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.).

A gripping account of the most famous military defeat and retreat in history, now the subject of a major motion picture, written and directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy and Mark Rylance. The NEW YORK TIMES of 2 June 1940 summed up the greatest disaster in British history thus: 'As long as the English tongue survives, the word 'Dunkirk' will be spoken with reverence.' This book tells the story of the Dunkirk evacuation. It traces the fortunes of the British Expeditionary Force during those dark days of May 1940 when boys armed with little more than rifles took on the might of Hitler's Panzer divisions - and held them while Allied armies crumbled on all sides. The evacuation at Dunkirk lifted more than 338,000 men from France to the safety of Britain using everything from Destroyers to pleasure yachts. It was the biggest single defeat ever suffered by British arms, but it was also one of the most astounding exoduses in history.

In 1940, at the French port of Dunkirk, more than 300,000 trapped Allied troops were dramatically rescued from destruction at the hands of Nazi Germany by an extraordinary seaborne evacuation. The true history of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and civilians involved in the nine-day skirmish has passed into legend. Now, in this gift edition, the story Winston Churchill described as a 'miracle' is narrated by bestselling author Joshua Levine in its full, sweeping context, including new interviews with veterans and survivors.

Using revelatory new material on an event which changed the tide of World War II, Robert Kershaw's ground-breaking history explores the Battle of Dunkirk from the German perspective. 'Kershaw's book is a welcome rebalancing; a thoughtful, well-researched and well-written contribution to a narrative that has long been too one-sided and too mired in national mythology.' - Roger Moorhouse, The Times The British evacuation from the beaches of the small French port town of Dunkirk is one of the iconic moments of military history. The battle has captured the popular imagination through LIFE magazine photo spreads, the fiction of Ian McEwan and, of course, Christopher Nolan's hugely successful Hollywood blockbuster. But what is the German view of this stunning Allied escape? Drawing on German interviews, diaries and unit post-action reports, Robert Kershaw creates a page-turning history of a battle that we thought we knew. Dünkirchen 1940 is the first major history on what went wrong for the Germans at Dunkirk. As supreme military commander, Hitler had seemingly achieved a miracle after the swift capitulation of Holland and Belgium, but with just seven kilometres before the panzers captured Dunkirk – the only port through which the trapped British Expeditionary force might escape – they came to a shuddering stop. Hitler had lost control of his stunning advance. Only a detailed interpretation of the German perspective – historically lacking to date – can provide answers as to why. Drawing on his own military experience, his German language skills and his historian's eye for detail, Robert Kershaw creates a new history of this familiar battle. With a fresh angle on this famous conflict, Dünkirchen 1940 delves into the under-evaluated major German miscalculation both strategically and tactically that arguably cost Hitler the war.

As a small cadre of British soldiers is making its way to the Dunkirk beaches for evacuation, will the Maggie Bright be deployed to help evacuate them?

The year is 1940 on Earth. It's the Year of Joining on Aerth. Two worlds set to collide thanks to the German Reich and their occult research program. World War II is just starting. The Germans are rolling through France, the Brits are planning to evacuate from Dunkirk, and a few of the French generals are already considering the quickest way to surrender. Then it all changes. The Germans open up a gate to Aerth over Rotterdam and it doesn't go as they plan. Aerth's armies, under guidance from the human wizard Hagirr, march into our world to take it from us. Soon the war as we know it in our timeline is over. The Germans and the Allies are scrambling for solutions. A truce is called between the Axis and the Allied powers. But nobody told our dead. The dead of WWI rise up to fight on the side of Aerth, and all any living soldier on either side can ask for is to make it to tomorrow. If you love WWII and Fantasy novels, you'll love this mashup. It's unlike anything out there.

2010 sees the 70th anniversary of the evacuation of the British army at Dunkirk. The lives of 338,226 men were saved in 861 vessels. The story of one of the young men who aided in the evacuation is now heard for the first time. Joe Read was only 15 years old when he crossed the channel in his father's lifeboat, Brittanic, and braved artillery fire and German bombing to rescue men of the British Expeditionary Force.

* * * Special 75th Anniversary Edition * * * Hugh Sebag-Montefiore's Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man tells the story of the rescue in May 1940 of British soldiers fleeing capture and defeat by the Nazis at Dunkirk. Dunkirk was not just about what happened at sea and on the beaches. The evacuation would never have succeeded had it not been for the tenacity of the British soldiers who stayed behind to ensure they got away. Men like Sergeant Major Gus Jennings who died smothering a German stick bomb in the church at Esquelbecq in an effort to save his comrades, and Captain Marcus Ervine-Andrews VC who single-handedly held back a German attack on the Dunkirk perimeter thereby allowing the British line to form up behind him. Told to stand and fight to the last man, these brave few battalions fought in whatever manner they could to buy precious time for the evacuation. Outnumbered and outgunned, they launched spectacular and heroic attacks time and again, despite ferocious fighting and the knowledge that for many only capture or death would end their struggle. 'A searing story . . . both meticulous military history and a deeply moving testimony to the extraordinary personal bravery of individual soldiers' Tim Gardam, The Times 'Sebag-Montefiore tells [the story] with gusto, a remarkable attention to detail and an inexhaustible appetite for tracking down the evidence' Richard Ovary, Telegraph Hugh Sebag-Montefiore was a barrister before becoming a journalist and then an author. He wrote the best-selling Enigma: The Battle for the Code. One of his ancestors was evacuated from Dunkirk.

'An incredible and important story, finally being told' - Mishal Husain On 28 May 1940, Major Akbar Khan marched at the head of 299 soldiers along a beach in northern France. They were the only Indians in the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk. With Stuka sirens wailing, shells falling in the water and Tommies lining up to be evacuated, these soldiers of the British Indian Army, carrying their disabled imam, found their way to the East Mole and embarked for England in the dead of night. On reaching Dover, they borrowed brass trays and started playing Punjabi folk music, upon which even 'many British spectators joined in the dance'. What journey had brought these men to Europe? What became of them – and of comrades captured by the Germans? With the engaging style of a true storyteller, Ghee Bowman reveals in full, for the first time, the astonishing story of the Indian Contingent, from their arrival in France on 26 December 1939 to their return to an India on the verge of partition. It is one of the war's hidden stories that casts fresh light on Britain and its empire.