Sometimes a victory can be a well-executed retreat, and that’s exactly what happened during the Battle of Dunkirk in late May 1940.
Not every victory means you won a battle. Sometimes a victory can be a well-executed retreat, and that’s exactly what happened during the Battle of Dunkirk in late May 1940. With the expeditious collapse of French resistance against German forces during the Battle of France, British troops found themselves trapped in Dunkirk, a town in Northern France. A massive effort of both military and civilian vessels successfully ferried 338,000 British Expeditionary Force members across the channel to Britain. The maneuver became known as the “Miracle at Dunkirk,” and it proved a powerful rallying cry for the dark days ahead.