|| HISTORY OF THE SECOND ORLDTHIS WEEK’S CONTENTS: ON g Ty 141 From Amiens to Dunkirk General Walther K. Nehring 146 Operation Dynamo Christopher Hibbert © BPC Publishing Le First Edition 1966 166 One Man’s Brief Action John Hillaby Second Editon 1072 © Marshall Cavendish USA Lia 1973 NEXT WEEK IN HISTORY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR The British Expeditionary Force has been driven back to its homeland. Hitler’s armies are now able to sweep to the South, and the Fall of France is not long resisted. Only the Channel now separates Hitler's forces from Britain's shores. On June 10, 1940, Mussolini announced that Italy was at war with France, then nearing total collapse. For some Italians, it was a moment of elation, but to the thoughtful, writes Filippo Domini, who was there, it was a moment of shame. Foundation Reader Subscription Offer A subscription to History of the Second World Wer ensures that you don’t miss a single Part. We mail each issue directly to yourhomeeach week. 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Nehring ‘Once their line had been breached at Sedan the Allies found it im- possible to contain the German thrust, and in 11 days the Panzers had cut their way from Luxem- bourg to the sea—a distance of more than 240 miles. In describing his impressions of this phase of the campaign, the Chief-of-Staff of General Guderian's victorious Pan- zer corps throws light on the char- acter of his brilliant chief (right) ‘After. successfully breaking through the lengthened Maginot Line at Sedan, the | and II Divisions of the XIX armoured Corps had reached the erea of Montcornet, in a bold advance, on May 18, The X Panzer Division, still fighting at Stonne, was to follow after being relieved by motorised infantry divisions. General Guderian rightly thought that a swift attack by a strong armoured foroe in the direction of Amiens and on to the Somme estuary would strike the extreme flank, possibly even the rear, of the Allied main force advancing into Belgium, and might break their lines of communica tion andisolete them ‘All Guderian’s actions were inspired by this idea, and ne found it hard to understand why Gorral von Kleist, commanding the ‘Armoured Group von Kleist, had wanted to confine him on May 15 to a small bridge- head at Sedan. In the end he got permission for freedom of action for 24 hours to create a large bridgehead into which to Bring up the infantry. With character'stic boldness, Guderian used his permitted 24 hours to smash resistance and. penetrate deep into enemy territory, and his advance forces reached the bridge across the Oise at Ribemont on May 17. Guderlan and his staff wall know the risk they ran if the enemy brought up troops from the north and south and cut their ‘communications to the rear; but Guderian’s ‘assessment of French leadership con sidered this unlikely. On March 16, at a Conference. with the army ‘commanders and General von Kleist, Guderian had told Hitler of his ideas and felt he had received his agreement. He therefore assumed thet the Army Command would bring up more {troops to destroy the Allied front as far as, the English Channel May 17 was a day of excitement. General von Kleist flew into Guderian’s command post at Soize; Guderian was delighted to have the opportunity of discussing the situation with his superior, but he was in for a bitter disappointment. Instead of an ob- jective discussion and some praise for his men, there was bitter reproach for the extent of his advance. Guderian defonded his opinions and asked to be relieved of his command, and General von Kleist accepted hig resignation. Sut Guderian was the sort of general who could not be replaced, and his shocked colleagues tried to persuade him to stay on because, as was later the case with Rommel, his personality was of Such decisive importance. Fortunately approaches by Generals List end Fund stedt led Gudorian to resume his commana the same evening, and along with it he acquired permission fo make an armoured Feconnaissance to the west. A man like Guderian knew what to do with such an ‘opportunity, even if his command post dic hhaveto remain back at Soize. ‘On that same day French attacks had begun in the direction of Montcornet by the nowly established and therefore in- experienced 4th Armoured Division of Brigadier-General de Gaulle. These heavy armour attacks created alarm and des pondency among us, besides inflicting fosses, because neither German armour or our anti-tank weapons were sufficiently heavy. Nevertheless, the French attacks were so scattered and devoid of any plan thal thay failed to achieve success, ‘Seizure of Amiens and Abbevil On May 18 and 19 the corps, bearing in mind the spirit of the restraining order advanced ‘slowly westwards toa ling funning through Cambrai, Péronne, and Ham, and here we found curselves on the ‘ld battlefields of the First World War. The enemy offered only local resistance, except for the French s&h Armoured Division, which on May 19 presented so sorious a threat that both Guderian and |, quite Independently, ordered the X_ Panzer Division, which had just arrived from the left roar, to attack jt~but the danger dis- persed Before they did so. From the north there came a flood of retreating French motorised columns, a8 well as individual cars with officers and Staffs. Among them, General Giraud was taken prisoner while looking for the army of which he had just been given Command. The first British troops were seen digging themselves in on May 18 Wo anticipated our first contact with them with some excitement ‘On the evening of May 19 Guderian was again given complete freedom of action, land on May 20 he ordered the | Panzer Division to attack at Amiens, and the Il Panzer Division st Abbeville, ‘where they were to throw bridgeheads across the ‘Somme and there await the enemy coming down trom the north ‘General Guderian, at the front as always, was with the | Panzer Division when it attacked Amiens. The vanguard on the left, 4. light infantry battalion “mounted on motorcycles and commanded by Major Wend. von Wietersheim, met a. strong defence on tha north-west edge of the town, and our main body, attacked south of Albert by an armoured force, broke off the assault. Wietersheim, realising that no time must be lost, attacked with the fow tanks he had, and his. bold venture succeeded in breaking into Amiens. Guderian, now on his way to the il Panzer Division, decided that Abbeville must be taken on the same day, but because of a 141‘Athough the Panzers were the main striking force of the land forces, the infantry played a vital part in their support fuel shortage the tanks had to be left In front of Abbeville. Ritlomon, artillery, and sappers took the town in the face of Slight resistance, and formed a bridgehead across the river. The enemy seemed Completely surprised: a British battery was captured on a parade ground, armed ‘only with blanks because they nad been carrying out a practice. Nobody had ex- pected the Gormars, quite go. Soon (we iad hardly expected to arrive so soon ‘ourseives) and during the next few days large numbers of prisoners were taken, particularly British. A French colonel ‘was quite unable to understand how such an advance could have been carried out without some warning being received. At Allonville, near Amiens, we almost suc- ‘ceeded In capturing an entire squadron of British aircraft together with elements of the Ist Armoured Division, but they were able to tako off atthe last minute. Naturally, Wwe regretted this very much. Guderian's method of working was in- teresting. He would set off in the morning with his small skeleton staff in an armoured Command car containing his adjutant and ‘signals officer with his radio equipment, He was accompanied by a. small semi- tracked vehicle for rough ground, and two dispatch riders, so that he could direct ‘operations from the front. He was in constant radio contact. with me while travelling, and on his return in the evenings there was always a thorough discussion to assoss the situation Proved efficient and were introduced throughout the tank corps. Corps HQ was always at pains to follow its divisions as Closely as possibie in the interests of short Tines of communication. At Albert we captured an interesting document from the French showing that ua they knew the positions of our corps, divi- sional, and signals headquarters. Becaus ff this kind of danger we always placed Signals HO some distance away fram corps HO and camouflaged It well $0 2s not to offer a target to enemy aircraft. In connec- tion with this, on one occasion, German air- craft attacked in error our battle HQ near ‘Amiens and destroyed one of our aircraft that had just landed—and our ack-ack, thinking they were disguised enemy air- craft, replied and brought one of them ‘down, The erew balled out, and were none ‘o0-well received at our HQ. While they were still present, an enemy ight bomber, bomb- ing the farmhouse wa were using as corps HQ, destroyed General Guderian's personal qusrters. It was @ good job that he had not yet returned from his dally trip to the front Advance to the north ‘On the evening ofthat remarkable day when ‘our tank divisions reached the sea and cut France in two, we had no idea where we were going next. Nor were our superiors, ‘Armoured Group von Kieist, able to en- lighten us, What would our opponents do? They could hardly overlook the cortidor running fight across their land, and would surely pull themselves together and act, remem- ering Napoleon's dictum: ‘activite— vitesse —viteese" After all, they had 120 divisions, including an excellent. British Expeditionery Force. An efficient leader- ship would have struck from the north land south at our over-axtended armoured column. The British attempt at an armoured breakthrough at Arras on May 21 provided some answer, but after initial success against Rommat's Panzer, it failed. ‘After the exhilaration of the actual arrival ‘on the coast, tension Increased hour by hour. Were we to stay here to stop a break- through by the main Allied force from the northor go south towards Paris to halt the foreas being brought up {rom there? Or were we to turn north to seal off the ports of Boulogne, Calais, and Dunkirk? Nearly two days. passed before a decision was feached, and on May 22 we set off to the orth, more sober and anxious now, “We have wasted two days,’ said Guderian, right’ ag usual. We shall need them at Each of our divisions was to attack one of the three great ports—Calais, Boulogne, ‘and Dunkire—and at all poinis of attack Our divisions met with strong resistance, with particularly ‘severe attacks from British aircraft. Guderian and | were soon able to confirm what we had both ro- peatedly stated before the war: that a pre- Condition for large-scale armoured opera Mons, was ar superonty, syen as we had had in Poland. Forces in the air, on the ground, and at sea must be closely inter- dependent to atain thelr best results The. ll" Panzer” Division had already reached the soutnern part of Boulogne by May 22, where unexpectedly hard fighting broke out. It seemed that al last the influ ence of British leadership was beginning to make itself felt, Out on ihe evening of May 23, German dive-comber formations attacked and put out of action three des- ‘royers and five transports, which was a great relief to us. On May 24, the 30-foot Walls of ho Old Citadel wore takan by storm “almost as in the Middle Ages—with ‘assault ladders and hand grenades, con- ccentrated arilley fire, flame-throwers, end ‘close-range ack-ack fire. On May 25 Bou- logne surrendered, with two generals and 5.000 French and British troops taken prisoner.Gorman