Assignment 1: Model A2: The Battle of Dunkirk

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Assignment 1: Model A2: The Battle of Dunkirk

1. Source A, B and C are useful when finding out what the Battle of Britain was like because they are three different accounts of a personal experience of Dunkirk. The first source, source A is useful because it describes the evacuation of men from the beaches of Dunkirk back to Britain. The author of the source describes it as a “terrible night for there was hardly any army and the ones they did have were useless”. This suggests that the situation was very disorganised as they would have been retreating from constant German attacks. The phrase “rabble” also proves the disorganisation of the men. It also tells us they had got hold of “the odds and ends of an army”, this implies something rather dreadful has happened to the men. For example they may have been hit by German dive bombers and so consequently many troops have been split up from one another in the rush to retreat from the Germans. Also it could have meant that the men could have been from different armies, for example Belgian, French or British. The source is written by Thomas Kerr who was one of the navy officers sent to organise the evacuation. This was a high position in the navy so therefore he should know what was actually going on. From the source it appears that he was pessimistic about the evacuation, this is reliable because if he was in charge, he wouldn’t be overly pessimistic or optimistic towards the men or the situation. He would most likely be realistic. The line “we could only do our best” is not overly confident or apprehensive, he tells the truth, and it is believable.

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He felt that the army were being overly optimistic; according to the source the army had great faith in the navy, it inspired them to carry on and gave them a sense of hope. But Kerr genuinely felt that many men could not be rescued as they had a small and hopeless navy. Although in hindsight many more men that he ever though could be evacuated were actually evacuated. Around 338,000 soldiers were rescued, 198,000 of these being British and 139,000 being French.

The second source, source B describes a supposed scene from the battle, where German Fighter planes ...

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