History, Political Commentary, War Commentary

The American Dunkirk

8 Comments

Remembering the Manhattan boat lift.

I should note, though, that it’s not really fair to compare the time taken for the two events. You can make a lot more trips across the Hudson in a given time than across the Channel.

[Afternoon update]

As Paul notes in comments, it’s also a lot easier to evacuate when you don’t have the Luftwaffe attacking you.

8 thoughts on “The American Dunkirk”

  1. OK, Rand, you are our host paying for this Web site and for the bandwidth taken up by the comments section, and I don’t need to comment here if it bothers me that much let alone read what you have to write. But Liberals/Progressives/Whatever They Call Themselves do not apparently have a monopoly on saying truly lame things, this category including some who comment here who can also be counted on to make some truly lame posts.

    Whatever the merits of a spontaneously organized flotilla of boat masters and captains in evacuating the legions of commuters stranded on Lower Manhattan in the aftermath of the attack, Dunkirk and this selfless and meritorious service of our fellow citizens have . . . absolutely . . . nothing . . . in . . . common.

    Dunkirk is a place name to where Great Britain’s Continental Army retreated after the collapse of resistance of their French allies, whom they were defending. That army was in imminent danger of being taken prisonor or annihilated. Owing to the vanity along with political power held by a certain flyer who had fought along side the legendary Baron von Richtoven or “Red Baron”, the army that had outmaneuvered Britain’s soldiers was not going to close with their opponent whom they had surrounded, rather, this annihilation was going to take place from the air.

    As a consequence, Winston Churchill and his generals siezed this opportunity to evacuate their Army across the Channel using a flotila of everything they had that floated. This evacuation took place under persistent and relentless aerial attack of the beaches. Many died from such attack, but the British Army and their Navy and civilian rescuers maintained discipline in the face of the ongoing harassment. Over 100 British fighter aircraft were lost fending off this danger.

    It is the characteristic lameness of Liberal polemical discourse that Thing A is “just like” Thing B, starting with President Carter’s drawing equivalence between shortages brought about by Nixon’s price-control regimen to a “moral equivalent of war.”

    Claiming the river flotilla to be the moral equivalent of Dunkirk brings shame down upon all of us for its sheer lameness and historical un-informed-ed-ness. Rand, I don’t know what we should have you do in repentence for this apostasy and treason to the standards of informed discourse that characterize our side, but I will form a committee and let you know . . .

    2. The world was fortunate that Halder had his rival von Manstein transferred to a field command far from the initial action, or he would have persuaded von Rundstedt to strike when Hitler basically asked him to decide. With hindsight, von Tresckow could have done more against Hitler by failing to persuade Hitler to adopt Manstein’s famous sickle cut plan than by succeeding in any of the later assassination attempts…

  2. have . . . absolutely . . . nothing . . . in . . . common.

    Get off your high horse Paul. This doesn’t have to be a moral equivalence issue to see similarities. Tom Hank notes: Dunkirk, 300k+ saved in 9 days. Manhattan, 500K saved in 9 hours.

    If you don’t think those in Manhattan felt similar fear then you are truly clueless.

    The fact that one radio call motivated so many to do what they saw needed to be done is amazing.

  3. Oh, as for Luftwaffe. The English were trained armed military. Manhattan was filled with civilians that were literally in the fog of war.

Comments are closed.