Geoffrey Stewart - Dunkirk and the Fall of France

First published in Great Britain in 2008 by
Pen & Sword Military
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
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Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright Geoffrey Stewart

9781783409150

The right of Geoffrey Stewart to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Adolf Hitler

Munich Agreement

Maginot Line

Hermann Hoth

Erich Hpner

Erwin Rommel

Heinz Guderian

Lord Gort

General Billotte

Major General Alexander

Major General Montgomery

Vice Admiral Ramsay

Sir Hugh Dowding

General de Gaulle

German troops cross the Meuse

German tanks deploy

German Landsers goose-step into France

French artillery battery

Columns of refugees

Innocent victims

French civilians flee the fighting

British soldiers advance to the front

Exodus: French refugees on the road

German infantry follow the Panzers

German infantry assault Limburg, Belgium

German artillery in action

German tanks

Panzers on the prowl

Panzer not in its natural habitat

German armour pushing through open country

Knocked out British light tank

Hurrying Heinz Guderian

SS Totenkopf troops on the march

German troops march through subdued French streets

Comrades-in-arms: SS Troopers and Wehrmacht Panzermen

A pause in the fighting

Motorcyclists of Guderians corps

Belgian troops

Churchill and Ramsay

Small boats to the rescue

Operation Dynamo

Dunkirk evacuation

Dunkirk beaches

Rescued by the Navy

The survivors

Homecoming heroes

Capture of the 51st Highland Division

Allied POWs march off the beaches

French POWs

British POWs

Captured at Calais

French POWs await their fate

British corpses

The defeated

Wreckage of war

The victors

SS warriors

Woe to the vanquished

Paris falls

Nazi Swastika flutters over the Arc de Triomphe

Going for broke pays off

Preface

This account does not rest on new and original research but it does reflect a growing perception that the dramatic events of spring 1940 can be looked at afresh. The popular portrait of a decadent France going down shamefully to a superior Nazi Germany has become an enduring legend, most recently finding expression in the phrase, in use in the United States during the Iraq War, that the French were cheese-eating, surrender monkeys. By contrast, the same traditional mythology sanctified Dunkirk as a British triumph, laying the seeds of ultimate victory over the Nazi monster. The roots of both views lie in the wartime needs of a Britain standing alone in June 1940. Churchills famous account of his meeting in Paris on 16 May firmly places the blame on French military incompetence. In the decades after 1945 explanations were sought in either the decadence of French inter-war society, the bitter political divisions of left and right or, most charitably, in the bloodletting of 1914 1918.

Whatever explanation was emphasised, there seemed to be a consensus that France was doomed. Such a view was most graphically offered in the outstanding television series, World at War . The mellifluous yet potent voice of the narrator, Sir Laurence Olivier, gave a new generation of students and viewers the received wisdom in Episode 3, a superior Germany inevitably triumphing over a doomed France.

Part of the problem lies in the proper tendency of historians to look for explanations and seek causes, the more deep-seated the better. The role of chance and human foibles tends to be downplayed. Yet in war, contingent factors are often the decisive ones. Many recent studies of the 1940 campaign have stressed the high risks involved in the German attack. Adam Tooze, in his recent magisterial study of the German war economy, points out:

a close analysis of the mechanics of the Blitzkrieg reveals the astonishing degree of concentration achieved, but also the enormous gamble that Hitler and the Wehrmacht leadership were taking on 10 May. Precisely because it involved such a concentrated use of force, Mansteins plan was a one shot affair. If the initial assault had failed, and it could have failed in many ways, the Wehrmacht as an offensive force would have been spent.

Had this occurred, historians would have spent years in analysis of the fundamental weaknesses of the Third Reich and the brittle nature of morale in certain key Wehrmacht units, instead of doing this to the Third Republic and its army. Many French units fought heroically at various times in the campaign. Some German units displayed panic and pessimism. This was easy to understand, as shells from German tanks bounced harmlessly off the heavily armoured French Char B tanks. The war was lost by the French largely as a result of a series of touch-and-go encounters, when the actions of individuals and sheer luck influenced the outcome. Certainly mistakes by the French High Command played a part but then the German High Command and Hitler made mistakes at various points. Likewise, the British got away at Dunkirk as a result of a combination of factors, involving luck with the weather, German errors, and dogged French fighting in and around Lille.

When the campaign began on 10 May it is worth remembering that French defeat was not inevitable. Very few on the German side believed a crushing victory was possible, let alone likely. It has been said that only Guderian, Manstein and Hitler were optimistic, but even Hitler at times showed attacks of nerves, indicating that his optimism was fragile. As so often before and later, he was going for broke. This time the gamble paid off. It need not have done.

York 2007

Maps

MAP 1

GERMAN AIRBORNE ASSAULT ON HOLLAND 10 MAY 1940

MAP 2

THE PANZER ASSAULT 10-13 MAY

MAP 3

OPERATIONS AROUND SEDAN 13 MAY

MAP 4

OPERATIONS AROUND DUNKIRK 25 MAY

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