Norman Leslie Robert Franks - Air Battle for Dunkirk: 26 May – 3 June 1940

Britain and her Empire had been at war for 220 days when Germany finally ended the period known as the Phoney War on 10th May 1940. At dawn on that Friday, German troops suddenly opened their offensive along the Western Front. Across the German frontier came 135 German divisions, streaming into Luxembourg and Belgium while paratroops and gliders descended on objectives in Belgium and Holland. Also in the air came the so far victorious Luftwaffe, attacking Dutch, Belgian and French airfields, and also airfields in France from which British RAF squadrons operated.

Although the advance was not totally unexpected, the attack when it came took the Allied forces by surprise and such opposition that they could muster was soon overwhelmed. In Holland the Dutch Air Force was virtually destroyed by 13th May; Rotterdam was bombed the next day and by the 15th the Dutch Army, though still intact, surrendered.

By this lightning push through Belgium and Holland, the Germans circumvented the famed Maginot Line which separated France from Germany, making this costly defence system impotent.

The British and French had expected an attack to come further to the north and in consequence focussed their attention there. When, therefore, German Panzers pushed through the forested Ardennes region around Sedan, they encountered little opposition. The German spearhead crossed the River Meuse on the night of 11th-12th May, its tanks following. The French troops that were rushed to stem this advance were mostly of low quality and poorly equipped. When scores of Luftwaffe Stuka dive-bombers hit them the way was again open and the split in the Allied forces complete. The Germans made straight for the Channel coast spearheading towards Boulogne and Calais.

Despite spirited fighting in the north, the British and French soldiers were soon pushed back towards Brussels. In the air too the French Air Force and British squadrons of the Advanced Air Striking Force and Air Component were quickly overwhelmed. Although they fought heroically they could not hope to stop the might of the Luftwaffe. The men of the RAF in particular fought themselves to a standstill. Those bombers, Fairey Battles or Bristol Blenheims, not shot down on desperate raids on advancing German columns or bridges, were destroyed on the ground between missions. The Hurricane fighter pilots were quite often totally outnumbered and those who survived moved with the remnants of their squadrons from airfield to airfield as the armies on the ground retreated through the corridor leading to the Channel coast.

These fighter units were re-inforced by other Hurricane and Gladiator squadrons or by flights from British-based squadrons operating in France for short periods or even on a daily basis in France, but against the might of the Luftwaffe whose strength in May 1940 was around 3,500 front line aircraft, including 800 of the latest Messerschmitt 109E single-engined fighters, the odds were just too great.

When the offensive opened the AASF had 135 bombers on strength. Two days later it was down to just over seventy, most of which needed service or repair. Then on 14th May the total remaining bomber force was sent to attack German troops in the Sedan bridgehead. The Messerschmitts and flak were ready for them and forty Battles and Blenheims were shot down.

As the Hurricane squadrons hurled themselves almost hourly against German bombers, dive-bombers and fighters, reinforcements which in number were equivalent to a further twelve full squadrons, also dashed themselves to pieces. They inflicted heavy casualties but sustained severe losses too. By the end of the 15th, the RAF had lost nearly 250 aircraft either destroyed or damaged beyond immediate repair. It could not go on. At home, the Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command, Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, his establishment in fighter squadrons, fighter aeroplanes and fighter pilots already dangerously below the number set by Air Ministry and the Government, could daily see his fighter force being whittled away with little real effect. To retain a sufficient force to defend the whole of Britain he had to make a stand and deny his fighters being sent to a battle that appeared already lost.