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The Miracle of Dunkirk: The True Story of Operation Dynamo by [Walter Lord]

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Walter Lord

The Miracle of Dunkirk: The True Story of Operation Dynamo Kindle Edition

by Walter Lord (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

1,435 ratings

Part of: Wordsworth Collection (1 books)

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The true story of the World War II evacuation portrayed in the Christopher Nolan film Dunkirk, by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Day of Infamy.

In May 1940, the remnants of the French and British armies, broken by Hitler’s blitzkrieg, retreated to Dunkirk. Hemmed in by overwhelming Nazi strength, the 338,000 men gathered on the beach were all that stood between Hitler and Western Europe. Crush them, and the path to Paris and London was clear.

Unable to retreat any farther, the Allied soldiers set up defense positions and prayed for deliverance. Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered an evacuation on May 26, expecting to save no more than a handful of his men. But Britain would not let its soldiers down. Hundreds of fishing boats, pleasure yachts, and commercial vessels streamed into the Channel to back up the Royal Navy, and in a week nearly the entire army was ferried safely back to England.

Based on interviews with hundreds of survivors and told by “a master narrator,” The Miracle of Dunkirk is a striking history of a week when the outcome of World War II hung in the balance (Arthur Schlesinger Jr.).

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232 pages
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English
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Open Road Media
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March 6, 2012
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The Miracle of Dunkirk: The True Story of Operation Dynamo
Walter Lord

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Editorial Reviews

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“Stirring . . . The difference between the Lord technique and that of any number of academic historians is the originality of his reportage. . . . Contemporary history at its most readable.” —The New York Times “Amazing and unexpected heroism . . . well worth reading.” —Milwaukee Sentinel “A master narrator.” —Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

About the Author

Walter Lord (1917–2002) was an acclaimed and bestselling author of literary nonfiction best known for his gripping and meticulously researched accounts of watershed historical events. Born in Baltimore, Lord went to work for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. After the war’s end, Lord joined a New York advertising firm, and began writing nonfiction in his spare time. His first book was The Fremantle Diary (1954), a volume of Civil War diaries that became a surprising success. But it was Lord’s next book, A Night to Remember (1955), that made him famous. The bestseller caused a new flurry of interest in the Titanic and inspired the 1958 film of the same name. Lord went on to use the book’s interview-heavy format as a template for most of his following works, which included detailed reconstructions of the Pearl Harbor attack in Day of Infamy (1957), the battle of Midway in Incredible Victory (1967), and the integration of the University of Mississippi in The Past That Would Not Die (1965). In all, he published a dozen books.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0078X73NO
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (March 6, 2012)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 6, 2012
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 36050 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 232 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #189,616 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #37 in 20th Century History of the UK
- #113 in Military Naval History
- #321 in Naval Military History

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Walter Lord's A Night to Remember is a minute-by-minute account of the Titanic's final hours. Lord wrote 12 books, honing an eye-witness approach to history whether it was Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor (Day of Infamy) or the defense of the Alamo (A Time to Stand) or the Battle of Midway (Incredible Victory). In The Way It Was, he tells his own story, about his life and books.

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shultho

Walter Lord's Finest Hour

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 4, 2023

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Every book that I have been able to obtain by this excellent author has transported me to the place and time of the story. Miracle is no exception. I thought I knew all I needed to know about Dunkirk 1940...until I read this book. Simply excellent.

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Frederick

Great View on the Miracle of Dunkirk

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 5, 2020

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I thoroughly enjoyed this well-written and researched book on Dunkirk. Walter Lord did a very convincing job of telling the story and delved into many of the facets that I had PRE-existing questions about such as 1) why did the panzers halt, 2) what happened to the BEF and French divisions covering the retreat, 3) how did they organize so many non-Navy boats so quickly, 4) where were the Spitfires and Hurricanes and 5) how did they get so many troops off the beaches/docks in so short of a time period and during Stuka attacks?

I had just finished Horne’s “To Lose a Battle” so this was the perfect follow-up, especially as this book (and the Dunkirk movie a few years back) was a bit light in Operation Dynamo although it did cover the Encirclement very well. This book covered exactly what I wanted to know in regard to where the troops were and where the ships and planes were during during the 26 May-4 June time period. It also got into the key personalities involved from Churchill to Ramsay, Gort, Clouston, Wake-Walker, etc.

