WVA Chronicle — Week 2: Operation Dynamo · Wartime Vessels Association

UNITED KINGDOM WVA BULLETIN MEMBERS’ EDITION

WARTIME MARITIME MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION ISSUE DATE: 15 DECEMBER 2025 CUSTODIANS • VOLUNTEERS • SUPPORTERS

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Little Ships assembling for Operation Dynamo — Civilian boats preparing to cross the Channel.

Sea Skills Programme — Dunkirk Special

Week 2 — Operation Dynamo

Nine days, thousands of civilians, and a race to bring an army home.

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The Royal Navy organised the effort, but shallow sands made warships risky. Hundreds of civilian craft — fishing boats, pleasure yachts, lifeboats, paddle steamers — surged across the Channel to help. These “Little Ships” threaded smoke, tides, and gunfire to ferry soldiers from surf to destroyer, returning night after night.

Over nine tense days, more than 338,000 troops were rescued. Equipment was lost, but morale was saved. Dynamo proved that discipline, clear signals, and community courage could rewrite the odds. Each skipper relied on good charts, steady helms, and the confidence to keep moving when chaos tried to close the route home.

Stories from the Beaches

The Mole That Became a Lifeline

The stone jetty at Dunkirk harbour — the Mole — was never designed for mass embarkation. Yet naval officers used it as a makeshift pier, lining small craft and destroyers along its side. Thousands boarded there nightly, the planks trembling under constant air raids.

Lifeboats under Air Attack

Royal National Lifeboat Institution crews volunteered their boats and skills. Used to storms, they now faced machine-gun fire and bombing runs. Their calm approaches rescued groups stranded in the shallows when larger vessels dared not venture close.

The Signal “Every Hour Counts”

Flag hoists, lamps, and shouted orders kept columns moving. Patrol craft relayed tight, simple messages: keep station, keep smoke burning, keep loading. That rhythm turned chaos into a queue, and the queue into salvation.

Fishing Crews Steer for Home

Fishermen from Britain’s east and south coasts brought diesel engines, tidal knowledge, and nerve. Used to narrow harbours and sandbanks, they piloted unfamiliar soldiers through shoals and back to the open Channel again and again.

Fishing trawler silhouette in wartime service

This newsreel recounts the journey from Dunkirk’s beaches to British ports. Look for the mix of ships: destroyers lining the Mole, tugs and lifeboats in the surf, and columns of little ships returning through smokescreens.

Note: This video is a dramatisation, an AI recreation, and a historical interpretation, created for the Youth Programme for educational purposes.

THIS WEEK’S FOCUS

Beach approaches: using lead lines, local knowledge, and marks to avoid grounding.
Embarkation order: prioritising wounded, organising queues, and loading small craft safely.

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

“Dynamo shows how ordinary crews met an extraordinary call. Learn the signals, trust your charts, and every small ship becomes a life-saving link.”

HOLD FAST

OPERATION DYNAMO

Signals • Seamanship • Steady Hands

Sea Skills programme map

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Week	Topic
1	Royal Navy Patrol Service – “Harry Tate’s Navy”
2	Operation Dynamo – Dunkirk lift
3	Dunkirk and the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships

COMMUNICATIONS

Lamp signals, semaphore, and short radio messages kept order between warships and civilian crews. Misread signals could stall an entire lift, so messages stayed short and repeated often.

PEOPLE FIRST

Calm reassurance, first aid, and clear queues moved frightened soldiers quickly. Small crews that communicated well loaded faster and returned sooner.

Crews recorded every journey as proof of resilience. Today those markings remind us that disciplined seamanship and neighbourly courage can change the fate of thousands.

Signal Room Game — Operation Dynamo

Drag the missing facts to complete the typed dispatch.

// PRIORITY // DYNAMO COASTAL DISPATCH Complete every blank to send the message.

DATE: [Month Year] — BRITISH ARMY TRAPPED NEAR DUNKIRK, ALMOST [troops] AWAIT CAPTURE.

PRIME MINISTER [leader] ORDERS EMERGENCY EVACUATION. NAVY COORDINATES CHANNEL CROSSING.

SMALL CIVILIAN FLEET — THE [fleet name] — JOINS DESTROYERS TO REACH SHALLOW BEACHES.

OPERATION RUNS FOR [duration]. UNDER FIRE, MORE THAN [rescued] TROOPS RETURN TO BRITAIN.

RESULT: EQUIPMENT LOST BUT MORALE SAVED. LESSON: COURAGE + SIGNAL DISCIPLINE + TEAMWORK TURNED CIVILIAN CRAFT INTO A NAVAL LIFELINE.

0 / 5 facts placed

Fact Tags

Drag each fact onto the matching bracket in the signal. Every fact comes from this week’s Dynamo briefing.

400,000 trapped

Winston Churchill

May 1940

The “Little Ships”

Nine days at Dunkirk

338,000 rescued

Assessor Note

The learner has engaged with the Operation Dynamo briefing through extended reading, a period newsreel, discussion cards and the five-part drag-and-drop signal exercise. Evidence should show that they understood how small civilian craft and naval escorts worked together during the nine-day evacuation and can retell key facts in their own words.

Session Time Breakdown

Activity	Description	Time (minutes)
Context reading	Introductory text plus four short beach stories	10–12
Newsreel video	Operation Dynamo dramatisation	6–8
Discussion prompts	Review of training notes and reflection items	6–8
Signal Room Game	Drag-and-drop dispatch with five fact tags	12–15
Dispatch report	Short written lift update from the beaches	12–15
Total estimated session time		46–58 minutes

What to Look for

Assessors should check that the participant has:

Retold how the Little Ships, RNPS craft and destroyers coordinated at Dunkirk.
Identified at least two specific facts from the signal exercise (e.g., 338,000 rescued, nine-day duration).
Shown clear understanding of why short signals and disciplined loading mattered.
Logged a concise dispatch with meaningful next-step guidance.
Recorded time honestly and produced responses in their own words.