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![]() ![]() You can purchase an item for 5 duplicates. The Dunkirk collection consists of 16 items. Later, Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay and Captain William Tennant - who were responsible for the evacuation in 1940 - became key figures on D-Day. The experience gained in organizing the large-scale troop transportation at Dunkirk was used during the Normandy landings in 1944. ![]() However, as a result of the Miracle of Dunkirk, the British Army was saved and able to fight against the Axis powers on new battlefields, and the evacuated French troops formed the basis of the Free French Forces.įour years later, the Allies returned to France in triumph. Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously noted that "wars are not won by evacuations". Over the course of the nine days of the evacuation, 145 British and 156 German aircraft were shot down in battles for air supremacy in the north of France. One in four vessels were destroyed by Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine attacks, Wehrmacht artillery strikes, and mine barriers. This included approximately fifty destroyers, dozens of minesweepers, trawlers, passenger steamships, yachts, fishing boats, salvage ships, and other vessels. While this was successful to a degree, the Axis powers were able to repair and/or restore, or otherwise use, a large amount of these weapons and vehicles.įor the evacuation, the British Admiralty called upon over 800 British, French, Dutch, and Belgian warships and civilian vessels. The troops covering the retreat were ordered to destroy or otherwise disable their artillery, vehicles, and tanks, famously by emptying the oil from the vehicle and running the engine until it stopped, sometimes in addition to burning light vehicles, and detonating blocked barrels of artillery and tanks. Near Dunkirk, the British Expeditionary Force and French Army were forced to abandon 2,472 guns and nearly 65,000 vehicles. To save them, Allied forces had to sacrifice all equipment and most of their armament. Within a few days - from late May into early June 1940 - more than 330,000 British and French troops were evacuated from northern France. The Dunkirk evacuation was one of the biggest battles of World War II, in which ground, naval, and air forces were fully involved. The "Dunkirk" collection was available during the "Operation Dynamo" event between 19 July and 2 August 2017. ![]()
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