NOVA

Great Escape at Dunkirk Preview

Preview: Season 45 Episode 5 | 30s | Video has closed captioning.

As France fell to the German armies in May 1940, 400,000 Allied troops were trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. Their annihilation seemed certain—a disaster that could have led to Britain’s surrender. But then, in a last-minute rescue, Royal Navy ships and a flotilla of tiny civilian boats evacuated hundreds of thousands of soldiers to safety across the Channel—the legendary “miracle of Dunkirk.”