Operation Dynamo: Its 80 years today since the evacuation of 338,226 British troops from Dunkirk began

An incredible effort, and to think that Churchill only intended to bring back some 50 thousand or so from the Beaches.

in the end - Evacuation of 338,226 soldiers

an amazing feat when anything that could float was sent to bring our boys home.

This little steamer, like all her brave and battered sisters, is immortal. She'll go sailing proudly down the years in the epic of Dunkirk. And our great-great-grand-children, when they learn how we began this war by snatching glory out of defeat, and then swept on to victory, may also learn how the little holiday steamers made an excursion to hell and came back glorious.

John Priestly
 
Really good documentary on bbc2 tonight the dan snow one Where he takes the old boys back and they tell their stories including stood on the actual mole.

to think they survived that only to do it all again 4 years later.
 
zorro_mfc said:
An incredible effort, and to think that Churchill only intended to bring back some 50 thousand or so from the Beaches.

in the end - Evacuation of 338,226 soldiers

an amazing feat when anything that could float was sent to bring our boys home.

This little steamer, like all her brave and battered sisters, is immortal. She'll go sailing proudly down the years in the epic of Dunkirk. And our great-great-grand-children, when they learn how we began this war by snatching glory out of defeat, and then swept on to victory, may also learn how the little holiday steamers made an excursion to hell and came back glorious.

John Priestly
Click to expand...


I think it was Churchill's INTENTION to bring back every soldier that could be brought back. His EXPECTATION was that 50 thousand might be brought back. There's a difference there.

Also JB Priestley's quote is a bit disingenuous. The army that landed on the Normandy beaches wasn't just British - it as made up of many nations, and "swept to victory" is not correct at all. The Germans were being pushed back through Poland by the Red Army in the summer of 1944. Germany would have been defeated even without D Day. D Day brought about the end of WWII more quickly, and ensured that Soviet influence didn't cover all of western Europe when the war did end. I know you can't fit that into a snappy little epithet but history should be about reporting facts and drawing appropriate conclusions. Of course the government needed, and indeed used propaganda constantly from 1939 to 1945, but Priestley's Postscripts should not rewrite what really happened.
 
Sorry by “intended” I meant hoped for not that he set out only to bring 50 thousand back I was highlighting how slim they thought the chances of even 50 k were.
 
Good documentary on bbc 2 now looking at the truth behind the myths of the battle and story behind it.
 
It's mental isn't it.

Unfathomable when you think about it.

The feature film was interesting, didn't think it did the situation quite the justice it deserved, however I'm far from an expert.
 
My great uncle was saved by one those little boats - he was called up on the first day of war as he was in the TA. I heard he lost part a finger when the boat was bombed. He was still able to fight in North Africa and Italy and survived the war. I was never able to chat with him about it when he was alive which is a pity as he was bit of a character with a good few stories in him.
 
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