tank crews relax affer their successtul offensive ‘The X Panzer Division was now given the task of taking Calais, because Guderian had ordered the | Panzer Division—turther to the north and therefore able to atiac’ Sooner-—to take Dunkirk. The left wing of the division was {0 try 10 take Calais ‘on passant, but itwas attacked and repulsed by British tanks at Guines. Although British resistance at the Calais Canal had been broken, at Coulogne-by-Calais strong and vary active enemy tank attacks now drove fourmen back ‘As a result, on May 24 X Panzer Division merely sealed off Calais, and Guderian, presant at the time, advised a systematic Sttack on the noxt day. Even this did not succeed, however, because of obstinate British and French defence in the northern part of the town. When glvan the oppor tunity to surrender, the British com- manting. officer, Brigadier _ Nicholson, fopliod: "The answer is no. itis as much the Brtisn army's duty fo fight as it is the German army's. ‘On May 28 the attack was renewed, and again repulsed; although our losses were Sight, It cannot be denied that our morale was low. The command, however, kept its herve, and in the early afternoon attackod Again, this time successfully, for the troops in the bastion surrendered. By 1730 hours, the harbour and citadel had been taken, ‘The vanguard of tho | Panzer Division reached the River Aa south of Gravelines fn the evening of May 23. On the next dey the attack on Gravalines and the ‘coastal {ort of Philipe failed: for once the Fronch defended bravely~ possibly because Dun kirk wae now the only contact for the be: sieged army with the outside world. Since the area round the Aa is full of ditches and canals, and iti sulted to Infantry. or armoured attack, only a series of bridge heads was thrown across the Aa, under heavy enemy alr attacks, to serve as spring boards for the decisive baitle the next morning. That would be decisive we had no doubt, for was obvious to everyone present that the final phase of an over- lhelming victory was at hand=and if we Tooked forward to it with natural trepidation, it was also with some confidence. ‘Third order to halt Then, on the evening of May 24, the corps received an order not to cross the River ‘Aa but to hold the line already occupied. No reason was given, and Guderian ang | assumed that the capitulation of the Allies was Imminent-a view strengthened by the reference in the order to the Luftwatte ‘Dunkirk is to. be left to the Luftwaffe. In the event of Calais not falling on May 26, also must be left for the Luftwaffe." We were somewhat annoyed al the Calais part of that order, which played down the Capabilities of our X Panzer Division, ut at the time it seemed that using the Luttwatfe might save bloodshed, persuade the enemy to capitulate, and give our troops fa rest; 80 our temperamental general did fot explode st this third order to halt However, as time passod we became very uneasy at the number of ships moving to- wards Dunkirk —out of artillery range—and ‘Our uneasiness increased when we saw them moving into the mouth of tho Aa to pick up the enemy troops. We reported this, But nothing happened and for two valuable days our opponents. were allowed to Strengthen their defences and organise that miraculous evacuation of the mass of troops rom Dunkirk. When at last, on May 27, we were allowed again to tako up the attack, It was only with motorised infantry, not armoured divisions, and this ‘consider myself fortunate to have lad you,’ said Guderian last folly thus allowed our enemy to with draw his troops to form the numbers of a strong army against us. (Guderian had good reason to be proud lof his tank corps, eraated by him in the face ff such strong opposition. Men and equip- ment had satisfied all the demands placed fon them, and we looked forward to the ext phase with confidence. The men held their general in high regard, and everybody knew “Swift Heinz’ because he was always with them in. the thick of the battle— often farther forward than tactically ad- visable ‘Guderian regarded his task on this front fag finished on May 26, and in his Order Of the Day he thanked his men: asked you fo do without sleep for 48 hours, and you endured for 17 days. | forced you to take threats on our flanks and to our rear, ‘and you never hesitated. With exemplary Confidence and the faith that your tasks could be accomplished, you cartied out every order in a spirit of self-sacrifice Germany is proud of her srmoured di Visions, and I consider myself fortunate to have led you. Let us consider with reverence ourTallen comrades. ‘Our men had s proper ragard tor their ‘opponents, “although. they. were often Surprised by the French lack of fighting Spirit. The British were much as they were Temembered from 1914-18: they were tough opponents. Relations with the local population were friendly where the paopie had not ail fled —and soldiors often helped ‘Qut with the farm work if they had the time Sometimes we were taken for British Which resulted In. surprises. all, round ‘Among the girls it was seid that ‘German soldiers were very proper, perhaps a Iitle too proper. [A brief résumé of Goneral ‘Nebring's career can be found on page 13.) uaA Germans at the Channel coast—the climax of a 240-mile thrust to the sea 1 The hunt was up: men and machines were riven to the limit to cut off the Allies in the north D British prisoners captured in the north of France, Many were taken by surprise, for no one had expected the Germans quite so soonDunkirk May 24/June 4 1940 Christopher Hibbert Operation Dunkirk (below) — could h been one of the worst disasters in the Blitzkri BEF appeared to be at the mercy of the Luftwaffe army. But Goring had not reckoned on the ifying effect of th or on the gallant and unstinting efforts of the civilians who helped to OPERATIODynamo — the attempt to evacuate the Allied troops besieged at military history. Trapped within a tiny perimeter and exhausted by which, Goring imed, could annihilate them without help from the sand on his bombs, or on the brilliant direction of Admiral Ramsay — rescue over 330,000 troops in nine days. DYNAMO“Those orders from the top just make no senso,’ General Franz Halder, Chief of the German General Staff, wrote angrily in his diary on the morning of May 28, 1940, ‘the tanks are slopped as if they were paralysed.” "The anger Was real and justified. Two days before, the Fubrer had visited the head- quarters of Rundstedt's Army Group A at Gharlevitle. At that time the German armies were still maintaining their astonishing suc: ‘eeaa the Belgian front was close to caliapso, fand in the south Kleist's Panzer group, comprising the two armoured corps of General Reinhardt and the brilliant Heinz Guderian, had reached the mouth of the Somme at Abbeville and after sweeping round to take Boulogne and envelop Calais had come to within dozen miles of Dun- kink. Caught in the trap between this armour and the German armies advancing Tomorselessly from the north-east were the Belgian army, ten divisions of the French Ist Army, and the bulk of the BEF. The Germans ‘were poised for their final and spectacular vietory. Yet shortly after Hit Ter's arrival at Charleville an order was issued to stop the armour dead in its tracks. For days, 0 Halder had noted in his diary, the Fhrer had been “teribly nervous’. "He is worried over his own succoss,” Hald went on, ‘will risk nothing, and insists on restraining us....He rages and screams that We are on the way ta ruining the whole ‘operation and that we are courting the dan- fer of a defeat. He won't have any part in continuing the drive westward, let alone south-west Hitler's nervousness was inereased and his opinions confirmed when he arrived at Charleville on May 24 to be advised by Rundsted: that the Panzer divisions ought to be brought toa temporary halt on the line of the canalised river A& until more infantry ould be brought up. For Rundstedt, like most of the other higher German generals, had not really believed in the possibility of the Panzers” triumphant thrust; he was haunted by the fear that it could not be eon- tinued, and had, in fact, made no plans for the immediate further use of the. Panzers once they had reached the sea. And so, des- pite the fact that at this time there was only fone British battalion covering the Ad be. tween Cravelines and St Omer, Rundstedt strongly urged that a pause was needed to take up depleted strength and regain lost balance before the “last act’ of the ‘encire sient battle’ which the Commander-in-Chief, von Brauchitech, had ordered him to com: plete, Already there had been a strong British eountsrattask southward from Arras which Rommel’s VII Panzer Division had had. difficulty in checking. Furthermore, nearly half Army Group A's armoured Yehieles hind been put out of action either by the enemy or by wear and tear. In fact, instractions for a temporary hall. to give time to close up and regroup had been iasued the. evening. before. Hitler immediately agreed with Rundstedt’s arguments and the {instructions for a temporary halt became the fatelul order for a definite full top. Tt was not only, though, that Hitler was anxious that his armour should be conserved for the later operations that he felt would be necessary against the French south of the Somme, rather than become involved in the bad tank country further north, where canals, dykes, and floods rendered movement fo limited and hazardous. For, so General Blumentritt, Rundsted’s chief of operations, said after the war, Hitler had a political motive, too. He believed that after he had concluded "a reasonable peace with France, the way wotild be free for'an agreement with Britain’. It would not benefit Germany to bring Britain to her knees; and a painful humiliation would merely make it more difficult to come to terms with her. Hitler astonished us,’ Blumentritt said, “by speaking with admization of the Britich Empire, ofthe necessity for ts existance, and of the civilisation that Britain had brought {nto the world... He said that all he wanted from Britain was that she should acknow: ledge Germany's position on the Continent His aim was to make peace with Britain ‘ona basis that she would regard as com- patible with her honour to accopt.” Generals accuse Géring But. apart from political considerations, however influential they may have boen: apart from his fear of a reversal that loomed ver his joy at his initial success; and apart from his anxiety to conserve the army's strength for the final crushing of the French in the south, there was another reason be- hind Hitler's order which so. frustrated Halder and Brauchitech. ‘That reason, as the generals beeame convinced during the following week, was Hermann Goring, “Goring, who know his Fuhrer well, tool advantage of his anxiety; Halder believed. ‘He offered to fight the great battle of en- cirelement alone. with his Luftwaffe, thus fliminating the risk of having to use the ‘valuable Panzer formations... He wanted to Secure for his air foree, ater the surprisingly Smooth operations of the army up to then, the decisive final act in the great battle, fand thus gain the glory of succes before the whole world.” Ti the victory could be claimed exclusively by the army generals, ‘the prestige of the Fuhrer in the German homeland would be damaged beyond repair. That could be pre vented only if the Luftwaffe and not the army carried out the decisive battle” While the Luftwaffe prepared to fight this battle, Lord Gort prepared to fight his. Still tunder orders to earry out the Weygand Plan of a breakout towards Cambrai, Gort re falised by the 25th that such an attack had Tittle chance of success, With Belgian re- sistance erumbling fast, and with no sign of ‘a complementary attack northwards by the Freneh, the British Commander-in-Chiet could no longer be in doubt that his only hhope for survival lay in breaking out to the sea while an escape route was still open. ‘Already, to General Weygand’s "annoy: lance, Gort had had to anler Major-General Franklyn to withdraw from tho Arras area with the Sth and 50th (Northumbrian) Divisions. And now, furthor north on either side of Courtrai, units of General von Bock’s ‘Army Group B had opened a heavy now fttack on the Belgian line, If this attack were successful, aa seemed likely, the flank Of the British 2nd Corps, commanded by Licutenant-General Brooke, would be laid dangerously bare. For the moment the BEF Ting facing north-west was rolatively quiet ~the 48th (South Midland) Division around Cassel, the 44th (Home Counties) Division near Aire, and the 2nd Division on the right of the French near Carvin were all benefit- ting from Hitler's order t stop andl regroup. 