Download or read book Dunkirk written by Robert Jackson and published by Rigel Publications. This book was released on 2004 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of the dark days of 1940, when defeat overtook the British Expeditionary Force in Flanders and the ghost of a great army came home from France. It is the story of a lost campaign, as untried young men armed with little more than rifles took on the might of Hitler's panzer divisions while the Allied armies crumbled on all sides. It is the story of French soldiers too, whose heroism and sacrifice made the deliverance of Dunkirk possible. It was the greatest disaster in British military history: the Second World War was all but lost. Yet from the rout rose that legendary spirit that somehow found triumph in defeat, success in the extraordinary evacuation of so many men from beneath the German guns. Robert Jackson's closely detailed account of three weeks of battle, and the nine days it took an armada of ships to evacuate 198,000 troops, recalls with startling clarity how unprepared were the British for war in 1940. Book jacket.
Download or read book The BEF in France 1939 1940 written by John Grehan and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2014-07-09 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the British force in Europe from 1939_1940 during the Second World War. Commanded by General Lord Gort, the BEF constituted one-tenth of the defending Allied force.??The British Expeditionary Force was started in 1938 in readiness for a perceived threat of war after Germany annexed Austria in March 1938 and the claims on the Sudetenland, which led to the invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. After the French and British had promised to defend Poland, the German invasion of that country began and war was declared on 3 September 1939.??The BEF was sent to France in September 1939 and deployed mainly along the BelgianFrench border during the so-called Phoney War leading up to May 1940. The BEF did not commence hostilities until the invasion of France on 10 May 1940. After the commencement of battle, they were driven back through Belgium and north-western France, forcing their eventual evacuation from several ports along the French northern coastline in Operations Dynamo, Ariel and Cycle. The most notable evacuation was from the Dunkirk region and from this the phrase Dunkirk Spirit was coined.
Download or read book The Evacuation from Dunkirk written by W.J.R. Gardner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the Naval Staff History of "Operation Dynamo", originally published internally in 1949. British ships evacuated nearly 100,000 men of the BEF from the beaches, and over 200,000 from harbours. Other nations' vessels carried more than 30,000.
Download or read book Dunkirk written by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2007-05-31 with total page 720 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: * * * Special 75th Anniversary Edition * * * Hugh Sebag-Montefiore's Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man tells the story of the rescue in May 1940 of British soldiers fleeing capture and defeat by the Nazis at Dunkirk. Dunkirk was not just about what happened at sea and on the beaches. The evacuation would never have succeeded had it not been for the tenacity of the British soldiers who stayed behind to ensure they got away. Men like Sergeant Major Gus Jennings who died smothering a German stick bomb in the church at Esquelbecq in an effort to save his comrades, and Captain Marcus Ervine-Andrews VC who single-handedly held back a German attack on the Dunkirk perimeter thereby allowing the British line to form up behind him. Told to stand and fight to the last man, these brave few battalions fought in whatever manner they could to buy precious time for the evacuation. Outnumbered and outgunned, they launched spectacular and heroic attacks time and again, despite ferocious fighting and the knowledge that for many only capture or death would end their struggle. 'A searing story . . . both meticulous military history and a deeply moving testimony to the extraordinary personal bravery of individual soldiers' Tim Gardam, The Times 'Sebag-Montefiore tells [the story] with gusto, a remarkable attention to detail and an inexhaustible appetite for tracking down the evidence' Richard Ovary, Telegraph Hugh Sebag-Montefiore was a barrister before becoming a journalist and then an author. He wrote the best-selling Enigma: The Battle for the Code. One of his ancestors was evacuated from Dunkirk.
Download or read book Retreat Rearguard Dunkirk 1940 written by Jerry Murland and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-03-31 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dramatic story of how a quarter million men were evacuated from the coast of France—and how the British Expeditionary Force fought on. This book, part of the Retreat and Rearguard series, covers the actions of the BEF during the retreat from the Dyle Line to the evacuation points of Dunkirk, Boulogne, Calais, Saint-Valery-en-Caux, and finally the Cherbourg Peninsula. Some of the engagements are relatively well known (Cassell, the Arras counter-attack, and the notorious Le Paradis SS massacre), but the author has unearthed many less known engagements from the long and painful withdrawal. While the main Dunkirk evacuation from the port and beaches was over by early June, elements of the BEF fought on until June 21. In relating those often heroic actions, this book catches the atmosphere of desperate defiance that typified this never-to-be-forgotten period.
