How many French died defending Dunkirk?

How many French died defending Dunkirk?

While more than 330,000 Allied troops were rescued, British and French military forces nonetheless sustained heavy casualties and were forced to abandon nearly all their equipment; around 16,000 French soldiers and 1,000 British soldiers died during the evacuation.

What happened to French soldiers after France surrendered?

After the French armies surrendered, Germany seized 2 million French prisoners of war and sent them to camps in Germany. About one third were released on various terms. Of the remainder, the officers and noncommissioned officers were kept in separate camps and did not work. The privates were sent out to work.

How many French were saved at Dunkirk?

Naval vessels and hundreds of civilian boats were used in the evacuation, which began on May 26. When it ended on June 4, about 198,000 British and 140,000 French and Belgian troops had been saved.

What happened to the French fleet in ww2?

The French fleet was annihilated and only a handful of small ships escaped to assist the Allied forces for the rest of the war. A year later, the Italian naval fleet did what de Gaulle wished the Vichy French had done. They set sail for North Africa after the Italian Armistice in 1943.

How many died at Dunkirk beach?

The BEF lost 68,000 soldiers (dead, wounded, missing, or captured) from 10 May until the armistice with France on 22 June. 3,500 British were killed and 13,053 wounded. All the heavy equipment had to be abandoned.

What happened to the French soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk?

For many French soldiers, the Dunkirk evacuation represented only a few weeks’ delay before being killed or captured by the German army after their return to France. Of the French soldiers evacuated from France in June 1940, about 3,000 joined Charles de Gaulle’s Free French army in Britain.

What happened after the last rescue boats left Dunkirk?

After the last rescue boats left Dunkirk harbor on June 4, 1940, the Germans captured some 40,000 French troops who’d been left behind as well as at least 40,000 British soldiers in the Dunkirk vicinity. Theirs is a story that is often overlooked, but for the next five years,…

What happened to the French soldiers evacuated from France in 1940?

Of the French soldiers evacuated from France in June 1940, about 3,000 joined Charles de Gaulle’s Free French army in Britain. At least one ship repatriating the French soldiers to France was sunk by the Germans,

How did Churchill respond to the Battle of Dunkirk?

Brilliantly spinning the defeat at Dunkirk into an expression of the “Dunkirk spirit,” Churchill urged his people to display the grit of the British troops and the can-do attitude of civilians who volunteered their ships for the rescue operation. He quickly replaced the equipment lost in France.