'But who could say when the attack would be resumed? Even thon the Freneh Ist Army ‘was under attack in the area of Denain. ‘AL 0700 hours on May 25, Sir John Dill, Vice-Chief of the Imperial ‘General Staff, 149rived from London at Gort's headquarters in the chateau at Promesques. The previous day Churchill, who was anxiously awaiting the news of a British. counterattack, had sent a message to Lord Ismay erticising the onduct of Lord Gort and his troops —a mes sage which he later admitted did less than Justice’ to them. But it was immediately clear to Dill that there was ‘NO blinking the seriousness of the situation’ BEF,’ he reported back to the Prime Minister, ‘is now holding front of 87 miles with 7 divisions... Germans in contact along whole front and are reported to have penetratod Belgian line north-east Courtrai Yesterday evening..." ‘That evening Gori made up his mind. Shortly after 1800 hours he came out of the Grawingroom of the chatesu whore be had spent a long time alone studying his map. According to the British historian, David Divine, he then walked next door into the offi f his Chietof- Staff, Henry Pownall "Henry, he said, ‘ve had a hunch. We've ‘otto cal off the th and 50th Divisions from the attack to the south and send them over {to Brookie on the lett.” “Well, you do realise, sit,’ General Pownall said, ‘that that's against all the orders that we've had and that if we take these divisions away, the French Ist Army is very unlikely to attack without British support “Yes, I enow that quite well. All the same iW go to bo done, So the decision was finally taken. It had ‘been an agonising decision to make, But it saved the BEF. ‘Admiral Ramsay takes charge Five days before, on May 20, mecting had boon called at Dover in the deep galleries of the eat litfbolow the caste: Hare: in large zoom which had held an eleciieal plant dur jing the First’ World: War and was: cons. quently known as the ‘Dynamo Room’, Vio. Admiral Bertram Ramsay had opened a discussion ‘of the “emergency evacuation acrop the Channel of very large forces” ‘Ramsay, an enterprising, tlear headed, somewhat’ aloof and. decdedly didactic ofcer of 7, whose career hed been impeded by on inability to accommodate himell to the idiosyncrasies of his superiors, knew the Strats of Dover well: He had setved there inthe Fist World War, and in 1096 had been call from the Retired List to examine the hharbour and port and the state of their de- fences. On the outhreak of war be b over command as Flag Officer in Charge His first main problem, ofcourse, was to find enough ships to evacuate oo large a num her of men in the shor time whieh would be allowed him. At the time of this conference on ‘May 20, it was believed that although three ‘French ports would be available Calais and Boulbgne, aswell as Dunkirk "no more than 10,000 men eould be taken from Gach af them in any 24 hours and that even this number could not be reached if there ‘were more than ‘moderate imerference avy ships could not be sed because of the tortuous channels and shoals off the coast, and because the threat from shore batteries tRould be greatly increased by the threat om. the ‘ir. Of lighter. ships, though, {ore was a serious shortage: Over 200 des: rovers hnd been In service when war was declared; bue many had since been lst damaged and many’ more cold not be spared Fram diy elmer Fortunstely, in addition to the passenger forry steamers, most of which had 186After the last of the little ships had gone the beaches of Dunkirk were littered with the debris of an armyA heavy toll was taken of French and British destroyers the Frenen Bourrasqua sank with 1,200, men on board‘many Allied ships—like i this pres destroyer —were sent | to the bottom, this was not the Luftwaffe triumph that Goring had hoped for‘been specially built to operate inthe Channa ports, and in addition to the sll-propelled Barges which could also operate in those water, “there were “available 40” Dutch asters (sehuitt) which had steamed aver Stter the Tall of Holland and which were tow manned by crews of the Roval Navy With the help of these: and other smallr ships, incluling padlesteamers and pleasure craft (alist of which was already eine prepared) it was hoped that Operation Dynamo~the code name given to the pro- posed evactution could be carried out with ome degree of russes, ‘The plans had rested, however, on. the assumption that three ports would ie avail thie, But by May 28 Uhe I Panzer Division had begun its iresistible attack on Boulogne; and three days later, after a stubborn de= {eneo against dive-bomber, fighters, tanks, and infantry, the remnants of Brigadier Nicholson's fore, were eaptured in Calais Citadel. The whole concept of Operation Dynamo was already in jeopardy "The protractad defence of Calais, desribed by Guferian himself "here, worthy of the highest. praise, had, ‘however, given Lard Gort tine in which to develo his Plans for the BEF" Nght for its existence. ‘As early at May 19 he bad given. an evacuation by sea_as one of the. peible Courses open to the BEF and soon aRerwards General Pownall had ordered Colonel Lord Bridgeman to prepare the necessary plans, ‘AC Uist time the Channel porta were open ail the way trom Boulogne to Zecbrugae Now the only stretah of coastline stil in Allied ais was the 80 od miles between Gravelines and -Nicuport, either side. of Dunkirk The diffesl task that faced Gort was to keep open the corridor by which his ‘men might reach i By the evening of May 25 the Belgians had expended their last rosorves and their front hhad been broken hetwean Geluwe and tho River Lys. ‘The next day the British 5th Division, which had now been moved up to General Brooke's support in this area, was being threatened by three of Bock’ divi sions, and, on the western front, Hitler had fauthorised the resumption of Rundstedt’s ‘advance hy ‘armoured. groups and infantry divisions in the direction ‘Tournal-Cassel- Dunkirk’. Anew pincer movement had thus been started which threatened com: pletely to encirele the French around Lille fand the whole of the BEF. Only one course ‘There could be no doubt in London now that Gort's decision, which he had taken entirely fon his own Initiative, would have to be endorsed. On May 26 Anthony Eden, Secre- tary of State for War, sent Gort a telegram in which he said that if the information he Thad received was true ‘only course open to Yyotu may be to fight your way back to west ‘here sill beaches and ports east of Grave- Tines will be ‘used for embarkation. Navy will provide fleet of ships and small boats tnd RAF would give full support. As with: ‘drawal may have to begin vory early, prolim: inary: plans should be urgently. prepared’ Preliminary plans already hid been pre: pared. Lieulenant-General Sir Douglas Erownrigg, the Adjutant General, had been ordered 10 organise the evacuation of all fdministrative and training units and other on-combatant troops which would prove an ‘embarrassment. to the withdrawal of the front-line troops. “And a schamo had boon drawn Up with the French General Blan chard, commanding Army Group 1, for 2 srithdrawal bebing the Lys Canal west of Title nd forthe subsequent formation of Tridgehead "with ts base slong the Lys Tor, itwaat fis intended, astandeould be Thad ogainat the Gorman with--the pave ie Blonthar’s “ino thought of retreat Ik oo became’ clear, however, that it would be impossible to hold a perimeter on The Lye, By midday on the 26th, when Tie: lors onder for the resemption ofthe attack had taken its fia, heavy fighting. bad Broken out along the western front in the fron held by the Snd Division; and further to thoveouth-out Brigadier Churchill's brigade {nthe bbth Divison, whieh ed not yet let to reinforce Brooke, was drawn into. the bate a Carvin “ie Sth Division, with Nirhesds brigade of the 48th Division under command, had teen transported through he night to fil the gop tween the Belgians and Brook's fe flanks But no sooner had they fred in. postion there than they, toa, re under beavy attack, and three Battal: Tins ofthe Ist Divison weve drawn into their battle, whlch raged all day ‘And ll day long, behind thers tthe west the Bnd Division Fought furously gains vedombers, artillery, and. the armour ‘f Gonaral Heth to Keepthe narrowing com dr open, By. dusk the division had been feducia to tho size of 4 single brigade Fiot there wns sill a. gap between. them find Franklyn’s reinforced "Sth Division Tnlaing bravely on to. the He between Cormines and Yproe, And throwgh this =p the ist the ek the ath, and the nd Divisions ofthe BEF, together with a third tf tho Fronch iat Army, sree tle i eseape ‘Two days Tater the pincers emly closed. How the Germans found Dunkirk. Both sides hailed Dunkirk as a trlumph. In a stiring speech on June 4, Winston Churchill told the House of Commons: “The tale af the Dunkirk beaches will shine in whatever records aro preserved of our affairsBut by then a tighter perimeter around Dunkirk’ had been organised. This peri- ‘meter had ben mapped out by the 3rd Corps Commander, Sir Ronald Adam (acting ‘on Gort’s orders) and by the French General Fagalde (deputy of Admiral Abrial, who, as Amiral Nord, was responsible forthe defence of Dunkirk). Tt stretched fram Nieuport in the east, along the canals through Furnes and Bergues, to Gravelines in the west. The French were to be respon sible for the wostern sector between Bergues and Gravelines, the British for the eastern ‘The British sdctor was divided into three — fone seyment for each corps—and each s0g- ‘ment had its own strip of beach for the evacuation, and its own ammunition and food dumps inside the perimeter with a eol- lecting area outside it. To solve the problem of trafic congestion, all vehicles, with very few excoptions, wore tobe abandoned beyond the canals. Brigadier Lawson was given the task of organising the troops already in the Dorimeter and of strengthening the defences ‘long the canals as tho remainder came in. It would be a long time yet, though, bo- fore the remainder could get in. For in the early hours of the 28th the Belgian army surrendered, and for 20 miles to the sea Gort’s left flank was laid open. General Brooke's 2nd Corps, fighting hard to hold back the onslaughts of the German VI Army, now had to do so on a greatly extended front. The 50th Division was brought up to extend the line northwards; and then the 4th and 3rd Divisions—two of the four divisions just withdrawn from the area of Lille whofe Rommel had been so confident of surrounding them —were rushed up by motor transport to expand the defences of the east ‘ern wall of the corridor leading to Dunkirk. ‘The German ring closes around Dunkirk: ‘The British army, which has been compressed into the territory eround Dunkirk, is going to its destruction before our concentric attack’ The photo shows part of the armada which saved the BEF. ‘Threats to the perimeter Before they could close the gap that the Belgian collapse had exposed, however, the German 256th Division, which had been riven fast towards the coast in improvised. transport, launched ‘an attack on the eastern end of the Dunkirk perimeter at ‘Nieuport, threatening to break out on to the beaches behind the main body of the BEF. But_at Nieuport the Germans came up Against the armoured cars of the 12th Lan ‘cers, who succeeded in bringing them to hralt. And by the time a heavier attack was launched, Brigadier Lawson had been able to reinforce the Lancers with a scratch fores of gunners and engineers fighting. as. in- faniry; units ofthe French 60th Division had been brought into the battle; and General Brooko had diverted a brigade of the British 44th Division from Dixmude, For the rest af the day the Aighting went on all along the eastern’ wall of the pocket from Nieuport to Comines and along the western wall where the remaining divisions of the BEF struggled furiously to hold back ‘the driving German armour from Merville up to Gravetines. ‘The battle along this western wall wae both savage and confused. There was little ‘or no cohesion between the British divisions, nor could there be: contact was lost, com ‘munications were cut. Repeatedly German tanks broke through the wall between the ‘op points, through a barrage of artillery and small-arms fire, forcing a withdrawal to other temporary stop points further back, ‘while the south ond of the pocket, was gradu ally being bitten offby claws of afresh pincer ‘movement formed by Rommel's VII Panzers driving in from the west and by Bock's VII 338,000 ESCAPED Tnfantzy Division pressing inwards from the east, The jaws closed and ai divisions of the Brunch Ist Army were surrounded south- ‘west af Lill, where for four days they brave: Jy continued hopeless strug under the Xeadership of General Moline pinning down seven German divisions well away from the Dunkirk perimeter. Farther to the north, throughout the ater: non of May 28 igh ther fant a sions “pressed. forward against " Ceneral Brooke's eastern front, while five Panzer and four motorised divisions attacked the yrestern wall, forcing the British divisions back towards this small perimeter of marsh and dyke and sand. "The 44th Division, suffering heavy losses on its way, withdrew to a new penton on ‘the Mont dos Cats the remnants of the 2nd Division fall back through Poperinghe: units ofthe th Divison wor stony eta ava 8s thoy fought desperately to cling to Casce "The nextday the withdrawal continued as the British svillery fred their remaining ammunition st the Germans so remorse fesely closing in, As it grew dark the rear- fuards of the 0th Division General Montgomery's 3rd. Di drow from the Poperinghe Line; the 42nd and’ the Sth pulled back fom the upper ‘waters of the Yaer, and elsewhere, all along the ever-constricting front, down the Ine creasingly congested roads, the brigades, Sometimes sil more or les intact, but more often fragmented into separate battalions or even separate companies, fought thelr way ‘back into the perimeter and took up their tions to defend it behind. the. high ranks of the canals, ‘By midnight on the 29th the greater part, of the BEP and near haf ofthe Prone ot 187Army had managed to reach these canals; and although a few days before it had seemed impossible to belleve that they would not spend the rest of the war in a German ‘camp, there now seemed a slender that they might get away to England. Crisis of logistics Some, a least, had already gone. Most ofthe casualties from the base hospitals had heen gnbarked four days before and on ay 25 large numbers of base personnel and other non-combatant troops, with more wounded had followed them. ‘The next day, at 1857 hours, the Admiraley signalled to, Dover “Operation Dynamo is to commence’ ‘Admiral Ramsay's problems were ral fr~ midable. Dover, with its eight berths for ‘ross-Channel steamers, and. its. 60-odd ‘mooring buoys, was not adapted forthe con- testion of shipping that Operation Dynamo Entailed. Soon at these berths ae many as 20 ships were to be moored in tiers three deep, while at the buoys ship after ship came up tfuel or take on stores. At Dunkirk ‘the postion was Far worse. The iowa and the quays had been subjected to fleree aerial Bombardment for several. days. now. The waterworks and mains had boon destroyed And the docks had been rendered. useless A guiding jetty and two moles the West Mole that ied out from the oil storage area and the more important East Mole, a narrow plank-way that stetched out. over three Quarters of a mile into the roadstead—were fll that remained. And the berthing of chips ‘against the Bast Mole, for which it had not in'any ease boon designed, was dificult ‘notgh oven when there was o enemy inter” foronce to contend with Tn the Channel’ between Dunkirk and Dover there were grave problems ofa difer- ent aor te avr tho roa of the ‘evacuation ships, how to. provide counter. bombardment agsiast the German batteries now established at Calais, how to provide fnthireraft protection, ow to sweep the approach channels for mines, how to deal with the enemy ships operating from Flush ing and the U-bosts reported approaching from the Nerth Sea—how to daall these things as well as Ife ‘up to 45,000 of the BEF within. two days’. ‘These’ were. the Admiralty’s orders, for after those two days it was oxpocted that the Germans. would hhave made further evacuation impossible, or the crows of the ships themselves, the worst ofa the hazards was the sbellire from the Calas area snd tho air bombardment. Captain Duggan, master of the ste of Man packet, Mona's Queen, who made the eres tng to’ Dunkirk on the Mist evening of the operation, reported how ‘hell was let loose” of his hip hen hewn hela fom the Shore by’ single guns and also by salvoes* {rom shore baltertes. He continued Shes were fing all around us. The first salvo went over us, the second astern of tx Hh ie rat sh cul ya ortunately it dropped shore, right under our Ssiern. The ship tous riddled with shrapnel, Inastly all on the bont and promenade decks Then we wore attached from the ait. A un sera bomber made a power dive tovwards us and dropped five bombs, but he oas off the ‘mark too] should say about 150 eet rot us in lie ae il ban sel although we were getting out of range Suunkers that bombed seas shot oven and ‘rashed into the water just chead of us (no Survivors). Thon another Junkers attacked 4s, bul before he reached us he was brought doson in lames Then the tension cane tle ‘Owing othe bombardment, could se that theres of some of nye wre bay shaken T did noe feel to ul math, but Inustored the crow and told them that Dun hirk was being bored and eas on fire. On teing asked if they would volunter fo go in they iso fo «man and fam gla fo swe ‘ook offas many as Mona's Queen cont arr | Eating Dunkirk wan already not erly azardous. but sometimes impossible. In the town oil tanks and warehouses, sheds and quayeide oflees were ablaze, the'flamos now Seen leaping up over tho wrecked town, how hidden bythe thick black smoke, and inthe harbour the many wrecks made hav gation perilous, The bombing was ferocious Need for smaller craft {twas clear that son the men would have to be emberked notin the harbour fut along the sandy beaches that stretched sway of either side oft Niouport inthe cast ante Gravolines in the west But Ramsay had ax yet fey small craft snd small rat would be sential to transport the. mon irom. the Shallow waters to the bigger ahipo. which ‘would be unable a got in case. fle signaled Urgently for more fo tho Acmiealys where Captain Wharton ofthe Small Vessels Foal hhad been collecting bosts on his own initia: ve for nhmost week an alroagy had 40, ‘moored inthe ‘Thames near: Weeaminsio Pier. Soon many” more were onthe. way from yachting nites, bayer, and p> vate moorings all over the south and east Coasts and from the banks of the Thames: ‘Throughout Sunday night the evacuation wont on, and by midnight a total of measly 530,000 nen had heen brought safely ack to Dover At dawn on Monday, however, both the shell from Calan aid the attacks from tho ai had Sncreased in intensity. nd several more ships were damaged and sme itrmed back." Alara the. Mond’ nie 29 men were killed and 60 wounded when the Ship came under fre from the German bat {erica on shore aswell mfrom the Luftwafe tnd 88 Yeudole was cank off Calas Twas now painfully cles. n fac tha the short mine-swept route to Dunkirk, which took the shin within range of the’ Calais haiteries, would have to be abandoned, and that the’ longer channel which ran north of the Goodwin sands to the Kwinte Buoy north-west of Ostend would have to take its Plce. This route Couto ¥) was, however, B'miles long 48 miles longer than the one which hed been prviounly used and to ane Fan erase ite an da ferusiy extended period during which the ships would be endanuord by the Lulbwefe RAP Fightor Command alloted 18 squad ‘ors to patrol the route bu the lose of tie Ghd not permit of so seemingly straights forward solution ‘When ‘Capeain Tennant came ashore at Dunkirk in’ the late afternoon. as. Senior Naval Officer, he realised immediately how Tittle time there was. A report fom the BEY indieated that their position wav precarious; and the positon at Dunkirk waa sbyiously {0. The ir bombardments continued (chore wrere 12 separate raids thie day) and the town war burning more freely than ever almost all the harbour facilities had boon destroyed, At 3000 hours he sent thi signal to Dover: ‘Please send every available rat to beaches at of Dunkirk immediate Beacuation tomorrow nights problema? Hvacuation even on this night was hazard ous ‘enoogh ‘The ‘cross Channel steamer, Queen of the Channel, arrived alongside the Pier to find an air raid in progress. In his report tho chief efficer wrote! ‘Our guns with others were in action. We tanded'a man on the pier to hang on 0 our ropes. About 8 pm Lieutenant-Commander Williams, RN, came on board and told the captain to proceed out of the harbour, lower his boats and get the men on board fromm the beach, We got to the anchorage... When I ‘was about to lower the fourth Boat se received the information that there were a number of troops arriving at. the pier. With the re mainder of the crew we sitll had on board we proceeded alongside the pier. We got about 500 men on board. They were arriving in batches. About 12 pm we were told there were no more men in the vicinity, $0 we eu ‘our mooring: ropes. On hearing. more men Tunning along the pler we got the ship along: side the pier again and got about 80 more ‘men on board. During our stay alongside the ire fad four air raid While were leaving the pier the enemy dropped illumin ated parachutes which lit up the whole sea front, Our Captain backed the vessel up the ‘harbour under the smoke sereen made avatl- table to us from the burning town of Dunkirk We then proceeded to 0) and pick up our boats and ereie Hazards and heavy losses ‘As well as being hazarous, the work of the beaches vas fearfully slow. Ships had to use their heavy, unwieldy: lfeboats, and. the naval vessels their cutters and whalers and hard as the crews worked, less than 2,500 men were taken up from the beaches that night, Only the prompt arrival of more suitable small craft could save the situation from disaster. So in the meantime Captain Tennant felt that he had no alternative but {to altempt the embarkation of men from the East Mole. The tide beneath the piles made berthing there highly dangerous, but the attempt’ must be made. Tennant ordered Ship to try, and the bravo attempt was suc cessful: men could be more quickly embarked. ‘The next day, May 28, full use was made of it Barly in the morning Tennant signalled for ships to come there, and within a few hhours six destroyers, later followed by eros Channel and Irish Sea packets, had berthed, loaded troops, backed away, and returned to Dover. Soon, in spite of the difieulties and dangers of tho offshore channel, the air ‘bombardment, and the shells of the German guns now approaching ever closer from the landward side, and in spite of the hazards to thoir thin side-plating of scraping and running against the concrete walls and the sides of other ships, destroyers wore taking off as many as 900 men each trip, slowing them below deck and on deck, opening com: partments usually Toft shut in such condi fons and even opening watertight doors to Make more space available. ‘So crowded were their upper decks ab times,” David Divine has written in his The Nine Days of Dunkirk, “a fine, accurate, and. moving ‘account of the whole operation, ‘that they could not fre their guns, so lop-heavy were they that, as they took avoiding action against falting bombs, they heeled over 0 Wild and impossible angles” ‘Often, too often, there bombs could not be avoided, In the harrow offshore channel, filled with the wrecks of ships, water: logged boats, bits of hawser, broken planks, and floating’ bodies, there was not enough ‘room in which to manocuvee effectively and ‘once berthed the congestion was appalling. 