This was to become a crucial factor for the Allies in the later stages of the war. When the evacuation was finally completed by June 4, 1940, around 200,000 British and 140,000 French and Belgian troops had been saved. The evacuation of troops from Dunkirk started on May 26, 1940, and the next day when the Luftwaffe bombed and damaged the inner harbor, most of the troops had ferried out to the open sea in small vessels to board larger ships waiting there. The British made use of every possible vessel of any make and utility to evacuate as many troops as possible. This sudden turn of event provided a vital opportunity to the Allies to evacuate their troops through the English Channel port. Before the Germans could close on to Dunkirk, Hitler, quite surprisingly, ordered a halt of the German advance toward Dunkirk. After the Germans crossed the defensive line around Calais, the only port left to be evacuated was Dunkirk. By the end of May 1940, Belgium and Holland were already occupied and Paris fell two weeks later.Īfter the fall of France, the Germans advanced toward the military settlements of the British Expeditionary Forces in the French territory and therefore, it became imperative to evacuate the troops by the sea. The German strategy was not only a novel military innovation but also proved quite effective against the much larger Allied forces.
The German attack comprised fast movements of armed tanks supported by sudden and surprise air raids by the Luftwaffe and this technique was popularly referred to as the 'Blitzkrieg' or 'lightning warfare' method. The stage was now set for the German invasion of France through the Low Countries of Belgium and the Netherlands on May 10.
The most catastrophic war of our times had, therefore, already begun.Īfter occupying Poland, the Russians pushed toward Finland, while the Germans attacked Denmark and Norway. By the end of 1939, Poland was occupied and divided between the two invading nations.
Following the German attack on the Polish territory, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later.Įarlier, in August, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the non-aggression pact popularly called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the Soviet Union accompanied the German invasion of Poland by attacking the country from the east. It was not the result of an isolated event, but the result of almost three years of increasing international tensions brought about by events, such as the Spanish Civil War, the so-called Anschluss or Union of Nazi Germany with Austria, and the occupation of Czech Sudetenland by Hitler's forces. The German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, signaled the beginning of the war. With over 50,000,000 deaths, World War II was the most devastating conflict in human history and involved almost all parts of the world, especially Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. To get an idea about the locations of various countries and cities mentioned below, one may take a look at the world map on the website before moving on to the story of this devastating war.
The World War 2 Map shows the locations where some of the most crucial battles were fought, especially in Europe, North Africa, and the Asia-Pacific.
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