Dunkirk: The Great Escape (Documentary)
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- Опубліковано 16 сер 2019
- A BBC Timewatch documentary about the Dunkirk evacuation from 1990 as told by those who were there.
World War II Programmes playlist: • World War II programmes
Contributors
Ronald Atkin
Peter Andrews Dispatch Rider
Bert Evans Royal Warwickshire Regiment
1st Ltnt Hugh Hodgkinson Royal Navy
William Murdoch RAF
Ltnt Stanley Nettle
Petty Officer John Agate
Cprl John Hammond Lancashire Fusilliers
Pvt Tom Nolan Royal Sigbals
Pvt John Mills Royal Artillery
2nd Ltnt V.H.J Carpenter
Peter Andrews was my grandfather. So very proud of him and all the men in this video.
Hear hear. 🏴☘️
The British got their a$$ handed to them yet they remain cocky on how they defeated the Germans in WW2… with the help of a little ally called the USA 😂 who also fighting a second war in the pacific 🇺🇸
@@richietavarez1200 And the American landings on D-Day were supported by the British Navy, as well as British Empire and French troops. The western allied forces would not have made anywhere near the progress they did if it wasn't for the USSR's pressure on the eastern front. What's your point beyond American exceptionalism?
I'm glad they made films like this while veterans were still alive.
I'm glad to have been born at a time when most of them were still alive. I got to speak to many veterans and heard such wonderful stories. Not to mention all the things that I learned from them about life in general.
You have to be so proud of them they were so special
Every British school boy and girl should watch this... and more than bloody once.
Some incredibly brave men and women proud to serve their country.
God Bless.
@John hitler Adolf was your dad then ehh... I should say so....
And this too! ua-cam.com/video/w6C5P-AYGdY/v-deo.html
You are right I was born in 1950 and have always recognized this fact, if not for such as them and many others, I dont think I would have existed!
Tragically today we have watched multiple daily landings along our South Coast of anonymous, greedy young men and even worse is our Royal Navy has been ordered to escort these foreigners in and ensure their safety.... Can you imagine the response of these brave men to this?
@@DaveSCameron no , ask them
Those two old socks at 26:25 epitomize Britishness. Joshing about what was better, shelling or bombing. It's like they're saying, "Quite a show we 'ad, ay wot ol' sod?"
thanks for posting this. I've been reading up on Dunkirk and it was lunacy, carnage, courage and resolve grotesquely mixed together.
How wonderful to hear about the "Miracle of Dunkirk" from those who were actually there. Also, to occasionally add a shot from the 1958 version of the movie "Dunkirk".
The animosity against the RAF was rather harsh. They were present, fighting and dying.
The Dunkirk evacuation was irrelevant as the BEF was less than a tenth of our army. The Cabinet had already agreed to reject Hitler's peace offer on 28 May 1940.
Thank you for a superb upload, and thank you for a superb channel
Another unforgivable German atrocity, RIP all those brave men
Lol the allies did atrocities as well. German soldiers tried surrendering alot and were gunned down. It was a dirty war. Not eastern front dirty but dirty nonetheless. If numerburg was fair u would see allies being tried as well.
One of the best WW2 docs I've seen. I'd love to see more like it.
Playlist on channel page.
I’d rather be bombed than shelled... what a conversation!! Amazing men.
There the same weapon.one comes from a gun the other from a plane usually.the effects are the same.
One of the small boats operators was one of the officers from the titanic, - I believe it was lightoller- and he braved bombs and bullets and rescued many soldiers from Dunkirk. The man was ostracized from society because he did not go down with titanic, I think he redeemed himself, even if he truly should not have needed to.
If Lightoller was ostracized, it would hardly seem fair. When the TITANIC went down he dived from ship into the water and had to swim to an upturned boat. He was the last person to be rescued by the CARPATHIA.
Fantastic, Christopher Nolans 2017 epic is another that gives a real impression. 🏴☘️
My Great Uncle likey died there. We never found out for sure though it at least was on the retreat to Dunkirk.
My great uncle died the morning of the massacre of British troops by the SS near Wormhout in Belgium 28 May 1940. As far as I can work out from talking to a former mayor for one of the local villages I suspect it was a style attack on the lorry which he drove.
