Battle of Dunkirk 1940
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 26 May 1940 – 4 June 1940 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1940 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | France | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Battle of France, World War II | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United Kingdom | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 51.0484, 2.3809 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Dunkirk (French: Bataille de Dunkerque) was fought around the French port of Dunkirk (Dunkerque) during the Second World War, between the Allies and Nazi Germany. As the Allies were losing the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation of British and other Allied forces to Britain from 26 May to 4 June 1940.
After the Phoney War, the Battle of France began on 10 May 1940. To the east, the German Army Group B invaded the Netherlands and advanced westward. In response, the Supreme Allied Commander, French General Maurice Gamelin, initiated "Plan D" and British and French troops entered Belgium to engage the Germans in the Netherlands. French planning for war relied on the Maginot Line fortifications along the German–French border protecting the region of Lorraine but the line did not cover the Belgian border. German forces had already crossed most of the Netherlands before the French forces had arrived. Gamelin instead committed the forces under his command – three mechanized forces, the French First and Seventh Armies and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) – to the River Dyle.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Dunkirk (revision 1381221958), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of the Dunes (1658) 1658 · 1 km
- Siege of Dunkirk (1646) 1646 · 1 km
- Siege of Dunkirk (1793) 1793 · 1 km
- Siege of Dunkirk (1658) 1658 · 1 km
- Siege of Dunkirk (1944–1945) 1944 · 1 km
- Dunkirk evacuation 1940 · 2 km
Other battles of the World War II
- Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski 1939
- Battle of Wilno (1939) 1939
- Battle of Władypol 1939
- Defense of Ochota and Wola (1939) 1939
- Siege of Warsaw (1939) 1939
- Action in the Strait of Otranto 1940
- Altmark incident 1940
- Attack on Convoy BN 7 1940
- Battle of Abbeville 1940
- Battle of Arras (1940) 1940
All 178 battles of the World War II →
Browse more: battles in France · Europe · World War II era battles