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From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker)
Newsgroups: sci.military,soc.history
Subject: 50 Years Ago:
Message-ID: <1990Jun5.180425.22116@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 5 Jun 90 18:04:25 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
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From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker)
Tuesday, 4 June, 1940

A few hours after the destroyer Shikari leaves Dunkirk, German troops
capture the remainder of the trapped soldiers, some 40,000 men, mostly
Frenchmen.

Operation Dynamo suceeded in rescuing some 338,226 men, about 120,000
of them French or Belgian.  Against this amazing effort is weighed the
cost of the operation: 243 vessels of various types sunk and many more
damaged  and 106 RAF fighters lost (including 87 pilots killed or captured) 
and another 70 Frengh aircraft downed (versus 140 German planes destroyed).
Left behind are 2500 guns, 84,000 vehicles, 76,000 tons of ammunition, and
nearly 600,000 tons of fuel and supplies.

Britain is virtually disarmed by the loss.  Only about 500 guns remain on
the isle, many of them antiques.  Churchill speaks before the House of
Commons, pledging Britain's determination to continue and win the war.

--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
Bill Thacker			            military@cbnews.att.com
Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com

"We shall go on to the end.  We shall fight in France; we shall fight on
the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence of strength in
the air; we shall fight on the beaches; we shall fight on the landing
grounds; we shall fight in the fields, streets, and hills.  We shall never
surrender and even if - which I do not for a moment believe - this island
or a large part of it is subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond
the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, will carry on the
struggle until in God's good time the New World, with all its power and
might, steps forth to the liberation and rescue of the Old." - Prime
Minister Winston Churchill