If you know his regiment they will have a regimental diary which may tell you where he was killed and what his unit was doing there.
A lot of troops formed a perimeter to hold the line around Dunkirk and they were ordered to stand and fight to the last round with some making bayonet charges on the Germans. Good luck
Maybe he was one of the heroic who stayed behind to defend the evacuation, a suicide mission more or less.
Excellent !
When I was there in 1970 on the Kirribilli MS from Australia, there was only a little museum in the harbour. That is Gracie Fields. She was very popular. My school teachers had all been in the RAF, boys from Australia to fight for Britain.
Yes and lots of Aussies along with Canadians and men from all over the world, all fighting for freedom, my thanks to all the Aussies and others for their sacrifices that played a vital part in winning WW2
Some small sailboats carrying only 3 sailed to help rescue.
My gt uncle was pulled off the beaches, 1st bn Royal Berkshires 2nd Division. My gt grandfathers ship, HMS Whitshed, completed 6 trips to Dunkirk and a couple to Boulogne!
i find it amazing that they have never made a film about a man from Chorley in Lancashire, England. he went to Dunkirk in his private boat in his retired years...Retired years? he was on a ship in world war one that was sunk and he survived but you will know him better for his previous experience of sinking as he was Charles Lightholler 2nd command RMS Titanic as portrayed by Kenneth Moore in film 'Night to Remember'. how can you not make a film of this man?
Only we could do such feats! 🏴☘️
Like cool documentary
brilliant, is there a dvd restored version please
The men who made it back to the beaches were exhausted, demoralised and leaderless. Many officers chose to fight a rearguard - like those gallant Warwicks - in order to give their men a chance to escape. Many tried to take shelter, from the attacking Stukas, in the dunes. But they still had to cross the several hundred yards of open beach - veritable killing field. Maj. M. Kortright was one of the officers who did not evacuate earlier in order to remain on the beach in order to help co-ordinate the evacuation of the men in the dunes. He was shortly afterwards straffed by a German fighter, wounded in both legs, he was put on a stetcher and taken aboard HMS Wakeful, which was then torpedoed - almost all aboard were killed. Story curesy Dunkirk Veterans Assoc.
Great video.. not seen it before... real shame about the quality though..
That's VHS for you, it was the same quality upon purchase...
❗They don't make documentaries with this insight, depth and humanity any longer and we are lesser for it.
The senior service has the history of always performing as required. The great Royal Navy comes through again
Senior Service, strong ciggies cigarettes 🚬
There was a scene in Dunkirk just like what the airmen described
That would be the better Dunkirk film and not the boring as hell Nolan one
Real solider history
Utterly disagree that the British Expeditionary Force was "routed by the might of the German Army". Whilst a withdrawal is clearly not a victory, the BEF fell back from the Dyle to the Senne, to the Dendre and finally to the Escaut in good order, employing rearguards and destroying dozens of bridges as they went.
It was only due to the Belgian Army melting away on the northern flank and King Leopold surrendering his forces and his country, that the BEF was compelled to withdraw from river to river. When the German Army burst through the Ardennes and across northern France, thus turning the southern flank of the BEF, Gort was already aware by 17th May that his only option was going to be withdrawal by sea, and thus the orders were issued to withdraw. The trails of burnt out vehicles seen on contemporary footage are those put out of commission by the owners, not by the enemy.
The British Expeditionary Force arrived home in pretty good order, though without most of its equipment, and lived to fight another day. Of an approximate 250,000 men of the BEF, "just" 3457 were killed and 13600 wounded, with 44000 taken prisoner. Compare this to the Wehrmacht losses of 2500 killed EVERY DAY between 10th May and 3 June 1940.
If The wehrmacht as suffering much more casualties that the BEF ... Perhaps because it was fighting 2,250,000 French Soldiers ?
BEF got owed by the Nazis.
Then were ALLOWED to evacuate by the Nazis.
Nice try tho 😂
@@bradyshaw1487 Why would Hitler, assuming he wished the British to agree to an armistice, think that allowing over 350,000 of their troops to escape back to the UK would encourage them to act in this manner?