159‘The Lockgerry, for instance, loading under heavy fire in the harbour, eould not only do nothing to avoid the bombs, she could not for 2 time even get outa’ destroyer was Toading aeross her decks alongside her, and three others wore loading astern. "The lasses this day were very heavy. Those ‘ships Usat survived the borabing at the mole ‘wore frequently’ damaged or sunk as they steamed back down the oftshore channel ‘Tae Queen of the Channel was dive-bombed and sunk on her way out; the French cargo vessel Dowaisien, with 1,000 men on board, truck a magnetic mine at the side of the channel and slovely disappeared; and the old paddle-minesweeper Brighton Bello was hoisily malking for home, her great whools ehurning in their boxes, when she hit a hnidden ‘wreck that ripped her bottom out. But now, oa the beaches, the first of the small ships wore arriving, tows of whalers fand ships’ lifeboats, yard craft and coasters “and ameng them the Gipsy King, a beach motor-hoat from Deal, with a erew of three: We went ta Dunkirk on May 25th. We stayed there about 48 hours. We were under hellfire and machine-gun fire. We stayed there tll every British soldier was off the beach. J should like to mention Harry Brown who did @ brave action. We just loaded the dhoat with troops. We saw a pontoon with sol diers in being swamped with waves. Brown, being the swimmer, decided to gv over the ‘ile with a rope; he tied it the pontoon and ‘saved the soldiers from being drowned. 1 am luriting this aa Pred Hook and Harry Brown are in the minesweepers Havoc on the docks ‘The following day, May 29, the lasses were even greater than the day before. In the arly hours of the moming the destroyer Wake was struck amidships by a torpedo and broke in twor abe sane in 15 seconds ‘vith most of er load of troops below. Soon afterwards another destroyer, the Grafton, twas also hit by torpedo whieh exploded Ander tho wardreom, killing 35 army ofcers tho were lying there exhausted; her captain was billed by machine-gun bullets aa he ‘od ot deck’ and soon she, to, sank. These ‘were only two of three destroyers sunk and Bx damaged on this one day. "The losses among the otber ships wore even more severe the Clon MacAlister the fargest merchant vessel used a. Dunkirk, twat bombed from the air and was soon In flames the Fenellx was holed by lumpe of concrele which wore blasted off the Toole Sind hurtled through her side below the Wralerline, another paddlesteamer, the Grested Bagle, which (ook up the Fesell's survory Wa leo Ht and fot on fre and founded an the beach to the east of the Thole; the Mona's Queen was mined and sank Within twa” minutes) the. trawlers Polly ehinson, Confort, Nout, and. Cato all oon followed her; many other ships, inclid- ing’ the. French destroyer, Mista, were bral dened ‘Most of the havoc was caused by a fero- cious air bombardment launched on the male Soon after 1600 hours, when the. wind ‘hanged, blowing inshore the heavy pall of Smoke which up til then had serecned the harbour and roadstead. By 1900 hours all activity on the mole hadstoppedand Admiral Ramsay was informed frm Dunkirk Usa the harbour was ‘blocked Hy damaged ships and All evacuation ‘must therefore be eect from the beaches" “The attacks off the beaches, however, 160 ‘wore by now quite as relentless as those on the harbour. Two Southern Railway shipe, the Normonnia and the Lorine, were bath hhombed and sunk, and soon after leaving La Banne beach ‘between Dunkin and Nieo- port with 760 troops on Hoard, the tine Sweeper Gracie Fields was hit by bomb ‘which burst her pipes and. jammed her Tudder. Her engines could not be stopped {and she circled round and round uatil event tually she sank. Another minesweeper, the Waverley, was attacked by 12 Heinkels and was sunk by @ bomb which wrecked the Ywardroom and passed through he bottom of the ship, after her one 12-pounder, her {assis guns, and the rife fie of the troops on ‘oar fad failed to drive the Heinkel of “In the face of thi fearful tol, the Admir~ ally decided that all modern destroyers must ‘be withdrawn from Dunkirk. For if lses Wwere to continue at this rato, the sea ife- Iines ‘of Britain would he seriously on. angered. So the position Tooked bleak in- deed when, on the marning of May 30, Rear~ ‘Admiral Wake-Walker, sent over with two cammodores to strengthen the naval organ- {sation of Dunkirk, faced his frst. day's duties, With only 15 ofthe older and smaller destroyers left available for Operation Dy- fhamo, and with 0 many other ships now ‘damaged or sunk, st seemed impossible that fa rate of liking could be maintained that ‘xould evacuate the bulk of the BEF bofore the army perimeter collapsed. By ‘noon ‘Admiral Ramsay’ at Dover had been made acutely avare ofthis fact; and in the early titernoon he telephoned the First Sen Lord His representations were effective. at 1530 hhours six of the modern destroyers were Ordered to return immediately to Dunkirk ‘Asie happened the numbers brought home that morning, even without the help of the modern, destroyers, "were encouragingly high. Conditions. at Dunkirk had greatly improved: The seas wore quieter, the low ‘loud ceiling and the stole from the stil burning cil tanks wore providing an ade- quate screen. Despite the damage it had Suffered, i waa sill possible to woe the mmole: and army engingors had constructed ‘makeshift jetties out of all the trucks that {ould be found and were capable of being driven down into the sea Initiative and sacrifice ‘The ships’ crews, both British and French, made the most of their opportunity. Seven old British destroyors carried over 1,000 ‘men each this day. The passenger steamar, the Zale of Guernsey, took back nearly 506 wounded. The Royal Sovereign, which had taken two full louds on Wednesday, took tivo more today. And most significant ofall, perhaps, the little ships were now working Off the beaches, ferrying the troops to the ddeeper-draughit vessels, with splendid initiae tive and effec. ‘The variety of these Boats was extraordinary. There’ were lifeboats, dockyard launches, cockle boats, river ty Freneh and Belgian fishing boats, pleasu craft Pickfore’s litle transport ships made {or their trade between the Solent ports and the Isle of Wight, oyster dredgers, yachts, ‘Thames barges, oven the Thames fire-float, ‘Massey Shaw, which sailed ot of the river for the first time in her career. "The experiences of a man who sailed in ape of thie tle shige were chraclersic ‘of many. Allan Barrell, of the pleasure-boat Shamrock, wrote: We stared and stared at what looked like ‘thousands of sticks on the beach and were ‘emazed to see them turn into moving masses of humanity T thoughe quickly of gotng in, Picking up 70 to 80 ond clearing off With the sun behind me I eateulated [shoul find some East Coast town. We got our freight, 40 did the Canvey Queen, when 1 realised i woud be selfish t0 cleat off when several destroyers and large vessels were waiting i deep eater to be fed by small craft, 80 1 decked whot our job was tobe We could seat sity men and with those standing we had abou! eighty weary and Siorving British troope, some teithout boots some only in their pants, but enough tif eft in'them to clamber on board the destroyers. ‘Again endl agtin we brought our cargo 10 ‘his ship une she was fall "Navigation was extremely dificult owing to the various wreckage, uptumed boats, flat Ing ‘torpedoes, and soldiers in the” water trying to be sailors for the fist time. They addled their callable lle boats out to Ime with the butt oftheir rifle, and many Shouted that thes were sinking; we could not help thm. ws inshore as close os dare. “Later T took in two of three large Carly oats one behind the other. Theve were fled {ocapocty, about fifty men in each standing tp to thar wousis in water in the net inside My creft was onded, foo. We were just mak- ing for our desirayer when I was brought fo stendatil: my engine stopped, the propeller had fouled, I belive, human obstruction. There were many of these in the shallow water, Naval men came down anc tried to free the obstruction but weithout success. 1 tons too seek to dive under the thick bicek Git which strvounded we, so rather than be ten siting on our useless raft T asked to be taken on HM ship. This was the Tas sirow, ‘Raving to leave my vessel which constituted amy life savings «1 took one more glance Gf the beach and sat down beneath a gun tuth'my hands over my ce and prayed ‘llalong that beach men were standing or swimming in the water, shouting for help, Fushing at boats and swamping them until the skippars had to take out revolvers and {hzeaten to shoot the panie-stricken colder "Things were getting Had, wrote the cox swain of the Margate lifeboat, Lord South- dorough. "Troops ‘mere rushing out {0 us from all directions tnd were being drowned close to us and we eu not get to them and {the lat time we went in tothe shore it seom- cd to me we were doing more harm by draw: {ng the men off the shore, as, with their hoavy'elothing on, the sur was knocking them over and they were unable to getup. ‘Yet for all the dificultes, by the and of that day” 63,823 men had been landed in England 6,500 maro than the day before ‘Next. day, however, the wind dispersed the smoke and haze, and the shelling and serial bombardment and machine-gunning, Which had stackened much on Thursday, Inereased to a new intensity, German arti. lery brought the La’ Panne beaches under heavy shellfive from beyond Nieuport; and the Laftwalfe ame back in foreg once more, inking the French destroyer Sirocco and badly damaging two other French destroyers, "The RAF lout 28 aircraft in the course of air’ counteraciivitien, But the RAF's Ions, the following day1 toa German loss of 29-wore even greater. Fur on Saturday the Laftwaife launcied the heaviest attack of the entire operation. ‘There were farious bombardments. of the whole length of La Panne beaches along Which fighters made constant strafing runs Out-at sea and in the harbour dive-bombersswooped down from 10,000 feet to attack the congested shipping. Within a few hours fone Franch and three British