13. With dogged perseverance they hung on to the strip of coast around Dunkirk against which the Germans were pressing from the cast and, since their break-through to Abbeville, from the west as well. With the use of every conceivable vessel of shallow draught the beach evacuation was carried out under heavy air bombardment, and the bulk of the British divisions, some 224,585 men, were brought home, disorganized, with all their heavy and much of their light equipment gone. With them came 112,546 French and Belgians.

14. The odds against this manœuvre were immense and its success was due to original and most daring improvisation, and to the ready enterprise and courage of the navigators of the small vessels of all kinds, for the craft which carried out the evacuation included everything from the
destroyer to the coast-resort pleasure launch and the private yacht. There was an Elizabethan touch about the affair which caught the imagination and helped to give hope for the future.