Dunkirk and the Fall of France reconstructs the German offensive of May 1940, the collapse of Allied positions in Belgium and northern France, and the retreat of the British Expeditionary Force to the Channel coast. Operational decisions on both sides determined which formations escaped and which were surrounded or forced to surrender.
The book separates the evacuation’s genuine achievement from the mythology that later gathered around it. It examines German command pauses, Allied confusion, French resistance and the naval and civilian effort that removed hundreds of thousands of troops while leaving France to continue a rapidly deteriorating campaign.