I love a true story, especially one that inspires me. So today, on the anniversary of these events, I wanted to share the story of a rescue that changed the course of history.
On May 30, 1940, the Germans were days away from winning World War II.
They had superior fire power and had a battered Allied Army trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk, France. It was only a matter of time before the Germans broke through the Allies’ weak defenses, destroyed the army, and took control of Europe.
French and British soldiers worked to hold back the Germans and give their comrades an opportunity to escape; but there was nowhere for the men to go. The Germans surrounded them on three sides with the English Chanel making up the fourth side of the trap. Once the Germans chose to press the attack, the rear guard would fall. The German tanks, called panzers, would roll in and the Allied Army would be destroyed.
The British government sent navy vessels across the English Chanel to try and rescue the Allied troops. But the British ships were too large to sail through the shallow waters near the coast. So once the Germans blew up the pier at Dunkirk, the large ships couldn’t reach the men stranded on the beach.
The situation looked grim.
But across the English Chanel another rescue party was being assembled under the name Operation Dynamo. This was not a group of military vessels, but a collection of small boats belonging to private citizens.
There were fishing boats, ferries and pleasure boats, even tug boats pulling life boats. Any vessel large enough to carry troops, strong enough to manage the trip, shallow enough to reach the coast, and fitted with a motor was included in the fleet.
Many of these small ships were sailed by their owners. Their numbers included the elderly and ill, a few women, and at least one seventeen-year-old boy. When he was told that he was too young to go to war, this determined young man ran home, got a signed note of permission from his mother, and then rode his bicycle to catch up with his boat.
This strange armada of more than six hundred “little ships” left Ramsgate, England on the afternoon of May 30, 1940, bound for France. The small ships sailed through the night and arrived at Dunkirk just after first light. They passed huge vessels, several in the process of sinking, and sailed toward the beach. Up ahead, Dunkirk was marked by a massive tower of black smoke. The waters churned with explosions. As the crews of the small ships sailed through the chaotic waters, the dots on the beach began to sharpen into men. There were men for as far as they could see.
Immediately, the small ships went to work. They picked up men on the beach and carried them to the larger ships waiting in deeper water. A few of the little ships even carried men the thirty-nine miles across the Chanel to England and then returned for more.
While the little ships made their countless trips from beach to larger vessel, a war was happening all around them. The British Royal Air Force and the German Luftwaffe fought for domination of the sky as the Germans continued to bomb the beaches and the rescue boats. But the civilians did not turn back.
For five days, the crews of the small ships worked to save lives at the risk of their own. During that time there is not a report of a single civilian giving up his work. Nothing short of a boat failing or sinking would stop them.
Finally, on June 4, 1940, the operation came to an end. The Allied equipment had been left behind on the beach. But Dunkirk had not been the massive defeat that had been predicted. With the help of the “little ships”, the British Royal Navy was able to rescue 338,226 men from Dunkirk. New British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called it “a miracle of deliverance.” The Allied Army and the war effort were saved, in thanks in large part to the bravery and perseverance of a group of ordinary citizens.