destroyers hhad been lost—together with two eroas- Channel steamers, a minesweeper, anda ‘gunboat and four destroyers hal boon hit, "In these circumstances, it was apparent, ag Admiral Ramsay wrote, "that continuation ‘of the operation by day must eause Toss of ships and personnel out of all proportion to the number of troops evacuated, and if per sisied in, the momentum of the evacuation would automatically and rapidly: decrease.” "The inevitability of this was recognised. And the Admiralty ordered all operations bby daylight to stop. The exhausted crews, some of which were near to physical and ‘mental collapse (afew of them had cole lapsed and been replaced), prepared to work again through another night. Shrinking perimeter As the crews prepared for another night's ‘unremitting work, the troops defending the perimeter withdrew to a new and shorter Tine round Dunkirk where, it was propased, a bridgehead would be held ‘with all avall: fable anticaireraft and anti-tank guns and with such troops as had not yet embarked ‘The perimeter had been contracting by dogroos ever since ‘Thursday morning, when the War Office had received a message fram ‘Admiral Ramsay: mastermind of Ounkirk the Army Headquarters in the village of La Panne to the effect that ‘the perimeter cannot be held for long’. During the course of this day, however, the German pressure hhad eased and only one attempt was made to cross the canals. This attack was tempor: frily successful north of Furnes, but the Coldstream Guards had counterattacked and driven the enemy out of their bridge- head. And elsewhere along the line of the canais, the British and French defences were strengthened and the infantry dug in, while the German attack faltered. For up till now the German Command had filed to recognise the full signifieance of what was happening at Dunkirk. A belief hhad long persisted that, the surrounded communiqué “had complacent “The fate of the French army in Artois is sccled. Tho, British army, which has heen’ compressed into the territory around Dunkirk is also going to its des: treton before our concentric attack” ‘This belie, complicated bys fatal. in- decision as to how best to press the attack and where, had ted to astate which was close to inertia. ‘There isan impression here that nothing is happening today, the Operations Oicer at rare HQ ‘complained. patiently on May 30, "an impression that no ne is any longer interested in Dunkirk At the same time General Halder, Chief of the General Staff, was writing in his diary "The disintogration of the enemy which we have encirelod continues." ‘Their forward units, which wore in touch with German ‘troops still, to be sure continued to fight ‘with tooth and nail’. But the rest were ‘fleeing to the coast and trying to get across ‘the Channel on anything that Goats’ Later that day it was realised at German army headquarters that the dismissive term, ‘anything that floats, scarcely compre. hhended the importance of the armada of litte shipe that. were bobbing about 30 elus- ively in the Channel, And it was at last decided that an all-out effort must be made to break through the lino of the BEF's defences. So, early the next day, German pressure in tho Furnes area was so greatly Inereased that a further constriction of the Perimeter was made necossary. ‘The Allies ‘were forced to withdraw to the line of the defences along the Franco-Belgian frontier — 8 withdrawal that meant a loss of 9 miles of Coastline between Dunkirk and Nieuport land the opening up of the beaches west of La Panne to German shelling. ‘The withdrawal had also meant that Lord Gort had no further excuse to evade the instructions he had received to return home a soon 2 his command was so reduced that hhe could hand over to a corps commander. He had asked permission to remain till the end, but this had been refused; and of May 51 he handed over command of the rear guard, which was to be provided by Ist Corps) to Major-General "Alexander and General Brooke returned to Dover. ‘The German pressure on the perimeter continued throughout the day, but after six Albacores and 18 Blenbeims had bombed the concentrations of Army Group Bin and beyond Nieuport, there seemed less danger of a breakthrough General Alexander felt Sure, however, that the present perimeter Tine ‘could not'be held until ‘all the were embarked’, as Admiral Abrial had hhoped. And, indeed, early in the morning of Saturday, June 1, while the Luftwalfe Dogan its massive assault, the first German land attacks were launched. The line wat penetrated ut Borgues and st Hoymille, Decessitating a further withdrawal. which tools the British into their final bridgehead. Saturday night was dark and the loading in the wreckage-cluttered harbour was more confused than ever. Ships collided and blocked each other's passage the erowds of French and British soldiers were so thiek fon the mole that at’ 0200 hours the com= ‘mander at Dunkirk decided it was ‘essential that. rearguard BEF embarks from’ the beaches’ ‘Once imore the erews of the small boats were required to work ta the limits of their endurance. And their probleme were even Beater now, for French troops ware by this time in the majority, and the difficulty in making men understand the dangers of rushing and swamping the boats increased. ‘Tho persistent bombing, the constant fear, the hunger, and exhaustion had broken the nerve of a'few men oomplately. For days they had been existing in a world that only the strongest willed and least imaginative could endure without appalling strain During tho early stages of the evacuation, discipline in some of the units which had been split up by the withdrawal had broken down. There was a good deal of drunken- ness in Dunkirk and several bombed shops and warehouses were looted. Men came down ‘on to the beaches with all manner of acquis- ‘ions from cases of brandy to eartons of cigarettes, from toys and bieveles to wireless sets. And having got on to the beaches, they made little effort to co-operate with those who were doing their best t9 set up some sort of beach organisation. Indeed, they often failed to find any organised leader. ship at all. The system drawn up at General Adam's headquarters had seemed orderly enough; but the division of the beach into separate sectors was of no help to men who had become separated from their units and hhad no idea where to go. Thousands of men wandered about from one group la the next ‘ying to find a friendly face, an embarka- tion officer who would tell them what to do, where to form a queue. Most of thom were utterly exhausted, ‘scarcely able’, the master of a ship noticed, te walk: along the pier Once they had found a boat able to take them off they were all tao often inclined to wade in the sea towards it, blindly trusting that the navy would do the rest. The experiences recorded by one of the Oriote's officers were Tar from wneommon, ‘The Oriole, a paddle-minesweeper, had 10 adequate boats with which to take the men Off the beach, so the eaplain decided to run hher aground’ and then use her aa a pier along which the men could elimb to other Ships in the deeper wale aston” Everybody went aft to raise the bows as ‘much as possible, and we went lickity-split for the shore and kept her full ahead uni ‘we jarred and eame toa full sop. As we went in” we dropped. teo seven hundredweight anchors from the stern, to kedge of with The men waded and swam out and many of them had t0 be hauled over the rails. The ‘snag toas that when a rope was thrown 20.4 ‘man, about six grabbed it and just hung on looking up blankly with the water breaking over their shoulders, and it was a hell of @ Jjob getting any of them to let go so that the ‘rest could get pulled overboard. Once they fad landed on board the relief was overwhelming. ‘A curious sense of Tree- dom toole pasession of me," one army officer said, "All the accumulated strain of the last few hours, of the last day or so vanished. I folt that my job was over. Anything else that remained to be done was the navy's business.” "For some, though, there was no such eon- tentment. And as the hours and days passed the strain proved too much: Hang, hasty, fand desperatly tired, their mind toreured fy" the "sereching of the dive-bomiors Whistles, ‘the ships’ sirens, the exploding Fombs,theraite of machine suns he shouts find screams of men, they broke’ down ‘Bul there were few, Mont men soon noticed how litte. damage’ the German’ bombers were actually doing. on the beaches, the Sxpleding home s6ct "up tall" plumes of Sand. ye they sank deep and thet Plast ‘as med nd deadened. A foxhole, a= Tieatarly one sheltered hy a bank or, even beter, ‘on old mattress, aforded ample rection from everything but a diet Me Be aradually a sist of eanfdence and sel passesion came over the beaches. The early Evacuations had been, for the: most par, timited 0 the army's Yall or troops unused to fighting: but during the subsequent days the troops remaining ad ell had thet bapa a5 Now divers or at ot only by the guns ofthe shige at son, but thoi fr of the men onthe beach 164 161Mt aa fins Sin i RS ask eal Te fight to hold the perimeter was savage: this photo of dead BEF soldiers rs cota Cdr a files » yHumour and pathos ‘There wae a sesurgence, to, of thé British serviceman't qradiional humour, at times {rimly eardoni, at others blithely facetious oz aalor calmly fishing over the stern ofthe -Medunty Queen a8 she lay of the mole, wait- ing for bis turn to po in, and calling back when tokd there were neh aout and, 1 there were, they would be dead, "You never fain tell sir. inght catch bloody Boche ele va ‘fc standing”, gangwaye, and bawling out lke pierbe Backers Any more anymore og the Brighton Queen! armiy gunners irom Vor thie singing as they walted for thelr Cart “Oh, I do like to be beside die weaside And a young sub-heutenant thinking what. $jamboree" all wa, though Fuher 2 desperate business at times in the Ireds crammed with troops, tying 0 handle them in the sell and the waah of bombs. A bomb overturned @ eheler fifty yards away from us om one occasion and Wwe tcent over fo pul he fll ont of the drink. We pated Out all those wee could reach some sank tcith all the ridiculous ironmangery tet! on to them—and we wore just shoving off when toe heard a faint pina from inde the Boat tohich was upside down, ond a faint voice toas heard. “What shall 7 do? So te told hhim to duch his head snder and come up tute and not to iaste tine playing hide did egh at euch atime "So there was «bit of giggle and up come alin hatand under stan overcoat, « gama, ich ands onl there a the {219s those chaps cary! 30 we pulled hint in, burp inthe face =a litte Cookney—~and he [rosped lke a landed fisk: "Goud, what a ‘loos nighomare™ ‘A Gly mightmare i was; but chere was far lest muddle towards’ the end. On the night of Saburday, June 1, Mr K, B, Breit ‘waded ashore from one othe ships! boats {owed by the Medinay, Queen, and called fut want sixty mon? or some time he Feceived no reply "T sighted a causeway about eight fect wide heading out Inia the water, Tomy sur- Prise T found it to be a perfectly ordered Hraight column of men about atx abreast, Standing as if on parade. When I reached them a sergeant stepped up ta me and sad "Yen, sins Siaty men ir?” He then walked along the column, which remained In per feet formation and. detailed the required number to fllow me. He placed the hand of one of them in Mr Brett. The man had been blinded. He was told he was being taken to safety. He suid Simply and politely, "Thanks, mate™ and fallowed Brett at int the deeper water “BEF evacuated’ [By midnight tho total of men brought home that day, June 1, was no loss then 64,429, ‘And the next