"Dunkirk was a great deliverance and a great disaster." AJP Taylor. Is there sufficient evidence in sources A to G to support this interpretation? Use the sources and knowledge from your studies to explain your answer.

“Dunkirk was a great deliverance and a great disaster.” AJP Taylor. Is there sufficient evidence in sources A to G to support this interpretation? Use the sources and knowledge from your studies to explain your answer.

“Dunkirk was a great deliverance and a great disaster” AJP Taylor. I will be looking at whether there is sufficient evidence to support this interpretation of Dunkirk. I will study a variety of sources and decide if they agree or disagree with this interpretation.

On 27th May 1940 Winston Churchill, who led the British Government, put into action a plan called “Operation Dynamo”. It was a plan to evacuate 350,000 British and Allied troops from the Dunkirk and it’s surrounding beaches. The Allied forces had retreated to the Channel port on the Northern coast of France because the German army had pushed them back using Blitzkrieg tactics, which focused on the speed. The entire British Expeditionary Force (BEF) were located in France and all had retreated to Dunkirk. The BEF was Britain’s Professional army and were the only troops that were being used by Britain. There are many different views on Operation Dynamo, some people see it as a victory for Great Britain and some as a loss or a disaster.

Source A is a painting by Charles Cundall, he was the British was artist and was commissioned by the British government to paint this picture. He was present one of the beaches of Dunkirk, so it is a primary source. It is, however, biased as the government would have wanted to put a spin on the events at Dunkirk, this also makes it unreliable and has to be taken into consideration. It could be deemed as propaganda. The painting shows troops waiting on a beach whilst ships of all sizes are trying to evacuate them whilst under air attack. The troops are being rescued in large numbers so shows it as a deliverance as lots of troops were saved. It could also be viewed as a disaster as it shows that they were being evacuated whilst under air attack and therefore it was a last minute attempt to rescue the BEF and that it was unexpected.

Source B is a photograph of troops waiting in lines on one of the beaches of Dunkirk. The photo is reliable as it is a definite view of what happened at that exact time. However, it only shows one beach at one exact moment in time and could have been staged, but this is unlikely as it wasn’t used by the government or any newspapers at the time. The soldiers are waiting in orderly lines so this shows that they weren’t in a panic or under attack. This shows a great Deliverance as so many soldiers are being saved ...

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Source C is another photograph, showing British troops firing at German planes with ordinary rifles and bodies floating in the water. This is reliable as it is evidence of what happened at that time, but is limited as to what it can show. It shows Dunkirk as a Great Disaster as they resorted to such desperate measures and also because there are British Casualties.

Source D is a speech by Anthony Eden, Minister of War, made in June 1940. The speech is called “The Spirit Of The British Army” It is very biased as he probably would try to raise moral or put a certain spin on Dunkirk. “…great losses in equipment.” This phrase supports the view of Dunkirk being a great Disaster. But Anthony Eden also describes the BEF as “a body of seasoned veterans.” and also says they have a “refusal to accept defeat”. Although the Minister of War admits they had great losses in equipment he does not believe it matters as they have grown hugely in morale and have gained a self belief that “is the guarantee of final victory”. If this is to be believed then it illustrates a great deliverance.

Source E is an extract from The Daily Express in May 31 1940. It uses emotive language such as “Destroy…defeated…dispirited…glory” to try and raise morale and convince the public that it was a Deliverance. But this extract is propaganda as the newspaper would have been censored to stop something derogatory or that might damage morale. It is therefore unreliable. It tries to show a great deliverance as they have snatched victory from the Germans and suggests that the operation was a resounding success and belittles the fact that they were beaten by the Germans in the first place to get to the position of the operation taking place. This does agree with Dunkirk being a great deliverance, but only in the face of a great disaster.

Source F is a view by a British Historian, AJP Taylor, who published a book in 1965. This source is completely reliable as he has no reason to be bias but is secondary. “338, 226 men were brought to England from Dunkirk” “Almost the entire B.E.F was saved” this gives evidence as to Dunkirk being a great deliverance

On the other hand, source F, says “Six Destroyers had been sunk and nineteen damaged. The R.A.F had lost 474 aeroplanes.” “it had lost virtually all it’s guns, tanks and other heavy equipment…many of the men had abandoned their rifles” this shows Dunkirk as a great disaster as practically all of the equipment was lost.

From my own knowledge I know that 340,000 Allied troops were evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk between 27th may & 4th June. The government had hoped that 50,000 would be rescued. If the BEF had not been rescued then Britain would have been out of the war, but because they were they could still fight the Nazis. This gives evidence showing Dunkirk as a great deliverance as it was better than anticipated.

I also know that almost 27,000 of the troops rescued were done so by Civilian boats and this was a huge morale boost and shows the unity of the Britain. All of this lends weight towards Dunkirk being a great Deliverance.

The British left behind 1200 field guns, 1250 anti-aircraft guns, 11,000 machine guns and 75,000 vehicles. This was a great disaster for the British as they would have to quickly make all of this again. Overall, 1,121,000 Dutch, Belgian, French and British Prisoners were taken in just 6 months leading up to and at operation dynamo. This was a great disaster

After Dunkirk, the German army turned south and quickly captured Paris and the remaining parts of France, almost the whole of Europe was under Nazi control. The French officially surrendered three weeks later. This effectively meant that Britain was out of the war and was a great disaster.

In conclusion I believe that Dunkirk was a great Disaster because their evacuation from Europe meant that they would have to invade Europe by Sea or Air, whilst the entire German army was stationed there. I also think that their huge losses in equipment would have a huge effect as they would have to build all their vehicles and a lot of weaponry again.

David Locke