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that they would be effective. The Germans were also faced with a decision to either head South immediately and take Paris, which is what General Halder had in mind, or to encircle the British and destroy what they had left of an effective army and take Paris at a later date. It seemed that the latter was going to happen when the Panzer Corps completely separated the British from the South, leaving them with no other land based retreat. It was a huge boost of ego for the German Command when scouts reported that they could see where the mouth of the Somme River met the English Channel.

There was a little fight left in the British, who throughout history have proved to be a people who rarely give up and have a substantial amount of hope. They gave the German Command a scare at the Battle of Arras in which the remnants of the British armored divisions showed their grit. This small offensive overran two of the German's regiments and caused General Rommel to report back to his superiors that he was being overrun by hundreds of Allied tanks, when in fact it was only about sixty British tanks which wouldn't stop after being hit by the ineffective German anti-tank guns.(Macksey, p. 92) This was a good attempt at clearing a path South, but the Germans were much too numerous and the British were stuck in a corner with only one method of evacuation.
The result of poor tactics among the French and lack of men and materials with the British caused the planning of a seaborne evacuation across the English Channel, called Operation Dynamo, to happen. In the time span of a week, approximately 338,000 men, which included British, French and Belgian troops, were evacuated across the English Channel successfully.(Shirer, p. 732) It wasn't an easy feat, considering the British and French navies had hardly enough equipment to ferry such an enormous amount of people in such a short time. To accommodate all the troops, the British army called on the people of England to enlist their aid in evacuating the troops. The people did this by supplying whatever they could that would float, which included privately owned fishing boats, yachts and even bathtubs. Although a huge amount of men were saved, most of the equipment was left behind for the Germans to use, which further weakened the British army.
The success of Operation Dynamo was a great propaganda boost for the British. It showed that in times of struggle, the nation would rally with each other to save a fellow countryman. For many

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