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Evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from Dunkirk, France, World War II, 1940. After the dramatic German advance through the Low Countries and France in May 1940, the troops of the British Expeditionary Force and their equipment were trapped on the Channel coast at Dunkirk, along with some French units. A gallant rearguard action, coupled with the Germans failing to press home their advantage, enabled an armada of ships, many of them small, privately-owned vessels, to evacuate some 335,000 troops from the beaches by 4 June 1940. Almost all of their heavy equipment had to be abandoned however. (KEYSTONE/HERITAGE IMAGES/KEYSTONE ARCHIVES)