When war broke out against Nazi Germany on 3 September 1939, British soldiers, known as the British Expeditionary Force, were sent across the channel to help the French and later the Belgian armies against invasion by the Germans. But the Allied forces underestimated the strength of Hitler’s army, which used tanks and bombers to smash the Allied defences and drive them back into France. Overpowered, the BEF was ordered to beat a hasty retreat towards the port of Dunkirk.

	A soldier describes his escape to Dunkirk
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