Dunkirk: Triumph or
Defeat
Year 9
Operation Dynamo
The speed of the German
Blitzkrieg (lightening war)
caught the Allies by surprise
In April 1940, the Germans
invaded France.
They were so quick that the
French and the British
armies were pushed back to
the beaches of Dunkirk.
The troops were trapped
between the German army
and the cold waters of the
English Channel.
The only escape route was by
the sea.
There was a real danger that the
entire British army (over 300,000
men) would be wiped out before
the war had really got under
way!
On 27th May 1940 – the British
government, led by Winston
Churchill, put a plan called
‘Operation Dynamo’ into action.
The aim was to evacuate the troops
to Britain by ship.
As well of the ships of the Royal
Navy, all sorts of craft – including
pleasure steamers and fishing
boats – were used.
Most of the soldiers were rescued.
Today we remember Dunkirk for the
heroism of those caught up in it.
At the time it was a military
disaster - and one that took the
British public by surprise.
Source 1
“There were lines of
men waiting in
queues until boats
arrived to transport
them. The queues
stood there fixed and
regular, no bunching,
no pushing.”
From a first-hand
account by a gunner
officer, 1940
Qu.1. What
does this source
tell us about the
evacuation of
Dunkirk? Use
evidence to
support your
answer
Source 2
The story of this amazing rescue will live in history as
a glorious example of British discipline. Every kind
of small craft have sped here to bring back the
brave British and French troops.
Men wade to a ship, its crew waiting to haul them
aboard. Only once or twice do we see German
planes fleck the sky, and the German Navy is
nowhere to be seen!
Qu 2. What evidence is there in this source to suggest that
Dunkirk was a success?
Qu3. Does this source support Source 1? Explain your
answer.
Pictures of Dunkirk
This image of British
soldiers being
taken prisoner by
Germans at
Dunkirk was shown
in an American
newspaper.
Qu 4: Is this the same as
the British images?
Qu 5: What does this tell
us about what the
government told the
people?
Comparing Sources
"Dunkirk Taken" ran the headline in a German
newspaper. It reported that the German army
had taken 40,000 British prisoners with another
40,000 drowned in the Channel.
Qu 6: Does this source agree or
disagree with British reports?
Why would the Germans and the
British tell their people different
stories?
A British News Report, 1940
There were no journalists
at Dunkirk and it was five
days before the
government allowed any
reports to be made. Even
then, journalists had to rely
on what they were told by
the government for
information.
However, more information
emerged later on.
First-hand account by a British
gunner officer, 1940
Stepping over the bodies we marched onto
the beach. A horrible stench of blood and
mutilated flesh pervaded the place. There
was no escape from it. We might have
been walking through a slaughterhouse on
a hot day.
Qu 7: How useful is this source to an historian wanting to
find out about the evacuation of Dunkirk?
Hint: who wrote it, when it was written, what information
does it give, where was he?
The reality
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The British army left behind 2,500 guns, 84,500
vehicles, 77,000 tons of ammunition, 416,000 tons
of supplies and 165,000 tons of petrol. 68,000
soldiers were killed or taken prisoner.
Dunkirk was a massive defeat. Historians have
called the image of the evacuation which grew up in
Britain ‘the necessary myth’ [a myth is like a
story] in other words, it wasn’t true but it made
people feel better.
Although many men behaved with perfect discipline,
there were some who didn’t! Some troops stole food
from local people, and some officers even left their
men on the beach and went to be evacuated first.
In private, Churchill called Dunkirk ‘the greatest
military defeat for many centuries’.
British newspaper headlines, 1940
"Tired, dirty, hungry they came
back -- unbeatable" ran the
headline above an eyewitness
report from an unnamed south
coast town.
"We shall fight them on the
beaches... We shall never
surrender!“ Prime Minister
When a few days after
Dunkirk a troopship
was bombed in the
French port of SaintNazaire, killing
thousands of British
soldiers and sailors,
not a word appeared
in print.
Winston Churchill
Qu 8: How reliable [true] do you think British newspaper
reports of Dunkirk at the time were? Did they tell the full
story? Why do you think this was?
Hint: propaganda, censorship, morale