Operation Dynamo

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National Memorial Arboretum

On This Day in 1940, Operation Dynamo began to evacuate allied troops from Dunkirk. Over a 10-day period, more than 338,000 soldiers were carried back across the Channel thanks to a flotilla of naval and civilian vessels.

Many troops were able to embark from the half-mile long mole (a concrete pier protecting the harbour) onto British, Canadian and French naval destroyers, as well as a variety of civilian merchant ships. Others had to wade out from the beaches, waiting for hours in shoulder-deep water.

Many small boats were recruited to take part in the operation after a BBC Radio broadcast ordered listeners that "all owners of self-propelled pleasure craft between 30 feet and 100 feet in length to send all particulars to the Admiralty". This flotilla of merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft, yachts and lifeboats became known as the ‘Little Ships of Dunkirk’.

The 1940 Dunkirk Veterans' Association Memorial at the Arboretum features a ‘Fallen Soldier’s Cross’ - a rifle topped with a helmet as was used on the battlefield to mark the graves of fallen soldiers so that the bodies could be recovered later.

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Royal British Legion - Paris France
26 May 2021

The evacuation of Dunkirk, otherwise known as Operation Dynamo, began on the 26th May 1940. More than 300,000 Allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk, France were evacuated between May 26th and June 4th 1940. At the time Prime Minister Winston Churchill called it “a miracle of deliverance”. However, 35,000 brave French soldiers fought a heroic resistance against the Germans (in particular the 12th division d'infanterie motorisée at the Dunes fort).

In an effort to at least evacuate some of the troops, just before 19.00 on the 26th May, Winston Churchill ordered the start of ‘Operation Dynamo’. This plan took its name from the dynamo room (which provided electricity) in the naval headquarters below Dover Castle, where Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay had planned the operation.

Destroyers and transport ships were sent to evacuate the troops, but they only expected to have time to lift off about 30,000 troops.

However, in one of the most widely-debated and potentially pivotal decisions of the war, Adolf Hitler ordered his generals to halt for three days, giving the Allies time to organise the evacuation. In the end, despite heavy fire from German fighter and bomber planes on the beaches, no full scale German attack was launched and over 330,000 Allied troops were eventually rescued.
The evacuation was by no means straightforward. Before long the harbour became partially blocked by ships sunk during the constant raids from enemy aircraft. It became necessary to take the troops off the nearby beaches, an almost impossible task because of shallow water which prevented large ships from coming in close to shore. Small ships were needed to ferry the troops from the beaches to the larger ships.

700 of these “little ships” were used. Many of the smaller vessels, such as motor yachts, fishing boats etc., were privately owned. Although a large number of these ships were taken across the English Channel by navy personnel, many were also taken over by their civilian owners.