Many have heard about the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of Allied troops from Dunkirk in May-June of 1940, but few know the story behind this miracle. In May 1940, the approximately 400,000 strong British Expeditionary Force waited on the continent of Europe in anticipation of German hostilities. On May 10th, the Germans invaded Holland and Belgium, and the bulk of the Allied forces moved into Belgium to meet the attack.
What the Allies didn’t expect was that the main thrust of the German forces would come through the Ardennes Forest to the south of their position. The Allied military leaders didn’t believe it was possible to move a large amount of soldiers and equipment through this area, but the Germans proved them wrong. By May 13th, the first German troops crossed the River Meuse into France at a place poorly defended by the Allies. A total of nine German Panzer divisions rapidly headed west in what is known as the Blitzkrieg, “Lightning War.”
The enemy trapped a half million French, British, and Belgian soldiers between the German troops to the north and the German troops streaming to the coast in the south. So effective was this maneuver that on May 15th, French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud phoned British prime Minister Winston Churchill and said, “We are beaten. We have lost the battle.”
On May 20th, the first German division reached the coast near Abbeville. On May 23rd, General John Gort, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, defied the orders of the British Imperial General Staff. Instead of conducting an all-out assault on the German army, Gort sent his troops to the coast and instructed them to form a defensive perimeter, allowing thousands of troops scattered over hundreds of miles to funnel through to the little-known town of Dunkirk. Thousands of French troops also took positions along the outer perimeter.
Before it was all over with, Churchill thought he would be forced to announce the grim news that a third of a million British soldiers had been captured or killed. He couldn’t envision evacuating more than 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers before the Germans moved up the coast and cut them off.
Churchill shared the hopeless situation with British King George VI, and the king appealed to the British people in a radio broadcast on May 24th. He asked the nation and all within the empire to pray for deliverance and announced a National Day of Prayer for Sunday, May 26th. He implored, “‘Let us with one heart and soul, humbly but confidently, commit our cause to God and ask his aid, that we may valiantly defend the right as it is given to us to see it.’”
The British people answered the call and met in churches throughout the country to pray for their troops and their nation. Long lines formed outside many cathedrals, including Westminster Abbey where King George and his cabinet went to pray.
On May 24th, the same day King George appealed to the British to pray, General Guderian and Adolf Hitler ordered the German Army to halt. The Panzers were less than fifteen miles from Dunkirk. Hitler and his generals were concerned their tanks would be needed in case of an Allied counterattack, and they wanted to prevent the loss of equipment they would need for the march to Paris.
In addition, Herman Goering, commander of the Luftwaffe, had requested that Hitler allow the airforce to prevent the evacuation of British troops instead of the army. It wasn’t until May 26th that the German army was allowed to move toward Dunkirk. By then, the British and French defenses were well entrenched.
On May 26th, Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsey commenced Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk. The Luftwaffe had already destroyed the port facilities, so the British destroyers loaded men at the East Mole, a flimsy wooden pier five feet wide, which extended 1400 yards into the sea. The loading process proceeded slowly, so Ramsey also requisitioned small boats from England to shuttle the troops waiting on the beaches to bigger ships anchored in deep water. The Luftwaffe continued to attack, strafing and bombing the beaches, the Mole, the ships, and the men backed up around the port.
On May 27th, General Halder, Chief of the German General Staff proudly boasted about the impending destruction of the British Army, but the Germans didn’t reckon with the prayers of the British. On May 28th, a terrible storm developed over Flanders, grounding the Luftwaffe and allowing more British troops to move to the coast unhindered. The defensive perimeter held the German Army back.
Following the storm, the normally turbulent waters of the English Channel calmed. Ramsey called for hundreds of small boats to head to Dunkirk. Many of these vessels wouldn’t have made it safely across and back if it hadn’t been for the unusual stillness of the waters. These boats carried thousands of troops back to England and saved their lives.
Despite the loss of six destroyers, eight personal ships, and over two hundred small craft, about 330,000 British and French troops were evacuated from Dunkirk between May 26th and June 3rd. The British were so grateful that they held a National Day of Thanksgiving on Sunday, June 9th. Choirs and congregations all across the country sang the words to Psalm 124.
“If the Lord himself had not been on our side, now may Israel say: if the Lord himself had not been on our side, when men rose up against us; They would have swallowed us up quick: when they were so wrathfully displeased at us. Yea, the waters of the proud would have gone over our soul. But praised be the Lord: Who has not given us over for a prey unto their teeth. Our soul is escaped even as a bird out of the snare of the fowler: the snare is broken, and we are delivered. Our help standeth in the name of the Lord: who hath made heaven and earth.”
Many of the troops saved at Dunkirk lived to return across the Channel and help the Allies win World War II. God heard and answered the prayers of a people who humbled themselves and sought His face.
Sources:
“How a Day of Prayer Saved Britain at Dunkirk.” Christianity.
“The Miracle of Dunkirk: ‘When a Nation Prayed.’” Christians United for Israel.
“The Four Miracles of Dunkirk.” Guideposts.
“Interwar Policy and the Disaster at Dunkirk.” Military History Matters.
“Decisions: Hitler’s Halt Order.” Historynet.
“Battle of Dunkirk.” History.