By Joshua Lawson
The Federalist
June 4, 2020
Eighty
years ago, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced the
successful completion of the largest amphibious military evacuation of
all time. Between May 26 and June 4, 1940, more than 338,000 Belgian,
British, and French troops fled from Dunkirk, France across the stormy
seas of the English Channel to safety, narrowly escaping annihilation at
the hand of the Nazis.
Call
it chance, destiny, luck, or Providence, the “miracle of the little
ships” kept hope alive for the fledging Allied resistance to Adolf
Hitler. But it was no sure thing.
At
the start of “Operation Dynamo”—the codename for the Dunkirk
evacuations—Churchill had been Prime Minister for a mere 16 days. Few
Britons wanted the job. Prominent men like Foreign Secretary Lord
Halifax were ready to negotiate peace with Hitler.
Yet
Churchill never wavered. He assumed the mantle of the British Empire’s
protector as if it were made for him. As he went to bed at 3 a.m. on May
11, Churchill later recalled, “I felt as if I were walking with
destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this
hour and for this trial.”
‘Be Ye Men of Valour’
As
Harry Jaffa once noted, a true statesman knows how to judge wisely what
is within his power to accomplish. No matter the worthiness of the
goal, the “perfect” cannot become the enemy of the “good.” The odds of
the British Expeditionary Force defending northern France and
successfully repulsing the Nazi advance ranged from near-impossible to
non-existent. Churchill grasped this reality, and he did not hide it
from the British people.
On May 19, in his first public broadcast
as Prime Minister, Churchill acknowledged “it would be foolish to
disguise the gravity of the hour.” Preparing Britons for the long fight
ahead, he recalled that well-equipped armies numbering millions of men
could not be overcome in the space of a few weeks, or even months.
Even
so, Churchill proclaimed it would be “more foolish to lose heart” and
called on Britons to “wage war until victory is won…whatever the cost
and the agony may be.”
Churchill
concluded his radio address by quoting 1 Maccabees 3:58–60: “Arm
yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the
conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon
the outrage of our nation and our altar. As the Will of God is in
Heaven, even so let it be.”
The tone was set for the trying days to come. Churchill’s words became the vital fuel to stoke the spirit of the British people.
The Withdrawal to Dunkirk
Behind
the scenes, the unprecedented collapse of the French military
frustrated Churchill. Furthermore, isolationist sentiments in America
hamstrung FDR’s ability to provide Britain with the full totality of
resources she so desperately needed.
Churchill
recognized that the best hope for the continued survival of the
weakened Allies was a retreat back to the southern coast of England.
Foreseeing the eventual need to extricate as many troops as possible
before being trapped, on the evening of May 20, Churchill ordered the
Admiralty to gather “a large number of small vessels” to be held at the
ready to “proceed to ports and inlets on the French coast.”
Britain’s
natural advantages as an island were its salvation countless times
before—so it would be again. Churchill told his Cabinet that if the army
could be safely brought home, Britain could “hold out” and make the
Nazis “rue the day they try to invade.”
The
best exit ramp for the BEF was the harbor township of Dunkirk. “We
cannot leave our army to be surrendered,” Churchill exclaimed to the War
Cabinet that evening, “if we lose the men then we lose the war.”
‘The Bit of Grit that Saved Us’
The
longshot chance to rescue the BEF necessitated a tragic reality. The
30th Brigade and the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment holed up in Calais would
not be able to join the escape. The 30th’s commander, Brigadier General
Claude Nicholson, was told of his duty: stay behind and delay the
Germans as long as possible. Upon the delivery of the fatal orders,
Churchill informed Anthony Eden he felt “physically sick.”
Nicholson
and his men fought bravely, resisted numerous calls for surrender, and
held their defense parameter for three days before ultimately succumbing
to the Nazi onslaught. Of the nearly 4,000 men defending Calais, 200
evaded capture, and 300 died in combat. The rest became prisoners of the
10th Panzer Division. Tragically, Nicholson would die in captivity in
1943.
Churchill
paid tribute to the steadfast men of Calais in parliament two months
later, proclaiming they were “the bit of grit that saved us.”
Unbeknownst
to Churchill at the time, Hitler commanded German tank progress to stop
while enroute to the Dunkirk region. The führer’s order stood until
midway through May 26. It took a full 16 hours for German tanks to get
rolling again once the halt was lifted. This colossal misstep by the
Nazis gave British commanders just enough time to establish the
requisite defense parameter to support the evacuations.
Aiding
Churchill’s Hail Mary operation, and compounding the effect of the
Nazis’s hesitation, several storms and unprecedented heavy rains slowed
down both the formidable airplanes of the German Luftwaffe and Hitler’s
relentless tank divisions.
