The Evacuation At Dunkirk

As the Germans take H, B, L, D, N and now France, British and Canadian

soldiers are forced to retreat from the shores of northern France at Dunkirk

Dunkirk – 20 miles across the English Channel from Ramsgate

Surrounded at Dunkirk – the only way out is by sea

Some soldiers stood in the water for hours waiting to get on a ship

Some soldiers could get to the ships in small boats

On the beaches the engineer units built jetties out of abandoned trucks so that troops could clamber out to the

boats. Huge lines were formed on the beaches when ships were available for embarkation.

• The small boats negotiated the shallow waters off La Panne on the French-Belgian border, where no deep draught ships could approach and extracted the brave exhausted British Expeditionary Force, the French Army and a few thousand troops of the Belgian Army from the beaches of Dunkirk.

Some of the “Little Ships”

• It was originally hoped that up to 45,000 men might be rescued. The actual total came to 338,226 men. The Royal Navy lost six destroyers, 24 small warships. Over 70 of the "Little ships" were lost too.

• Poem about the Sarah P - one of the 700 private boats that joined the rescue

“Will came back from school that day …”

Years of Crisis

5 Main Battle Areas

1940 to 1942

Battle of Britain – “We Will Never Surrender” - WC

The German Luftwaffe

The British RAF, joined by 80 Canadian pilots

Air raid sirens, black outs, staying underground, and fighting fires on

the ground

Winston Churchill says thank you to the RAF

War on the Eastern Front – “Operation Barbarossa”

Soviet Soldiers

Japan Attacks Pearl Harbour

Over half of the US naval fleet was sunk in two hours

Bombing the Naval Base/ Communications Centre

Japanese Empire - 1942

Battle of the Atlantic

An Allied tanker torpedoed by a German U-boat

Battle of the Atlantic

The Allies Try to Land in France at Dieppe

5/6 of the soldiers sent are Canadians (5000 out of 6100)

Disaster at Dieppe

Tanks get stuck in the pebble beach

The Germans are ready and are shooting from the cliffs

Less than ½ of the Canadians can return to the retreating ships