Battle of Dunkirk

The battles of Dunkirk (code name Opération Dynamo ) was held May 25th with the June 3rd 1940.

Hustled by the Blitzkrieg engaged by the German army at the time of the Battle of France, the British army as of the units of the French Army had to beat a retreat towards the north of France.

Encircled with Dunkirk, they carried out a resistance intended to gain an amount of time necessary to the loading of large of the troops towards the the United Kingdom. This one took place using all the ships that the Royal Navy could requisition to cross the Manche, while RAF fought in the sky to cover the operation. The troops and the material which could not have been embarked were captured by the Wehrmacht , but the success of the rescue of large of the troops perhaps saved the United Kingdom of an invasion face which it would have resisted with difficulty.

The Operation Dynamo

Taken out of vice by the German troops, and under the fire of their planes and their artillery, the allied forces embark in Dunkirk to join England.

The May 20th, the situation is desperate; two divisions of panzers ordered by Heinz Guderian reach Abbeville and the sea. Wehrmacht thus manages to divide the allied armies in two with, between the jaws of the clipper, a million French, Belgian and British soldiers taken with the trap.

The German tanks continue their progression. The May 24th, the avant-gardes of Guderian establish six heads of bridge on the Aa and reach Bourbourg; they have practically the free field when an imperative order of the general von Rundstedt, confirmed by Hitler, obnubilated by the catch of Paris, stops them Net until the morning of the 27. The Allies will benefit from aubaine. They gather in hedgehog step by step to hold a corridor extending from the area inhabitant of Lille in Dunkirk, on a hundred kilometers from depth and thirty to forty of width.

To get clear, the French general Weygand put on a traditional counter-attack. The chief of the British task force, the general Gort, does not share this option. In the medium term, the evacuation seems inevitable to him. The British cabinet of war will give him reason. The May 26th, the decision falls: “ In such conditions, only one exit remains you: you to cut through a path towards the west, where all the beaches and the ports located at the east of Gravelines will be used for the loading. The navy will provide you a fleet of ships and small boats, and Royal Air Force will bring a total support to you… ”. May 28th at four o'clock in the morning, the king Léopold III, chief of the Belgian army capitulates, after the Bataille of the Lily, decision violently disputed in France and England and by its own government, but also by its military adviser and several historians, in particular Professor Henri Bernard of the Belgian Military Royal School, which estimates that the Belgian army (600 000 men) even extremely started at the end of May, should better have coordinated its movements with the French and the British.

The Vice-admiral Bertram Ramsay, chief of the opératon installs his general headquarter in a cellar of the castle of Dover, where had functioned, formerly, a generator. The company is baptized Opération Dynamo . It will last nine days full: Tuesday, May 26 at Thursday June 4th.

The May 29th, the corridor narrowed like a shagreen: it now only goes, side sea, of the surroundings of Dunkirk to the small Belgian port of Nieuport, with the channels of Bergues to Furnes and of Furnes with Nieuport, side ground.

The June 4th 1940, the Dynamo operation is completed; the flag with swastika floats on the Beffroi of Dunkirk. In nine days, 338 226 combatants will be evacuated, under amazing conditions.

The noria of the little ships

To gather in also little time small a armada is not easy matter to achieve. That's no problem, Royal Navy detaches immediately 39 Destroyer S, of the minesweepers and some other buildings. But it is insufficient, because the weak declivity of the beaches obliges the ships of strong tonnage to wet with the broad one. It is consequently necessary to mobilize ferries, Chalutier S, Remorqueur S, Péniche S, Yacht S and other boats even more modest, them from now on famous little ships . It comes from there 370 equipped at most with two machine-guns.

This noria should then be organized. Between Dunkirk and Dover, the most direct road is road Z, long 60 km, but it is with range of the German guns to the height of Calais. The road Y avoids this disadvantage with this close which it puts Dunkirk at 130 km of Dover; who more is, it constitutes an hunting ground for the motor torpedo boats of the Kriegsmarine. The most practicable way is road X, long 80 km; it however will be déminée only on May 29th.

In spite of the vigilance of the RAF, the principal danger comes from the airs. May 29th for example, 400 bombers, protected by 180 Messerschmitt, methodically rammed Dunkirk, mitraillant the beaches without omitting to bombard the buildings crossing with the broad one. This day, the assessment of the losses is so heavy that Admiralty decides to stop the operation: on the whole, nearly 250 boats are sent by the bottom; motor torpedo boats are right of two modern French destroyers, the Jaguar and the Sirocco . Fortunately that the ceiling of the clouds, often very low, and smoke of the fires obstructs Luftwaffe, which can leave its escadrilles only May 27th, 29th and th and June 1st.

The operations of re-embarkation are inconvenient. There are too many men and not enough of boats. To escape, it is necessary either to be accepted on board a ship accosting with the mole is port (the current pier advances indeed of 1.500 meters in the sea), or to join the beach and to advance in Indian file to a light boat which makes to and from between the shore and the building with the broad one. The machine was ground; the first day, 7.669 men could join a combined port, 17.804 the second, 47.310 the third, 53.823 the fourth.

June 4th with 3:20, the Shikari , to the brim charged with soldiers, leaves the mole for its last rotation. With 10:00, the German army invests Dunkirk. Among the successful evacuations, let us mention that of English barge BEATRIX MAUD, ordered by lieutenant French Joseph HERON who succeeds, in the night and the day from June 3rd to 4th 1940, to evacuate nearly 340 troops and graded to Dover. They escaped the captivity thus. Following this exploit, lieutenant Jo Héron accepted the Military Cross with money star. (cf Blue collars n°548 of the 5/31/1958)

In nine days, 338.226 combatants (of which 123.095 French) could be evacuated on a glassy sea; Wehrmacht captures some 35.000 soldiers; the near total are of the French whose majority had taken part in the rearguard actions.

Relief in London

The evacuation of Dunkirk causes nevertheless a certain sourness among French persons in charge. Weygand and others will make in particular objection to the British have ruined the counter-attack on Arras. The relations between the Allies, often rather confused, with perceptible difficulties of communication with many levels, from now on will be placed under the sign of mistrust.

In London, one tests relief and gratitude: the combatants of Dunkirk are treated as winners and not in overcome; on the quays of unloading as in the stations, one makes them festival. When well even Churchill takes care to moderate the enthusiasm of its people, by stressing that “ the wars are not gained with such heroic evacuations ” are they. These words printed in the columns of the American newspaper NewYork Times the shortly after the Dynamo operation preserved all their acuity: “ As long as one will speak English, the name of Dunkirk will be pronounced with the largest respect ”.

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