Tennant — the last ship from the east mole

Captain William Tennant, a British naval officer, was appointed Senior Naval Officer ashore on 27 May to organize the evacuation from Dunkirk. For eight days he has been the man who turned the east mole (a simple breakwater never designed for berthing) into the principal embarkation quay, through which the majority of Dynamo's evacuees have passed.

On the morning of 4 June, the evacuation is nearing its end. The Germans are tightening the noose; artillery is hitting the quays. The destroyer HMS Shikari is the last British ship still on station. Aboard are the last men who can be taken off; on the mole and within the perimeter remain some 40,000 French soldiers who have held the rearguard.

Tennant's orders are to come home. But Allied solidarity and the fate of the French rearguard weigh on him. Around 03:40, he must decide: embark and leave as ordered, stay ashore with the French, or try to take off a few more hundred men aboard an already loaded ship.