 |
A couple of days ago, we discovered that, early on in the Second World War, the British had been able to decipher some of Germany’s coded message traffic. A couple of days ago, we also learned that the British Expeditionary Force (or “BEF”) was about to be trapped in the northwest corner of France. Combined with the French forces still fighting, the Germans were looking at a prize package worth nearly 400,000…men.
It’s impossible to know for sure, because history provides crystal-clear hindsight, but the capture or destruction of these men would have made it very difficult for Britain to continue in the war. Maybe they would have fought on, but again, we’ll never know. We do know that Operation Dynamo, the attempt to rescue those trapped men, was put into action with “hope for the best”, while British leadership prepared for a complete military disaster.
On the other side, the German armor which had proven so devastating in the last 3 weeks, had halted beginning on the 24th of May to consolidate their lines and conserve their forces for other operations. So destruction of the BEF had been initally given to the Luftwaffe and the infantry, which was less effective. On the 25th, the BEF’s commander, General Gort, knew his forces were doomed, and the decision was made to try and evacuate. He retreated to Dunkirk and waited while, back in England, ships set sail.
May 27, 1940 was a day of movement for each side. For the Germans, the decision was made to start up the armored Panzer Divisions again. But their progress was hampered by less favorable terrain and solid defenses that had been given three days to dig in. On the British side, the first of what would become a flood of boats and ships arrived, returning to the home island with more than 7,500 troops.
But that was barely a start. With hundreds of thousands of troops trapped and even more enemy forces pounding away and closing in, the situation was still bleak for those trying to escape to England.
Recommended Reading: The Second World War – Keegan is, without question, one of the very best.
