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