Key battles in WW1/WW2

Evacuation of Dunkirk

The emergency evacuation of Dunkirk was caused by the trapping of Allied forces around the coastal town of Dunkirk. French, British and Belgian troops were trapped by the stunning suprise of the German army as Hitlers Generals had formed a new type of warfare called Blitzkrieg. To know how this happened he have to relate to how it started.

After the defeat of Poland on the 6th of October 1939, Britain and France went into full scale war. But for a large portion of time there was time period of roughly 7 months where literally nothing had happened. However to the allies horror the German war machine had launched and attack on Denmark who surrendered just 6 hours after. After the fall of Denmark, Norway was then attacked to and many of its forces were encircled and captured however it was the longest to hold out of the Allies eventually after surrendering which was 63 days long until the eventual surrender by the remaining troops.

Half way through the Norwegian attack, the Germans also attacked France too in mid May. The French were caught by suprise once again just like the first world war. The Dutch and Belgian armies mobilised with what little time they had left to use. After 8 days the Netherlands surrendered and when holding the front the Germans saw a gap in the French line because of a region called the Ardenne which was a hilly forested area with lots of space. The French thought it was naturally impenetrable but the Germans rammed through the Ardenne with their Panzer divisions and broke through the Allied defensive line. The French completely caught by suprise, didn't have the time to correct their mistakes and the German troops had reached the northern coast...

The allied troops now trapped in Northern France decided to counterattack because they were the best of the Allied forces in Europe. The Anglo French and Belgian armies were caught again and forced to retreat. They decided to launch an emergency evacuation from the port town of Dunkirk and get as many out of the situation as possible which even included cruise boats cramping as many as 300 men on one average yacht. However after 18 days of well fought resistance, the Belgian armies were overrun and were forced to surrender. Leaving an Anglo French force alone in Northern France. The Germans kept squeezing and squeezing them onto the coast until the expected fait of French troops emerged as the evacuation was a huge success as many as 300,000 troops were evacuated.

This can be seen as significant because, the Allied forces were not prepared for a fast and sudden attack, as they were expecting the same combat style similar to the first world war. However the German Panzer divisions proving the French wrong to the Ardenne being naturally impenetrable. Then the huge success of the evacuation by the British as even the far smaller Belgian army put up fierce opposition to Germany. And after the French forces were depleted with the lack of men and morality, would lead to the eventual defeat of the French army after 6 weeks of resistance against the Axis. But would continue as a resistance movement across both Africa and the European mainland too.