Dunkirk: retreat to victory

Major General Julian Thompson

In May 1940, the small British Expeditionary Force was sent to help the Belgians and French hold back the German army. Ill-equipped and under-trained, they fought hard for three weeks, from the German invasion of France to the rescue of the last British troops from the beaches at Dunkirk. Remarkably, they conducted a successful fighting withdrawal in the face of a formidable foe. Major General Julian Thompson re-creates the action from the misunderstandings between the British and French generals to the experiences of the ordinary soldier. He gives full weight to the fighting inland as the British Expeditionary Force found itself in mortal danger, thanks to the collapse of the Belgian army on one flank and the failure of the French on the other, and corrects popular myths about the evacuation. Paperback, photographs, 338 pages.