Overview

Early in May 1940, after months of phony war, the armies of the Third Reich burst out of the Ardennes into northern France. Brilliantly conceived and executed, Operation Sickelschnitt was one of the most astonishing military plans of all time. Cutting through weak French defences, Rommel’s panzers raced for the Channel behind the main British and French armies. Ronald Atkin’s book is a unique soldier’s-eye view of this extraordinary story, making sense of the chaos and anarchy of an army in defeat in the words of those who lived through those tumultuous weeks. Over 300,000 men were taken off the beaches of Dunkirk, and it was they who became the nucleus of the armies which swept Nazism from Europe in 1944 and ‘45.

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9781841580784

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Reviews

This is a gripping account of the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk in May and June of 1940. It was possibly the most remarkable rescue mission of World War II and one of the more miraculous events in the history of military conflict. As German field marshal Rommel's forces advanced down the Somme and through Belgium they pushed back the British Expeditionary Force and their French comrades as far as they could go, trapping them on the beaches of Dunkirk. Operation Dynamo involving an 850-strong flotilla of naval and civilian craft succeeded in rescuing 233 000 British and 113 000 allied troops. Despite the loss of 235 vessels and 106 aircraft this was one of the triumphs of the war and, thanks to careful research, the episode is vividly described here in the words of those involved. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Ronald Atkin is a writer who has won many awards for his journalism, and is the author of numerous books on history and sport.

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