Different interpretations of Dunkirk

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Different interpretations of Dunkirk

There are different interpretations of what happened in May 1940 on the cost of Dunkirk. Was it a major disaster or a great triumph? The different interpretations are split between people from different places and from different eras.

People who were writers or reporters or any one trying to abide by the government at the time portrayed it as a triumph because that is the propaganda that the government wanted people to see and believe. Newspapers and books coming out at the time were telling people of how well we had done.  The soldiers and army co-ordinaters saw it on the other hand as a defeat and disaster.

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We have many sources of information on Dunkirk and the later they were written the more they make it sound like a disaster. This is because there is no longer any need to keep spirits up as we did win the war in the end.  Dunkirk was a retreat as Britain lost ground to Germany.  Many, many lives were lost. By any normal definition this was far from a victory.

There are many pictures painted at the time that show Dunkirk as a victory, there is one by Charles Cundell who was sent by the government to ...

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