@@bradyshaw1487 allowed to escape? The chief of staff of the Army High Command in Germany, Franz Halder would disagree as his log book entry of the 24th May would confirm. " Finishing off the encircled enemy army is to be left to Air Force" is what it says.
Doesn't much sound like hitler wanted anyone to escape Dunkirk.
@@bradyshaw1487so how come over 225,000 men got away with
The Dunkirk evacuation was irrelevant as the BEF was less than a tenth of our army. The Cabinet had already agreed to reject Hitler's peace offer on 28 May 1940.
And our political leaders have learnt nothing from this history...
They are the Reason for this Evil.
3:28 Rodger Bartlett !! (BIG X)
The real Big X was a burly South African. Roger Bushell.
@@roddyteague6246 i knew that already. Its a habit of mine spotting actors in films and identifying the name of the characters they've played.
@@roddyteague6246 yes, yes he was. ( i knew that) But perhaps you just didn't know this is a fun game played on yt.
@@pressureworks I am as guilty as you regarding the spotting of actors! For some reason i always remember an early appearance by Patrick Allen as the Drill Sergeant in Dunkirk.
I was in South Africa at the beginning of 2020 & my Uncle & I went to Germiston. Nearby was the mine that Bushell's Dad was Manager. Nothing left of the Victorian pioneers except a few old pubs now full of illegal squatters. God only knows what the state of the area is now with Covid.
4:19 the car said 🚗 💨
The german let them escape for humanity lol
Idiot. If the Brits hadn't go away they would have had to surrender. Germany would have taken North Africa, there would have been no commonwealth involvement in the war, millions of men! Japan would have had a free hand in South East Asia. No allied control at sea. Total German dominance in the air. An early and bigger German invasion of Russia, No British protection of Russian convoys. Highly unlikely Germany would have declared war on America in 1942. Finally no British scientists on technology for the bomb, it would have been delayed and no second front in Europe. Maybe that's why the Germans let the Brits and French go. What bitter little fool you are Dimaz!
I’m a Yank and love the Brits, but I want to get a handle on something:
I’ve recently been influenced to believe that the vast majority of soldiers were evacuated by military/maritime ships, and although heroic were the private vessels going across the Channel, it wasn’t an overwhelming component of the effort, but makes for great history.
Any truth to this?
Hi there were a few Naval ships but too many were being sunk and could not get to shore to pick up the men so a-call went out on the radio and 200 volunteer ships up to 30ft in length to collect the men and take them further out to the bigger ships but mostRoyal Navy ships were withdrawn as the losses were to much …..if you can get a copy of Dunkirk the original black and white film I think 1953 in black and white it covers it quite well and on the Churchill film new on 2019 with Gary playing Churchill they cover it well and accurate
Also boat numbers and a good Churchill played by Gary ….
Operation Dynamo lost hundreds of ships …and the main thing is 110,000 men rescued……to fight another day ….shallow draft boats when I was a kid of 14yrs in Blackpool I worked on a boat taking people for a trip around the bay and she could float in 6 inch of water she held 35 passengers and week took hundreds out for trips the owner was Jim Stanhope coxswain and frank cornall of Blackpool lifeboat RNLI ….I worked that boat for 3 summers …..she was sold to a small boat of Dunkirk collector…….great memories we had to cork her clinker hull every year and she still had the original engine …I hope it helps …….you can find photos on line ofBlackpool summer on the beach you will see the boats and we used to load with army wagons….
@@drtonyhaworth6287 I love learning about this stuff.
Glad I can help we used to buy the army wagons from 39 to use on the beach with the boat….and there is a Dunkirk veterans association as well just google …..regards …..I now live in wales Uk
There were 338226 men lifted out of Dunkirk. 102,843 by destroyers & torpedo boats, 1856 by a light cruiser, 8755 by sloops, patrol vessels, gunboats and corvettes, 77181 by minesweepers & trawlers, and 9355 by smaller warships.
Most of the rest were lifted by merchant craft, often with RN crews, such as schuits, yachts, personnel vessels, hospital ships, cargo ships, tugs, landing craft, and lighters, a total of 132207. The 'Little Ships' brought back 6029. The suggestion that 'most RN ships' were withdrawn due to losses is simply not true. A small number of the newer destroyers were briefly withdrawn, but returned by the Admiralty almost immediately after a request from Admiral Ramsay. In terms of the number of RN vessels committed, losses were far from heavy, and most damaged vessels were back in service within days.
