William Tennant (Royal Navy officer)
Admiral Sir William George Tennant was a British naval officer. He was lauded for overseeing the successful evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940. Tennant subsequently served as captain of the battlecruiser HMS Repulse, when she searched for German capital ships in the Atlantic. He remained in this capacity when the Repulse was sunk by the Japanese along with HMS Prince of Wales in the South China Sea on 10 December 1941, three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He later aided in the setup of the Mulberry harbours and the Pluto pipelines, a crucial part of the success of Operation Overlord. He died in 1963.
Vice Admiral Tennant visiting HMS Colossus, May 1945
Repulse sails from Singapore on 8 December 1941
Rear Admiral Tennant (centre) with his officers on Mulberry B, Arromanches, July 1944
The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the north of France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940. The operation commenced after large numbers of Belgian, British, and French troops were cut off and surrounded by German troops during the six-week Battle of France.
British troops lined up on the beach awaiting evacuation
Lord Gort (gesturing, at centre) was commander of the British Expeditionary Force.
Soldiers were strafed and bombed by German aircraft while awaiting transport.
Troops evacuated from Dunkirk arrive at Dover, 31 May 1940