Download or read book Dunkirk 1940 written by Patrick Wilson and published by Da Capo Press, Incorporated. This book was released on 1999 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Overwhelmed by the German Blitzkreig, the British Expeditionary Force faced annihilation. Miraculously, and thanks to decisive generalship, over 300,000 troops got back to our island fortress to fight another day. There was much more to the Dunkirk story than evacuating the beaches in the little ships and boats.
Download or read book Dunkirk written by Norman Gelb and published by William Morrow. This book was released on 1989 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents an overview of ten days at Dunkirk and the effect the battle on the beaches had on the rest of the world.
Download or read book The Dunkirk Perimeter and Evacuation 1940 written by Jerry Murland and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2019-05-30 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of a disastrous WWII setback, including numerous photos, maps, and information for visitors. This book tells the story of the fierce fighting around the Dunkirk Perimeter during May and June 1940 between the retreating British Expeditionary Force and its French allies and the advancing German army. This grievous military setback was soon transformed into a morale-boosting symbol of the resilience of the British against a Germany that had crushed so many nations in a matter of weeks. With over 200 black and white photographs and fourteen maps, this book looks at the units deployed around Dunkirk and Nieuport and their often desperate actions to prevent the inevitable advance of German forces opposing them. The evacuation of the BEF from the beaches east of Dunkirk is covered in detail from the perspective of the Royal Navy and from the standpoint of the soldier on the beaches. Also included are details for travelers to the sites involved. In addition to visits to the relevant cemeteries, the book includes three appendices and two car tours, one tour covering the whole of the Dunkirk perimeter and the other covering Ramsgate and Dover, although there is plenty of scope for walking in both tours. There is also a walk around De Panne, which takes the tourist along the beach that saw so much of the evacuation, and into the back areas of the town where the Germans left their mark when clearing up after the British had gone.
Download or read book Dunkirk written by Sean Longden and published by Constable. This book was released on 2009-06-01 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE TRUE STORY OF THE 41,000 BRITISH SOLDIERS WHO WERE LEFT BEHIND AFTER THE EVACUATION OF DUNKIRK, MAY 1940 'Meticulously researched, very well written and deeply moving' Andrew Roberts 'Few readers will be unmoved by Sean Longden's account' Dominic Sandbrook At 2am on the morning of the 3rd of June 1940, General Harold Alexander searched along the quayside, holding onto his megaphone and called "Is anyone there? Is anyone there?" before turning his boat back towards England. Tradition tells us that the dramatic events of the evacuation of Dunkirk, in which 300,000 BEF servicemen escaped the Nazis, was a victory gained from the jaws of defeat. For the first time, rather than telling the tale of the 300,000 who escaped, Sean Longden reveals the story of the 40,000 men sacrificed in the rearguard battles. On the beaches and sand dunes, besides the roads and amidst the ruins lay the corpses of hundreds who had not reached the boats. Elsewhere, hospitals full of the sick and wounded who had been left behind to receive treatment from the enemy's doctors. And further afield - still fighting hard alongside their French allies - was the entire 51st Highland Division, whose war had not finished as the last boats slipped away. Also scattered across the countryside were hundreds of lost and lonely soldiers. These 'evaders' had also missed the boats and were now desperately trying to make their own way home, either by walking across France or rowing across the channel. The majority, however, were now prisoners of war who were forced to walk on the death marches all the way to the camps in Germany and Poland, where they were forgotten until 1945. 'Sean Longden is a rising name in military history, and is able to uncover the missing stories of the Second World War' Guardian
Download or read book The Miracle of Dunkirk written by Walter Lord and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2012-03-06 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of the World War II evacuation portrayed in the Christopher Nolan film Dunkirk, by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Day of Infamy. In May 1940, the remnants of the French and British armies, broken by Hitler’s blitzkrieg, retreated to Dunkirk. Hemmed in by overwhelming Nazi strength, the 338,000 men gathered on the beach were all that stood between Hitler and Western Europe. Crush them, and the path to Paris and London was clear. Unable to retreat any farther, the Allied soldiers set up defense positions and prayed for deliverance. Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered an evacuation on May 26, expecting to save no more than a handful of his men. But Britain would not let its soldiers down. Hundreds of fishing boats, pleasure yachts, and commercial vessels streamed into the Channel to back up the Royal Navy, and in a week nearly the entire army was ferried safely back to England. Based on interviews with hundreds of survivors and told by “a master narrator,” The Miracle of Dunkirk is a striking history of a week when the outcome of World War II hung in the balance (Arthur Schlesinger Jr.).
Download or read book Dunkirk written by Hans-Adolf Jacobsen and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1958, this first German-perspective account of Dunkirk is available in English for the first time.
