When the Germans started their invasion of France and the Low countries in early May 1940, German forces of Army Group A broke through the Ardennes region, flanking the British and French forces in Belgium, cutting off hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers.
On May 25th, the British decided to evacuate their forces to avoid destruction. They fell back to the port of Dunkirk, establishing a defense perimeter there on May 28th. Using all kinds of available boats and ships, both civilian and military, the Allies managed to evacuate around 340,000 soldiers until June 4th, around 215,000 of them British.
However, they had to leave behind almost all their equipment, including 2,500 artillery pieces, over 80,000 vehicles and tens of thousands of tons of fuel and ammunition.
The Germans tried to prevent the evacuation with strong air force attacks, and while they destroyed over 200 vessels of all kinds, including 9 destroyers, they were largely unable to prevent the evacuation.
The evacuation, named Operation Dynamo, saved most of the trained, regular soldiers of the British Army, and is nowadays considered one as of the most important reasons why Britain was able to continue fighting after France fell.
This video shows German footage about the Battle, shown in propaganda newsreels. It shows German planes attacking the harbor of Dunkirk, Allied troops and ships. It also shows German fast boats operating in the area, AA-guns attacking British planes and ships and ground combat footage from around Dunkirk.
It also shows footage of Allied material that was left behind and captured by the Germans, including trucks, bikes, artillery etc.
The last scene shows Allied POWs marching off into German captivity.
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Subtitles made by me.
![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WAEVZ3KAgto/maxresdefault.jpg)