night Operation Dynamo was completed. General Alexander was picked up by Admiral Wake-Walker and at 2350 hours Captain Tennant signalled from Dun- kirk a short, triumphant message: "BEF evacuated ‘On Monday, June 3, the Germans closed in on the shrunken perimeter. The French rearguard fought bravely’ against heavy ‘odds but the enemy foreed them back to a how line on the outskirts of the town little ‘more than 2 miles from the base of the East Mole. It was agreed between the British and Fronch Admiralties that this French rear guard, estimated to number 30,000 men, should be taken away that night, Admiral 164 Ramsay made his plans and the necessary shipping was sent. But there were far more tHat 30,000 French troops in Dunkirk. ‘Alid a5 "General Barthelemy's men di fengaged and came down to the sea, what the French historian Jacques Mordal described ‘as a ‘vast crowd of troops, materialised sud denly as the news of the last departure spread. Out of the eellars and the holes streams of unarmed men appeared, emerging everywhere, converging on the mole with no {intention of giving up their chances of escape 40 those who had been fighting for them.” ‘And 0, a the old destroyer, Shikari, the last ship out of Dunkirk, satled for Engiand al 0340 hours, 40,000 men wore Tet to be capiured by the Germans who broke oat fon to the heaches at last. 388226 men, however, had been brought away. ‘In London when the full measure of this remariable triumph became known, the relief of the government was profound. At the beginning of the previous week, the Prime Minister had felt t necossary to warn ‘the House of Commons in sombre tones that the country must ‘prepare itself for hard and heavy tidings. But now, as he later wrote, ‘in the midst of our defeat, glory had come te the Island people, united and unconquer: able... there was a white glow, overpower ing, sublime, whieh ran through our island from end to end... and the tale of the Dun- kink beaches will shine in whatever records fare preserved of our alfairs” ‘Basking in this glow and in the pride that thad baen engendered, the people of Britain began to helieve that they had, in some way, ‘won a great vietory ‘But {1 was a good deal less than that. And Britain's position was perilous, ‘The BEF with the loss of 68,111 killed, wounded, fand taken prisoner) bad been saved, but immense quantities of its equipment had been lost, (including 2472 guns, 63,879 vehicles, 20,548 motoreyeles and well over £500,000 tons of stores and ammunition) and it was in no condition to defend the island from attack. ‘The Royal Navy was still powerful Toree, but the operations off the Norwegian coast had demonstrated only too clearly how vulnerable its big ships were to aireraft fying from inland bases, and of the 243 ships sunk at Dunkirk (out of more than 1,000 engaged) six were British destroyers ahd 19 other destroyers had been damaged ‘The RAF had acquitted itsolf woll, but it hhad been seriously weakened, and. its achievement was, indeed, far less gratifying than the accepted figures seemed to indicate ‘The Prime Minister, in a magnificent speoch in the House of Commons on June 4, (00k particular pains to praise the work of the force. He had been deeply disturbed by re- ports of the army's dissatisfaction with the over and support they had received at Dun Keine and of bow men in RAP uniform had been insulted hy returning soldiers. We must be tery eareful not f0 assign to this deliverance the attributes of « victory. Wars are not won by evacuations, Bul there was a vietory inside this deliverance which Should be noted. Tt was gained by the air Force. Many of our solders coming back hhave not seen the airforce at work; they saw ‘only the bombers which escaped tts protective fattack. They underrate its achievements. 1 hhawe heard muck talk of this: that is why T 440 out of my way to say this; Twill tell you ‘about it This was e great trial of strength between the British and German air forces. Can you conceive a greater objective for the Germans in the air than to make evacuation from these Beaches impossible, and to. sinb oll these ships which were displayed, almost (0 the fxtont of thousands? Could there have been fn objective of greater military importance Gnd significance for the whole purpose of the war than thied They tried hard and they teore bealen back; they were frustrated in thar tas We got the ary ans and they hhave ‘paid. fourfold flor any tosses” whe they have inflicted ‘When the figures were checked and analysed, however, this war seen to be far from’ the truth, During’ the operation Fighter Command lost 108 alrraft but the German losses over Dunkitk. were nathing like four times this figure. In fact, they wore between 130 and 140, and ofthese the French navy shot down a few and the Royal Navy claimed to have destroyed 95, There ean be ho coubt that the RAP fought bravely and skilflly.Ieis ime now to recognise, though, that the Luftwaffe did so too, and that al= thotgh 129 German oflers were lost ta the Luftwaffe between May 21 and 31 there was no such wholesale slaughter as the prop ganda of IMO suggested "But Sf Dunkirk, even inthe limited sense which Churebill ‘mentioned, could not be Considered a victory, it did'achiove. some. {hing of inestimable value: for the frst time, pethaps, since the war began, the British pople were wholeheartedly determined to Fight and to win. They had seen for thom- salves what Modern mechani warfare theant; how right those peophets such as Basil Liddel! Hart had Been to. propound the arguments for doup strategie ponatra- tion by independent. armoured forees_and to insist "that this penetration could be checked by concentrated countersirakes by Similar forces; they hed seen how woefully incapable the BEF and the French armies ‘wore of subduing the force of the Panzer thrusts; how close Britain had come to the Sudden and shameful defeat that threatened 0 s00n to overtake France. But they’ had Seon, too, @ brilliant. display. of improviea: tion, an inspiring example of fortitude and Solfaacriice, ‘The realisation that. catas- (Gophe had been so narrowly aveided; that the enemy's guns ould even pow be heard forest the Channel provided the sudden Sheek that they had long needed. ‘Kod so it seat Unat when Chureil in that rest speech of sine 4 told the House of Commons that the British should fight on the beaches and on the landing-grounds, ia the fields and in the streets. and in the hills and that they should never surrender, ‘he was not forming public apinion he was rofecting it. The Dunkirk spirit was born Tehad been a close-in thing. Bt now at least there was a chance of survival CHRISTOPHER HIBBERT was crm in. Laeestarshive. in 1928 educated at adley and at Orel (College, Oxford, he joined. the 5 army it the rats of the Sher woud Foresiers in 1943, later [ransfering to the Och’ Riles Commsioned in 1944, be served in Maly as 6 platoon commander in’ Use London Tesh Files After” being Wounded at" Commachio he. Was ‘awarded. the MC. and appointed Stalf Captain ft Allied Force Headquarters; later he became ergonal Atsistant to General Duff, His published ‘worko, which have Boon tanalated into most wat Europeon languages, ineludectudiee of the Batle of Agingourt, Wolfe at Quobec, the rotteat to Corunna, Lord Raglan, the Crimean War, Musso. lini and the Batileof Arbor He ie fellow ofthe Royal Secioty of Literature.Pee ee ee ee eee eT“ ONE MAN’S BI France June 1940 John Hillaby ‘Thore were sl 140,000 British solders —mostl ‘line of communication’ raops—leit in France when te Dun- Link evacuation ended, and no one Intended that they shoul be lt there to be picked up as prisoners at no Cost tothe Germans. In Mr Ghurchils eyes, they could atleast be used in support of the French armies ofthe South and west. and indeed with a starting lack of realisation that if those armies existed at al, thoy hac bean reduces to the state of a hera of sheep Deing rounded up by wows the Prime Minister now sent two more British dvisiona across the Channel to help stitfen therm. ‘Thus was the 2nd BEF formed, whose Ia in section was to last some 17 days—for hardly hadits commander eutenant- Genera! Sir Alan Brooke, set about organising his headquerters in France, than Marshal Peta ordered a ‘Geese Fire’ bythe very atmos which the 2nd BEF hac boon formed to support. By @ miracieof Im: Brovlsation which vies with that of Dunkirk in effect though not in fame, another 190,000 British servicemen (wore evazuated trom France curing the cays which followed. Ths fest, however, was hardly noticed by anyor Teast ofall by the men themselvas. They were too lived, and too bewildered. Below: BEF lorries, wrecked and turing, liter the waterside at Cnerbaurg, where the 2nd BEF landed to help out the reeling French army 166wEF ACTION From what we could see from the deck of the south-bound transport, France was on fire. Black plumes of smoke appeared to be rising from the entire landscape from Le Havre to Cherbourg. This is an exaggera tion: a gross exaggeration. But then every thing wes exaggerated at this particular point in time—everything trom_ what the Second British Expeditionary Forca was expected to achieve, to the extent of the Support we should get when we landed ‘Most of us thought we should never land, The Panzers were said to have crossed the Seine and swung west, deep into Normandy, with the object of isolating Cherbourg. The radio was no help. Germany said Weygand had quit. France was a babble of voices, agonised, postic, patriotic, utterly con: fusing, The BBC said our allies were digging In and fresh forces, including the Foreign Legion, were coming up from the south We munched army biscuits, the first we hhad tasted, and watched the smudge of coastline getting nearer and nearer ‘About five o'clock in the afternoon our three transports, two of them former cross Channel steamers, hove to within sight of the squat fort on’ the eastern wall of the entrance to Cherbourg while a seemingly endless procoasion of ships chugged past all of thom sailing north, back to England France, itseemed, had given up the struggle and everything scaworthy was gotting out, fast. Light naval craft. glided through lines of trawlers; cargo ships were crowded with soldiers and civilians. There were also hospital ships, atileshipa, and ‘a carrier with half its bridge missing, carrying what ‘appeared to be a burden of Bristol Sulldogs Con its light deck. An ancient destroyer ipped flag and swung towards us, signal- ling madly. Was it saying the game was up? For a minute we hoped it was going to act fas escort and we were off home again— but as if despairing even of the gestura it left us to whatever wo should find within the harbour entrance. ‘At seven o'clock we inched in, nervously, Dense plumes of smoke were sill rising to the east. A few planes droned inland, lke tired bees, the sound emphasising the still ness of the deserted por. AS the anchor chains rattled out I think the majority of us would have welcomed a few brisk shots trom the shore: by this time we were convinced that Cherbourg was. in German hands. What massive guns did the forts conceal? Throe shells would have finished us. But it grew dark without disturbance. Fishing boats put out, most of tham with masthead lights, and’ were soon netting whiting. Watching the lights pewter the water, we wondered what a mere. half division could do to reverse a series of massive defeats. We were fisid-gunners, a Terrier mob trom Sheffield. Although many of the men handled steel for a living and some had even forged the pieces they fired at annual ‘camps, It was clear, even in 1940, that the laborious business of getting baiteries of 25-pounders laid and co-ordinated on distant targets was not the most efficient method of stopping an onrush of armour. ‘At the time of Dunkirk we had been stationed on the Scottish border. An urgent telephone call brought us down to Salisbury Plain for new but still rough-cast guns and three days" practice at dummy tanks, firing at them with shields down and open’ sights as though the guns were rifles. No more complex surveys and miles of signalling 187wire linking advance observation to the ‘whole hierarchy of back-stage brass. Now, Apparently, simpllcty was all, and with no ‘Special knowledge of anything that | can Tocall, the 71st Was shipped to France, ‘Support, we were told, of ihe infantry of the ain. | saw them only once, shot to hell wwith only a handful of rounds for a week's combat My own service was eventually to stretch over a pariod of three and one-half years, And recollection is of an infinity of Boredom land chronie discomfort, marked only by ‘Good companionship and a few incidents that stand’ out tke punctuation in a long sentence. One of them, an exclamation mark, oceurted in Cherbourg harbour at ‘about two o'clock on the morning after we had artivad, which makes it June 14, 1940. There was an explosion A. positively monumental bang which sounded like the Gnd of the world. The immediate rumour ‘was that an ammunition boat had been Bambed, and by the time our card schoo! Scramblec out from a lower deck, prepared to leap overboard, the bits ofthe original tar- ‘get. some burning, were falling all around, The small-arms. sergeant was bawling ‘Man the Lowis!'