The Dunkirk evacuation, code-named Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers during World War II from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the north of France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940. The operation commenced after large numbers of Belgian, British, and French troops were cut off and surrounded by German troops during the six-week Battle of France. In a speech to the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called this "a colossal military disaster", saying "the whole root and core and brain of the British Army" had been stranded at Dunkirk and seemed about to perish or be captured. In his "we shall fight on the beaches" speech on 4 June, he hailed their rescue as a "miracle of deliverance".
HMCS Sackville is a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Canadian Navy and later served as a civilian research vessel. She is now a museum ship located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the last surviving Flower-class corvette.
The PS Medway Queen is a paddle driven steamship, the only mobile estuary paddle steamer left in the United Kingdom. She was one of the "little ships of Dunkirk", making a record seven trips and rescuing 7000 men in the evacuation of Dunkirk.
USS Benson (DD-421) was the lead ship of her class of destroyers in the United States Navy during World War II. She was named for Admiral William S. Benson (1855–1932).
HMS Safari was a third batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II. Commissioned in 1942, she was assigned to operate in the Mediterranean Sea. During the course of the war, Safari sank twenty-five ships, most of which were Italian.
RNLB Guide of Dunkirk was a 35ft 6in Self-righting motor-class lifeboat whose construction was funded by the Girl Guides in 1940. She was self-righting and designed for launching from a beach. As one of the Little Ships of Dunkirk she was used in the evacuation of Allied soldiers from Dunkirk in World War II. Between 1941 and 1963 she was stationed in Cadgwith, UK as a lifeboat. In 1963 she passed into private ownership.
HMS Sickle was a third-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II. Completed in 1942, she made her initial war patrol off the Norwegian coast. Sickle then sailed to Gibraltar, from where she conducted one patrol, then to Algiers, French North Africa. From 10 May to 10 October, the boat patrolled the Gulf of Genoa five times and sank a German submarine as well as three minesweepers and an escort ship. She then moved to Beirut, French Lebanon, and conducted two patrols in the Aegean Sea, sinking three caïques and a merchant ship, in addition to landing resistance operatives in Greece.
Bluebird of Chelsea, formerly Blue Bird, is a motor yacht originally built for Sir Malcolm Campbell.
The Little Ships of Dunkirk were about 850 private boats that sailed from Ramsgate in England to Dunkirk in northern France between 26 May and 4 June 1940 as part of Operation Dynamo, helping to rescue more than 336,000 British, French, and other Allied soldiers who were trapped on the beaches at Dunkirk during the Second World War.
USS May (SP-164) was a yacht purchased by the United States Navy during World War I. She was outfitted with two 3 in (76 mm) guns and two machine guns, and was assigned to patrol the Atlantic Ocean coast and Caribbean and to protect Allied ships from German submarines. After over two years of patrol work, she ran aground off Cape Engano on the Dominican Republic and had to be abandoned.
Sundowner is a motor yacht formerly owned by Charles Lightoller, the second officer of RMS Titanic and the most senior officer to survive her sinking in 1912.
Captain Sir Edward Folmer Archdale, 3rd Baronet DSC was a British baronet, Royal Navy officer, submariner during the Second World War and local politician in Northern Ireland.
Amazon is a 102-foot (31 m) long screw schooner ex-steam yacht built in 1885 at the private Arrow Yard of Tankerville Chamberlayne in Southampton.
TSS (RMS) King Orry (III) – the third ship in the history of the Company to bear the name – was a passenger steamer which served with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, until she was sunk during the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940.
The Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant was a parade on 3 June 2012 of 670 boats on the Tideway of the River Thames in London as part of the celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. The Queen, Prince Philip and other members of the Royal Family were aboard vessels that took part in the parade. The parade was organised by the Thames Diamond Jubilee Foundation, and funded by private donations and sponsorship. The pageant master was Adrian Evans.
HMS Venomous (ex-Venom), was a Modified W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the Russian Civil War and World War II.
The third HMS Windsor (D42) was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I and in World War II.
HMS Wolsey (D98) was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I, in the Nanking incident of 1927, and in World War II.
RNLB Lucy Lavers was an RNLI lifeboat which was on No. 2 station at Aldeburgh from 1940 until 1959 when she was placed in the reserve fleet until 1968 when she was retired. The Rescue Wooden Boats Charity is currently undertaking restoration of the vessel. The Lucy Lavers is entered in the National Historic Ships register and has the Certificate No 2206.
Walton and Frinton Lifeboat Station is an RNLI station located in the town of Walton-on-the-Naze in the English county of Essex. The current all-weather boat (AWB) at Walton is the Tamar Class Irene Muriel Rees which is kept moored afloat in a specially constructed pen at the end of Walton Pier. Prior to the construction of this, the boats were anchored in open water to the south of the pier.
United Kingdom