A strange myth has grown up about the role of the 'Little Ships.' This was not to bring troops back to Britain, but to ferry them from the beaches to the ships waiting offshore in order to speed up loading, and most actually had Royal Navy crews, or, at least, civilians with temporary RN papers.
The recent movie 'Dunkirk' goes some way to perpetuate this misunderstanding.
@@dovetonsturdee7033 Thank you for explaining it so well!
I became interested in the subject because of the short documentary called “Boatlift.” Narrated by Tom Hanks, it documents the evacuation of 500,000 people stranded in Lower Manhattan on 9/11. Military/naval forces had nothing to do with it at all. It was private vessels, tug boats, ferries, etc.
The quality deteriorates almost entirely, rendering this video increasingly unwatchable, towards the middle. 👎
Parkinson's
Oh pity about you.
So the English had a third of a million armed troops together with armour and chose to run rather than fight? A miracle? No.
No. The British had 13 divisions. The Belgians, who capitulated, and the French, who collapsed, had just over 100 between them.
Aye, and whit aboot St Valery? - my late father in law was there, an intended sacrifices - tell the truth and be grateful that the HD did what they did!
Half a century ago?
What did the french army when the english army run away?
Its the other way round.
The French high command doomed the campaign and all its fighting men with their ineptitude. The British were just salvaging what they could. It's a good job as well because the French were a bit too keen to send little boys and girls to the East just a couple of years later. Shameful
Imagine if Hitler didn't order a halt to advancement and fire. The English would of had such losses they wouldn't need many ships to evacuate what men were left alive.
they ran out of fuel... and pervatin..
see above robert schultz
Hello have you ever hear of logistic?
The german panzer unit suffer 50% attrition , line very thin and flank expose to the enemy , the panzer crew exhausted for a week without sleep , their panzer unit go so fast that artillery and infantry cannot keep up with their panzer let them have no artillery or infantry support and those panzer would be massarce by anti tank, mine, tank in narrowing street.
Diabolical quality! Someone should have put just a little effort into the conversion from video tape.
Yes..... shouldn't you be watching Tom and Jerry.......in High def of course.....
The BEF was mainly Territorial so depicting them as a modern experienced force is wrong!
I watched a different program to you, this one clearly explains how deficient and lacking training /weapons they were...
it was a bloody disaster.
140,000 French were removed from the beaches at high cost. When they got to England, a few short days later
France surrendered. The troops were offered several options. Transfer to African colonies as soldiers, stay in England fight with allies. Quit the French army and make their way back to France. Most just mustered out, got repatriated. 50 to 75K British solders left on the beaches. 75 years later still complaining.
The french held alone against gernam while british "retreat" whith high cost of lives don't you knows? This is the only miracle of this battle: a few thousands French soldiers fighting 1 against 20 that's the miracle. And you don't have to smear their memory with your imaginary "complain". Idiots like you are not even worthy to clean their latrines. The truth is that the French army saved the English army at a very high human cost. Would it scratch your face to say thank you at least once?
@@zorbeclegras5708 I have no complaint, that is what happened. France did not have "a few thousand" They had almost a million men underarms. The French troops that were evacuated were offered those choices and all but 5 or 7 thousand just mustered out. These are facts, not complaints. Like I said, 75 years later still complaining. Is that your real name, that is very cool.
Also. None of the armies were ready to fight. Brits, French, US. Took a while for them all to adjust to the hardness and swiftness of these new tactics. No surprise that France fell, no one was ready. Look on the other side of the world. The battle-hardened Japanese kicked everyone's ass with much smaller numbers.
@@blainedunlap4242 No this name is a joke of course. This is a contrepéterie (counterpéterie counterfart, i don't know if this exist in english) of "Zorba Le Grec" ( Zorba the Greek)
Your initial post is factually incorrect, because France did not surrender “a few days later”. Those French troops evacuated were still under French command and were returned to France to continue the fight. “Most just mustered out”.....how many, what were their names ? You haven’t a clue and you certainly weren’t in the BEF. Your post is simply a display of ignorance and prejudice. I wasn’t old enough either , but my father was and he was there. Conscripted at the start of the war into the RAMC as a stretcher bearer, followed by North Africa and Italy......and he never spoke ill of the French people or their army. You’re a shower.
