Dunkirk and the Little Ships (Shire Library)

by: Philip Weir (Author)

Publisher: Shire Publications

Publication Date: 29 Oct. 2020

Language: English

Print Length: 112 pages

ISBN-10: 1784423750

ISBN-13: 9781784423759

Book Description

During 1940 the German army swept with devastating speed across the Low Countries and into northe France and drove Allied forces back into a small pocket around Dunkirk. Without a swift withdrawal across the English Channel, the latter faced certain death or capture. The evacuation plan - Operation Dynamo - initially calculated that 45,000 men might be rescued, but between 26 May and 4 June 338,226 men were in fact brought back to England. Naval historian Philip Weir shows how this was made possible by a vast armada of disparate vessels including destroyers, minesweepers, fishing vessels and, most famously of all, the privately owned 'Little Ships'. He explores the vessels' various roles within the evacuation, and their subsequent fates, including preservation and participation in commemorative retu runs to the port, which now take place every five years.