Dunkirk evacuation
May 26, 1940
Surrounded on the French coast, three hundred thousand British and French soldiers waited on the beaches while a ragtag flotilla of warships, fishing boats, and pleasure craft ferried them home across the Channel under German dive bombers. Churchill called it a miracle of deliverance. It was also, he noted, a defeat.
In context
Also in 1940 (7 other events on record)
- Germany invades France and the Low Countries · Europe · War
- Battle of Britain · Europe · War
- The Blitz begins · Europe · War
- Germany invades Norway and Denmark · Europe · War
- Axis pact binds Germany, Italy, Japan · Europe · Politics
- Trotsky killed in Mexico City · North America · Politics
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in War
Era
Modern Era (1901–2000), one of 590 events from that era on Saeculum.