The Battle of Dunkirk was a battle fought between Nazi Germany and the Allied (primarily Anglo-French) forces at the French port town of Dunkirk from 26 May to 4 June 1940 amid the Battle of France and the Dunkirk evacuation. Following the failed Allied counterattack at the Battle of Arras, German forces reached the English Channel coast on 20 May, separating the British Expeditionary Force near Armentieres, the French 1st Army, and the Belgian Army from the majority of French troops south of the German penetration. The German forces proceeded to sweep north, endangering the Channel ports and the Allied forces encircled there.
However, Hitler's generals, Gerd von Rundstedt and Gunther von Kluge persuaded Hitler to halt the advance of his forces and consolidate them in order to prevent an Allied breakout; on 24 May 1940, Hitler sanctioned this order, and the Luftwaffe bombarded the Allied forces at Dunkirk while the German army besieged them from the land. The German army's three-day halt gave the Allies sufficient time to organize the evacuation of the trapped troops at Dunkirk and establish a defensive line, and, with the help of civilian craft from England and air cover from the Royal Air Force, the Allies evacuated 338,226 of the 400,000 troops on the beaches of Dunkirk.
However, the Anglo-French forces still suffered heavy losses, with 16,000 French and 1,000 British soldiers being killed during the evacuation, and the Allies abandoning almost all of their equipment on the beaches. On the last day of the evacuation, the Royal Navy returned to Dunkirk to rescue as many as possible of the French rearguard, having prioritized the evacuation of the British Army, and over 26,000 French soldiers were evacuated on the last day, while up to 40,000 French troops were left behind and captured by the Germans. 90% of Dunkirk was destroyed during the battle.
The Battle of Dunkirk was the last major battle of the "Battle of France", which resulted in the German capture of Paris on 14 June 1940 and France's armistice with Germany on 22 June. The evacuation of most of the Allied troops, especially by the "little ships" (fishing boats, pleasure cruisers, ferries, and other civilian boats), was hailed as a miracle by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who vowed that the British would fight a Nazi invasion of Britain to the end, and that, even in spite of the colossal disasters in Belgium and France, the British would never surrender.