Dunkirk: Evacuation (Episode 2)

A 2004 BBC History, War Documentary narrated by Timothy Dalton.

Episode two: Evacuation
Day 5: Vice-Admiral Bertram Ramsay and Captain Michael Denny at Dover issue the request for more inshore craft. Captain Tom Halsey and navigator David Mellis hold their destroyer, HMS Malcolm, off the coast while small boats ferry troops to her. BEF commander Lord Gort, contemplating his unauthorised order to retreat from a villa overlooking the beach and organises a final defensive perimeter. French Admiral Jean Abrial first learns of the British evacuation from Tennant as French troops swell the numbers on the beach. Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Pownall reports the problem to Churchill.

When the cockleboat Renown is amongst those small boats requisitioned, Captain Harry Noakes and his crew volunteer to stay on for the mission to France. With a large percentage of the British fleet tied up in the rescue operation, Churchill orders the gassing of Britain’s south coast to ward off invasion. Gort and Tennant argue over the evacuation strategy as the HQ comes under artillery fire. Churchill, refusing to send support to the beleaguered French at the Somme, agrees instead that their troops will be evacuated from Dunkirk on an equal basis.

Day 6: The Renown joins the hundreds of small craft that narrowly avoid running aground in order to rescue the troops from the French beaches. HMS Malcolm collects her passengers from the eastern breakwater, where she comes under bombardment. Major-General Harold Alexander takes command after Gort is ordered back to London. HMS Malcolm returns to Dover where Holsey and Mellis contemplate the friends that they have lost on other ships. The Renown safely delivers its passengers to Dover but is destroyed by a mine on its way home. Tonry and Saunders are amongst the two thirds of the BEF evacuated safely back to England but 200,000 allied troops remain on the beach as the perimeter comes under attack from advancing enemy forces.