In Daniel 3, King Nebuchadnezzar constructs a huge idol and commands all his people to worship it.  Anyone who didn’t would be thrown into a fiery furnace.  Daniel’s three friends famously refused in Daniel 3.16-18:

                “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.  If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is  able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image you have set up.”

The resulting actions include an enraged king, a super-heated furnace; guards ignited when they throw the three friends in the furnace, an angel rescue, and a miraculous display of God’s power.

The Battle of Dunkirk (June 1940), as described by Winston Churchill was “A miracle of deliverance, achieved by valor, by perseverance, by perfect discipline, by faultless service, by resource, by skill, by unconquerable fidelity…”   And all those qualities were present. 

But Duncan Boughton told me another feature.  At the beginning of the massive evacuation, a simple message was received from the trapped forces, to the effect that “the situation is very bad and we look to be overrun, but even if…”, interpreted as a resolute standing firm in the face of another God-less king. 

And so the Dunkirk deliverance included angel rescues in the form of hundreds of small boats and vessels braving stormy waters, inspired and helped by the hand of God.