Dunkirk - 2. Evacuation

Episode two: Evacuation
Day 5: V/Adm Bertram Ramsay and Cpt. Michael Denny at Dover issue the request for more inshore craft. Cpt. Tom Halsey and navigator David Mellis hold HMS Malcolm off the coast while small boats ferry troops to it. BEF commander Lord Gort, contemplating his unauthorised order to retreat from a villa overlooking the beach, organises a final defensive perimeter. French Adm. Jean Abriel first learns of the British evacuation from Tennant as French troops swell the numbers on the beach. Lt-Gen. Sir Henry Pownall reports the problem to Churchill.

When the cockleboat Renown is amongst those small boats requisitioned Cpt. Harry Noakes and his crew volunteer to stay on for the mission to France. With the entire British fleet tied up in the rescue operation Churchill orders the gassing of Britain’s south coast to ward off invasion. Gort and Tennant argue over evacuation strategy as the HQ comes under artillery fire. Churchill refusing to send support to the beleaguered French at the Somme agrees instead that their troop will be evacuated from Dunkirk on an equal basis.

Day 6: The Renown joins the hundreds of small craft that narrowly avoid running aground to rescue the troops from the French beaches. HMS Malcolm collects its passengers from the eastern breakwater, where it comes under bombardment. Maj-Gen Harold Alexander takes command after Gort is ordered back to London. HMS Malcolm returns to Dover where Holsey and Mellis contemplate the friends that they have lost on other ships. The Renown safely delivers its passengers to Dover but is destroyed by a mine on its way home. Tonry and Saunders are amongst the two thirds of the BEF evacuated safely back to England but 200,000 allied troops remain on the beach as the perimeter comes under attack from advancing enemy forces.