How long did operation dynamo last

French General Maurice Gamelin studying a map of Europe in around It is widely accepted that the Germans had it pretty much their own way from the moment they launched Case Yellow the invasion of France and the Low Countries on 10 May Spearheading the attack and apparently ruling the skies was the Luftwaffe, with its mix of screaming Stuka dive-bombers, Messerschmitt fighters and Heinkel and Dornier medium bombers.

Tennant arrived on the afternoon 27 May, and had been told they might be able to evacuate 45, troops if he were lucky. Getting men onto boats and ships direct from the beaches was an incredibly slow and laborious process. The situation looked bleak. Later that same evening, though, Tennant noticed the Luftwaffe had not hit the two long moles [wooden breakwaters] that extended some 1, yards out into the sea.

Made of latticed concrete piles and topped by a narrow wooden walkway, it was a breakwater rather than a jetty. While at first glance it looked as though it was not strong enough to take a moored ship alongside, Tennant felt there was nothing to lose from trying. The cross-Channel steamer, Queen of the Channel, was called to test it and after gently nudging her stern against the concrete piles, managed to drift alongside.

The mole withstood this strain without any obvious difficulty. British and French troops waiting on the dunes at Dunkirk to be picked up and taken back to England. Officially, the Battle of Britain began on 10 July Yet as Dowding admitted, as far as he was concerned, it began the day Britain entered the war.

The Luftwaffe had been given a lead role in preventing the evacuation and Fighter Command more than played their part in ensuring German air forces failed in their task. Few on the ground saw them as the sky was filled with low cloud. Thick, black smoke from burning oil storage tanks rose to some 15, feet and spread across the entire area. They were there, nonetheless, and managed to shoot enemy aircraft during the operation, while losing of of their own.

A British ship rescues soldiers from a sunken landing craft. On 24 May, Hitler issued his infamous order for his panzer divisions [armoured tank divisions] to halt, denying them the chance to completely encircle the retreating British Expeditionary Force. It has even been suggested that he wanted to give the British a chance to escape.

After all, he never went to staff college [to train as a military officer] and was ill-qualified to be making high-level military decisions in almost every regard. The initial halt order was issued by General von Kleist on 23 May.

He did not understand new mobile panzer tactics and feared his armoured tank divisions were getting too far ahead of the foot-slogging infantry. This order — which was to be in place for 24 hours — was reinforced by Field Marshal von Rundstedt.

When General Halder, army chief of staff, heard about the order, he immediately rescinded it and furthermore transferred all panzer divisions to rapidly close in on Dunkirk from the north. The rescue of allied troops from Dunkirk remains the central focus of this weekend's 70th anniversary commemorations, but the story of those days in May extends far beyond the beaches.

When Operation Dynamo was formally wound up, more than , men were still in France, some fighting with the rearguard against the advancing German army, others looking for other ways to escape. He never reached Dunkirk but was forced to hold the line further west.

At his home in Glasgow, he recalled long, hungry days on the road. Mr Evans's fears were well-founded: after he and 80 other soldiers were herded into a small barn, the SS threw hand grenades into the building before firing indiscriminately.

Fewer than 20 of the men forced into the barn came out alive. Mr Evans's injuries would eventually cost him his right arm, but he managed to escape by crawling along a ditch and taking cover in a small pond. The company commander hiding with him was gunned down when he tried to make a run for it.

The British, French and Belgium governments had seriously underestimated the strength of the German forces. Before long, the Allied forces had retreated to the harbour and beaches of Dunkirk where they were trapped, a sitting target for the Germans.

In an effort to at least evacuate some of the troops, just before 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, 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 , Allied troops were eventually rescued. The evacuation was by no means straightforward. Before he could be burned again by the fires ignited by the bombing, he jumped into the sea for the second time that day. Crested Eagle was beached near Bray Dunes, the beach to the north-east of Malo-les-Bains, where she became one of the landmarks for small ships striving to find the beach, but in the meantime those in the water had to swim for their lives.

They hung on to it and kicked with their legs, while I sat on it holding the ring. Bloom was eventually rescued by another ship, which took him to Ramsgate. Not that he knew much about the journey. Mercifully, while he was lying in the wardroom, somebody slipped a morphine capsule under his tongue, whereupon he lost consciousness.

He was already in England when he woke up. He had been laid out with other wounded men in a marquee. There he was reassured by a nurse who had him lifted on to a stretcher so that he could be taken to hospital.

A completely different atmosphere prevailed among the crew from the U when their submarine subsequently docked at Helgoland on the way back to Wilhelmshaven. According to crew member Kurt Wendler, the men attended a wild celebration at a restaurant called Aunt Anna. Even Michalowski, who normally did not socialise with his men, was so pleased at having sunk an Allied warship that he joined in the party.

He bet one of the under officers that he could do a moving handstand down the eight-metre table where they were eating, and won the bet. Their boisterous behaviour continued after dinner. On the way back to their billets, Michalowski had to rescue his paralytically drunk engineer who had broken into a bakery and covered himself with flour.

However before leaving the restaurant, the proprietoress reminded them that they would not win the war by just sinking one ship. The paperback of his book on the Battle of the Somme will be published in November.

Number of destroyers put out of action during Operation Dynamo: Total number of ships put out of action during Operation Dynamo: at least Total of soldiers evacuated: at least , British casualties during fighting in France and Belgium: about 66, Number of British planes lost during fighting in France and Belgium: about.