5.2 How Should we Remember Dunkirk?

When German troops invaded France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands in May 1940, they quickly pushed the Allied troops back towards the English Channel, trapping them at the coast. At the last moment, the British government organised a huge rescue operation called Operation Dynamo. The plan was to evacuate the troops to Britain using warships, and a request was sent out to ordinary citizens to help the evacuation using their own boats. These film clips show footage from of the evacuation of Dunkirk.

EVACUATION OF DUNKIRK
4 MINS 45 SECS, NO SOUND, B/W, 1940

Footage from the beaches of Dunkirk.

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DUNKIRK NEWSREEL
4 MINS 53 SECS SOUND, B/W, 1940

This British newsreel footage shows the evacuation of British Expeditionary Forces from Dunkirk. Between 26 May and 4 June 1940 over 800 boats rescued around 200,000 British and 140,000 French and Belgian troops from the beaches of Dunkirk. This was called Operation Dynamo.