RIDE OUT THE STORM: A Novel of Dunkirk

A chronicle of the nine days of the British Expeditionary Force's famed sea-retreat from the Continent before the relentless Nazi advance. One could hardly be closer to the action as a kind of super-newsreel unfolds from about nine points of view: we are with the civilians and merchant marine massing every available vessel at Dover; with the Navy at sea; the land forces falling back; the German dive-bombers and strafers riddling the civilians and disorganized B.E.F., and R.A.F. pilots fighting back; with the panzers rolling over the countryside and the British tank battalions mounting a rear-guard action; with the enlisted men and officers on both sides in village-to-village combat; with the demoralized French troops and civilians; and with an American correspondent on the German side as he goes over to the English. All takes place in sunstruck horror with universal mutilation. You're not likely to remember the characters but the whole is quite stirring.