largest tank battle in ww2 miracle of dunkirk

Tennant quickly realized how dangerous a task was ahead of him because the port of Dunkirk was quite devastated. Operation Dynamo was run by Admiral Bertram Ramsay, and the person controlling the action on the ground was Captain William Tennant. The even greater problem was that the enemy was aware of the troops literally trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. What made this situation so hard is the fact that the canal that divided France and England was so easy to pass - it was only measuring 21 miles (33 km).Īnd yet, hundreds of thousands of soldiers were holding on to their lives, practically seeing the ground of salvation across the sea. In a rescue operation, they recruited every possible vessel they could find, including small civilian ships.

So Close, Yet So Far Away From Homeīefore the Dutch army had to raise the white flag, the British government already planned Operation Dynamo. There was no way that the line of defense could have been held so high up north in France, and after Queen Wilhelmina had to leave the country, on May 13, the Dutch army had to surrender to the Nazis. After Germany invaded northern France in May of 1940, thousands of soldiers had to relocate and change their position because the strategy changed. The Battle of Dunkirk was a battle to save lives. Escaping the horrors of World War II, almost 350,000 soldiers were saved by ships and transferred from France to Great Britain. In 1940, on the shores of the North Sea in the French port of Dunkerque, a massive evacuation of troops happened. More than 338,000 soldiers were evacuated from May 26 to June 4, 1940, in a rescue mission known as Operation Dynamo.BEF stands for British Expeditionary Force.The trapped soldiers on the Dunkirk beach were only 21 miles (33 km) away from safety, as they could almost see England across the canal.Thousands of British and French troops wait on the dunes of Dunkirk beach for transport to England. Military evacuation of Dunkirk during World War 2.

Largest tank battle in ww2 miracle of dunkirk