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Miracle at Dunkirk on Display

The Museum, located on the site of the Allied forces’ headquarters during Operation Dynamo, pays tribute to the sailors, airmen, and soldiers who made local evacuations possible.
By Kevin M. Hymel
December 2017
Naval History Magazine
Volume 31, Number 6
Museum Report
View Issue
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In May 1940, the British Army (along with French and Belgian troops) retreated to the port and beaches of Dunkirk, France, as the German Army and Luftwaffe hammered away at them. To save the Allied men, Prime Minister Winston Churchill sent approximately 1,400 British and French vessels to the besieged port and evacuated some 340,000 soldiers to England—Operation Dynamo. Snatched from the jaws of defeat, those soldiers would return to fight the Germans in North Africa and Western Europe, planting the seeds of Allied victory. Newspapers called the rescue the “Miracle of Dunkirk.”

The Dunkirk 1940 Museum, located on the site of the Allied forces’ headquarters during Operation Dynamo, pays tribute to the sailors, airmen, and soldiers who made local evacuations possible. The museum displays artifacts from the evacuation, including the engine of a crashed British Supermarine Spitfire and the remains of a British lorry extracted from the surf. A French Navy 47-mm deck gun, possibly from the sunken minesweeper Dijonnais, was caught in local fishermen’s nets and now rests in the center of one of the museum’s rooms.

Various Allied and German machine guns line one wall, next to black-and-white photographs of the fighter planes that filled the sky during the evacuation. Other pictures include the ships involved in the evacuation and men either wading into the water or climbing aboard ships. There also is a large portrait of Lord Gort (General John Vereker), the controversial commander of the British Expeditionary Force, whom some called a defeatist.

Two large, dominating dioramas depict two incidents of the evacuation. The first shows a Luftwaffe attack on the evacuation, complete with model Stuka Ju 87 dive bombers swooping down on the departing French destroyer Cyclone, with soldiers packed on her decks, as she passes sunken ships and long lines of men on a pier, waiting to board other ships. Puffs of cotton depict bomb explosions in the water close to the ships.

The second diorama shows British troops of Major General Harold Alexander’s 1st Division marching off the beach on two makeshift piers made of planks atop sunken trucks and sandbags. Next to the two piers, a line of Allied soldiers wade into the water to board a ship.

The museum is meant to reflect the urgency and danger in the evacuation, and does this thoroughly through artistic representation. However, newcomers to World War II history may benefit from some greater historical context. The museum recently underwent an expansion, reopening in July 2017, and this hopefully will open up the opportunity for a greater historical representation through documents, films, and more.


Dunkirk 1940 Museum

ourtines du bastion 32Rue des Chantiers de France59140 Dunkerque France

+33 (0)3 28 26 27 81

www.dynamo-dunkerque.com

Hours:

1000 to 1800

The museum is currently closed for restoration, but reopens 1 April 2018.

Admission:

Adults: €8

Children 9 and under: Free

Children 10 to 18: €5

Kevin M. Hymel

Kevin M. Hymel is a historian for the U.S. Air Force Chaplain Corps and author of Patton’s Photographs: War as He Saw It (Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books). He is also a tour guide for Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours and leads a tour of General George S. Patton’s battlefields.

More Stories From This Author View Biography

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