Battle of Dunkirk-success or disaster free essay sample

Was the battle of Dunkirk a triumph or success? A question with no simple answer and probably a question we will never know the true answer to. In the 70 plus years since the battle, a variety of medias, for example textbooks, diary logs and newspaper articles have continued to influence peoples different interpretations on whether or not the events at Dunkirk deserve to be remembered as a triumph or in fact a failure for Britain and its people. In the month of May 1940, Hitlers army was winning against France, despite Britain sending over 300,000 troops to help them out. Most of the allied forces had been surrounded and trapped by the fast-advancing German Army onto the beaches around Dunkirk. Despite countless severe casualties the British troops could not retreat as their escape routes were all blocked; they were sitting targets for the Germans. At this point there was a real danger that the entire British Army could be wiped out before the War had really got under way. On 27 May the British government, now led by Churchill, put into action a plan called ‘Operation Dynamo’. The plan was to evacuate all the troops to Britain by ship. On the end of the ninth day a total of 338,226 soldiers had been rescued from the beaches in an assembly of around 800 different boats; yachts, fishing boats and small ships were just a few that were privately owned and sacrificed from the people back at home. â€Å"The escape captured the minds and hearts of the British people at a time when it looked probable that we too would soon be invaded. † Source B1. The people of Britain really were becoming united and proud to Be British; although they were down they were not out. Dunkirk was called a â€Å"miracle† by Winston Churchill and how Britain were still up, back and ready to fight another day many see as a triumph in itself. An example of this is Source B2, a cartoon by British artist David Low, published in the London Newspaper on the 8th of June 1940. The cartoon shows the great range of boats sent by the people back home to rescue the soldiers from the coast, sacrificing their livelihood to do their bit for the war effort. British people gained massive amounts of pride from seeing this and even though their chances were questionable, they were, as the cartoon caption says, ready to ‘fight another day’. This type of cartoon was put in the newspaper to raise morale. The battle of Dunkirk was hugely important as it allowed the allies to keep a considerable military force which later went on to become part of the allies advance during the D-day landings. Opinions on the success of Dunkirk strongly rely on what you believe to be true and what you see as being for the use of propaganda. Despite British casualties amounting to 68,000, a massive 338,336 men, 71 heavy guns and 595 vehicles were rescued, Source B3. Britain’s navy and RAF, which shot down three German planes for every British plane lost, remained intact showing how powerful and effective they both were in helping the British Expeditionary Force. At this point British morale was sky high, mainly due to the image portrayed by the newspapers. On 31st of May the battle of Dunkirk had reached front page of the British Newspaper, The Daily Express. â€Å"TENS OF THOUSANDS SAFELY HOME ALREADY†,† Many more coming by day and night†, â€Å"unbeatable†. The propaganda used immediately in the headline shows it was a miracle to get the British and their allies evacuated off the beaches, heavily under-attack by the German. Mentioning all the kind of ships that took part in the evacuation highlights that Churchill’s statement about the involvement of the civilians had had an impact. Source B5. In every battle there will always be actions to criticize and in the battle of Dunkirk’s case there was understandably a fair few. Yet Anthony Eden, a senior army officer and later British Prime Minister wrote in his book of World War II memoirs about his surprise when visiting camps of returned BEF troops, Source B6. He expects the soldiers to be depressed and feeling defeated as there â€Å"was enough to criticize. † â€Å"Our infantry had no armour to support them; even its equipment had revealed some woeful shortages. But the mood of the officers and men showed none of this. † This raises the question of whether things would have been different had the BEF measured the Germans in weaponry. Even the brigades that had suffered the heaviest casualties were as confident as the more fortunate comrades. But as said in the June 4th speech by Winston Churchill, â€Å"Wars are not won by evacuations, but there was a victory inside this deliverance for which we must rejoice. † Many people since Dunkirk have taken the view that it should be remembered as a success. An example of people with this mindset is Ben Walsh, a history teacher and author who wrote a GCSE history textbook called Essential Modern War History in 2003, writing about the importance of Dunkirk. However his ideas were contradicted by Josh Brooman the author of the history GCSE textbook `Global War’, who