The evacuation from Dunkirk, May–June 1940

Black smoke rolls over the burning harbour and a beach where soldiers crouch as a bomb bursts; warships lie offshore, a German fighter flies over the masts of a ship, and soldiers wade out to rowing boats and are hauled aboard. The deck of a steamer is jammed with men in helmets, a crowd of soldiers laughs and waves, and in port French and British soldiers walk past an ambulance. Winston Churchill, in a dark coat and tall hat, shakes hands with naval officers before ranks of sailors.

Between 26 May and 4 June 1940, in Operation Dynamo, warships, ferries and hundreds of small craft took some 338,000 British and French soldiers off the harbour mole and the beaches of Dunkirk; the German armour had halted outside the town for three days. The army left almost all its equipment behind. On 4 June Churchill told the House of Commons that wars are not won by evacuations.