When Nazi Germany launched its blitzkrieg (German for "lightning war") invasion of the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium on May 10, 1940, it put an end to the so-called "phony war" for good.

The Germans captured Luxembourg on May 10, the Netherlands on May 14, and Belgium by the end of the month because to their well-coordinated plan, superior air power, and highly mobile combat forces reinforced by panzer tanks.

Rapidly marching through the Ardennes Forest and the Somme Valley toward the English Channel, German forces invaded France soon after the blitzkrieg began, surprising the Allies by not entering behind the Maginot Line.

Several hundred thousand Allied troops were pushed onto an increasingly tiny sliver of the French coast as German forces advanced and severed all contact and transport between the northern and southern branches of the Allies' forces.

On May 19, the BEF's commander, General John Gort, started considering a seaborne evacuation of his whole force to avoid destruction at the hands of the oncoming Nazi army.

On May 13, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned under intense political pressure, paving the way for a new wartime coalition administration led by Winston Churchill. At first, both the British command and the French forces were reluctant to evacuate.

Churchill felt convinced that evacuation was necessary when the BEF and its allies were pushed back to the French port of Dunkirk, which is located on the coasts of the North Sea approximately 10 km (6.2 miles) from the Belgian border.

Adolf Hitler's startling order on May 24 to halt the march of German panzer divisions into Dunkirk was a major help to the Allies as they planned this perilous operation.

Generals' concerns about an Allied counterattack (like the one that failed on May 21 south of Arras) and Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering's insistence that his air forces could thwart any evacuation attempt at Dunkirk have been cited as contributing factors in Hitler's decision.

On May 26, Hitler gave the tanks the green light again, but by then, the Allies had earned precious time to prepare.

The evacuation of Dunkirk, known as Operation Dynamo, was initiated by the British on the evening of May 26.

Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay oversaw the operation, which was named for the dynamo-like generator housed in a room carved into the Dover cliffs.

Bombing operations by the Luftwaffe on the harbor hindered the evacuation, and many Royal Air Force (RAF) planes were lost trying to delay or prevent the German planes from reaching the beaches.

By the time the evacuations were over, about 198,000 British and 140,000 French soldiers—a total of about 338,000 men—had been able to leave the beaches at Dunkirk. When the resistance came to an end on the morning of June 4 and German troops took control of Dunkirk, an extra 90,000 Allied troops as well as the majority of the BEF's heavy artillery and tanks were left behind.

Only around 7,500 troops could be rescued from Dunkirk on the first full day of Operation Dynamo; the next day, on May 28, about 10,000 were able to make it out.

The shallow beach at Dunkirk prevented Royal Navy ships from reaching the shore, therefore the Allies issued a request for smaller ships to ferry soldiers from the beach to the larger ships in the North Sea. Between 800 and 1,200 boats helped with the evacuation from Dunkirk, many of them recreational or fishing vessels.

There were those manned by Navy personnel who had been requisitioned, and there were those manned by civilian owners and crew. On the morning of May 28, the first of what would become known as the "Little Ships" began arriving on the beaches of Dunkirk. This helped to expedite the evacuation.

Churchill and the British high command initially estimated that 45,000 troops would be saved by the evacuation from Dunkirk. But Operation Dynamo's success stunned everyone. More than 47,000 British troops were saved on May 29; more than 53,000 were rescued on May 30, including the first French troops.

By the time the evacuations were complete, around 338,000 men, including about 198,000 British and 140,000 French troops, had made it off the beaches at Dunkirk. Once the resistance collapsed on the morning of June 4 and German troops invaded Dunkirk, an extra 90,000 Allied forces were left behind, along with the bulk of the BEF's heavy artillery and tanks.

Despite the undeniable success of the German blitzkrieg (France would seek for an armistice by mid-June 1940), the successful evacuation of the majority of Britain's trained troops from near-annihilation proved to be a pivotal milestone in the Allied war effort.

Germany anticipated the British would quickly negotiate an exit from the war if they were defeated at Dunkirk. Instead, the "Miracle at Dunkirk" became a rallying cry for the duration of the war and an iconic emblem of the British spirit, establishing a cultural legacy of pride and tenacity that has endured for nearly eight decades.

In a speech given on June 4, 1940, Churchill cautioned, "We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory." As the saying goes, "Wars are not won by evacuations."

But in that same speech, he made a rousing declaration of British resolve that would serve the country well over the next five years of hellish fighting:

We will not give up or falter. We will fight until the bitter end; we will fight in France; we will fight on the high seas and in the air; we will defend our island no matter the cost; we will fight on the beaches and landing grounds; we will fight in the fields and streets and hills; we will never surrender.

Thousands of French troops were abandoned and captured by the invading Germans when the Dunkirk evacuation was ultimately successful. Massive quantities of ammo, machine guns, tanks, motorcycles, jeeps, and anti-aircraft artillery were also left on the Dunkirk shoreline.

The main defenses of Western Europe fled, and the German army rushed through the rest of France, taking Paris on June 14. An armistice was struck between Henri Petain and the Nazis at Compiegne eight days later.

Half of France was conquered by Germany, and the other half was left under the control of French puppet masters. The Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, marked the beginning of the liberation of Western Europe.