While nearly 40 Royal Navy destroyers carried the bulk of the troops, over 800 small civilian vessels —including fishing boats, yachts, and ferries—helped ferry soldiers from shallow beaches to larger ships or directly back to England.
The operation was launched after German "Blitzkrieg" tactics trapped the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and elements of the French and Belgian armies against the English Channel. Dunkirk 1940: Operation Dynamo
, often referred to as the "Miracle of Dunkirk," was the massive naval evacuation of over 338,000 Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbor of Dunkirk, France, between May 26 and June 4, 1940 . Key Overview While nearly 40 Royal Navy destroyers carried the
Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay directed the mission from naval headquarters beneath Dover Castle . between May 26 and June 4