On May 26, 1940, as German forces closed in on the trapped British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and Allied troops at the French port of Dunkirk, the massive evacuation code-named Operation Dynamo began. Over 338,000 soldiers, British, French, Belgian, and Canadian, were surrounded on the beaches, facing relentless Luftwaffe bombing and advancing Panzer divisions. A hastily assembled fleet of over 800 vessels, known as the "Little Ships of Dunkirk," including naval destroyers, merchant marine boats