Dunkirk

In May 1940, the world was on the cusp of chaos as German forces, led by the ruthless General Gerd von Rundstedt, pushed deep into France, the latest front line in their relentless march towards total domination of Europe. The Allies, a hodgepodge of British, French, Canadian, and Belgian soldiers, found themselves in a precarious position - trapped in the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, a small French city on the northern coast of France. As the German army closed in on the city, cutting off all escape routes, panic began to set in among the Allied forces. Their situation seemed hopeless. Thousands of soldiers, desperate to escape the clutches of the enemy, flocked to the beaches, only to find that the British Navy, which had only recently evacuated British troops from the beaches of Norway a month before, was nowhere to be seen. Hoop-pieces of ships lay heavily damaged and helpless to aid their trapped Allies. This critical moment in the Dunkirk evacuation set the decisive clock ticking, setting at pace of desperation and realisation, amidst the realisation the people were trapped as the enemy drew closer. With the situation becoming increasingly dire, a British naval commander, Commander Bolton, assigned the operation to Admiral Ramsay, in charge of the Dunkirk evacuation, to return any and all available ships to the harbour of Dunkirk, and set about establishing a perilous evacuation route that would span the beaches of Dunkirk. Volunteers, everyday British citizens, stepped up to fill in the perceived gaps where military ships might fall away before actual action could be taken. These ships came in an assortment of civilian boats, which they named 'Londoners' to reflect those were from their hometown who had responded hastily. These were helped greatly by a group of 800 British fighter planes. For two weeks, the fate of the Allied forces hung in the balance. German artillery pounded the beaches, reducing the shoreline to rubble. Tanks and soldiers were deployed in futile attempts to cut off the evacuation route. Boats were overturned, taking their occupants down, while the Germans stalked the beaches. Despite these overwhelming odds, the Allied forces held their ground, heroically fighting off waves of German soldiers as they desperately tried to board the overcrowded boats. On land, on sea, and in the air, the Dunkirk evacuation was a spectacle that transcended nationality, as people from all walks of life came together in a shared moment of sacrifice. The evacuation unfolded in a surreal dance of chaos and organisation, military strategy and civilian improvisation. As the Germans closed in, sandbags and makeshift barricades shielded the soldiers from enemy fire as they scurried to board the boats. Those who had managed to reach the safety of the open sea clung to the rigging of the boats as they bounced through churned waters of the North Sea. While chaos ruled in Dunkirk, Commander Bolton took what was required in order to return the majority of the troops home safely, the key personnel to return military machinery safely - military trucks, supplies, with the sole purpose to return the majority of troops to England following mass evacuations. Despite the horrific scenery playing out on Dunkirk's beaches, British, Belgian, French and Canadian forces came out of the battle as fighting spirited. Approximately 338,000 troops were saved with only 47 ships that weren't able to fall. The shipwrecked were left dead at the hands of the enemy, the only true loss. The people of Dunkirk witnessed many military faces disappearing with those boats off into the distance of the sky. One thing is for sure - Dunkirk had unfolded as an unforgettable, resounding account, deeply entrenched at heart of what makes the true test to the ever strongest armed nation, tested by man-made crisis amidst battle with the forces of nature and man's struggle.