The deliverance that operation Dynamo aimed to give was also not shown in source B because it show lines of soldiers waiting on the beaches and it seems as though they are not in any trouble and under fire from the Nazis. Since source B is a photo and not a painting which can be expressed in different ways it is a more reliable source than the painting because it can not be altered for propaganda purposes. However this photo could’ve been captured before operation dynamo had commenced.
Source D is a speech prepared by Anthony Eden; he was the British Minister of War in June 1940. It is a secondary source because the speech was made after the events which occurred at Dunkirk, however it was only shortly after not years. Since a British War Minister wrote and spoke this speech means it will definitely be biased. It describes the BEF as "a body of seasoned veterans" as they still exist. It mentions that troops have arrived with self confidence and experience. These facts could be wrong because when the soldiers were on the beaches would have been in fear of studka dive bombers and not gained but would’ve lost confidence. He also told of how losing there weapons was a good thing when is was actually disastrous by claiming the vital ‘weapon of any army is its spirit’, but the army probably didn’t have much spirit.
Source E may also have been edited for propaganda services because only government reporters were allowed access to the beaches. So any information could’ve been edited by the reporters. It mentions ‘tens of thousands safely home already’; this may slightly be exaggerated because we are not sure if it really means that only 15,000 are home. The reporter edited the story to make it sound great to help the morale. It also mentioned that the RAF was there to guide the Navy, but failed to mention that they actually had to protect the Navy from the German bombers.
Another extract from British newspaper in May 1940 told readers of how their B.E.F troops came back unbeatable, however the soldiers were beaten, they lost a lot of artillery and lots of soldiers were bombed. If they weren’t beaten they would have held a resistance and fought the German advance, but they were too frail because of the powerful German tactics.
It also mentioned on how the army was never dispirited, but it was actually depressed because of low self-esteem after losing huge amounts of artillery and troops. It also mentioned that the army still had their rifles but most soldiers left their guns behind or destroyed them so the German soldiers couldn’t use them afterwards.
These two sources both show us that troops were arriving to the United Kingdom however it doesn’t mention any great military disasters; it mentions that their military arrived in good health. When the soldiers came back source E mentioned thousands of soldiers returning, this may have been true but also could’ve been false because they could’ve been edited for propaganda services or to keep morale up.
Source F is a written account by a British historian. It is an English book so may be biased to the B.E.F and English Army.
‘Operation Dynamo succeeded beyond all expectation’ tell us that the historian believed that the evacuation succeeded. I agree that it did succeed but it had disadvantages too the. It mentioned that it was a great deliverance and a great disaster. He mentions that the army had lost most of its guns, tanks and other heavy equipment. Rifles were also a banded, whilst 474 airplanes were lost and 19 destroyers were damaged, these figures are precise so A.J.P Taylor must have been writing from 1914. Another view which maybe is biased is that the mentioned the B.E.F had almost lost no soldiers.
