May Events in History | The Dunkirk Evacuation Begins #mayhistory #whendidthathappen

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]May 26th, 1940, the Dunkirk evacuation begins. On May 10th, 1940, Germany had invaded Belgium and the Netherlands on their way to a planned invasion of France. By May 26th, the Netherlands had already been defeated and Belgium was just 2 days from surrender.

[00:00:17]Though they were fighting valiantly, British, French, and Belgium troops found themselves pinned against the English Channel at the seaside village of Dunkirk, France.

[00:00:26]German forces were on the move. The lives of hundreds of thousands of troops hung in the balance.

[00:00:31]What could be done?

[00:00:33]Fearing such a possibility, the British government under Prime Minister Winston Churchill had planned for such a scenario. And at 1900 on 26th May, Churchill ordered Operation Dynamo to begin. Out of the fog and the mist drowning the channel came a strange armada of navy craft, fishing boats, pleasure yachts, anything that would float.