Originally Posted by
Reinhardt
Thanks Courtney, nice recap - a lot of people are discussing whithout knowledge of events.
Then General Lord Gort, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force took the morally courageous decision to abandon his role in a projected Anglo-French counterattack, and fell back on the Channel ports... ...The French, not surprisingly, regarded this as a betrayal
In clear English, they ran away ( otherwise, they would have been surrendering like the others, like for exemple the Soviets one year later who had to drop their weapons, by hundred of thousands, after being surrounded in huge battles )
And the French Army had to protect the reimbarkment of British Forces at Dunkirk, without being able to take advantage of the escape route...
No wonder the Battle of Dunkirk is conveniently forgotten North of the Channel....
If we're (quite fairly) complaining about historical accuracy, then:
1. More than 100,000 French troops were evacuated from Dunkirk, just over 26,000 coming across on the final day of the evacuation.
The French government - not unreasonably - wanted them back to continue the fight, which meant that many of the men were in Britain for only a matter of days before going back across the Channel to continue the defence of France.
2. The majority of 51st (Highland) Division was captured
after Op Dynamo had ended. There is something of a myth that all British troops departed France as part of Dynamo. They did not.
3. Operation Cycle (10-13 Jun 40) saw the evacuation of some 11,000 troops from Le Harve, 9,000 of whom went to Cherbourg so as to be able to carry on fighting. 51st (Highland) Dvn had been cut off, and although some of them were rescued, over 6,000 were taken prisoner.
4. Operation Ariel (15-25 Jun 40), from Cherbourg, St Malo, Brest, St Nazaire, La Pallice, Bordeaux, Le Verdon, Bayonne and St Jean-de-Luz evacuated over 190,000 British (including Canadian 1st Dvn) and Allied troops. About 24,000 of these were Polish and just over 18,000 French. The evacuation finished after the Armistice between France and Germany came into effect on 25 June.
5. After Dynamo had ended, the plan was to create what was known as 'the Second BEF', which was to be under Alan Brooke's command. 3rd Dvn (under Monty) was to be given sufficient time to rest and re-equip after Dunkirk before being sent back to France. When Brooke arrived to take command of the formation (13 June), he concluded that there was nothing that could be done to stabilise the situation and that the time had come to evacuate, hence Op Ariel. This was not a sneaky decision based upon selling out the French, but upon the fact that Weygand had told him that the French army was incapable of further organised resistance and that the plan to defend Brittany as some sort of redoubt was fanciful.
6. The Battle for Dunkirk may not be publicised, but it is remembered, forming part of the studies of both the Higher Command and Staff Course and the ICSC (Air), for example.