(1940) In World War II , the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force and other Allied troops, cut off by the Germans, from the French seaport of Dunkirk (Dunkerque) to England.
Naval vessels and hundreds of civilian boats were used in the evacuation, which began on May 26. When it ended on June 4, about 198,000 British and 140,000 French and Belgian troops had been saved. The operation's success was due to fighter cover by the RAF and (unintentionally) to Adolf Hitler 's order of May 24 halting the advance of German armored forces into Dunkirk.