In late May 1940 the German breakthrough in the Ardennes trapped the British Expeditionary Force and much of the French army against the Channel coast at Dunkirk. Operation Dynamo, run from 26 May to 4 June, lifted 338,226 Allied soldiers from the harbour mole and beaches with destroyers and hundreds of civilian 'little ships', while a French rearguard held the perimeter and was captured when the town fell.
Here in the story
At sea
Clem Miniver joins the flotilla of small boats that sails across the Channel to bring the army home.
Here in the story
City
A young British private runs through the empty streets under German fire and reaches the sea, where thousands of men stand in lines waiting for a ship.
Battle
On the long wooden mole, soldiers crowd onto ships that are bombed and torpedoed, and every attempt to get home seems to end back in the water.
Here in the story
At sea
Repaired, the destroyer shuttles exhausted soldiers of the army home from the beaches.
Here in the story
Battle
With the army trapped on the coast, Churchill pushes for civilian boats to join the rescue.
Here in the story
Battle
Now a British Army officer, Harry leads his platoon through the retreat to the coast.
Technology
At Ypres the German army released chlorine gas on a large scale for the first time, opening a gap in the Allied line. Chemical weapons soon spread to every army and became a lasting symbol of the war's horror.
Read more on Wikipedia(opens in a new tab)Battle
British and Commonwealth forces attacked east of Ypres toward the village of Passchendaele. Heavy rain turned the shell-torn ground into a sea of mud, and the small gains came at a terrible human cost.
Read more on Wikipedia(opens in a new tab)Naval
Trapped against the coast, more than 338,000 British and French soldiers were rescued by warships and hundreds of civilian 'little ships'. The army lost its equipment, but saving its men let Britain keep fighting.
Read more on Wikipedia(opens in a new tab)
