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Sunday 9 November 2014

Dunkirk

After Hitler's Nazis invaded France and Belgium in May 1940, the British Army found itself  trapped in northern France standing alone against Germany. King George VI, acting upon the wishes of newspapers and a recommendation from Winston Churchill issued a call to the nation for a National Day of prayer. The British Christians flocked to the churches to such an extent that many were unable to get into a packed Westminster Cathedral.

A week later their troops were successfully evacuated helped by a curious decision made by Hitler to hold his troops back and not attack the British army. Also for a time the German air-force was stranded in Belgium, unable to move due to a violent storm whilst the English Channel was “as still as a millpond”.

British troops embarking from Dunkirk's beaches Wikipedia

Many acknowledged the deliverance of the 338,000 soldiers to the fact of the nation being at prayer and a Day of National Thanksgiving was subsequently held. Churchill whilst speaking in the House Of Commons described it in as ‘a miracle of deliverance’ and the consciousness of miraculous deliverance pervaded the camps in which the troops were being housed in England.

During the evacuation at Dunkirk, The last of the British Army left on June 3, 1940. However, Churchill insisted on coming back for the French, so the Royal Navy returned the next day in an attempt to rescue as many as possible of the French rearguard.

The 338,000 Allied troops evacuated from Dunkirk included 123,000 French soldiers.

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