The evacuation of dunkirk Essay Example

The evacuation of dunkirk Essay It was the closing days of May 1942. The German forces were sweeping through France and demolishing everything and anything that got in the way. It was imminent that Germany was going to win the war from this position. British troops were stuck on the coast of Dunkirk with the German troops advancing ever closer from just 10 miles away there was 400,000 troops in Dunkirk and only 340,000 troops was successfully evacuated. The British expeditionary forces (BEF) with being forced to retreat from Dunkirk. The German forces were much more powerful than Britain and their allies expected. The German forces were using tanks and bombers to drive through opposition defences. Now all British troops were stuck in Dunkirk with German troops getting closer and closer. There are many historians that believe from this point on what happened was truly a miracle. But on the other side of the story there are many historians that believe this was not a miracle it was nothing but that of a disaster. I am going to investigate eight sources four of which back up the theory of a miracle and four of which back up the theory that it was a disaster. At the end of my investigation I will come to my own conclusion of whether it was a miracle or a disaster. We will write a custom essay sample on The evacuation of dunkirk specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The evacuation of dunkirk specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The evacuation of dunkirk specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Middle section Miracle. Some historians believe this very extraordinary sequence of events to be a miracle. I am going to examine four sources and test the theory that this really was a miracle. Source one this source tells us that Dunkirk is a miracle and that the escape captured the minds and hearts of British people also that it seemed like a miracle just getting the troops back to fight another day. The source is written by a historian David Knowles, writing to tell people about the escape in Dunkirk for his book escape from catastrophe in 2002. This source is not a primary source, it is secondary. I do think that this source is reliable because it is written by a historian who has studied and learnt the topic. I shouldnt think that the source is biased because it is written by a historian although we do not know what type of historian he is. He could be an economic, social or militarily historian. Source 2 this source just simply gives us the facts of Dunkirk plain and simply. It gives is this the statistics of all the variables at Dunkirk, including ships sunk, troops killed and tanks blown up. The awful was Ben Walsh who wrote this in 2003 to publish in a school textbook for children learning about the topic. This source is a game a secondary source. Yes it is a reliable source because it is written for a schoolbook to learn about the topic. Because of why it is written in to it is for I should think that the book will be biased. Source 3 this source tells us boldly that tens of thousands safely home already and it also gives is facts about what is happening in Dunkirk how the troops coming home and also gives us more information. It gives the people at home a boost in morale. Although I do not know who wrote the source I know it was written for the front page of the British newspaper the daily express on the 31st of May 1940, this means it is a primary source. It was written to inform British people of the circumstances. This source is a form of British propaganda because it is telling people from the United Kingdom that we are doing really well at all. I think the source is very biased because the government want the people to feel as if the war effort is going fine, they do not want to tell the British people the real reasons of why this is astronomical escape mission is really happening. Source 4 this source is not a narrative source or a source full of statistics. This source shows us visually weirder British troops got stuck and rescue from it shows us how the German troops were closing in and how close they got to our British troops. I do not know the artist of this map, I do not know when the map was created and I do not know who the map was created for. Although I do not know this I still have reason to believe the map is a British map because of the title. The title of this map is operation Dynamo. Because this source is visual it is very good for kinaesthetic cleaners to develop an understanding of this operation. Although the map does not give great detail it is still a reliable source. I do not think that this source is Bias. Middle section Disaster. Source 1 this source was written in 1999 for a schools history textbook, Global War by Josh Brooman. This man has written a lot of extracts for school text books, so I feel it would be safe to say that this source is reliable, but it would be good to know where this mans sympathies lie. The source tells us that the British had been defeated in Dunkirk and tells us that Winston Churchill called it, in private.,the greatest military defeat for many centuries. This source is secondary, with an objective account. I think the source was written to educate students about Dunkirk. source 3 this source does not tell us anything, it simply gives us an impression in our head that the British were being cowards by running away and paints the picture that the Nazis were in full control. I dont know who the artist of the source was , but I have a believe it was written by an Italian as it is an Italian cartoon. It was published just after the evacuation and therefor it is a primary source. This a form of Italian propergander because it is trying to influence the Italians that they are joining the war on the stronger side. It is reliable from the Italian point of view but biased from the British point of view. Source 4 This source again tells us that the British were defeated in the military war, but it has a swing on it as it tells us the it was a victory for the British in the form of propergander in the newspapers. This source is a secondary source because it was written in 2000 on the 60th anniversary of Dunkirk by a BBC media correspondent for the BBC show on Dunkirk. I feel that this source is very reliable because it was written by the BBC who are always very factual. They are showing how the British newspaper could influence the British people. Source 5 this source is a picture of the beach that the British troops were evacuated from. It shows us the all the British military belongings that were left on the beach. I do not feel that this source is reliable because this could of been a section of the beach where the photographer made look worse than it actually was but it is reliable in some ways because it is a photograph that I feel has not been edited. The source is a primary source because it was taken in the early days of June 1940. But I feel the picture has some value to it because it was never published in Britain. Conclusion. Although the idea of this being a disaster is backed up well with the sources with more than one view and the fact that I feel the sources that are backing up the theory of a miracle all point at the one conclusion of Most men were evacuated I still feel it as a miracle for good reason. The evacuation proved that the unity of the British people could not be broken and the moral could not be lowered by any nation. I feel that the fact that Britain managed to evacuate all those people is a miracle in its self, although I do feel there was a bit of luck in the fact that Hitler chose bot to attack, even when the British were like sitting ducks. There were some elements of the evacuation that were a disaster which were the fact that they lost men, and artillery and the faith that other countries put in them to stop the torrid forces of Hitler and Germany. But Britain had time to rebuild there army and artilleries after the evacuation to overcome this defeat to win the war. I think that although they were defeated it could have been much worse. They could have lost many more men, ships, tanks and other artilleries. So my conclusion is that it was a miracle that they rebuilt themselves after this defeat, it was a miracle they got all there men out of there alive, but it was the biggest disaster in the history of British war in the fact that they were crushed and sent straight back from the powers of the German forces.