Dunkirk

Dunkirk was a port city in northern France.

During World War II, from late May to early June 1940, (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) 338,000 British Army soldiers were evacuated on boats from the area, 100,000 straight from the beach, (TV: Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart) in Operation Dynamo, after they had been cut off from the rest of the army by the Wehrmacht. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus, TV: Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart)

Although the German army could have easily destroyed the British forces, the Seventh Doctor had convinced Adolf Hitler, who was unstable and disoriented after the Timewyrm had been banished from his mind, to not advance on Dunkirk. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus)

The evacuation was a major source of controversy. Corakinus, king of the Shadow Kin and leader of the War of the Underneath, spoke through April MacLean, saying that those soldiers were cowards, and should have stayed to fight and die. (TV: Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart)

The First Doctor was present at Dunkirk, (PROSE: Just War, PROSE: Byzantium!) as was the Eighth Doctor. (AUDIO: Fugitives)

The Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble prevented a Nemonite from taking possession of those involved in the Dunkirk evacuation. (AUDIO: The Nemonite Invasion)

The Dunkirk evacuations left British Prime Minister Winston Churchill dispirited. The Doctor spoke to him afterward and was able to lift his mood and convinced him to keep Britain in the war in defiance of Nazi Germany. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Adventure)

In 2009, the Torchwood Three team found the body of a sailor from the Dunkirk evacuation washed up on a beach. (AUDIO: The Sin Eaters)

In an alternate timeline in which Hitler kept the power of the Timewyrm, the Germans advanced on Dunkirk and totally defeated the British Army. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus)

When ATMOS polluted the Earth's air, people in America were forced to take boats out into the Atlantic Ocean in a scene likened to Dunkirk. (TV: The Poison Sky)

The flotilla of the Hydran Navy led by Admiral Jonas Kaan facing the Voord on Hydra reminded Barbara Wright of photographs that she had seen of the Dunkirk evacuation. (AUDIO: Domain of the Voord)

In 2016, Miss Shah taught about the evacuation of Dunkirk to her sixth form Coal Hill Academy history class. She asked her students to imagine they were one of the soldiers being evacuated to learn about the mind-set of a soldier. (TV: Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart)