Citations

• Bredhoff, Stacey (1994), Powers of Persuasion: Poster Art from World War II, National Archives Trust Fund Board.
• Fox, Frank W (1975), Madison Avenue Goes to War: The Strange Military Career of American Advertising, 1941–45, Brigham Young University Press.
• Winkler, Allan. (1978) The Politics of Propaganda: Office of War Information, 1942-1945. (Yale University Press)
• Witkowski, Terrence H. "World War II Poster Campaigns: Preaching Frugality to American Consumers" Journal of Advertising, Vol. 32, 2003
• Murray, Williamson and Allan R. Millett. A War to Be Won. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press, 2000.
• Churchill, Winston. "Wars are not won by evacuations, 4 June 1940, House of Commons." Never Give In!: The Best of Winston Churchill's Speeches. Winston S. Churchill, Ed. 1st U.S. Ed. New York: Hyperion, 2003.
• Collier, Richard. The Sands of Dunkirk. New York: Dell Publishing Co. Inc. / E.P.Dutton & Co. Inc., 1961.
• Miller, Nathan. War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II. New York: Oxford University Press (U.S.), 1997
• Wilmot, Chester. The Struggle for Europe. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1986.

Battle of Dunkirk: Victory and Defeat

WWII propaganda 

Statistics:

Germany won the battle.

The Allied Forces including: France, Britain, and the US lost the battle.

The German army, though experienced more casualties than the Allied Forces, won the Battle of Dunkirk because were organized, better trained, and had a better war strategy. They knew what they were doing when they advanced to France's Maginot Line because they avoided it using a smart tactic called the "Sickle Cut." Which effectively flanked the Allied forces making them unable to give a proper counter attack.

Though there was a smaller battle between the French and German troops, known as The Battle of Wytschaete, before the Retreat to Dunkirk the French made a mistake. They set up the Maginot Line which was their mistake. By creating that line of defense they only covered the front border of France, not the ports or other surrounding areas. Areas that the German Army eventually used to their advantage and attacked France from behind. Though the French attempted to stand their ground against the Axis Powers, they still "messed up."

The result of Dunkirk led to the evacuation of 338,226 men to the UK where they were safe on British land. However, 40,000 men were still left behind and they were forced to surrender to the Germans.


But what "turned the tide" of this Allied Forces failure was the renewed success that happened on D-Day only because they had so many French, Belgian, and Polish troops willing to fight after the evacuation of Dunkirk. That led to a huge victory over Germany and the Axis Powers.

Significance of The Battle of Dunkirk

The Battle of Dunkirk memorial

June 1, 1940

Recovered Journal Entry #4:

Aftermath of the Battle of Dunkirk. 11,000 French troops and citizens dead and wounded. The French met defeat and the British felt the impact. The loss of material on the beaches was huge. Left behind in France were, among huge supplies of ammunition, 880 field guns, 310 guns of large calibre, some 500 anti-aircraft guns, about 850 anti-tanks guns, 11,000 machine guns, nearly 700 tanks, 20,00 motorcycles, and 45,000 motor cars and lorries. The British Army needed months to re-supply properly and some planned introductions of new equipment were halted while industrial resources concentrated on making good the losses. The shortage of army vehicles after Dunkirk was so severe that the Royal Army Service Corps was reduced to retrieving and refurbishing numbers of obsolete bus and coach models from British scrapyards to press them into use as troop transports.

Nine days after Operation Dynamo (evacuation of Dunkirk Harbor) began, a total of 338,226 people - including about 95,00 French troops - had been rescued. Churchill called it a "miracle of deliverance," and the "Dunkirk Spirit," the battle quickly became the stuff of legend. In retrospect, the eventual allied victory might well have been thwarted had Britain lost hundreds of thousands of troops at Dunkirk. Nevertheless, the massive rescue could hardly be considered a victory. There was more to the story than the heartwarming tale of heroism.

But our cultural differences were made clear through attitude and uniform. No one was forgiving or accepting. And no one from either side would ever admit help was needed from the other. Nor was a thanks given.

Fortunately our morale had changed over time.

The French thought of us as cowards for running from the Germans when we rescued them, leaving some of our own men on Dunkirk to die by the hands of Nazi's. But eventually the French had a different opinion of us. However, it wasn't until 1944 that Britain redeemed itself when British and American forces worked together with the added French troops in the D-Day operation, leading to France's liberation.

Since then The Battle of Dunkirk has resulted in a politics and media spin. Even so, the story of the Battle of Dunkirk inspires em for one simple reason: it shows ordinary people lifting the veil of war - the impersonal propaganda of numbers - and seeing each other as human beings. Our British fishermen, soldiers, and citizens didn't row across the English channel to transport "troops," they risked their lives to rescue people with names and faces. That the public could, however briefly, set aside their habit of detached reliance on the machinery of government and take personal responsibility for other lives - especially in a time of war - is to me an immensely hopeful sign. It's a step toward understanding that the soldiers wearing different uniforms are human beings too.

