How useful are sources A, B and C in understanding what the battle of Dunkirk was like? Explain your answer.

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Ashley Simon

History Coursework

4th February 2003

Dunkirk Coursework Essay 1

How useful are sources A, B and C in understanding what the battle of Dunkirk was like? Explain your answer.

              On May 26th 1940, the British and French forces found themselves on the beaches of Dunkirk after being pushed back from Brussels by the German soldiers. They had to be evacuated to safety from the shores and many small boats came and picked up the men from the water. Overall, Dunkirk was believed to be successful as many men were saved. I will now discuss how the sources are and are not helpful in telling us what happened at Dunkirk.

             Source A is an account given by ommander Thomas Kerr, one of the naval officers who were sent to organize the evacuation. Source A is a helpful source but has many limitations. It does not give us the opinion of the public behind the war which means we are not entirely sure as to whether the public backed the war or not. Source A does not give us the government opinion. It is important to know the government view because they are the main people behind the war and the ones who make all the decisions. The government’s account of the war can be one of the most important. In Source A, we do not get a view of how brave the soldiers fighting were. This could be because the person who is giving his account is a naval officer and in order to make himself look good and courageous he may try to make the soldiers fighting look useless. Source A does not give us a view of the German positions at Dunkirk and their attacks. In addition, this source says how unorganised the beaches were when the Naval officer refers to the soldiers as “the rabble”. However, Dunkirk was celebrated by many of the public in Britain as a success with 330,000 British troops being evacuated to safety. It is clear that the naval officer is trying to make the navy look good because he does not mention anything about problems evacuating the beaches. Which we know there were because the beach had been bombed and all the ships which meant that they had to put out a SOS to all boats to come and help.

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              Source B is written by a seaman who was at Dunkirk. This source gives us a good view of Dunkirk but like the previous source has its limitations. This source gives a personal account of the German forces attacking. This source does not tell us much other vital information, such as the public opinion of Dunkirk, the government opinion, the role of the navy, and whether any problems were encountered whilst trying to evacuate the beaches. We know that there where problems because the soldiers had to rely on small ships to save ...

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