The Sands of Dunkirk

Part of the SECOND WORLD WAR VOICES series, with a new introduction by bestselling historian James Holland, and in partnership with the podcast We Have Ways of Making You Talk, presented by comedian Al Murray and James Holland

May 1940: In the face of a lightning German advance, the British Army found themselves, stunned, broken, beaten, their backs truly against the wall on the sands of the north French coast.
And yet it was on the beaches of Dunkirk that the seeds of a remarkable victory were sown. The evacuation of over three hundred thousand men in ships of all sizes was a logistical feat which has never been seen, before or since.

This vivid, visceral story takes you inside the making of a miracle: the story of eight frantic days, as the net tightened around the beleaguered troops, told from all sides, as the enemy draws closer and the bombardment intensifies, in the words of those who were there. It is impossible to get closer to experiencing this legendary action.

Richard Collier was a British historian, born in London in 1924. He was eighteen when he joined the Royal Air Force in 1942, and later travelled throughout the Far East as a war correspondent.

He worked on numerous British and American magazines and wrote fifteen major works of military history. He died in 1996.