THERE SEEMED TO BE NO ESCAPE. On May 24, 1940, some 400,000 Allied troops lay pinned against the coast of Flanders near the French port of Dunkirk. Hitler’s advancing tanks were only ten miles away. There was virtually nothing in between. Yet the trapped army was saved. By June 4—just eleven days later—over 338,000 men had been evacuated safely to England in one of the great rescues of all time. It was a crucial turning point in World War II.
