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48 CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2015

I

t’s now three-quarters of a century since the

extraordinary mass rescue of more than 300,000

British and French soldiers from the beaches of

Northern France, where they had become

sandwiched between an advancing enemy force

and the English Channel. It is one of the handful

of iconic events in the Second World War that everyone

remembers, and it is particularly dear to the hearts of the

people of Britain because it was one of the few occasions

where the civilian population, or sections of it, felt that it

was involved, and that it could “do something”.

Known offi cially as Operation Dynamo, it’s

vernacular label the Dunkirk evacuation, or simply

Dunkirk. And as often as not, the word Dunkirk, like

the word Blitz changes from noun to adjective, and

becomes part of a phrase – the Dunkirk spirit – that

sums up a dogged resilience we British like to believe is

The fl eet enters the shipping lanes to dash across the

Channel. Most boats were not designed for these waters

CB323 Dunkirk.indd 48 24/03/2015 16:21