The 27th of May 1940 was the first full day of Operation Dynamo, aka the ‘Dunkirk evacuation’. This first day was not a success, with only 7,699 soldiers being evacuated from the harbour and ZERO soldiers evacuated from the beaches.
The 27th of May thus represented the nadir of the war for the British.
The bleak military situation, combined with the imminent collapse of France, caused senior figures such as Lord Halifax to argue that Britain should seek peace.
Luckily, Churchill strongly opposed peace overtures, and the operation in Dunkirk would eventually see more than 300 thousand troops evacuated, who lived to fight another day.
(This is a repost from Instagram from May 27th, 2024)