named “Dunkirk” which features what’s said to be a realistic and gritty version of the actual event.

References

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2. Dunkirk, History, Available from history.com/topics/world-war-ii/dunkirk [10 October 2019].
3. Epkenhans M, Dunkirk anniversary: The real reason Hitler let the British troops go, International Business TImes, Available from https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/dunkirk-75th-anniversary-real-reason-hitler-let-british-troops-go-1503201
4. Dahlgreen W, What actually happened at Dunkirk. BBC News, Available from https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40641801 [10 October 2019].
5. Ray M, The Miracle of Dunkirk, Encyclopedia Britannica, Available from https://www.britannica.com/event/Dunkirk-evacuation/The-miracle-of-Dunkirk