Battle of Dunkirk.

With the docks in the harbour rendered unusable by German air attacks, Senior Naval Officer Captain (later Admiral) William Tennant initially ordered men to be evacuated from the beaches. When this proved too slow, he re-routed the evacuees to two long stone and concrete breakwaters, called the East and West Mole, as well as the beaches. Almost 200,000 troops embarked on ships from the East Mole (which stretched nearly a mile out to sea) over the next week. On 28 May 17,804 soldiers arrived at British ports. On 29 May, 47,310 British troops were rescued. The next day, an additional 53,823 men were embarked, including the first French soldiers. Lord Gort and 68,014 men were evacuated on 31 May,  and Major-General Harold Alexander was left in command of the rearguard.

 A further 64,429 Allied soldiers departed on 1 June before the increasing air attacks prevented further daylight evacuation. The British rearguard of 4,000 men left on the night of 2–3 June, along with 60,000 French soldiers. An additional 26,000 French troops were retrieved the following night before the operation finally ended.  The remainder of the rearguard—40,000 French troops—surrendered on 4 June.