Was Dunkirk a miracle or disaster? - page 1
Keywords: Was Dunkirk a miracle or disaster? World war two Operation dynamo
By crazy legs on 18/11/2006 18:27:22
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
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Was Dunkirk a miracle or disaster?
'Dunkirk' was the evacuation of the troops trapped on Dunkirk, which was called a "miracle" by Winston Churchill whilst speaking in front of the British public. As the German army swept through western Europe in the spring of 1940, using Blitzkrieg tactics, both the French and British armies could not stop the fast approaching enemy. For the people in Western Europe, World War Two was about to start for real and the "Phoney War" was soon to be over.
The advancing German Army trapped the British and French armies on the beaches around a town called Dunkirk. A representative map is shown as 4. The map has no origin or purpose given, (must have done once) but shows us how the allied forces were trapped by the swarm of axis forces. Although the origin of the source is not given I believe the map to be accurate and truthful as it fits in with my own knowledge of the Dunkirk evacuation. The source shows us how the allied forces were in a very bad position for either attacking or defending. They were surrounded on nearly every side , except to the north of them. This source backs up the idea that Dunkirk was a miracle, since 330,000 men were trapped here, a sitting target for the Germans, but somehow most of the allied forces escaped from the approaching German tanks and got home. One of the only limitations the source has, apart from its accuracy, is that it does not give the numbers of the German or allied forces, just their position. If you just look at this source you could even say that 300,000 allied personnel escaped from 5 German tanks. You can interpret the source to support the way you felt about the evacuation. If you felt it was a miracle, you could say the allied forces escaped from 5 million German tanks, for example.
Many people since that time have taken that view that Dunkirk was a miracle. However many people believe that it was a huge disaster and a major defeat for the British. I believe that Dunkirk was a disaster for the Allies' army generals but it was a miracle for allied civilians and especially the soldiers' families. In that situation, it was a miracle that 330,000 men were evacuated from the beaches, using dinghies and
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