Hope at Dunkirk

12.

Tommy woke up from his long sleep and squinted to see that it was now morning, the train now moving through the country side of England. He looked opposite him with hazy eyes to see Harry and Olivia fast asleep while cuddling closely together. Harry's head lolled to the side as it leaned on the wall, his arms loosely around Olivia's waist as she slept on top of him, looking peaceful and warm with her cheek against Harry's chest. Tommy had never seen a couple more close and personal with each other in such a short amount of time. He knew they loved each other, and it would be a hell of a story to tell about how they met.

The train started to pull to a stop just as Harry was beginning to stir awake. He cracked his eyes open and squinted like Tommy did, shuffling slightly before looking down to see Olivia still asleep on his chest. He stopped moving and started to run his fingers through her short hair that was still sticky from the oil leak.

"You love her don't you?", Tommy spoke up, making Harry turn his head to look at his friend. He looked back down at the Nurse, a small smile pulling on his lips.

"Yeah.... I do", he answered before something caught his attention out the window of the train. Two young boys, maybe 9 or 8, had a stack of neatly folded newspapers next to them and they pilled other things next to a trailer on the train track. Tommy decided to stand up from his seat and open the window, calling out to the boys below him.

"Hey, hand us one of those papers", he calls out, catching one of the young boy's attention. The boy reached a newspaper up to his hands, before Tommy pulled back into the train and sat down in his seat. Harry shook Olivia awake, feeling like she should hear what the newspaper could say about the attempted evacuation and Dunkirk.

Olivia sat up straight, still hazy from sleep but waited patiently for Tommy to fold out the paper and begin reading to see if the soldiers on Dunkirk were in fact rescued or not. Her heart filled with dread and she wished to not hear if the news was bad, but couldn't hold herself back to hear if it was successful. Churchill must of said something at the least, so it must be worth hearing.

"The French Admiralty announced yesterday that the last land and naval forces defending Dunkirk were embarked during the night. The part had previously been made useless to the Germans. The French Navy, it was added had lost the Dunkirk operations seven destroyers-Jaguar, Chacal, Adroit, Bourrasque, Foudreyante, Ouragan and Strocco-and the supply ship Niger", Tommy read out, seeming almost a lead up to the horrible news of the civilian boats not making it to shore.

The train pulled into station and the platform was filled with people standing there with unreadable faces. Olivia's face dropped, seeming like her thoughts were true. The nation was upset, they'd lost all those soldiers on French land. A man walked up to the window, and walked along with the train, knocking on the glass in expectation to yell at the soldiers for their failure.

"I can't watch this....", Harry mumbled as he turned his back to the window and leaned against it, feeling heart broken at how he failed his own country. Tommy continued reading, despite the two's lack of faith.

"Confirming the completion of the evacuation, a British communique said: "Our losses, though considerable, are small in comparison to those of which a few days ago seemed inevitable". The French communique states: "Three hundred French warships and merchant vessels of various sizes, with 209 smaller boats as well as numerous foundations of the Naval Air Arm, took part in this operation. "Most of the crews of our lost naval vessels were saved"".

A switch flipped in Harry's and Olivia's head, making them perk up right from their positions. It worked. The troops were evacuated and the civilian boats made it to Dunkirk. They turned to the window and the man knocking on it held up beers in his hand, a huge smile on his face as the hundreds of people behind him began to applaud on the platform.

Almost as if the other soldiers on the train had heard the fantastic news, a loud cheer came from outside as soldiers began to poke their heads out the window and cheer with them. Some were crying with joy, as their pain and suffering weren't a complete waste and people were saved. Harry stood up from his seat and stuck his head out the window, grabbing the beers from the ecstatic man's hands. A huge grin was now on Harry's face, a huge weight lifted off his shoulders from the relief of the British successfully coming home to a proud country.

Olivia stood up from her seat and leaned over the table to look out the window, feeling more tears come to her eyes as the crowd waved and cheered for them. Tommy continued to read a speech made by Winston Churchill at the House of Commons:

"Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old".

And for the first time in a week, the waiting had stopped. The war will continue on as it was told, but a dangerous and hopeless part of it was overcome. Olivia grabbed hold of Harry's uniform, pulling him back through the window and into the train. He looked confused as she turned him around to face her, before grabbing his collar and kissing him passionately on the lips. Without much hesitation, Harry dropped the beers that were in his hand and kissed his love back, celebrating the small victory of what seemed like a hopeless part of the war. The kiss they shared meant more than just their love, but the end of a struggle they had nearly died trying to conquer. 

The war would continue on like it was mapped out to. And more people would die, but more importantly, more people would live. And as Churchill said:

"in God's good time, the New World with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old".