A very old man reflects on "Battle of Britain" Day.
It was widely believed in 1940 that Hitler had deliberately allowed the remnants of the "B.E.F." to "escape", reasoning that Britain was in a hopeless position now; the Chamberlain Government was bound to capitulate - and he did not want the trouble of looking after 300.000 prisoners. Accordingly Guderian was ordered to halt his armour for 48 or (72 ?) hours - and the "Miracle of Dunkirk" duly took place ...
Our position after the withdrawal from Dunkirk was this:
The 300,000 men we'd got back had left all the Expeditionary Force's armour, artillery, and transport back in France (and lost many of their rifles as well, coming ashore with just what they stood up in). They were in no sense an "Army", nor would they be till after several months of necessary re-equipping and retraining.
To defend against Hitler's planned invasion ("Sealion") in the autumn we had:
The Home Guard ("Dad's Army") ..... we-ell yes ... ???
The Navy ? Hitler had his dive and torpedo bombers stationed all along the French coast. And are we going to put capital ships into the Channel within range of this land based air power ? (what would happen then was to be amply demonstrated off Malaya in 1942): Singapore, reliant on the Navy for defence, was lost in two weeks.
Moreover, the Navy was already fully stretched fighting the "Battle of the Atlantic", and a long way from winning it at that stage. It was "Touch and Go" for them.
We were "beaten to the wall" (the American Ambassador, Joseph Kennedy, the patriarch of the clan, so reported to Roosevelt). Most of the world looked on aghast. Britain was a lost cause.
Only one thing remained: the "thin blue line" of the RAF. Hitler correctly understood that it had to be destroyed to enable a successful invasion to be mounted. He set about doing so.
We (all those who were adults at the time) all know what in fact happened (pace the "revisionist" historians). The "thin blue line" held; Churchill ousted the Halifax/Chamberlain cabinet; and put the fight back into the British people with his magnificent oratory. The "battle", in my opinion, was (in military terms) a "Score Draw" - but one of those draws which are far more advantageous to one side than another.
Hitler had to destroy the RAF. He failed. We had to keep it in being - we succeeded. By October, "Sealion" was postponed sine die. Hitler turned his sights on Russia. Britain had been saved from its greatest danger in a thousand years. And we all have the Royal Air Force to thank for that !
I was there, and lived through all this. (Remember: "A Nation which forgets its history is condemned to repeat it").