IT was 80 years ago this week that the "miracle" of Dunkirk was completed, with the evacuation of more than 300,000 troops from the besieged port, aided by the 'little ships’ in what will forever be one of the most momentous events in British history.
The evacuation began in May?
Code-named Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France began on May 26, 1940 after the German army stormed through The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France, trapping nearly half a million British and French troops.
The ‘little ships’ were crucial?
The Admiralty - the government department responsible for the command of the Royal Navy - had been amassing every kind of small craft imaginable to help bring in the troops, including fishing boats, yachts, paddle steamers, lifeboats and sailing barges.
In all?
A flotilla of around 850 private boats sailed from Ramsgate to Dunkirk on those fateful days.
The smallest to make the journey across the Channel was an 18-foot open-topped fishing boat called Tamzine, which is now on display at the Imperial War Museum in London.
Who sailed the ‘little ships’?
Very few owners manned their own vessels in the effort, apart from one or two fishermen. When they reached France, some of the vessels acted as shuttles between the beaches and waiting destroyers, ferrying soldiers to the big ships that were unable to come too close due to shallow waters. Other ‘little ships’ carried hundreds of soldiers each back to Ramsgate, protected by the RAF from Luftwaffe attacks.
How many were rescued?
When the operation ended 80 years ago this week, 198,000 British and 140,000 French and Belgian troops had been rescued. A further 220,000 Allied troops were rescued by British ships from other French ports, bringing the total of Allied troops evacuated to 558,000.
Leaving Dunkirk, the last allied soldiers returned home to scenes of jubilation in Britain, where the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral called the rescue operation a “miracle”.
However?
Many Scottish soldiers were left behind as the 51st Highland Division was put under French ommand to aid the country's defences, but after days of fighting, about 10,000 members of the division were captured on june 12 at St Valery-en-Caux.
Churchill made history?
In the House of Commons, Prime Minister Winston Churchill made what became one of his most famous orations, saying: “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air.
"We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
Reunited?
Around 40 of the 'little ships’ reunited to venture down the Thames for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant in 2012.
Many of them also reunite every five years to go back to Dunkirk to commemorate the operation.
Planned commemorations for this week and weekend were halted due to the pandemic, but the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships said it is actively looking at the possibility of marking the event with a return trip in 2021.
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