30 Major Battles of World War II That Shaped Modern Warfare Forever
World War II is the bloodiest conflict in history. These are the 30 most important battles and operations that took place between 1939 and 1945.
German Stukas
Seven-hundred-fifty German panzers faced four times as many Russian tanks. But the Russian air force had been annihilated on the ground, and the <anchor>German Stukas</anchor> were able to dominate the area. In addition to destroying tanks, they targeted Russian fuel and ammunition supplies and disrupted communications.
Dunkirk Movie Explained - Christopher Nolan's Battle of Dunkirk Movie
Search

Search

# 4 Ways the Battle of Dunkirk Showed Us the Future of War

Christopher Nolan's war epic celebrates the evacuation of British and French troops from Dunkirk in 1940.

bookmarksSave Article

YouTube

Dunkirk, the newest epic from Christopher Nolan, retells one of the iconic legends of the Second World War. From May 27 until June 4, 1940, more than 338,000 Allied troops who'd been encircled by the Nazis at Dunkirk, France, were evacuated by sea. About 100,000 were lifted from the beaches during Operation Dynamo, and the rest were taken from the harbor and the wooden breakwater. An estimated 933 ships took part; 236 were lost and 61 put out of action.

The Battle of Dunkirk has inspired endless debate in the decades since. Some call it perhaps Hitler's greatest blunder to have allowed so many Allied troops to escape, while others dismiss the notion that the Allies definitely would have lost the war without the evacuation. What's not debatable is that a close look at Dunkirk reveals many factors that came to shape modern warfare.

Editor's Note: At the 9th Academy Awards, Dunkirk was nominated for a eight Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director. It won three of those, for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Film Editing.

## Lightning Wars

CORBIS//Getty Images

A Mark IV Panzer (PZ KW-IV), a World War II era German tank.

Only three weeks before the evacuation at Dunkirk, there was virtually no activity on the Western front. There was so little fighting that for eight months it had been called the " Phoney War," with German forces in the Siegfried line facing French forces in the Maginot line in a static re-enactment of WWI trench warfare.

And then, blitzkrieg.

As opposed to the slow advance of foot-soldiers over a broad front, Germany's "lightning war" meant a rapid armored thrust with a spearhead of Panzer tanks. The attack—led by General Heinz Guderian, the father of the blitzkrieg—punched through Allied lines and out-maneuvered them. In just seventeen days the French and British armies were routed and thrown back to Dunkirk, where they were surrounded by the Nazis. This was a dramatic change from the previous war, where advancing a few miles took days.

Now we expect wars to be quick and decisive. The early victories in Iraq and Afghanistan owe something to the Blitzkrieg approach. The old days of fixed front lines have gone, and, as at Dunkirk, warfare between states is decided by fast-moving armored units with air support.

## The Power of Airpower

A lot changed between the world wars. Blitzkrieg used dive bombers rather than artillery bombardments to take out concentrations of enemy troops. While WWI air power started with bombs thrown by hand, by 1940 tactical aircraft like the Ju-87 Stuka could deliver 2,000 lbs. of bombs with lethal accuracy.

Guderian's panzer divisions were ordered to stop and wait for supporting infantry units to catch up (German marshals still feared a possible Allied counterattack) and so they did not advance on Dunkirk. But Stukas pounded the Allied troops mercilessly as they waited for rescue. Sirens on the plane, known as "Jericho trumpets," emitted a terrifying screech as it dived.

Crowd, People, Monochrome, Tree, Black-and-white, Event, Rebellion, Style, Marching, pinterest

Corbis//Getty Images

Thousands of French troops were plucked off of Dunkirk\'s beaches along with the British. June, 1940.

Aerial bombing put the harbor at Dunkirk out of action on May 27, 1940, leaving nowhere for big ships to dock. The British called on civilian volunteers with small boats to cross the channel and help ferry troops to the transports. The evacuation could only be carried out because of the air cover provided by the Royal Air Force, which claimed 377 kills, losing just 87 of their own. The Stuka turned out to be vulnerable to modern fighters.

These days, of course, air superiority is widely seen as being essential to the success of a military operation.

## Dangerous Waters

Hulton Deutsch

Two sailors on a German u-boat check the mechanisms of the oil engine room in a submarine.

Britain's Royal Navy prided itself on being the most powerful in the world, but battleships were no longer enough to rule the waves. At Dunkirk, airpower showed what it could do at sea. The British lost the destroyers Basilisk, Havant and Keith to German air attacks. The bombing was so intense that on May 29, other destroyers were ordered to leave the area—a decision reversed the next day because of the need to evacuate troops.

It was not only aircraft the rescuers had to beware. Many were sunk by mines and torpedoes. These had been minor menaces in the previous war, but advances in technology meant they could threaten even the most powerful warship. The British destroyer Grafton was sunk by a German submarine, while steam ferry SS Mona's Queen and French destroyer Bourrasque sunk after hitting mines.

Vehicle, Boat, Fishing vessel, Water transportation, Watercraft, Sailboat, Dhow, Cutter, Smack, Skipjack, pinterest

David Hambling

Christopher Nolan used 11 of the original "little ships" in the movie, including this one, the Endeavour

German submarines would prove to be a major threat to Allied shipping for the rest of the war, and new types of mine with magnetic and acoustic sensors became ever more dangerous. Submarines are now recognized as the trump card in naval warfare. Since WWII, mines have sunk three times as many US Navy ships as all other means of attack combined.

## Media Wars

Black-and-white, Monochrome, Pole, Photography, Stock photography, Recreation, Crew, Monochrome photography, Vehicle, Illustration, pinterest

Imperial War Museums

British soldiers wade out to a waiting destroyer off Dunkirk during Operation Dynamo.

Dunkirk may have saved Britain's behind, but it wasn't exactly a win. "We must be careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory," was Prime Minister Winston Churchill's stern reminder in a famous speech on June 4. "Wars are not won by evacuations." Churchill left no doubt that the campaign in France was a "colossal military disaster" that left Britain in imminent danger of invasion and in line for a determined bombing campaign by the Luftwaffe.

Even so, he was also aware of the morale-boosting effect of the successful evacuation. Some 300,000 troops had been rescued from what looked like an impossible situation. And although the troops had to abandon their tanks and artillery, along with more than 60,000 vehicles, the newspapers and newsreels were full of pictures of smiling soldiers who had come home and were determined to carry on the fight. That was worth more than the lost hardware.

"So long as the English tongue survives, the word Dunkirk will be spoken with reverence," stated the New York Times editorial on June 1, 1940. "There, beaten but unconquered, in shining splendor, she faced the enemy, this shining thing in the souls of free men, which Hitler cannot command."

Photograph, People, Monochrome, Snapshot, Black-and-white, Photography, Team, Crew, Crowd, Sitting, pinterest

Hulton Archive//Getty Images

Children rush up to a train carrying BEF men back from Dunkirk.

The "miracle of Dunkirk" lifted the national spirit. Nobody in Britain was talking about surrender. And as Nolan's movie further proves, even if you flee the battlefield with heavy casualties, it does not mean you lost. Dunkirk shows how winning can be a matter of spin.

Headshot of David Hambling

Contributor

Based in South London, David Hambling specializes in military technology, especially drones and counter-drone systems. He is the author of Swarm Troopers: How Small Drones Will Conquer the World.

###### Watch Next

Play Iconpreview for Military Section Watch Next Playlist

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

## Military

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

A Part of Hearst Digital Media

We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back.

©2024 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.