In late May 1940 the British expected to rescue perhaps 45,000 men from Dunkirk in two days. Over eight days they brought home more than 338,000. This episode looks past the cinematic legend to examine the strategic blunders that created the trap, the desperate maritime logistics that solved it, and the forgotten sacrifices that made the escape possible. We start with the Maginot Line, the supposedly impassable Ardennes, and the panzer thrust that pinned the British Expeditionary Force and three French armies against the coast.

We examine the controversial Halt Order that stopped German tanks for two critical days, Vice Admiral Ramsay’s three deadly evacuation routes, Captain Tennant’s decision to use the East Mole as an improvised pier, and the real role of the little ships as ferries rather than the main transport. We also cover the RAF’s unseen air battle, the French stand at Lille that tied down seven German divisions, the multinational troops trapped in the pocket, the fate of the prisoners left behind, and how British, German and partisan media each spun the same event into a myth.

• Why Rundstedt and Hitler halted the panzers and why Goering promised the Luftwaffe would finish the job
• How nearly 200,000 troops boarded destroyers from a mile-long stone breakwater never built for docking
• Why soldiers on the beaches threw coins at RAF pilots who had flown 3,500 sorties to protect them
• The 445 tanks, 65,000 vehicles and thousands of tons of ammunition and fuel abandoned in France
• Why Churchill warned that wars are not won by evacuations, and what Dunkirk actually bought