Operation Ariel
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Operation Ariel was the specific name given to the World War II escape of French and British forces from Brittany in northwestern France following the collapse of this country by the invasion by Nazi Germany.
This evacuation was conducted from several ports (Cherbourg, Saint-Malo, Brest, Saint-Nazaire, La Pallice, and Nantes) during the period 16 to 24 June, 1940. Over an additional 163,000 British, French, Polish and Canadian soldiers were brought to safety to be combined with the 338,226 men that were evacuated amidst constant bombing (the miracle of Dunkirk, as Winston Churchill called it). The British evacuation of Dunkirk through the English Channel was codenamed Operation Dynamo.
- See main article: Battle of Dunkirk
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The Operation Ariel was less desperate in some ways, and less well known than the earlier heavy fighting around Dunkirk during the German invasion in 1940, as a lull in the action unexpectedly allowed a large number of French and British soldiers to escape to Britain
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