Dunkirk and the Little Ships by Philip Weir

Dunkirk and the Little Ships by Philip Weir

During 1940 the German army swept with devastating speed across the Low Countries and into northern France and drove Allied forces back into a small pocket around Dunkirk. Without a swift withdrawal across the English Channel, the latter faced certain death or capture. The evacuation plan – Operation Dynamo – initially calculated that 45,000 men might be rescued, but between 26 May and 4 June 338,226 men were in fact brought back to England. Naval historian Philip Weir shows how this was made possible by a vast armada of disparate vessels including destroyers, minesweepers, fishing vessels and, most famously of all, the privately owned ‘Little Ships’. He explores the vessels’ various roles within the evacuation, and their subsequent fates, including preservation and participation in commemorative return runs to the port, which now take place every five years.

Philip Weir is a historian specialising in the Royal Navy in the first half of the twentieth century. In his PhD from the University of Exeter in 2007, he examined the development of British naval aviation between the wars, and has written for the Navy Records Society, History Today and Time. He has also contributed to both television and radio programmes, most recently appearing on the BBC’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ He lives in Exeter, UK.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781784423759
ISBN 10	1784423750
Title	Dunkirk and the Little Ships
Author	Philip Weir
Series	Shire Library
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Year published	2020-10-29
Number of pages	112
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.