British army should never have been sent without equipment who sent them
The descendants of William the Bastard thats who.
Who sent them? Same people hat will send them next time. Take a look at our military now.......what do you think will happen in a future conflict ...... it will be over in a morning....
Well you see the British governments of all types had to reduce armaments because the gold old British public wouldn't vote for them otherwise. The public didn't take their situation seriously till it was too late. They only decided on serious industrial armaments till after Munich ie only 18 months before. You can't build an army and air force in that time. Britain was like a lamb tethered on the edge of a dangerous jungle.
They had as good or better equipment than the Germans. The BEF was the professional British Army.
Any man with a spine would have gone in spite of the conditions and odds
Re the Wormhoudt massacre I did read an explanation for why the SS murdered the Allied troops.
Basically the Wehrmacht and the SS were big rivals and some of the SS had been laughed at by regular German troops for being held up by the British so that when they captured them they took out their frustration on the Prisoners as they couldn’t get back at the Wehrmacht troops who had been taking the mick out of them.
This is not a defence of what they did just a comment I read a long time ago.
Every German involved in the massacre was a despicable war criminal
Appalling actions
England focused on the Navy and the Air Force. It hopes that France would fight on the land for them. They kept losing land battles in Greece and Singapore losing the army half their size. By the end of African campaign they started to know how to fight on land.
@@kincaidwolf5184 The British & French both assumed that WW2 would follow a similar course to WW1, in that the French would provide the bulk of the troops on the Western Front, as the British and Commonwealth gradually built up their forces through conscription and the arrival of troops from the Commonwealth. The British would institute a naval blockade similar to that which had starved Germany into near revolution in 1917-8.
You mean the British and not the English and after winning the North African campaign
No no no no the 1940 British BEF was the first wholly motorised army in human history 👈😑
If the American Army would have been where the lame French units were positioned, the Germans would have been the ones turning and running.
ROTFL.
No, not in 1940.
There was no American army in 1940. Moreover, it hardly demonstrated great fighting prowess at Kasserine when it finally did appear.
Kudos to our American cousins, 🇬🇧🙏🇺🇸.
France was a country in disarray, politically and socially and many were fully resigned to the Germans before kick off!
The American military is sub-standard even today for anything other than bombing campaigns and other hi-tech modes of fighting. Don't agree? Name me a single war they've won without British involvement (p.s. rolling up a few armed peasants in central America or some random Caribbean island doesn't count)
I wonder if england sent more troops and resupplied the troops...could they of kept part of france free?
boat
divine intervention made it a miracle
The Dunkirk escape was a lucky retreat for the defeated soldiers, glorified by the propaganda of the British media. There were other retreats of bigger numbers during the same time that have not been covered at the same level in British's media. Also the media selectively understated the importance of French armies defending the retreating BEF against the advancing German force. In military sense, the Dunkirk event was not consequential to the final defeat of the German troops.
I don’t think you know what you’re talking about. Which other retreats during the same time ? Every country uses propaganda in war. It’s part of the war effort. That the retreat of the BEF was “defended” by the French , is absolute nonsense. The French and the British troops north of Arras were virtually surrounded , cut off from their supply chain, and retreat to the coast after May 21st, was the only option. The part played by the French Army in the retreat and the defence of the Dunkirk perimeter, is certainly underplayed in Anglo Saxon press, but the choice was simple....be surrounded and face total defeat, or evacuate.
@@californiadreamin8423 You missed the point: The Dunkirk retreat had no bearing on the outcome of WWII, was not a turning point of the war, and was more a propaganda stunt than anything else. The battle of Stalingrad was the turning point of WWII, and was downplayed by the West media ever since.
@@strongbrain3128 Ohhh. Not wishing to fight WW2 again, might I point out that by 22nd June 1940 , when France signed an Armistice with Hitlers Germany, Britain stood alone. The USSR was an ally of Germany , their non aggression pact containing an agreement to divide and conquer Poland.
