This is the battle of Dunkirk — by the numbers

[DemolitionMan]

By Harold Hutchison


Everyone knows the basic story about the “Miracle of Dunkirk,” during which trapped British troops were evacuated from the French coastal city. But how much do you really know of this miraculous nine-day operation?
Granted, Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece “Dunkirk” made over $500 million, but it told just a tiny snippet of the tale. What makes the miracle of Dunkirk so impressive are the numbers of people the operation moved out of France.
The evacuation had become necessary because German tanks had attacked through the Ardennes forest – which Allied planners had assumed was impassable terrain for tanks.
There’s a lesson in that, but that is for another time. As a result of the disastrous way the Battle of France unfolded, about 800,000 Nazis had roughly 400,000 British and French troops trapped with their backs to the English Channel, with the safe haven of England being 22 miles away.The Nazis managed to kill 68,000 troops who were holding the line, along with nine destroyers (six British, three French) and over 200 of the smaller vessels carrying out the evacuation. But that armada – citizens of a free country rising up to meet the call – managed to evacuate 338,226 troops — a figure far higher than the optimistic hopes of 45,000.

http://www.wearethemighty.com/history/this-is-the-battle-of-dunkirk-by-the-numbers

[DemolitionMan]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT0ctpn9pQk

Battle Of Dunkirk Statistics

[KingsX]

Have you ever seen Wagner's Opera,  "Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes"... or read the novel of the same name by Lord Lytton ??


" The opera is set in Rome and is based on the life of Cola di Rienzi (1313–1354), a late medieval Italian populist figure who succeeds in outwitting and then defeating the nobles and their followers and in raising the power of the people. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rienzi


According to Hitler's boyhood friend who had seen the opera with Hitler in their youth, the opera forever changed Hitler.

Hitler "spoke of a special mission which one day would be entrusted to him, and I, his only listener, could hardly understand what he meant. Many years had to pass before I realized the significance of this enraptured hour for my friend. "

Later when Hitler spoke about it to Wagner's widow:  " The words with which Hitler concluded his story to Frau Wagner are also unforgettable for me. He said solemnly, "In that hour it began."


I've never seen that opera.  I don't think it's performed anymore.  But I have seen all of Wagner's  "Ring" operas.