On May 10th 1940, German forces attacked the Low Countries. Lord Gort made the decision to evacuate on May 25, 1940, and the last troops departed France on June 4. Despite their best efforts, the BEF, Belgian, and French forces were unable to stop the German advance. 6 days later, German forces reached the coast, they started cutting off the BEF as well as a large number of Allied troops. The evacuation was to be carried out by a fleet of destroyers and merchant ships. There were over 700 "little ships" which largely consisted of fishing boats, pleasure craft, and smaller commercial vessels. To execute the evacuation, Ramsay and his staff marked out three routes for vessels to use to between Dunkirk and Dover. The shortest of the routes was
