they were taken to the beaches at dunkirk.when the evacuation started on may 26th, churchill thought that they would be lucky if they could get 50,000 men out. the problem was that the british destroyers, you can see in this picture, the draft too deep, were having to wade out to the destroyers to board and they were going to stand neck deep for hours at a time. a couple days later on may 28th, the british ministry of shipping actually put out a call for all with shallow draft, pleasure craft, private yachts, fishing boats, merchant marine vessels, more than 700, none of them with arms, all piloted by civilians, asked for assistance. with the help of small boats, in a week, all of the british expeditionary force, 140,000 men reactivated successfully. it was quite interesting. things got organize, a wonderful example of contextualized adaptation. churchill called the evacuation a miracle of deliverance achieved by valor, perfect discipline, fault less service, resources, skill and fidelity. he also reminded his colleagues in pa