Product Description

The rescue in May 1940 of British soldiers fleeing capture and defeat by the Nazis at 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10501 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 720 pages

Tim Gardam, The Times
‘A searing story . . . both meticulous military history and a deeply moving testimony to the extraordinary personal bravery of individual soldiers’

Richard Overy, Telegraph
‘Sebag-Montefiore tells [the story] with gusto, a remarkable attention to detail and an inexhaustible appetite for tracking down the evidence’

Max Hastings, Daily Telegraph
‘A narrative triumph. I have not read a better account’

Customer Reviews

Detail Overload
Undoutedly thoroughly researched but ultimately a dissapointing read. The text gets bogged down in minutiae at the expense of the bigger picture making it difficult to retain the readers' attention. A somewhat confused presentation of the chronology of events does not help matters either.

Very informative
I really enjoyed this book,i found it most enlightening as to the events running up to the evacuation from Dunkirk.its brings to light events i hadnt been aware of like the massacre of prisoners from the royal Norfolks.all in all a very good read.

Fascinating and enthralling account
Popular history recalls the Dunkirk story with a chin-up, shiny spirit of resilience and crafty British guile - the first `Great Escape'. `Dunkirk spirit' has now become a tabloid byword for cheery, bulldog tenacity in the face of adversity.

But Sebag-Montefiore's incisive history pulls no punches and wipes the grin off the face of popular myth. He shows how one of Britain's landmark historical moments of the last century was actually tarnished by desperate, bloody fighting with no quarter spared.

Accepted history concentrates on what happened on the beaches. However the author says the battles that really counted occurred several miles inland on the Dunkirk town perimeter.

Here, British troops fought a dwindling rearguard last stand, giving their lives so other troops could live. For each soldier's life lost, precious minutes were gained to aid the evacuation and ensure the British Army could live to fight another day.

And the battle didn't end with the last bedraggled Tommy boarding the last departing ship from Dunkirk. For a further fortnight, stranded British troops retreated in the face of dive-bombers and SS massacres, culminating with a final evacuation from St. Nazaire and the hushed-up sinking of the Lancastria, with the loss of 3,500 men.

In-depth research gathered from archives as far away as Russia and Czechoslovakia, together with detailed maps, fascinating photographs and stark first-hand accounts from the remaining handful of veterans, do the Dunkirk story justice.

This weighty tome is masterly and scholarly, yet its fast, clear pace makes this definitive work highly readable.