The evacuation of the northern French coastal city of Dunkirk between May 26 and June 4, 1940, was actually originally labelled the ‘Miracle Of Dunkirk’ by Winston Churchill.
It’s easy to see why, too.
Because after being surrounded by the advancing German army, 338, 226 Allied soldiers from Britain, Belgium, Canada and France were evacuated from the beach by a fleet of just 800 boats, which were a mixture of Royal Navy and French ships, as well as a wide variety of small vessels that travelled over from the south English coast and were manned by civilians.