The subsequent attack upon the USSR was not foreseen in 1940. That is the point.
@@strongbrain3128 Ohhh. Not wishing to fight WW2 again, might I point out that by 22nd June 1940 , when France signed an Armistice with Hitlers Germany, Britain stood alone. The USSR was an ally of Germany , their non aggression pact containing an agreement to divide and conquer Poland.
The subsequent attack upon the USSR was not foreseen in 1940. That is the point.
Which other retreats were you referring to ?
So what? We won didn't we! 🤣
Just think if we had to depend on the young generation of today
We would all be speaking german or japanese.
They said the same in the 60’s and history proved that statement to be wrong.
We might get the hashtag #bombcraterselfie but other than that I have no doubt that they would rise to the occasion.
They do have a sense of duty, although modern “culture” obscures it, and when pressed to make sane choices they choose well, the recent US elections are proof of that. They saw something bad happening, they took stock of the situation, made choices accordingly and the USA is now the better for it.
@@ramirogarcia1967 and look at the mess we are in today . A Generation of BRAINWASH self entitle with their hands out give it to me flee
@@VOTEREPUBLICANS594 flee?
@@ramirogarcia1967 spell check free
In this men's fight, what did these English chicks come to do?.
They did not come to fold like a house of cards , as the Feench Army did.
These people are to old to accurately remember what happened then.
I’m sure if you went through something that traumatic you’d never forget and they’ve probably been telling these stories their whole lives
@@jefvarnadore2267 Agreed. The first memory I have of my father was in a crowded Robinsons store, seeing him giving first aid to someone. “But why Dad ?” I asked my Mum. “He did that in the war”. He took me to see Dunkirk starring John Mills when I was perhaps 10. In the middle of the film he said “it was just like that”. I was gobsmacked “you were there !! “. It took me the rest of his life to prise his story from him. He was a stretcher bearer.
@@californiadreamin8423 that’s absolutely an amazing story.. I wish I knew someone who fought in wwii.. although I’m sure they would tire of me attempting to pick their brain
@@jefvarnadore2267 After 1945 the vast majority of servicemen did their best to get on with their lives, their stories packed away like their old uniforms. Many relived their experiences in their dreams, or nightmares, but in the day, hiding their experiences away until perhaps old age. Today their stories are being recorded before they are all gone.
My Dad was in the US 5th Army , possibly the first United Nations army, from the Salerno landings through to Anzio. They used to swap their tins of “bully beef” for US rations, and their very warm woollen shirts for the more comfortable US cotton shirts.
Amazing Grace is a Gaelic song from the North Western part of Scotland. You have a really good singing voice 😊 by the way.
@@californiadreamin8423 thank you very much... yeah I love that song I actually reworked it and just used the lyrics for my verses and wrote my own chorus which is basically paying homage to the original... singing and songwriting is something I enjoy.. I grew up singing in church my dad is the pastor of 😊
There, if the 160,000 English would have fought like the 30,000 French, the German Army would have been defeated !.
Or how about the rest of the French Army that folded like a house of carfs in the face of the German onslaught.
The British troops couldn't fight tanks with rifles
@@thevillaaston7811Ve a look at the Germain looses instead of repeating the common nonsense.
@@paulwebb6087 Frenches did it.
@@pierrefraisse8610
What common nonsense?
unfortunately my grandad never made it killed at just 20 holding the rear guard so the English could run away lol royal Irish fusiliers hes buried in where he fell with his comrades
Echoes ot russo-ukraine
The German military was truly a force to be reckoned with. It took almost the rest of the world to beat that tiny nation. I don’t care what you say... They deserve respect.
I have no respect whatsoever for such an odious regime.
@@johnburns4017 What do you mean a tiny nation much bigger than England. An odious and despicable people with a maniac Hitler in charge
What do you mean a tiny nation much bigger than England. An odious and despicable people with a maniac Hitler in charge
Germany was underestimated by the allies before ww2 started.TOOK 6/7 YEARS TO DEFEAT GERMANY.
*The British won the Battle of Dunkirk.* No miracles involved.