—but bawling in vain. It was not thet the odd two:hundred mon eawering behind lifeboats and peering ‘apprehensively skyaards were by nature ‘cowards. Itwas just that wo hadn't seen the {un for several months. Even cleaning it as 8 fatigue duly had had to be abandoned Because those who took it to pieces could rarely put it together again. The sergeant ran towards it, crouched dawn, aimed at nothing in particular over head, and fired—blowing away part of the figging. There was in fact no visibla target but this lack proved no deterrent to every man behind weapon in Cherbourg, ‘ashore of afloat. For five minutes the sky ‘was filled with tracers, star shells, and aerial bursts of ack-ack, and two French airmon hurtiedly took off in @ seaplane, apparently convinced that if they left it moored it Would be sunk by fall-out. The machine, & flimsy litle affair of canvas and wire, re- turned ina quarter of en hour, fussily, bbut then began a practice of taking off ‘and returning atirregular intervals, Ti fimo we began fo value its an effective air-raid waming. The pilot was apparently in touch with the interior and when he flew ff west we Knew that something, usually 8 lone Stuka, was coming in from the east. ‘After a while, the pattern set. He pulled out, Stuka arrived, we fired off everything Within reach; Stuka left; French airmen Foturned. As far as | can rocall the local fishermen continuedto catch whiting Procisoly what happened between dis- embarkation the next morning and the Chaolic. retreat abou! ten days. later is blurred. Everything happened: yet nothing happenedat least nothing that can have been of much military comfort to the despairing French. Liaison officers would {urn up on ieyoles and try to explain, tear- {ully, that we should have Deen two hundred miles to the east eight days earlier, and at Teast one of our gallant captains turned to drink, an ‘exercise in which he was out- ‘matched only by gunners at eight shillings ‘2 weok, who Soon discovered tho paralysing Qualities of Calvados However, any do- ficiencies in commissioned leadership were promptly overcome by a few regular NCOs, wha had beon put in among us earlier 10 stifen the amateurs and who, in times of 168 tress, 100k over the decision-making. ‘Our road party, the drivers in charge of fun tractors and communication trucks had arrived in Cherbourg two days earlior but had wisely got out of town. To join ‘up with them we commandeered a train toa litle village some twenty miles to the south ‘and then, swinging erratically around tne ‘usty roads of Normandy, we looked for Something to fire at Nobody seemed to know what we were supposed to be doing ‘within these days it wes apperent. thal not only were German uniis operating on oth sides of us, advancing, it soomed, ‘on St Nazaire, but they were also moving in between our irrequiar lines of inter-baltery communication. One of our dispaten riders ode south and was not seen again for four Years, when he escaped from a prison camp. His story was that he rode past an armoured lunit-at speed, waving to his new-found ‘Companions, most of whom waved back It ‘was at this point that he noticed that one Of the vehicles was marked with a black Iron cross. Somebody shouted. He acceler ated violently and drove for twenty miles ‘with some aggressive light arillery on his heels. Gallantiy leading them away from Us, he was eventually caught On another occasion my efforts to buy cigarettes from an impassive shopkeeper were singularly unsuccessful and | was ‘wondering why when the old woman behind the counter said she had cold out her whole stock that morning ‘o the Germans. In a Wood late one night when our guns were miles away, we heard what appeared to be several combine harvesters advancing ‘across a cornfield. We assumed bithely that the French were getting their crops in under cover of darkness, but the harvesters were, of course, tanks. Theirs, not ours. With the ‘exception of some Algerian cavalry, nothing military seemed to be on our side. ‘We encountered the Spahis on the fourth for maybe the fifth day. They. were m= probably decked out with cloaks and sabros ‘and mounted on exuberant stallions, and they insisted vehemently that they were ‘our alllas and refused 10 go away. If we hadn't taken the precaution of mounting ‘gun open-sighted on a distent crest one hight, Vis possible they would have been. with Us for the curation of the campaign. Thay were delighted with the gun and camped around it, Shortly before davin the 25:pounder was fired by a neivous sentry, Uncertain about something advancing down the road, and the shot scraped a peasant’s cart laden with hay eng scered the daylighis out of tha Spanis’ chargers, By the time the Spahis fad recovered them all, wo had tet By the soventh day we had criss-crossed the greater part of Normandy and Brittany, receiving occasional orders which were ‘usually countermanded before they could be pul into action. On savaral occasions we Wore told to abandon the vehicles and Scatter. The gunners refused to sabotege their guns, but as petrol was being eaten up by the Bren-earrlers, the drivers un Screwed the plugs and threw them away. ‘Within a. quarter of an_-hour, another distraught liaison officer padalled up to say that all ight armour had to be Kept intact, 80 We waded into the alien corn and man- aged 10 recover a mere three of the jotti- Soned plugs. At that point three. black lanes ‘raced overhead. presumably in Searoh of targets more military than a line (of upturned bottoms. ‘The mystery was that we never received more than a few desultory bursts of fire on any occasion, but later we understood that the German intention was to keep the roads ‘open for the oncoming German armour. Hence our continued existence, but when ‘one German column was reported to be Shattering in a village at night, a barrage of fapid tira from our battery annihilated the village. But not the enemy, we were told afterwards. They walked out before the barrage closed on them. ‘War wes far from what | had imagined it to bo. !saw a Breton imperturbably seything a field with tracers flying around him. On the one side, Germans ware advancing between rapie bursts of fire. Opposing them ‘were tired-out English infantry with only a few rounds lett. They were retreating, but in no disorder. As far as | can remember, they wera the remnants of the Duke of Wellington's Aeciment. Some of them drove into our bivouac in @ glade, and Staggered out of khaki-painted buses 30 {ull that when tha seats emptied, afew men remained swaying like marionettes, stil hanging on to the straps, fest asleep. Villagers pressed armfuls of honeysuckle and pols of cider cn us whenever we Stopped, but for the most part we kept ‘away {rom habitation, uncertain who the inhabitants were. “There was also. the problem of refugee congestion an the main foads. They all wanted petrol. A dignified Frenchwoman drove out of Granville behing the Wheel of a Mercedes which was hauled by a very old horse. Yanotner memory is of a graup of qun-Iess gunners, crouched under the eaves of a farm house while olanes thundered over- heed. The sight of cows coming in to be milked was no less strange fo soldiers from a aty than dozens of enemy aircraft. The men speculated on the sox and edibility Of the poultry and started to offer odds fn the outcome of a chase between a Fooster and a fat hen. When the rooster was just about to mount the cornered bird, the cock saw a worm. It stopped and ale it, enabling the hen to escape. ‘By gum! Said a Yorkshiremen, “An've nivar bean as hungry as that! Afier ten days of futile manoeuvring from positions that were never taken up, the ‘order came to tho saparated batteries to fet to the coast and get out, some from the Breton ports, others from Cherboure. (Cheraourg was still burning. Engineers who had laboriously placed mines. uncer the dockside oranes ‘then found it wes easier 10 destroy them by setting fire to Adjacent warehouses, reasonably” certain that the flames would soon be bombed. Looting partes ravaged the watersice restaurants, Everyone was hungry; and tired. So tired that when the litle coaster into which about two hundred of us were Packed moved away from the wharf stil tied up at the stern, the jolt as the cable broke went unnoticed by the majority of the sleeping men. GJ LOW HILLARY, ater service with the Ral Artery, sont 14 Years as correspondent for The Gunrotan and The New York A Times. Subseuenty ne wrate for ‘he Now Seletfet spout corser= ation. His tips have iaken him fom take Atnabaioa to the Congo, trom Land's End to John 0 Groats, ané throughout Europe ‘esulting in his books Journey Though Brin ‘and Journey Trvough Europe”Build your weekly parts of History of the Second World War into a set of impressive library volumes HISTORY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR BINDERS Keep your copies of History of the Second World War in mint condition. Binders have been specially designed to turn your collection into a permanent and easy-to-use work of reference. A handsome addition to any bookshelf, each binder will hold 16 copies of History of the Second World War in @ hard-wearing, gold blocked cover. The complete edition will build up a magnificent 6 volume encyclopedia. FOUNDATION READER SUBSCRIPTION OFFER BINDERS A subscription to History of the Second Wotld War ensures Make sure that you keep each weekly Part of History of the that you do not miss a single iste. We mail each Part directly Second World War. An elegant binder will solve your storage to your home. “The Foundation Reader subseiption price of problem and give you easy reference tothe articles and ist 88.00 for 12 sues saves you $2.40. Complete the order form ons. The Volume I binder is available now at only $3.95, below, stating from which isu you would ike jour sue scription to begin. Ta ord, coupon or we r Quantity Priceeach Gnctuding Total History ofthe Second World War | Y iiipeingondhondlieg) Bice conta Stes cou nds Neon | ae ae een | Bockrumiers = at00 epee | Ack | Foundation Reader | Sobnct pean Ser $9.00 per 2ssues

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