Flying
over the beaches of Dunkirk three years later, Churchill remarked that
he would never understand why Hitler didn’t finish off the BEF when he
had the chance.
Grim Stakes and Impossible Odds
The
design of Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay, Operation Dynamo began in
earnest at 7 p.m. on May 26. That day, British Under-Secretary for
Foreign Affairs Alexander Cadogan wrote in his diary that the position
of the BEF was “awful” and that he saw “no hope for more than a tiny
fraction of them.” Churchill told parliament the Dunkirk situation was
“extremely grave” and to brace for “hard and heavy tidings.”
When
there were still doubts as to whether Britain should withdraw to fight
another day or sue for peace with the Nazis, Churchill drew upon his
deep knowledge of history and outlined the stakes: “Nations which went
down fighting rose again, but those which tamely surrendered were
finished.”
“If
this long island story of ours is to end at last,” Churchill told his
War Cabinet, “let it end only when each one of us lies choking in his
own blood upon the ground.” That settled the issue. Britain would carry
on the fight from her island with however many men could still bear
arms.
The Miracle of the Little Ships
Privately,
Churchill expected no more than 30,000 BEF troops would make it back.
Yet against all odds, the dire predictions proved wrong.
Some
25,473 soldiers reached the British coast from May 27-28, followed by
47,310 rescued on May 29, and 53,823 on May 30. An astounding 68,014
embarked on May 31, when at its peak, 4,000 men left France each hour.
The
last daylight evacuations took place on June 1 after increasing Nazi
aerial bombardment rendered them too dangerous. That day, 64,429 Allied
soldiers departed safely. In the final three days of Operation Dynamo,
an additional 79,177 British and French troops were carefully ferried
across the Channel at night.
In
an echo of ancient Spartan battlefield tradition, the last Brit to
leave the Dunkirk beachhead was the officer in charge of completing the
withdrawal. General Harold Alexander boarded the final Royal Navy
destroyer only after he was certain all available British troops
evacuated safely.
220
military ships and more than 860 total vessels took part in the
evacuation. The hodge-podge armada comprised boats of all shapes and
sizes. Tugboats, fishing trawlers, minesweepers, motorized lifeboats,
and even pleasure craft scrambled from coastal resorts played their part
alongside Royal Navy corvettes and destroyers. It was, as Churchill
would tell the House of Commons, a miracle of deliverance.
Providing Hope to the Free World
Back
on May 28, Churchill’s made it known he would address parliament on
June 4 to provide an update on the situation. At the time, Churchill
feared it would fall to him to announce the greatest military disaster
in British history. Instead, he was able to report the remarkable
salvation of more than 330,000 brave men.
Yet amidst the jubilation caused by the Dunkirk miracle, Churchill reminded the Commons
that “wars are not won by evacuations.” And there were severe losses.
More than 200 British and Allied ships were sunk, including six valuable
destroyers. The Royal Air Force lost 116 pilots protecting the
evacuation convoys. To prevent valuable war materiel falling into the
hands of the enemy, the British abandoned or destroyed several hundred
tanks, 400 antiaircraft guns, 2,000 field guns, 60,000 vehicles, 90,000
rifles, and 600,000 tons of fuel. In the final tally, more than 40,000
men of the BEF were captured, wounded, or killed during the nine days of
Operation Dynamo.
Perilous
times lay ahead for Britain and her Empire. Though codebreakers at
Bletchley Park had discovered a direct assault on Britain was not
imminent, there was little doubt in British High Command that the full
weight of Hitler’s might and fury would soon assault their island home.
Into
this daunting challenge, Churchill responded with one of the greatest
moments of his storied career. The peroration of Churchill’s June 4
speech ranks amongst the finest oratory ever recorded. Churchill
proclaimed:
Labour
MP Josiah Wedgwood wrote that Churchill’s words were “worth 1,000
guns.” Harold Nicolson told his wife, “This afternoon Winston made the
finest speech that I have ever heard. The House was deeply moved.”
Following
the brief moments of reprieve after Dunkirk, it fell on Churchill and
the British Empire to fight the Nazi menace alone. Yet in the harsh
months to come, Britain held steadfast and resolute, until, as Churchill
had predicted, the New World, with all of its power and might, stepped
forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old, and ensured the
sacrifice of Dunkirk was not in vain.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Hitler made three serious strategic mistakes. He failed to stop the evacuation of British and French troops from Dunkirk, He did not invade England after Dunkirk, and he invaded the Soviet Union.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Hitler made three serious strategic mistakes. He failed to stop the evacuation of British and French troops from Dunkirk, He did not invade England after Dunkirk, and he invaded the Soviet Union.
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