from where was a massive evacuatoin of defeated allied troops organised in 1940?

Answer 1

Dunkirk

Answer 2

Dunkirk, and the evacuation associated with the troops trapped on Dunkirk, was called a "miracle" by Winston Churchill. As the Wehrmacht swept through western Europe in the spring of 1940, using Blitzkrieg, both the French and British armies could not stop the onslaught. For the people in western Europe, World War Two was about to start for real. The "Phoney War" was now over.
The advancing German Army trapped the British and French armies on the beaches around Dunkirk. 330,000 men were trapped here and they were a sitting target for the Germans. Admiral Ramsey, based in Dover, formulated Operation Dynamo to get off of the beaches as many men as was possible. The British troops, led by Lord John Gort, were professional soldiers from the British Expeditionary Force; trained men that we could not afford to lose. From May 26th 1940, small ships transferred soldiers to larger ones which then brought them back to a port in southern Britain.
The beach at Dunkirk was on a shallow slope so no large boat could get near to the actual beaches where the men were. Therefore, smaller boats were needed to take on board men who would then be transferred to a larger boat based further off shore. 800 of these legendary "little ships" were used. It is thought that the smallest boat to make the journey across the Channel was the Tamzine - an 18 feet open topped fishing boat now on display at the Imperial War Museum, London.
Despite attacks from German fighter and bomber planes, the Wehrmacht never launched a full-scale attack on the beaches of Dunkirk. Panzer tank crews awaited the order from Hitler but it never came. In his memoirs, Field Marshall Rundstadt, the German commander-in-chief in France during the 1940 campaign, called Hitler's failure to order a full-scale attack on the troops on Dunkirk his first fatal mistake of the war. That 338,000 soldiers were evacuated from the beaches at Dunkirk would seem to uphold this view.
One of the reasons put forward for Hitler not ordering an attack was that he believed that Britain had suffered from the might of the Wehrmacht once and that this experience would be sufficient for Britain to come to peace terms with Hitler. The total destruction of the British Expeditionary Force might have created such a climate of revenge in Britain that our involvement would be prolonged. That is one idea put forward for why Hitler did not order a full-scale attack on the beaches of Dunkirk - however, we will never know the true reason.

Answer 3

The 'defeat' is the withdrawal of the British Army from the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France. The British Army had been driven there by the speed of the German Army's Blitz Krieg or 'lightning war'.

Something like 250,000 to 300,000 British and Allied soldiers were plucked from the beaches of Dunkirk in small boats [privately owned in most cases] and returned to England.

At about this time, Winston Churchill told the nation in the House of Commons that the "Battle of France is over, and the Battle of Britain is about to begin."

We waited but the German Army never came across the English Channel. Were they to have done so would have meant their utter and total anihilation by the Royal Navy which at that point in time was up in Scapa Flow, well out of the range of the Luftwaffe. The Royal Navy with four major capital ships and dozens of destroyers and frigates would have been in the English Channel in 2 and half days. Anything in the Channel not flying the White Ensign [Royal Navy flag] would have been blow out of the water. These capital ships of the line of the Royal Navy could easily destroy anything on either shore as well as in the Channel proper.

In addition to all of this massive fire power the British had equipment set up to pump millions of gallons of oil in to the surface of the English Channel. This oil would have been set alight and anyone in it burned to death.

There is much more to this story of which I know a great deal but there is too much for here. Hope all of the above helps.

Answer 4

Dunkirk

Answer 5

This was not just a one evacuation in 1940 from France, their was evacuations all along the French Coast. I would suggest you look into History of the Second World War a little more. Visit the Imperial War Museum, or website.

Answer 6

Dunkirk. Thank goodness for the small yachts, boats, river craft and pleasure craft that responded to the request for help in saving the BEF and other allied forces. A truly magnificent effort!

Answer 7

Dunkirk. The allied troops of France and Britian also had to leave much of their equipment and guns on the beach. Hitler halted the destruction of the allied troops as sympathy to his tuetonic cousins. Too bad Hitler would later fight the same French/British troops again on D-Day.

Answer 8

Dunkirk

Answer 9

Dunkirk

Answer 10

Dunkirk.