These Photos Depict the "Miracle of Dunkirk" That Saved 338,000 Lives

In May of 1940, German soldiers swept through Belgium and Northern France in a blitzkrieg that cut off all communication and transport between the Allies’ northern and southern forces. The Allied armies in the north, trapped by the sea near Dunkirk, France, were encircled on all sides. Stranded along the beaches, the Allies engaged in an enormous evacuation of soldiers across the North Sea to England called Operation Dynamo. More than 338,000 soldiers were saved in what would later be known as the “Miracle of Dunkirk.”