Joseph Kissell
British Secretary for the Royal Army Service Corporations

WHEN and the ones experiencing the war

May 26 1940 to June 1940 -- The Battle of Dunkirk went on

Recovered Journal Entry #3:

I have been asked, what made me decide to keep a journal. In advance of being drafted I reasoned that much of a soldier's spare time is spent in dreadful boredom. Gambling never interested me, nor drinking. Writing would provide me with an interesting preoccupation.

I was drafted into the U.S. Army on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1940. I immediately started keeping a journal. I wrote only when I thought I had something interesting on record. The 4th Infantry Division was one of the three assault divisions that initiated five major battles in Europe. The 22nd Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division landed at Utah Beach on D-day, Normandy. We then swept through France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. We fought in the battle of Hurtgen Forest, which is widely known as one of the fiercest, bloodiest battles in all history. We entered into Germany, then fought in the Battle of the Bulge. My 22nd Infantry Regiment, one of the three regiments in the division, was the one chosen by novelist Ernest Hemingway and journalist Ernie Pyle to spend their time with during five combat months.

I was the T/4 sergeant in charge of the Classification Section of the 22nd Infantry Regiment Personnel office. During combat it was my job to assign replacements to depleted rifle companies and escort them on trucks to the meat-grinder front lines.

When I was inducted I understood that I was going to be in the Army until we won the war, no matter how long it took--two years, five, ten...In May, 1945, 486 dated Journal entries after I was inducted, the way in Europe ended. In July, 1945, I, together with my division, headed for the port of Le Havre. There we boarded the 10,000 ton US "Liberty" troopship and headed home.

David Rothbart
U.S. Army Draft Soldier of the 22nd Infantry Regiment

Battle of Dunkirk: Location

May 26, 1940

Recovered Journal Entry #2:

I thought this battle would have been fought but I found myself abandoning all will to fight and escaping into the English Channel toward Britain from my own, familiar harbor of Dunkirk.

Our evacuation was finally ordered on May 26. Ordered by Winston Churchill calling our attempt "a colossal military disaster", and saying that "the whole root and core and brain of the British Army had been stranded at Dunkirk and seemed about to perish or be captured."

called our rescue a "miracle of deliverance," I believe it. I did not think I was going to survive. I-I didn't know, while on that harbor watching British destroyers bank on our shore, that I would have been evacuated. Surely I thought I would not make it.

During the long days of May 28 to the 31 the British saved every man of the once-formidable French First Army in our delaying action against seven German divisions. Three were armoured divisions! If it wasn't for Britain's Siege of Lille we; my men and I would have been gone.

Churchill announced after our rescue, "These Frenchmen, under the gallant leadership of General Molinie, had for four critical days contained no less than seven German divisions which otherwise could have joined the assaults on the Dunkirk perimeter. This was a splendid contribution to the escape of their more fortunate comrades of the BEF."

The British successfully saved us, for that I thank them.

Girard De Lorme
French Soldier of the 4th Infantry

Date -- Troops evacuated from beaches -- Troops evacuated from Dunkirk Harbor -- Total

May 28 - 5,930 ------------------------------  11,874 ---------------------------------------- 17,804
May 29 - 13,930 ----------------------------  33,558 ----------------------------------------- 47, 310
May 30 - 29, 512 ---------------------------  24,311 ----------------------------------------- 53,823
May 31 - 22,942 ---------------------------- 45,072 ------------------------------------------ 68,014
June 1 - 17,348 ------------------------------ 47,081 ------------------------------------------ 64,429
June 2 - 6,695 --------------------------------19,561 ------------------------------------------- 26,256
June 3 - 1,870 -------------------------------24,876 -------------------------------------------- 26,746
June 4 - 622 --------------------------------- 25,553 -------------------------------------------- 26,175
Totals --- 98,780 ------------------------- 239,446 ------------------------------------------- 338,226

                                      

Who Was Involved

May 10, 1940

Recovered Journal Entry #1:

French General Maurice Gamelin  has heard news that the German Army forces known as "Group B" are subduing the Netherlands in the east and advancing toward France westward through Belgium.

We know an attack is coming so we act in preparation.

My General, one of the Supreme Allied Forces Commanders, has initiated a plan known as the Maginot Line. A line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun post, and other defenses that are constructed on France's borders in order to protect it from the German army.

But the Germans snaked around our one walled defense! They ran through the Ardennes forest and the Low Countries of France, completely sweeping by the line. My French leaders and commanders Maxime WEygand, Georges Blanchard, Rene Prioux, and Lord Gort were astonished. All very great strategists, all bewildered by their oversight.

The German and Italian army finally reached us on May 14, 1940.

But German arms had used their maneuver they called the "Sickle Cut" to effectively flank our forces.
Plans made by better German Generals, Gerd von Rundstedt and Ewald von Klesit, very capable men.

We French ran from the German and Italian attack, we cowards! Our French generals initiated our plan of escape, code-named "Operation Dynamo" or otherwise known as the Miracle of Dunkirk. Every member of the Allied forces helped us to safety from the beaches and harbor of Dunkirk, France. And so our short encounter with the German/Italian forces ends.

Javert Bontecou

French armed force