*The British BEF was only 9% of the total allied forces in France and the Low Countries.* The huge French army collapsed in front of the British small army, which manned mainly the coastal areas. Nevertheless the German advance was halted in France as the British with a vastly inferior force stopped them at Arras. Some German soldiers turned and ran. *Directive 13, issued by German Supreme Headquarters on 24 May 1940 stated specifically for the annihilation of the French, English and Belgian forces in the Dunkirk pocket.* The Luftwaffe was ordered to prevent the escape of the British forces across the English Channel.
The German southern advance was stopped at Arras by the British with a numerically inferior force. The Germans never moved much further after. The Germans could not have taken Dunkirk, they would have been badly beaten in and around the town. *The Luftwaffe was defeated over Dunkirk by the RAF with the first showing of the Spitfire en-mass. More German than allied planes were destroyed in the Dunkirk pocket.* The first defeat of the Nazis in WW2 was by the British in the air battle over Dunkirk. Only six small warships were sunk at Dunkirk by the Germans as the effectiveness of the Luftwaffe blunted.
The British were retreating after the French collapsed in front of them - a programme already in motion, a programme already in motion before the Germans showed up, as General Gort saw the disjointed performance of the French forces in front of him, and the exceptionally poor leadership. If the French collapsed the small BEF had no hope against the large over two million strong German force heading west. *French forces were amongst the British when General Gort decided to take the men back to England,* as he did not trust the French in a joint counter-attack. French General Wiegand held a meeting to arrange a counter-attack not inviting General Gort head of the BEF. Gort was under the command of Weigand. Gort heard of the meeting rushing to be there. He got there after the French and Belgians had left. He ordered the evacuation, having no faith in the elderly French leaders.
All armies retreat and regroup when the need is there. There happened to be a body of water in the line of the retreat. Were the BEF to move down the English coast and enter France further west with more men from England? The Germans did not know what was to be the next British or allied move. *The Germans could not have taken Dunkirk trying for nearly a week failing in the process.* The British retreat operation was carried out as planned and in orderly fashion. All bridges to Dunkirk were destroyed by the allies.
The British counter-attack at Arras was with outdated Matilda 1 tanks, which only had machine guns, and a few of the brand new Matilda 2 tanks. The Germans fled in droves. In desperation the Germans turned a 88mm AA gun horizontally successfully against the Matilda 2 - their conventional anti-tank weapons and tanks could not penetrate the tank. The 88mm had hard shell shells made for it, to use against the Maginot Line's bunkers. The Matilda 2 would roll over German gun emplacements killing the gunners, not even using the guns. Rommel thought he had been hit by a force three times the size, which made them stop and rethink. The Germans countered with their superior numbers pushing back the British who fell back consolidating towards Dunkirk.
The British resolve and the new Matilda 2 tank made the Germans sit up and think about a street fight in Dunkirk against a consolidated force still with its weapons and the new Matilda 2 - the large 88mm would be useless in Dunkirk streets while the Matilda 2 would be in its element, with the Matilda 2 easily destroying the Panzer MkIII & MkIVs. The Matilda 2 could knock out any German tank at the time, while no German tank could knock it out. The Germans were expecting the Matilda 2 to be shipped over in numbers and for all they knew many were in Dunkirk, and some were. The Germans could not stop the tanks coming as the RAF controlled the skies with a CAP and the RN the waters of the Channel. Not a good prospect for the Germans. A Dunkirk street fight was a fight the German troops were untrained and unequipped for and unwise to get involved in.
Von Rundstedt and von Kluge suggested to Hitler that German forces around the Dunkirk pocket cease their advance, consolidating preventing an Allied breakout from Dunkirk. Hitler agreed with the support of the Wehrmacht. German preoccupation rightly was with an expected attack from the fluid south of the German lines, by mainly French and some British forces, not from dug-in Dunkirk which was too much of a formidable consolidated opponent, taking substantial resources to seize. The German column had Allied troops to each side with soft marshland to the south west of Dunkirk unsuitable for tanks. If German forces had engaged in a street battle for Dunkirk, they would be vulnerable on their weak flank from the south. In short the fast moving panzers were now static; German forces attacking Dunkirk in a battle of attrition would have been largely wiped out.