said the Germans either killed, wounded or took prisoner of 70,000 people leaving the survivors with no choice but to escape anyway they could , consequently abandoning 2,500 big guns, 90,000 rifles and 64,000 vehicles. (Source B9). Ben Walsh labelled Winston Churchill as a powerful leader who could unite the country behind him. But surprisingly, Josh Brooman’s source B9 stated Winston Churchill the prime minister of Britain at the time referred to the evacuation of Dunkirk as â€Å"the greatest military defeat in centuries† in private. To many people, this admission said a lot for the reality of British success. A different cartoon, from an Italian, titled The triumphant English retreat’’ was published just after the Dunkirk evacuation. (Source B11). The image showed a Lion with a British flag retreating from a soldier, presumably German. As Lions are known to be strong, fearless animals that don’t flee when in danger it was shocking to see the Lion running away from a lone-standing soldier. This shone light on the fact that the English have lost all their power against the opposition and retreated, giving reason to believe that Dunkirk was indeed a disaster, contradicting David Low who stated they were back victoriously. In contrary to the newspaper propaganda about the evacuation taking place in Dunkirk was an interview for a BBC project to capture memories of key events during the war, by Ivan Daunt, a soldier evacuated from Dunkirk. 2004, Source B1 5. It tells the story of the traumatic experiences soldiers faced in short, yet powerful words. The British Army was caught by surprise and very unprepared. In such a short time they were close to having no ammunition at all as it was nothing compared to how well equipped the Germans were. There were even soldiers that hadn’t been properly trained before being sent to war, emphasizing just how unprepared they were. They were amateurs. Ivan Daunt, a war veteran himself even stated, â€Å"They were prepared for war and we weren’t. † Although this is not fact, how the soldiers were suffering with food shortages and paralyzed with fear, source B15 shows the sincere truth of how the British felt about their own army. A known positive attribute of the British Army was positive they were and how much the soldiers were prepared to do for their country. Source B13 shows how badly this wasn’t reciprocated. Even though the naval officers helped hugely in evacuating people including the injured, the bodies of dead soldiers were left to rot on the beaches. The French photograph was taken in early June 1940. The dead soldiers, who sacrificed their lives for the safety of their country and other soldiers, were seen as no good to the nation were treated as unneeded clutter and denied the chance to be taken back to their families. By doing this, it proves to younger boys who intend on joining the army that they will be treated with no respect after losing their life fighting for the nation. In addition to the body remains, the picture also shows the war tanks that had been abandoned, wasting the limited sources they had. This has proved Dunkirk’s evacuation has reason to be remembered as a disaster. The advancing German Army trapped the British and French armies on the beaches around Dunkirk. This has been proven by source B10 written by John Harris, a historian writing about Dunkirk in a book about great military battles `The Storms of War’ written in 1988. The source states clearly that 5000 men were ordered to be evacuated, yet on return with a swollen amount of 20000, there was still a queue of a thousand waiting to be evacuated. Some of the men that were trying to climb to safety on the boats made it more traumatic as they were numb with shock and were suffering from hunger and insomnia. Many fell to their deaths upon trying to get on the boat and dozens of horses were abandoned on the sands in addition to the thousands of weapons. The battle of Dunkirk can be seen as both a triumph and a failure; it will never be possible to say the answer is just one or the other. It can be seen as a triumph by the fact the British and French survived, which is a triumph in itself, as by seeing the predicament they were facing, it was likely they were going to lose. They were able to turn the tables and save hundreds of thousands of men. On the other hand, nearly half of those were French so the question of British triumph alone isn’t as remarkable. But still, day after day Britain lived to fight again and although a war is not won by evacuation, it still is a very important point. By my own knowledge I come to the conclusion that the Battle of Dunkirk should be remembered as a triumph for Britain and its people. It was a military disaster no doubt but at the end of it all on the 4th of June 1940 the British people were left standing proud. Although this was most likely down to the use of propaganda, in my eyes a country that has been through torturous weeks at a battle that looked certain to defeat them and can come out the other side, united and full of people proud of their country, is the true winner.