4 June 1940
Western Front
Tenth and final day of Operation Dynamo, the evacuation from Dunkirk. The last ship leaves the harbour at 3.40am in the early morning of 4 June. 26,175 French soldiers reach Britain during the day. 224,585 British and 112,546 Allied troops have been evacuated from the Continent.
40,000 Allied troops captured at Dunkirk after defending the perimeter
Great Britain
Churchill makes another of his famous speeches "We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."
Related Books
The War at Sea, 1939-1945, Volume I: The Defensive, S. W. Roskill. This first volume in the British official history of the war at sea covers the period from the outbreak of the war through to the first British disasters in the Pacific in December 1941. Amongst other topics it covers the Norwegian campaign, the evacuation from Dunkirk and the first two years of the Battle of the Atlantic. The text is meticulously researched, and is rooted in a detailed study of wartime records, both British and German. [
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How to cite this article: Rickard, J (28 December 2007), 4 June 1940, http://www.historyofwar.org/secondworldwar/date/1940_06_03.html
