The near miraculous rescue of Dunkirk was completed on June 4th, 1940. The last of the British soldiers left on June 3 under heavy fire and strafing and bombing by the Nazis. Churchill ordered the Royal Navy to return on 4 June to the French rearguard.
Altogether, about 338,000 men were rescued in the Dunkirk evacuation, including 123,000 French soldiers – 26,000 French on that final day.
“We must be very careful,not to assign this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations…..We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air…..We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”