Battle of Dunkirk

Battle context

The Battle of Dunkirk was fought around the French port of Dunkirk as Allied forces were losing the Battle of France on the Western Front. Between 26 May and 4 June 1940, British and other Allied forces conducted a fighting defence of the port perimeter while a large-scale evacuation transferred troops across the Channel to Britain. With a United Kingdom-led force of approximately 400,000 facing German forces of around 800,000, Allied casualties reached over 61,000 against roughly 20,000 German losses. The evacuation preserved a substantial portion of the Allied armies that might otherwise have been destroyed or captured, preventing the complete elimination of British land forces from the European theatre at a critical early stage of the war. The fall of France continued regardless, but the troops recovered at Dunkirk would form the core around which British ground forces were rebuilt for subsequent operations.