Vimalraj Arumugam 9P History Common Task 08/05/2007
Question: How did the Germans and British interpret events at Dunkirk so differently? How did they select and edit information to suit their point of view?
There are numerous scrutiny’s contiguous the Dunkirk evacuation. Was it a triumph or a disaster? How did both sides demonstrate propaganda videos to suit their observations? Annotations were made by mutually sides to give their judgment on the Dunkirk evacuation. The Battle of Dunkirk lasted from around May 25 to June 3, 1940. The German forces swept north to capture Calais, holding a large body of Allied soldiers trapped against the coast on the Franco-Belgium border. It became clear the battle was lost and the question now became how many Allied soldiers could be removed to the relative safety of England before their resistance was crushed.
From May 22 preparations for the evacuation began, codenamed Operation Dynamo, commanded from Dover by Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay. He called for as many naval vessels as possible as well as every ship capable of carrying 1,000 men within reach. It initially was intended to recover around 45,000 men of the British Expeditionary Force over two days, this was soon stretched to 120,000 men over five days. On May 27 a request was placed to civilians to provide all shallow draught vessels of 30 to 100 feet for the operation. The Allied held area was reduced to a 30 km block by May 28. Operations over the rest of May 28 were more successful, with a further 16,000 men recovered but German air operations increased and many vessels were sunk or badly damaged including nine destroyers. On June 1 another 65,000 were rescued and the operations continued until June 4, evacuating a total of 338,226 troops aboard around 700 different vessels.