Background information

The Dunkirk evacuation and the Battle of France

In his speech “Their Finest Hour”, Winston Churchill talks about the Dunkirk evacuation during the Battle of France. The Battle of France is known as the German invasion of France after France declared war on Germany in 1939. 

The Dunkirk evacuation refers to the operation in which Allied forces were evacuated from Dunkirk, France, during World War II. The evacuation operation came after Allied troops – British, French, and Belgian – were surrounded by German troops and pushed towards the sea. In his speech to the House of Commons, Churchill names the Dunkirk situation a “colossal military disaster” (l. 1). The Dunkirk evacuation lasted from 26th of April to 4th of May 1940 and 338,226 allied soldiers...