This Week in History

May 26, 1940, The Dunkirk Evacuation was initiated by the British. Called Operation Dynamo, it was an attempt to save the British Expeditionary Force in France from total defeat by the advancing German Army. Great Britain assembled nearly 1,000 naval and civilian vessels of all kinds, aided by the Royal Air Force and favorable weather.

The evacuation was mostly successful with about 340,000 Britis...