| Original caption: “RAF personnel on the deck of a ship during the evacuation from France.” Exhausted United Kingdom Royal Air Force airmen returned from France crowd the deck of a ship. While Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Dunkirk, is the most famous, other rescues of Allied forces occurred even after the French armistice on June 22, 1940. Operation Dynamo ended on June 4, and Nazi German forces moved south, closing ports as Allied naval forces evacuated soldiers, civilians, and materiel as quickly as possible. Operation Cycle evacuated Allied forces from Le Havre and Normandy from June 10-13, 1940. Operation Aerial began on June 15, and the Luftwaffe quickly sank the troopship HMT Lancastria, killing between three thousand five hundred and seven thousand people. However, the Royal Air Force (RAF), flying from bases in southern England, was able to interdict the Luftwaffe long enough to eventually evacuate 191,870 troops. These RAF ground crew in this photo evacuated from Brest on June 16-17, 1940. Ships, including SS Arandora Star, SS Strathaird, and SS Otranto, rescued 28,145 British and 4,439 Allied personnel. The ships with room to spare were sent south to Saint Nazaire. The French wrecked the harbor facilities with assistance from a British demolition party. On June 19, the demolition party was removed aboard the destroyer HMS Broke. Some rescued soldiers slept for days upon arrival in England. Most felt a deep sense of failure at losing the Battle of France and were genuinely shocked by the warm welcome from the British public. Much of their equipment was left in France due to fears that the Nazi Germans would arrive at any minute, but the bulk of the Commonwealth armies were intact.xxq | |
| Image Filename | wwii0386.jpg |
| Image Size | 1.78 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 3998 x 3354 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | Royal Air Force Official Photographer |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | June 18, 1940 |
| Location | |
| City | |
| State or Province | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Archive | Imperial War Museum |
| Record Number | C 1748 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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