I also wanted some of the detail on important facts like weather and tides and the impact on evacuations. I like the ship by ship research as the role played by smaller ships was incredible, especially on the beach loadings. The German decision-making was very interesting from how the panzer divisions were deployed to how the Luftwaffe was used and also the increasing focus on the Somme and Paris which seemed to snub the huge momentum to the coast that Guderian and Rommel has following the Meuse break-out.

The role played by average citizenry during this operation was amazing and deserved to be told and told again. Many rushed to aid an army that needed them most at this critical juncture. Also, the French covered the BEF in a manner that has been rather unsung compared to the Maginot collapse. Key units played critical roles during this week and despite the British attempt to evacuate as many French as possible, between 30-40,000 were left behind. I also appreciated the role played by the BEF rearguard and the elite units that came out last like the Coldstream Guards and Green Howards. The French paid a larger price but they were directly fighting for their country. The BEF and Allies with Free French would regroup but it would take time. The Alliance was tricky to manage at times but personalities such as Eisenhower and Churchill were able to hold it together.

The what Ifs surrounding Dunkirk are huge. What would have happened if Germany closed the noose right away and the impact on the overall war effort well before D-Day was even a thought. Germany would have been able to focus more solely on the Eastern Front. Many large questions to ponder. I wholly recommend this book for a top to bottom look at Dunkirk and why it probably deserves more attention for military historians and others who just like to read about ‘miracles.’

5 people found this helpful

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Clem

A bit too detailed, yet still a fascinating account

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 30, 2017

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I recently saw the movie (newly released when I wrote this review) titled “Dunkirk” and didn’t think too highly of it. It was well made, but the focus was too narrow and didn’t paint a broad enough picture from an historical perspective. I almost felt the opposite of this book. There almost seemed to be too much here.

What’s missing from this book though (and the movie) is why and how Dunkirk happened. Being that the event happened so long ago, I wouldn’t think most would be familiar of how the German army surprised everybody by burrowing through the Ardennes Forrest into France catching everyone off guard back in the Spring of 1940. There was nowhere for the English and French (who, even though war was declared several months prior, were still new to the actual battlefield) to go but north, and they could only run as far north as the English Channel. They were basically trapped.

There is a lot of info packed into this thing from a personal perspective. The author obviously interviewed as many people involved as possible and includes brief snippets of all their stories. The soldiers (English, French, German, Belgian), the civilians, the private vessel owners, etc. and all of them get their 15 minutes of fame in this book. It’s rewarding to read about so many unique experiences, but it does get a bit overwhelming at times. One almost wishes that Walter Lord would have cut the personal stories by about 75% and told longer tales by fewer people. Or, better yet, maybe keep everything here, but not necessarily give us the names of every character involved. Sure, it’s great to see one’s name in print, but it tends to bog down the experience a tad. It’s simply a bit too much.

Another challenge, for me at least, is that I read this on a Kindle. It saddens me that older books never transition that well to the electronic format in terms of illustrations and maps. Having maps for a book such as this is crucial. Oddly, when one tilts the Kindle horizontally to be able to better read the map, the illustration shifts 90 degrees as well. So the only way to read the maps in this e book are to keep the kindle straight while aligning your head sideways. Looks and feels uncomfortable.

I’m griping an awful lot here, but these gripes really are minor. This book is a good detailed account of the week or so where the soldiers were stranded on the beach while the British government was doing everything to rescue as many people as possible. When one looks at how the circumstances all lined up, you can truly say that the event was literally a miracle. Had a few of these events (weather, an abundance of private vessels, Herman Goering’s ego, etc.) been slightly skewed, Dunkirk could have easily been a catastrophe that very well could have lost the war for the allies.

The author also does a splendid job varying the viewpoints. We see the event from all different perspectives – friend and foe, military and civilian, and it’s easy to come away with a strong perception of how many of the events actually happened.

I’ve never read anything else by this author, but apparently this type of narrative (recounting tragic events) is a strong suit of his. I would recommend the book, but I would briefly brush up on the history a few weeks prior to when the story actually takes place.

