May+1940+Evacuation+of+British+Forces+at+Dunkirk

=The Evacuation Of Dunkirk= ====The evacuation of Dunkirk took place between may 23, 1940 and June 4, 1940. Gort ordered his commanders to retreat to the near - by port of Dunkirk. [3] Britain had already suffered severe casualties in France, and they knew this battle could not be won. Retreat was the only option the British military had, but all escape routes had been blocked. In doing this, this would allow the British Army to fight another day. [2] On May 26, motorboats, sloops, fishing boats, yachts, ferries, barges and every other variety of boat imaginable poured out of the Thomas River and the ports that lined the English channel to make their was across the channel to rescue the beleaguered troops.[1] This was given the name operation Dynamo. During the evacuation 338,226 people were rescued through the Channel under RAF protection, more than 5,000 soldiers lost their lives, 220,000 were rescued by British ships, which meant the total of evacuated allied troops were 558,000 people.====

[[image:evacuation.jpg width="439" height="279" caption="(Evacuation on British Forces)"]]
( The Evacuation Of Dunkirk) ====Thousands of British troops were still trapped elsewhere in France. Two weeks later, the British ship Lancastria was returning from a rescue mission when it was sunk off the coast of Brittany. 3,000 out of 6,000 passengers had lost their lives. They had hoped to save 45,000 men but actually saved 338,226 soldiers. [4] The nine days of Dunkirk stopped what was a disastrous campaign becoming a tragedy of epic proportions. Without any hope left from across the Channel, France surrendered to Hitler within three weeks.==== (The Rescue)

**Work Cited Page **
1. Susan Elizabeth Ramirez, Peter Stearn, Sam Wineburge.//World History; Human Legacy//. Holt, Rineheart, and Winston, 2008. 450. Print. 2. McDougal Littell. //Modern World History//; Published January 28th 1999 by Houghton Mifflin Company 3. Eyewitness to History.com 4. http://www.joost.com/36ziwbo