Roger Payne OAM - Dunkirk The First of Many Mistakes

True Short Stories From The Second World War

By
Roger Payne OAM

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Copyright 2020, Roger Payne OAM

ISBN: 978-93-89620-44-3 (HB)

ISBN: 978-93-89620-46-7 (ebook)

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Disclaimer

It has taken me well over 5 years to collect enough stories for the four books in this series. Each book took me 6 months to select the stories and a further three months to write the book. I have made every effort to contact the persons whose stories are between the covers. I have failed to do so in a number of cases primarily because they are finally free from our world and are sitting in Valhalla next to the Viking God Odin where each night they eat freshly cooked wild Boar, Deer, or Goose, and drink the finest liquor Mead available while talking to their long departed friends. So rather than let their stories sit in dark megabit corners where they will never come to the light of day, I have temporarily borrowed each one and will take great care of them until someone requests them back.

To my delightful wife Ann for tolerating me for over 51 years. That said, she has refrained from striking my thick skull with a heavy blunt object, not once, but hundreds of times when I did really irresponsible, childish things.

The Beach at Dunkerque (Dunkirk) May 28th, 1940

Use Emotion For The Many And Reserve Reason For The Few

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian who joined the German Army in 1914, and was the product of the upheaval in German society after the 1st World War. The Kaiser (Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, Wilhelm II), had been forced to abdicate becuase of Germanys failure to win the war. In the aftermath Hitler was one of many spys the Army sent to observe and report on the proliferation of Beer Hall political factions that had sprung up in Munich who were demanding radical changes to the government policies of the day. In one of these beerhalls he liked what he was hearing so instead of spying on the group, he stood up and began to put forward ideas to improve it. They were so impressed with the logic and eloquence of what he had to say they immediately recruited him into the fledging faction eventually called the Nazi party. Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National-Socialist German Workers Party).

At the time Germany had widespread hyperinflation, massive unemployment, and the people were absolutely fed up with the weak, indecisive government and its inability to sort the state of economy out. It was into this melting pot of absolute confusion, daily violence and radical political debate that the NAZI party began invading the streets and demanding change. Unfortunately other radical parties were doing the same and inevitably these groups began to clash with one another and bloody fighting became commonplace. Inevitably the police were called in to sort out the fighting and during one clash several police were killed. Afterwards the police raided all the Beerhalls and arrested dozens of men from different groups. Hitler was amongst them and even though they had no evidence he was involved in the killings he was sentenced to 6 years jail.

After nine months in prison, political pressure from supporters of the Nazi Party forced his release. During the next few years the party grew until it was the biggest in the country and had become a fanatical mass movement that was able to gain a majority in the German parliament (the Reichstag) and by 1932 nobody could stand against them. Since the beginning Hitler was building the case for the Fhrer principle a belief in the iron infallibility of the leader. Whenever he spoke Hitler spun a picture into a colourful oral tapestry that the majority of the people listening liked, and he was able to convinced them they had a future as a nation if led by the Nazi party.

Between 1918 and 1939, and in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany started rearming. It began on a small, secret, and informal basis shortly after the treaty was signed but it was openly and massively expanded after the Nazi Party came to power in 1933. Despite its scale, German re-armament remained a largely covert operation, carried out using frthat ont organisations such as glider clubs for training pilots and Nazi militia groups for teaching infantry combat techniques. They had also corrupted the Boy Scouts and Girls Guides into teaching children military skills. Front companies were set up to financing rearmament by placing massive orders with Krupp, Siemens, and Rheinmetall, the other big German armament companies, for weapons forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles.

Although Hitler hated the old school Generals he knew he had to have them on his side if he wanted to rearm the military. They didnt require much convincing and once he had them working with him he gave them carte blanche to develop a completely new military force. They, in turn, designed new aircraft, one of which would become the most terrifying dive bomber of its time, the Stuka. The other, the Me109, was probably the best fighter anywhere. The Stuka took dive bombing into a new age in accuracy, unheard of until then. Meanwhile the Navy went about designing new submarines, (U Boats), that would eventually become the scourge of the Allied convoys, and heavily armed motor torpedo boats that would attack ships in the English Channel, and 6 pocket battleships that were within the treaty requirements in length, but it guns were not.

But it was the Army that turned the theory of warfare on its head. The Army expanded well beyond the restrictions allowed them by the Treaty. On paper it looked to be weak as 80% of it was horse drawn. It required over 1,000,000 horses to pull most of its food, ammunition, basic stores, clothing, fuel, heavy artillery and infantry, and they all relied upon horses. Yet the deadliest part of the Army was its new Armoured Divisions. Although only 20% of the Army was Armoured it was this segment that defeated the French and the British. It was made up of modern tanks, armoured cars, mobile artillery and mobile infantry in tracked vehicles and trucks, and they were formed into divisions that had upwards of 350 tanks per Division. They even developed a new type of warfare, named Blitzkrieg (Lightening War). It was tested in the Spanish civil war, and perfected in the attacks on Czechoslovakia and Poland. Each armoured division was a separate entity that was supported by the devastating Stukas, and between the two of them they would demolish the French and British Armies.

On paper the combined forces of the French and the British outnumbered the Germans by 2 to 1 in infantry, artillery, and tanks. The biggest mistake they made was assuming they could rely upon 1st World War tactics and the long line of French concrete bunkers called the Maginot Line to protect them. They expected the Germans to do a frontal attack against heavily dug in troops who were protected by extensive minefields and barbed wire, and covered by artillery, and they would eventually wear themselves out and sue for peace. This was old school thinking that successfully ended the 1st World War. The Germans had no intention of attacking a well dug in enemy the old way. Instead they used Blitzkrieg tactics.