Evacuation!

This is coolbert:

Here with an entire listing of those successful and monumental evacuations from the land to the sea, a reverse amphibious operation and done under circumstances of enemy pressure, very severe in some cases. All instances from the various wars of the previous century.

By chronological order:

1.  Crimean evacuation. 1920.

The White Army of Wrangel, defeated during the Russian Civil War, the army, soldiers and their family members, civilian refugees loyal to the White cause, evacuated from Crimean ports and sent to refuge in Turkey. Various figures exist as to the approximate total of persons able to find safety - - about 146,000 is reliable?

"13 to 16 November 1920 from the ports of the Crimean peninsula (Sevastopol, Evpatoria, Kerch, Feodosia, Yalta) came 126 ships accommodate about 136 thousand people . . .  at the end November 1920, a summary of the secret intelligence division of the headquarters of the French Squadron stated that 'the number of evacuees increased to 146 000, from which approximately 29 000 civilians'"

2. Dunkirk Evacuation [Dynamo]. 1940.

The main striking force, the combat arms elements of the British Expeditionary Force [BEF], Second World War [WW2], in response to the very real threat of annihilation or capture by the German, manpower evacuated successfully, impedimenta, heavy artillery and armor left behind. Troops taken aboard ships under pressure and repatriated to England.

"The Dunkirk evacuation, commonly known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo by the British, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 26 May and the early hours of 3 June 1940 . . . a total of 338,226 soldiers (198,229 British and 139,997 French)"

3. Operation Ariel. France 1940.

The second Dunkirk. British combat support and combat service support elements evacuated from Normandy ports in the aftermath of Dunkirk. Lines of communications elements and most [the preponderance] of their impedimenta AND friendly allied troops recovered and taken to England successfully! About 200,000 soldiers rescued!

"Operation Ariel (sometimes Operation Aerial) was the name given to the World War II evacuation of Allied forces from ports in western France, from 15–25 June 1940, due to the military collapse in the Battle of France against Nazi Germany"

4. Operation "60,000" – 1944.

Once again, evacuation by ship from the Crimea. Romanian, German and allied forces escaping annihilation and capture from encircling Soviet forces. This during WW2, Festung Crimea occupied specifically on the orders of Hitler, those Axis units without a line of retreat OTHER than the sea.

The evacuation carried out in an admirable fashion, under continuous and intense pressure:

"20,779 Romanians, of which 2,296 wounded"
"28,394 Germans, [of which] 4.995 wounded"
"723 Slovaks"
"15,055 Russian volunteers"
"2,559 POWs"
"3,748 civilians"

5. Operation Hannibal. 1945.

Evacuation of German military and civilian personnel form those areas bordering on the Baltic, combat units and persons surrounded by the Red Army, in danger of capture of death, NO line of retreat possible other than the sea.

"Operation Hannibal was a German military operation involving the evacuation by sea of German troops and civilians from Courland, East Prussia, and the Polish Corridor from mid-January to May, 1945
 one of the largest emergency evacuations by sea in history [perhaps the largest] . . . between 800,000 - 900,000 refugees and 350,000 soldiers across the Baltic Sea to Germany and German-occupied Denmark. This was more than three times the number of people evacuated at Dunkirk."

At time during Hannibal there was GREAT LOSS OF LIFE when ships carrying evacuees were torpedoed and sank, in most cases almost all passengers and crew lost! Nonetheless that number of persons repatriated to safety is remarkable!!

6. Hungnam Korea. 1950.

American ground forces facing annihilation from a massive onslaught of Chinese Communist forces. Troops with equipment almost all in totality successfully evacuated from the North Korean port of Hungnam. A large number of civilians also rescued.

"In barely two weeks, over a hundred-thousand military personnel, 17,500 vehicles and 350,000 measurement tons of cargo were pulled out . . . little was left behind. Even broken-down vehicles were loaded and lifted out. Also departing North Korea through Hungnam were some 91,000 refugees"

These retrograde amphibious operations are extremely difficult and especially so when UNDER PRESSURE!

When considering a retrograde it must be differentiated between the orderly and the disorderly. Military units under pressure retiring in a disorderly manner, panic, rout, a disorganized rabble signifies not only a battlefield loss but no hope for the future, a bad situation from which recovery is very difficult if not impossible. In these various reverse amphibious operations, defeat was ameliorated and a degree of victory achieved by being able to fight another day?

coolbert.