| “ | The sea from Dunkirk to Dover during these days of the evacuation looked like any coastal road in England on a bank holiday. It was solid with shipping.
— Douglas Bader, RAF pilot
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” |
The Dunkirk evacuees were the men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) who, in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Dunkirk in the Second World War, made a hasty and complete retreat across the English Channel to escape capture and annihilation by the advancing Nazi German forces.
During Operation Dynamo over 300,000 British soldiers were ferried to relative safety. Of course, during this evacuation they were forced to fight desperately in an effort to hold off the German advance and they were harrassed with aerial attacks in an effort to impede their efforts. In the process of the Dunkirk Evacuation the British were forced to abandon vast quantities of vehicles, weapons, ammunition, fuel, and other valuable wartime material.
Battle vs. Malmedy Survivor (by El Alamein)[]
Malmedy Survivors: 
Dunkirk Evacuees: 
The snowy wind howls above the heads of the five men hunched below as they stand by the beach, staring empty-eyed out across the waves that disappeared into the unforgiving gray horizon. An uncharacteristic snowstorm has descended on the men of the Dunkirk Evacauation, leaving them even more bitterly miserable than usual. Behind them, as the beach gives way to gently sloping hills and then the sparse beginnings of a hostile forest beyond, there is movement. Five American soldiers, the ragged and war-weary survivors of the Malmedy Massacre, trudge out from the treeline and stagger out toward the beach. The American captain holds a Colt M1911 as he advances with his men.
The British officer with his Webley turns just as the approaching Americans loom, shadow-like and startling, out from the swirling storm. He raises his gun and fires at one of the Malmedy survivors. The figure jerks back and disappears as the man falls back into the snow. The Dunkirk evacuees unsheath their knives and bayonets right as the storm eases up, clearing visibility just in time for the Malmedy survivor captain to return fire with his Colt and kill a British soldier. There is the briefest of pauses before the two groups muster the last reserves of their strength and charge. Gunshots sporadically break the silence of both groups trying to kill the other in hand-to-hand combat.
One of the Dunkirk evacuees holds out his FS fighting knife and jabs at a Malmedy survivor, who jumps back and dodges before swiping with his M3 trench knife. The blade cuts the British soldier on the wrist, but he keeps his grip on his knife and moves in closer. Punching his opponent in the face, he forces the American to the ground, puts a knee on his chest, and drags the knife across his throat. The American soldier gurgles, spits blood, and dies. As the British soldier gets up, he turns to find himself staring down the barrel of the Colt. There is a click as the American captain pulls the trigger. Quickly sprinting back to change magazines, he disappears into the thickening storm. The Dunkirk evacuee checks his wrist--blood is dripping but the wound isn't immediately life-threatening.
He turns to find one of his teammates engaged in a fight with two Malmedy survivors. The Dunkirk evacuee has out his sword bayonet, desperately attempting to use its length to hold his assailants at bay, while the Americans circle the British soldier, trying to use their numbers to catch the man off-guard. One of the Americans makes a feint as he lunges forward before pulling back, and as the British soldier turns and swipes wildly, the other Malmedy survivor rushes in and plunges his M1 bayonet into the Dunkirk evacuee's lower back. The man drops his sword bayonet and gasps in pain right as the Dunkirk evacuee with the wounded wrist steps in and dispatches his friend's attacker with a hard slash to the throat. Unfortunately for the British soldier, his squadmate was severely injured by the strike and has crumpled into the snow at his feet. Looking up, he finds the other Malmedy survivor advancing with his bayonet. The Dunkirk evacuee steps forward and makes a forward stab, but the American grabs his arm, stops the attack, and throws him to the ground. Before the British soldier can react he receives a stomp to the head that breaks his nose. Clutching his bleeding face, the Dunkirk evacuee offers no resistance as he is killed with a final blow from the M1 bayonet. The Malmedy survivor extracts his weapon from the body of his victim and stands up only to be shot in the face by the Webley revolver.
The Malmedy survivor captain aims his M1911 and fires several times, missing the British officer. The British officer turns and raises his Webley, pulling the trigger, but he has already expended his ammunition. Luckily for him, his last remaining soldier leaps from the cover of the storm and tackles the Malmedy survivor to the ground, bringing his knife up to the American's throat. They hit the ground and the Malmedy survivor manages to jam his pistol into the ribs of his attacker and fire before the man can kill him. The British soldier rolls off and over to the side in pain, grunting and bringing his hand to the injury. Looking up, he can only glare defiantly as the Malmedy survivor finishes him off with a shot to the head. The British officer has by now been desperately attempting to reload, inserting bullets one by one into his revolver's cylinder. The Malmedy survivor watches him coolly while he calmly inserts his last magazine, sliding the clip into place. The last Webley bullet slips from the trembling Englishman's fingers and into the snow below.
The Dunkirk evacuee looks up with his still-opened cylinder as the Malmedy survivor pulls the slide back, cocks the weapon and fires, dropping his helpless opponent. A harsh silence descends upon the beach again, punctuated only by the occasional angry whistling of the wind. Taking a moment to look around himself and digest his surroundings, the Malmedy survivor approaches the dead officer, takes his revolver and the bullet from the snow, and stands up. Inserting the last round in the cylinder and snapping it shut, he tucks the second pistol in his waistcoat and gives one final glance back at the bodies lying in the snow--he'd seen enough of those to last a lifetime. Overcome with a sudden kick of fear and pain that he couldn't quite explain, he stumbled and started running in the opposite direction.
Expert's Opinion[]
The Malmedy Survivors emerged victorious thanks to the superiority of the M1911 over the Webley, with its larger magazine capacity and easier reload, and also because of the tougher ordeal they had to go through. While the Dunkirk Evacuees underwent significant hardships holding off the brunt of the Nazi invasion long enough to escape, they had the assistance and coordination of hundreds of other men helping them. The Malmedy Survivors were completely unprepared for their trials and were forced to employ stealth and creativity in order to ensure their survival.