One person found this helpful

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Hubert de Southchurch

One of the two best books about the Dunkirk Evacuation, full of textual detail.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 14, 2015

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This is my replacement copy of the book which I originally bought fresh off the Press as a First Edition. It is one of the best "broad-spectrum" books about the Dunkirk evacuation, [and I think I have now read them all while doing research into a so-far unreported aspect of the history of the "inshore flotilla".] You won't get a lot of pictures of the little ships involved or the chaos ashore, but Mr Lord - even though researching from the USA, - was very successful in tracking down survivors, and getting their stories recorded, so the book is packed with textual detail in précis form. With the aid of this book and further contact facilitated by the Author, I was able to contact the man who as a very young and not-fully-trained Naval Officer - had been given charge of my family's 150ton Fleet flagship on May 28th, 1940, - and get from him in a couple of very detailed letters the story of her last four days, before she was sunk. In exchange for Mr Lord's help, I was able to gift him with the background story of the requisitioning of our Family's little fleet of 7 excursion boats with pictures of the original Requisitioning and Compensation Claim documents ; and information about the aftermath - when owners were told their boats had been "lost"; and about the process of owners trying to claim compensation from a miserly Government - information which Mr Lord, working from his home in America had not been able to find from other sources.

11 people found this helpful

David Rowland

The miracle of Dunkirk

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 9, 2010

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The miracle of deliverance, as the evacuation of Dunkirk undoubtably was from 24 May and 4 June 1940, was one of the most significant events of the second world war. It can only be imagined what would have happened if this miracle had never occured and how different history would have been if it had failed and the soldiers evacuated had become prisoners of war instead.

The German blitzkreig across France that was unleashed on 10 May 1940, drew the French and British armies north into Belgium as it was anticipated that the German army would take the same route as it did in 1914. This is what the Germans hoped would happen and the French and British obligingly walked into the trap prepared for them. The German army then attacked much further south than the French and British expected and when it reached the sea at Abbeville, the allied armies were trapped. The much vaunted French army which was believed to be the strongest in Europe proved to be a paper tiger and not the force it was in 1914 and it disintegrated and the British army proved to be far too small and outdated in its attitudes and was completely outfought by the Germans with a deadly combination of fast moving panzer divisions and control of the air.

Walter Lord tells the story of the events that lead up to the evacuation in a vivid, exciting and compelling way largely from the perspective of those who were eye witnesses to what happened and it is described in a manner that makes you feel you are actually an eye witmess yourself. It often reads more like a thriller than a documentary account. It tends to concentrate on what happened on and near the beaches, in the little ships or in the operations room at Dover of Operation Dynamo, as the evacuation was called, but like so many accounts it tends to overlook the contribution and sacrifices made by the soldiers on the perimeter south of Dunkirk without whom no evacuation would have been possible. Since the war many British people have not been sufficiently aware that it was the courage of the French army on part of the perimeter holding off the German army that enabled so many British solidiers to escape to England. Lord outlines how the controversial decision was made to evacuate the British army which infuriated the French (and still does to some extent) but it was surely right to do so as Normandy was to prove.

David Rowland

13 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

A highly readable account

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 26, 2012

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Having read other books about Dunkirk, where the authors bog you down in highly detailed and incomprehensible accounts of the retreat and fighting, but then gloss over the actual evacuation, I looked high and low for a book like this.

A straightforward story where the retreat and fighting and the naval operation is more balanced, with if anything a bias in favor of the naval account. I wanted to know more about the little ships. I wanted some accounts from the sailors and civilians who took part. I wanted to read about the jetties made out of lorries. I wanted to get a flavor of how it was to wait in Dunkirk for several days before being picked up. Mr Lord's book gives the reader just that.

If there's anything to criticize, it might be that the books is rather upbeat, even though the author does mention quite a few unsavory facts, such as British officers shooting their own, to instill discipline and the such. Instances of cowardice, the shirking of duty, it's all there, but Mr Lord doesn't dwell on those facts too much, but I wouldn't say his account is biased. The event on the whole demonstrates courage, solidarity and how a resounding defeat didn't turn into a complete disaster.

7 people found this helpful

CB

Great Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 13, 2020

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A really good book on the Dunkirk retreat and evacuation. Easy to read and yet full of detail. Captures the essence of the improvisation without being over the top.

Nick Harms

Excellent read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 1, 2021

Verified Purchase

Really gets into the evacuation and also the events on land in France that helped make it happen

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