The German columns were consolidating their remaining armour for an expected attack by the British and French from the south, and the important resupply from Germany, which was slow as it was via horses - or maybe a combined attack from the south and the Dunkirk pocket. The Germans attacked on a remarkably narrow front. *They had over-stretched their supply lines.* The Germans had no option but to stop, being more concerned at defending from the mainly French forces in the south which were viewed as a greater threat than Dunkirk. French general Weigand implemented his creation of _hedgehogs_ to attack German lines from the sides, with success - hedgehogs were adopted post war by NATO being a part of the tactics until the 1970s.
What were the Germans thinking? Are the British retreating to England from Dunkirk to move down the English coast and re-enter France further south with fresh forces, including Canadians and the new Matilda 2 tanks, which they feared, and join up with the French forces there to hit the Germans from the south? Are the British going to reinforce the Dunkirk pocket supplied by the Royal Navy with a 24/7 air CAP? The British did reinforce Dunkirk by taking over from England the 30th Tank Regiment and 20th Guards Brigade on the 25th and 26th May, with the Germans fully aware of this. Canadians landed further south. The British could easily do any of these as they controlled the Channel.
Reinforcing Dunkirk would create one large difficult to combat force. The Germans also saw the resolve of outnumbered British forces at Arras. German generals were trying to figure out what was happening. None thought that British troops would retreat to England and stay there. The British never did that sort of thing.
The Germans could divert most of their forces south to engage the French forces, then risk a Dunkirk breakout. This would mean being attacked from their rear fighting on two fronts. Or stay and consolidate, which they needed to do anyhow, awaiting a French/British attack from the south and use some forces and the Luftwaffe to attack Dunkirk. Which what they did. *German forces resumed their attack on Dunkirk, after only a 36 hour delay, for over 6 days failing to seize the port.
The plan to break out of the Dunkirk Pocket using British, Belgian and French forces was abandoned as Gort had no confidence in the French. All military school studies since, knowing what the German and allied positions and situations were in 1940, have shown it would have succeeded.
*The Germans were defeated at the Battle of Dunkirk.* They tried militarily to seize the port but failed. Only because the British did not trust the French and moved back to England did the Germans eventually occupy the town. *The Germans did not let the British get away that is misguided myth, they tried for a week simply not able to seize Dunkirk.*
.While you sunbathe your ass on the beach, who was stopping the Germans ?. Read the comments of the high-ranking German officers who fought the French at that time !.
@@pierrefraisse8610
Read what I wrote.
On 19 May 1940 English and French had started to consider which next step would be the most appropriate way to respond to what happened in Belgium. The French went for a counter attack (to protect their huge industrial sites in northern France) while the English went for a retreat to England (to save their BEF). At this point no decisions were taken. The announcement of the Belgian surrender was at the root of the British decision to retreat back to England, as it left a big gap of 50 kms on the front. Taking this decision didn’t give any pleasure to Gort as he knew that after having lost the support of the Belgian and the British Army, France would get into difficulties as more gaps would be created on the front. What can be blamed on Gort is that he didn’t informe the French of his decision but he needed the French and the reminant Belgian Armies to fight on to assure the success of the retreat. The Belgian surrender was decided by King Leopold of Belgium after he found out that many Flemish Divisions in his Army (six divisions of the nine engaged in the war) didn’t fight valiantly and even surrendered without firing a single shot. You have to know that the Flemish separatists were pro-German. The Walloons fought valiantly alongside their allies but their number was low compared to the Flemish.
The defense of the Dunkirk perimeter on the ground was ensured by the French while the British provided the aerial coverage and the biggest part of the maritime coverage.
Forgot to say that in 1940 the Belgian Army were wearing the same uniforms and helmets as the French.
Arras was Franco-British and the most efficient rearguard took place in Lille (100% French). The British soldiers you could see in the perimeter of Dunkirk were retreating to the beaches even if they fought at the same time.
Have we got a case of revisionism here ? I think so.
@@phlm9038
The French took little part in the Arras counter attack. They failed to turn up.
.«écrit-il.»
Mais Churchill lui-même reconnaît dans ses que c’est leur résistance qui a rendu possible l’opération «Dynamo»:
«écrit-il.»