Evacuation seemed the only option. After all,
Dunkirk was only 40 miles across the English Channel. But German tanks were
closing in and the Allied Forces were already beaten and in disarray. To pull
off a rescue operation of the necessary magnitude seemed beyond the resources
of either the British or French military. Churchill estimated only 10% of the
British Expeditionary Forces might be saved.
But in only 10 days, from May 26 – June 4, 1940, nearly
340,000 troops were rescued by a fleet that included over 800 private boats. Pleasure
cruisers, fishing boats, trawlers, and barges – they were all put into service.
Of course the “little ships” effort was planned and coordinated by the
military. But it is also true that the people of Britain decided to go get
their boys, and they did. Pub owners and solicitors and artists and retired
military and shopkeepers all volunteered.
They saved the British Expeditionary Force, and probably
western civilization. Because if Britain's army fell, who would have stopped Hitler?
I don’t think I had even heard of the evacuation of
Dunkirk before I watched the first season of Foyle’s War on PBS.* The second episode of that wonderful series
had a plot line about the captain of one of the “little ships” headed across
the Channel to rescue the British Army. Even that brief fictionalized account
was inspiring.
Then my wife and I saw Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk a few weeks ago and I was
determined to read more about this pivotal battle.
There were plenty of books about Dunkirk to choose
from, including a couple written to capitalize on the release of the movie. But
I’m glad I read The Miracle of Dunkirk:The True Story of Operation Dynamo, by Walter Lord.
Originally published in 1982, Lord was able to
interview hundreds of men still living who had survived the Battle of
Dunkirk. (One of the book's appendices has a “List of Contributors” – the names and
ranks of about 500 men.)
Lord wrote a book of meticulous detail. His text is
peppered with vignettes of the men who fought and died, or lived to make it home and fight again. Still, he didn’t lose sight of the big picture. The first few
chapters tell the story of how the Allied Forces, already beaten, had to traverse an improbable escape corridor north between German forces to make it to Dunkirk
if evacuation was even to be a possibility.
Though Lord’s book is not overtly spiritual, I don’t
think you can read it without agreeing with the title – Dunkirk was a miracle.
God intervened in at least three major ways– in the weather during the
evacuation, in the Nazis' inexplicable “halt order” immediately prior to it,
and in the rallying of the little ships.
I think you’d be blessed by reading Lord’s book.
If I could suggest some overall lessons, four come
to mind.
1. A terrible
defeat isn’t a final defeat. In Churchill’s
famous address to Parliament on June 4, 1940, he said, “Wars are not won by
evacuations.” True. But the grievous loss at Dunkirk, and subsequent fall of
France, were part of the overall Allied victory. The Allies were far down but
definitely not out, and Dunkirk's miracle became a rallying point for the
rest of the war.
2. Good and
evil are real, and each of us must pick a side.
Today nuance and moral equivalence have undercut our certainty of what should be,
undeniably, right. Stories of how the SS butchered surrendered troops or bombed
Red Cross ships remind you that the Nazis were evil and had to be defeated.
3. Optimism
and perseverance will win the day over brilliance and superior resources.
Lord recounts story after story of irrepressible British officers, neck deep
(literally) in the ocean, encouraging their men and continuing to calmly get
them on the rescue boats.
4. The real
heroes are ordinary people who do their duty. The
Dunkirk story gives us plenty of great leaders, like Admiral Bertram Ramsey, who
oversaw the rescue operation at Dover, and Captain William Tennant, in charge
of making it work at Dunkirk. But the real heroes were regular soldiers and
civilians who were called upon to sacrifice, stand, protect, hold on, fight on, and they
did. It makes you believe you would too, if you had to.
*Unfortunately Netflix discontinued Foyle's War but we found it on Acorn TV (through Amazon).
