have meant that the war as we know
it wouldn’t have taken place. Without
Britain to preserve freedom and the rule
of law then the norms of Nazi Germany
would simply have bled right across
Europe. Would America still have entered
the war? Where would the second front
have come from without Britain as a base
to get back into Europe? Would Europe
have ever been liberated? In America
there’s a tendency to think of Dunkirk
as a sort of parochial little British story
that took place before the Americans
and the Russians got involved and the
real war started. And that’s not right.
The influence of Dunkirk on the world in
which we live is beyond imagination.
What could the failure of the
evacuation have meant to Britain?
The evacuation gave rise to an idea
known as ‘Dunkirk Spirit’ which is still
bandied about constantly. But in the
summer of 1940 it was real and it was
organic. The soldiers came home and
most were embarrassed. They thought
of themselves as the remnants of a
battered army, so they were amazed to
be treated as heroes by civilians. People
were buying them drinks in pubs and
slapping them on the back. Families
were happy that their sons, brothers and
husbands had come home but also they
were just relieved that Britain hadn’t
lost the war. That relief gave rise to a
spontaneous release of emotion. Mass
Observation reports from the time said
that this sudden release of feeling after
Dunkirk would rouse the nation. In the
immediate aftermath of the evacuation,
THE POSSIBILITY
PEACE WITH GERMANY?
Had the Dunkirk evacuation failed
and almost the entirety of the British
Expeditionary Force had been captured
in France, then it is more than likely that
Britain would have been forced to sue for
peace with Nazi Germany. Some in the
British Government, such as Lord Halifax,
had seen this as a viable option and it was
during the May 1940 Cabinet Crisis
that he pushed for this. Following
the crisis, Halifax found himself
in America as Churchill’s
ambassador. If Operation
Dynamo had failed, would this
plan have become a reality?1940
NO SOCIAL REFORMS?
Following the end of the war, it was not
Winston Churchill whom the British public
chose to lead them but Labour’s Clement
Attlee, whose programme of social reforms
remains influential to this day. The National
Insurance Act (1946) introduced social
security, and nationalisation Acts of coal
(1946), electricity and transport (1947)
nationalised key parts of British industry.
The Children’s Act of 1948 introduced
a comprehensive child care system for
orphaned and poor children. Arguably the
most progressive British government
ever, Attlee’s five-year term is one
whose positive effects we are
still feeling today. As Joshua
Levine describes, without
Dunkirk these reforms may
have never have occurred.1945
NO NHS?
Perhaps the most important of Attlee’s
reforms was the creation of the National
Health Service (NHS), which came into
being in 1948. Some of the origins of the
NHS originate directly following the Dunkirk
evacuation, with William Beveridge’s 1942
report that outlined societal problems
to be faced following the end of the war.
Attlee’s Health Minister, Aneurin Bevan,
expressed the desire that the new
health system should be based
on three major principles.
Firstly that it be for everyone,
secondly that it be free, and
finally that it would be based
on need and not ability to pay.1948
The Dunkirk evacuation had failed?
TOP
Evacuated troops
arrive at Addison
Road station and
enjoy refreshments
ABOVE
Troops wade into
the water to board
rescue shipspoliticians in the Cabinet started talking
about war aims and what they wanted
Britain to be like after the war. The Times
published an editorial saying British life
should no longer be based on privilege
but on democracy and freedom. Factory
output increased massively. I believe
Dunkirk was a turning point that led to
the post-war social national overhaul.
This is what eventually led to the NHS,
free education, to all these measures
which grew out of the war. The post-war
consensus of making life better for people
was kickstarted by Dunkirk and had this
not happened, I think it’s very possible
that these post-war measures would not
have come about.7 x^ ©Alamy©^ GettyImages