The "little ships of Dunkirk" were 700 small, private boats which sailed from Ramsgate in England to Dunkirk in France from May 26 and June 4 1940, a year after the outbreak of the 2nd World War as part of Operation codename Dynamo.
Dynamo was intended to liberate more than three hundred thousand troops, caught on the beaches at Dunkirk at the beginning of the Second World War.
The codename referred to the dynamo room in the naval headquarters beneath Dover Castle, which housed the dynamo that provided the building with electricity during the war.
It was from this room that the British Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay, planned the operation and also briefed Winston Churchill as it was under-way.
The evacuation came about after, British, French and Belgian soldiers were surrounded by the German army during the Battle of Dunkirk.
The situation of the soldiers, who had been cut off from their progress through France by a pincer movement executed by the German army, was initially considered by the British prime minister Winston Churchill as the most important military defeats for centuries.
It seemed likely that the defeat would cost Britain the whole war, leaving the island prone to invasion by Nazi Germany.
Because of the low water depth, British ships had not been capable of approaching the Dunkirk shoreline, and even though in the end, many of the allied soldiers were in a position to embark via the Dunkirk harbour's sea wall onto forty two Royal Navy war ships and other ships, others had no choice but to swim away from the beaches toward the ships, holding out in water chest deep for several hours in order to board.
Thousands of these men were picked up by the renowned "little ships of Dunkirk", the flotilla consisted of merchant marine watercraft, fishing vessels, pleasure craft and Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboats.
On 27th May, the small craft division of the British Ministry of Shipping had hunted down boat builders around the country, requesting them to collect all boats with "shallow draft" which would enable them to navigate the shallow seas.
Particular attention was initially given to pleasure boats, private yachts and launches moored along the River Thames, as well as boats on the south and east shorelines.
Many boats had been obtained with the owners' permission, along with the owners, while many more were requisitioned by the government with simply no time for the owners to be approached.
Each boat was checked to be sure they were sea worthy, fuelled-up, and transported to Ramsgate to set sail for Dunkirk, most were manned by RN Officers, Ratings and some seasoned volunteers.
The smallest Dunkirk boat was the 15-foot fishing boat "Tamzine", housed today in the Imperial War Museum, the Dunkirk little ship "Jeff" is operated by its owners Turks to this day and provides a regular Thames River cruise service, taking up to forty five guests for boat trips on the Thames, many of whom are probably unaware of the little boats heroic history.