Download or read book The Miracle of Dunkirk written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-07-15 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the fighting and evacuations written by soldiers on both sides *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "The Navy, using nearly 1,100 ships of all kinds, carried over 335,000 men, French and British, out of the jaws of death and shame [...] We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won byevacuations. But there was a victory inside this deliverance [...] we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills [...] until [...] the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old." - Winston Churchill, June 4, 1940 "Blitzkrieg" or "Lightning War" describes the Third Reich's invasion strategy during its 1940 conquest of France not only due to the speed of the Wehrmacht advance but also its devastating effect on its ill-prepared adversaries. Mired in the paralyzing muck of plodding staff college military doctrine and demoralized as a nation by their appalling losses during World War I, the French succumbed in a few weeks to German skill and vigor. Moreover, after being lured into Belgium by a large-scale German feint, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and over a million French soldiers found themselves cut off by the main Wehrmacht thrust. Heinz Guderian and Irwin Rommel, among others, led their panzers on an 11-day dash from the Ardennes Forest to the coast, trapping vast numbers of Allied soldiers in Belgium and northeastern France. The surrender of more than 1,200,000 isolated troops followed, yet in the midst of this disaster, the Allies contrived one coup that took even the victorious Wehrmacht aback: the evacuation of over 300,000 soldiers from the port of Dunkirk. This escape, hailed as "miraculous" at the time, provided England with a solid defensive force, the French with the kernel of a "Free French" army for the future, and the Western Allies with an invaluable boost to their morale during one of the war's darkest moments. Hitler's Order of the Day on June 5th, 1940 placed no special emphasis on the end of the Dunkirk evacuation save as the milestone marking full German triumph in the north. While a leader never celebrates the successes of his enemies, the Fuhrer's terse commentary - and subsequent, very real expectations that the British would sue for peace and possibly even overthrow Churchill - suggest that he attached little significance to the BEF slipping through his fingers: "Soldiers of the West Front! Dunkirk has fallen... with it has ended the greatest battle of world history. Soldiers! My confidence in you knew no bounds. You have not disappointed me." With the clarity of historical hindsight, events proved Churchill correct. Operation Dynamo, as the British named the Dunkirk evacuation mission, bolstered British morale and defenses sufficiently to keep the "Sceptered Isle" in the war. This, in turn, led to the eventual entry of the United States, whose lethal air force, powerful navy, strategic successes, and massive Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union helped doom Adolf Hitler's "Thousand-Year Reich" to a ruinous end in 1945. The Miracle of Dunkirk: The History of the World War II Battle and Evacuation that Helped Save Britain from Nazi Germany chronicles the operations that saved over 300,000 Allied soldiers from being trapped. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Dunkirk like never before, in no time at all.
Download or read book Tigers at Dunkirk written by Matthew Richardson and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this compelling new study of the disastrous 1940 campaign in France and Flanders, Matthew Richardson reconstructs in vivid detail the British Army's defeat as it was experienced by the soldiers of a single battalion, the 2nd/5th Leicesters. These men typified the ill-equipped, under-trained British battalions that faced the Blitzkrieg and the might of Hitler's legions. They were thrown into a series of desperate, one-sided engagements that resulted in a humiliating retreat, then evacuation from Dunkirk. This is their story"--Publisher's description.
Download or read book Dunkirk written by A. J. Barker and published by London : Dent. This book was released on 1977 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dunkirk (Dunkerque), France's fourth port, is an ancient city with a colourful history of war.
Download or read book The Nine Days of Dunkirk written by David Divine and published by . This book was released on 1959 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Detailed and documented account of the military and naval operations between Dunkirk and Dover that ended in the successful evacuation of the B.E.F.
Download or read book Dunkirk 1940 written by Patrick Oddone and published by Tempus Pub Limited. This book was released on 2000 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Sands of Dunkirk written by Richard Collier and published by Random House. This book was released on 2022-08-25 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part of the SECOND WORLD WAR VOICES series, with a new introduction by bestselling historian James Holland, and in partnership with the podcast We Have Ways of Making You Talk, presented by comedian Al Murray and James Holland May 1940: In the face of a lightning German advance, the British Army found themselves, stunned, broken, beaten, their backs truly against the wall on the sands of the north French coast. And yet it was on the beaches of Dunkirk that the seeds of a remarkable victory were sown. The evacuation of over three hundred thousand men in ships of all sizes was a logistical feat which has never been seen, before or since. This vivid, visceral story takes you inside the making of a miracle: the story of eight frantic days, as the net tightened around the beleaguered troops, told from all sides, as the enemy draws closer and the bombardment intensifies, in the words of those who were there. It is impossible to get closer to experiencing this legendary action.
