While on newspapers for example from the headline of the Daily Mirror written at the time of Dunkirk. They had used the words:
‘Bloody Marvellous’
Also in a book published in England in July 1940 written just after Dunkirk:
‘(At Dunkirk) a miracle was born. This land of Britain is rich in heroes. She had brave daring men in her Navy and Air Force as well as in her Army…there was not a man or a boy who knew how to handle a boat who was not prepared to give his own life to save some unknown son…The little ships dodged their way up the waters and hauled over their sides the soldiers who waded waist deep to safety!’
This article romanticises Dunkirk by the thought of small boats floating on the sea, trying to save unknown soldiers of war.
Even on the BBC six o’clock radio news bulletin on 31st May broadcasted at the time of Dunkirk:
‘All night and all day men of the undefeated British Expeditionary Force have been coming home. From interviews with the men it is clear they have come back in glory; that their morale is as high as ever… are anxious to be back again ‘ To have a real crack at Jerry’ (The Germans)’
These sources show that Dunkirk was a triumph. From news bulletins to radio broadcasts show Dunkirk in a positive way. This is because people of Britain thought that that ‘Operation Dynamo’ was a success. As shown in their main headlines in newspapers. And also these articles were mainly about the bravery of the people who sailed to Dunkirk to save the soldiers. Books were published to make Dunkirk look as if it was a miracle. They also tell you that these reports to make the people of Britain think it was a success, by saying that their morale is as high as ever. Trying to hide the actual number of people that had been evacuated and the numbers of supplies left behind. Although most of this positive evidence was written at the time of Dunkirk or just after Dunkirk! And that Winston Churchill showed Dunkirk in a positive way while he said that:
‘ The greatest military defeat for many centuries’.
The evidence, which shows that Dunkirk was a disaster is that, most people agreed with Anguses thought that it was viewed wrongly. Angus Calder is a historian of the Second World War. He summarised some of the points he makes about Dunkirk written a long time ago after Dunkirk. He says that the British Army left behind 2500 guns, 20500 motorcycles, 68000 soldiers were killed or taken prisoner etc, that a few soldiers behaved badly and that some British soldiers ran away. And also that some troops stole from the locals and that most soldiers were taken from the port of Dunkirk in ferries. His sources were analysed over a period time which I think agues the question if Dunkirk was a disaster or not! He tries to ‘debunk’ the ‘Dunkirk Myth’. To make it seem less wonderful than it was said to be.
While a German fighter pilot had written in a letter home in 1940 that he hated Dunkirk because he thought of it as cold blooded killing. This shows that even Germans hated Dunkirk. He felt that they were sitting targets for him to shoot down.
Although a General Sir E Franklyn, a divisional commander had written a long time of Dunkirk in 1962 that:
‘…Reports of ‘merciless bombing’ and ‘the hell of Dunkirk’ were quite ridiculous…’
This shows that even a general thought that the evacuation was over-glamorised; to an extent that he says that it was ridiculous!
These sources tend to be written along time after Dunkirk or at the time of Dunkirk because people tend to look back at things in a different way as Angus Calder did so. This also brings up the question:
‘Why were they there in the first place?’
Overall I think Dunkirk was a disaster due to the fact that the vessels got suck in the sand, while most soldiers were taken from the port of Dunkirk by ferries and that the British Army left behind large amounts of weaponry, soldiers, vehicles and other supplies.
